Exciting Times...

It's been a very busy December, with one rather large surprise that came my way on Friday 13th December.

I was returning from a big conference in San Francisco on the 13th December. I was pretty excited to be headed home for a couple of days before going back to England for Christmas, plus I had gotten upgraded on my flight from Chicago to Albany. It was only a 90 minute flight but I'll take being slightly more comfortable and free wine.

Matt picked me up at the airport and we headed home. As we got to our front door he told me to shut my eyes. This might sound bad but my first thought was "I wonder what he has broken inside"! This is what I was greeted with once I got inside and opened my eyes..

Quite the surprise!

It's official, we're engaged!

Just after the proposal - I wasn't looking my best after flying all day but who cares!

It turns out it's really not easy to take good pictures of a ring - here is a close up of the ring on my parents Christmas tree - it's a sapphire, in a white gold setting with three diamonds inlaid on each side. It's beautiful.

My beautiful ring

Friday 13th wasn't unlucky for us - we're getting married!!

Overlook Mountain

Minimal words needed… we went down to Woodstock, NY for the day and hiked up Overlook Mountain. It was a beautiful sunny day and very busy, but fun none the less. It was an easy hike up to a fire tower and old abandoned hotel.

Norman Rockwell and Lake George

1) Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, MA

My parents and I went to Western Massachusetts for the day, which is easy to do from here. Shopping at the outlets in the morning followed by a trip to the Norman Rockwell museum in the afternoon. We had been to an exhibition before (I can't remember where) so it was quite nice to see a lot of the original paintings that even I recognized. As an extra bonus, they had a Disney Snow White exhibition which was great (you couldn't take pictures though) as there were a lot of the original sketches with notes and corrections - they were very particular about getting things right!

Autumn in the Berkshires

A Rockwell painting of Historic Stockbridge - where we stopped for hot chocolate!

2) Lake George Boat Ride

We spent a beautiful Autumn day on a boat ride in Lake George. The boat headed North from Lake George Village but didn't quite make it as far as Hague (where I did my swim) before turning around. It was nice to just sit on the boat (although the piano playing singer was slightly irritating), enjoy the sun and see all the lovely houses on the shore of Lake George. The road is slightly off the shore for the most part so you don't get the great view that you do on the Lake. I did get a little sun burnt though, I should know better.

Lake George

Islands in the Sun

Testing out the Macro!

Mohonk Mountain House in the Summer

In September, after I got back from Nebraska my parents came to visit. We decided it would be fun to go down to the Catskills and have brunch at the Mohonk Mountain House again (see the post from February here). Lots of pictures coming up.

We spent the morning walking around the gardens. They had a crayon theme so each zone was made up of all kinds of flowers with the same colors. We also spent quite a long time watching (and trying to photograph) all the hummingbirds flying around! Quite different to the winter.

Crayons in the garden

Hummingbird in action

After the gardens we head up along the Eagle cliff trail above the house and along the lake. It was nice and quiet up there as most people were walking along the trail on the other side of the lake up to the tower. It was such nice weather and views it was a perfect day to be outside.

The lake

We then headed in for brunch, which was great. I tried not to eat too much but the breakfast food and deserts were so delicious! Post food, we headed up to the tower. My parents walked up the trail and Matt and I went through the "labyrinth". It was closed when we were there in February (now we know why) so we wanted to try it. It was described as a rock scramble with bridges and ladders to get up to the tower. They weren't wrong. There was lots of climbing over and under rocks, jumping and squeezing through and between boulders. It was fun!

Starting the trail

Sometimes it was easier to just jump!

Follow the arrows

One of the many ladders

After the first section you could climb some stairs up to the trail or continue on to "the crevice". We of course decided to carry on not knowing that the hardest part was to come. It was hard to photograph as it really was a tight squeeze but it consisted on squeezing through a crevice, shimmy-ing vertically upward and then climbing up a vertical (but slightly leaning left) very narrow ladder. I enjoyed it and we both made it through without any bumps and scrapes!

This was the hardest climb!

If you look closely you can see the ladder about 2/3rds up

We met my parents at the top (they had already been up the tower) as the scramble path was pretty slow going. It was worth the beautiful view from the top and of the mountain house on the way back down.

Once down, we headed to the Barn museum which was filled with old artifacts from the house. Lots of old carriages and furniture that had all been used at the house through the years. It was actually quite interesting.

Old signs in the museum

That was followed by tea and cookies. A cold drink would have been better as it was warm out but we went with tradition and had some nice herbal tea before driving back up to Albany. I am so glad we got to visit the house in the summer as well as the winter, both were beautiful in their own way.

Wedding Time in Nebraska

In early September I went to the wedding of an old friend of mine who I first met at Reading. Jerilyn was one of the Oklahoma students who studied at Reading, so when we reversed the exchange and went to Oklahoma she was there to look after us (and make many many many trips to Walmart to buy all the things we needed)!

Jerilyn and I in Oklahoma City in 2005!

I arrived Friday and after a 3 hour drive across Nebraska (yes, there is a lot of corn) spent a couple of hours hanging out with Jerilyn and some of her friends and family. Saturday morning I decided to check out all the activities Kearney, Nebraska had to offer, starting with the Yanney Heritage Park and the view from the tower. It was going to be a hot weekend (in the 90s F) so I wanted to get my outside activity in the morning. The park was nice, with a big pond and I spent a while watching the swans and cygnets and trying to take good pictures with me new camera.

View from the park tower

Sundial in the park

Kearney is the Sandhill Crane capital apparently!

Swans in action

Got to have a corn close up!

After the park I went to the Great Platter River Road Archway - a museum/historical center built as a bridge over I-80. It was quite interesting learning all about the Oregon trail, 49ers trail and Mormon trail that all went through Kearney - I didn't know a lot about it so I came out considerably more educated than I went in. It was a bit cheesy, but enjoyable!

The archway! That sun was hot...

I enjoyed this quote in particular

Flowers outside the archway

After a quick trip to downtown Kearney - which has all brick roads (and a nice mural on one building) it was time to head back to the hotel and get ready for the wedding!

Mural in downtown

The wedding was at Jerilyn's home church which was very pretty. I'm still not used to American churches (which are almost all modern buildings) compared to the old churches in the UK, but this was a nice one with stained glass windows so it felt a little older!

Congratulations Jerilyn and Travis!

 After the wedding I headed back to the conference center next to my hotel for the reception. It was a fabulous wedding and great to catch up with old friends from Oklahoma that I hadn't seen in many years. We ate, drank, danced and had fun all night. My legs were feeling those high heels the next day!!

This was a delicious cake!

Jerilyn and I in Kearney, Nebraska in 2013!

Sunday morning I was up and driving through the fog at 9am to get back to Omaha for my flight home.  It took a little longer than expected to get home - flights with broken radars and waiting on standby on the last flight of the night, but I made it in the end! It was a wonderful weekend and my first trip to Nebraska was a good one.

Secret Caverns

On labor day we headed west for a day trip to Secret Caverns and Ommegang Brewery. I'll make this picture heavy and word light! Secret Cavern is near to Howe Caverns, which we visited about this time two years ago (blog here). We had seen the signs for Secret Caverns and the underground waterfall but didn't visit that day - it only took 2 years to get back there!

After a few minutes waiting for the tour to start and playing old school video games, we headed down the stairs to the caverns (no elevator here).

Arcade games are serious business you know

The cavern wasn't as large as Howe but it was an enjoyable walk through the caves to the waterfall at the end. Being smaller it was also less busy and commercial, which was nice. I have to point out that I don't know how to take good "i'm in a cave" pictures with my new camera, so the pics don't do it justice!

Follow the path...

... and watch your head

Reflections

The huge underground waterfall at the end was great, and was all lit up (they did turn all the lights out which was a little creepy).

The waterfall

Pictures are hard in a cave and don't don it justice!

After climbing back up the stairs we headed out to Copperstown to the Ommegang brewery for some beer and food. The tasting was great and informative and they were releasing the new Game of Thrones beer so there was a lot going on. The food was also delicious. Highly recommend a visit if you like good beer and belgian style food!