We met up on Sunday early afternoon and loaded up the car, got on the road and the trip itself took less than 3 hours! Beautiful drive along I-87. We arrived and the owner of the BB name Rick was there to greet us with crinkly eyes and a huge grin, such a nice man. He welcomed us and gave us a tour of the B&B.
The view from the front of the house
The dinning room where we ate breakfast the 2nd morning
This here was a small patio facing north I suppose? but this picture doesn't do the room justice, I should've taken this picture again yesterday when it wasn't so cloudy for better lighting. Here is where we ate breakfast cooked and served by Rick himself. By the way the 1st breakfast on Monday morning was so damn delicious! Rick started us off with a small plate of cut up strawberries and pineapple. Along with some kind of filo pastry topped with maple butter mixed with large dried cranberries/cherries I don't know what it was but damn I was loving every small bite I took! Then he served us I think it was a souffle or perhaps quiche along with a few strips of bacon and mango juice (which for me was too sweet but I had tea to help quench my thirst). The 2nd breakfast I did not care for but that was a personal preference not because what he made wouldn't be tasty for other folks. I think next time if I go back I will simply ask for a regular breakfast because Rick did ask us if we had any food allergies and probably we could've told he what we would prefer to eat but we didn't think of it at the time. We thought we would be given a choice for breakfast but no matter live and learn.
The view from the patio on the 1st morning but it was cloudy that day so again this photo doesn't really accurately show how beautiful the area really is!
The staircase that leads to the front door of the B&B. On the left is the dinning room with the huge mirror. On the right is the living room with the fireplace where Blondie and I spent our evenings at.
Upstairs 2nd floor where the guest rooms were. The first entrance by the step was the hallway that lead to the back of the house. This hallway is kind of long with several bends and turns. I joked to Blondie as Rick led us through the maze where our room was that I would need a map to find my way around. In the picture above the next entrance lead to the Vineyard room. And where I am standing taking the photo is where the Lakeview room is.
We were told we were the only guest for the night and we had the whole place to ourselves. We got to see the rooms and I was glad I picked the Country room because it had a single bed and a queen size bed as well as a mini fridge and tv (sadly no CC for that tv but the common area downstairs with a tv did have CC if we wanted to use it but we never did). My other top choices included the Lakeview room but decided against it because it faced east and I did not want to be woken up at the crack of dawn bombarded by sunlight. But still a magnificent room don't you think?
My other top room choice was the Vineyard room (or as Blondie and I called it the Lavender room) absolutely gorgeous and girly too!
When Blondie and I saw this room we both gushed how pretty it was and how much we liked the room but I am glad we didn't pick this one as its really good for either 1 person or a couple in love and on top of each other ;)
The Vineyard room also faced East or the front of the house and was across the hall from the Lakeview room.
Our room was called the Country room, a bright yellow room with almost an L shape design. There was a ceramic bunny on the desk in our room that I thought could use a holiday makeover. What do you think?
After we settled in with our bags we knew that on a Sunday night it would be pretty low key all around. We chose a Thai restaurant located I guess what is downtown Schenectady not far at all from the B&B. Since it was night time it was a pretty drive away from the Maria Lake passing all residents houses with holiday decorations. We found the place thanks to the GPS Baba had given me a while back and to our surprised as we walked in the place looked like a redneck bar or a bar you find in my hometown and Blondie at first thought we went into the wrong place! But I told her no its the Thai place where there's a bar when you first walk in and the dinning area is adjacent to it. I think we both we're expecting an Asian theme decor from the way the menu looked but I guess we forgot we're no longer in our urban city. Suffice to say the food was DELICIOUS! YUM YUM! After we ate we found a convenient store and brought some alcoholic beverages like Mike's Hard Lemonade. I personally really liked Mike's Classic Margarita Raspberry flavor, while Blondie stuck with Mike's Hard Pink Lemonade. Before we left Rick offered to set up the fireplace in the living area so when we got back we could hang out by the fire which we did :) 
Me enjoying our 1st night :)
Here's Blondie laughing at my dry sense of humor and enjoying the warmth from the fire
Fire
Blondie looking regal as usual ;P We talked for hours and then went to bed. The next day we got up for the 1st breakfast and then went back to bed till 1 or so. After we got up and ready we had discussed the night before about where we wanted to go or do? We both need new threads and I came up with the idea of thrift shopping. Plus we asked Rick where people like to go when shopping in the older parts of the city? Like in DC there's Georgetown, in NYC there's so many places like St. Marks, Union Square and in Schednetcdy its called Jay street. Before we left we snapped some photos by the front of the B&B
Reindeer!First we went to three stores all in the same location. 2 were really nice, young hipsters consignment shops and another was just a discount store. I found a 2 tops and Blondie found a really nice sweater. After that we headed to a large Goodwill where again I scored 2 shirts and Blondie found some antique ornaments. Then we headed to Jay street which was in the same area we had drove around in the night before for the Thai place. And lucky was right around the corner from Bomber's Burritos Bar which we already planned to eat at and drink Margaritas! Jay street was cute most of the shops and cafe closed at 6 so we didn't really do any shopping there, that's ok there wasn't anything I saw that disappointed me and its very small strip of shops. We headed to Bombers with our Holiday antennas. We decided to share a pulled pork burrito and wings and each got a margarita, mine san salt. Oh my god, the burrito was the best I EVER HAD! I kid you not! I was just so surprised at how good it was and the place was really cute set up and people looked like they were having fun. We enjoyed Bombers a LOT. Then we headed back to the B&B and asked Rick if we could have 1 more fire? He said no problem and set it up for us and Blondie drank wine and we gabbed till very late!
I learned that using my phone camera mode to take a self portrait works only if you have good lighting because while the phone camera has a flash, its only on one side. For self portraits no flash.
I thought this was a nice shot of me and Blondie, 2 women on a night on the town!
More Fire
Yeah we look tired from staying up too late but damnit, it was FUN!
Funny the next day we headed down to Albany for lunch and to see the other "must see" spot called Lark Street. There was another Bombers Burrito Bar here and I thought their window display was quite cute!
We walked up and down Lark Street which was mostly tattoo shops, head shops, cafes and gift shops. In one really funky gift shop I spotted a cool "Day of the Dead" type skull that I brought as a souvenir of my trip upstate. Outside this shop was a xmas tree which I thought was cleverly designed!
Monopoly money, what a brilliant idea! And a good fit for these hard economic times!
And the Bingo card man cut outs, too adorable!
I also spotted 2 signs that I had to snap!
They say you can take the girl out of Lancaster but well you know the rest....
I know I know this is for but as a sci fi geek of Battlestar Galatica I just this was frakking cool!
We found an Indian place that had a lunch buffet and the food was excellent! The waitress there was kind enough to explain some of the key ingredients or flavors used in Indian dishes and wrote them down for me.
Once we finished lunch we ambled back to the highway and headed back to NYC. It was a wonderful mini vacation and if I hadn't needed to return by dinner time to give my students their final exam we would've stayed longer. I just really enjoy visiting a new place and getting out of the city was very much needed. It gave me and Blondie time to really talk and take stock of our lives, what we've done and what we hoped to do. I highly recommend this B&B to anyone visiting the Albany or Schenectedy area.
