Recap of my weekend in Upstate NY

My weekend in Upstate NY turned out to be very successful. I spent quality time with an old friend, saw part of NY I never had the time to see during college, and rested up on sleep. 

As I mentioned in my previous post, I flew in on Friday, saw RPI (my college), met the animals of Five Goats Farm, and had a wonderful steak dinner with Anthony and his summer roommate Tyler. Tyler is an art student who is working at BARD College this summer-- and helping Anthony to take care of the animals. 

Anthony has 5 goats, a dog, 2 llamas, 2 ponies, honey bees, and many chickens - plus a cat he's cat sitting. He rarely gets to go away, so I'm glad I could stop by for a few days. 

It should also be noted that this year is the year of the 17-year cicadas. This was something new that I learned. Apparently these flying bugs stay underground for 17 years and then come out and eventually die- once every 17 years. This phenomena is specific to the area of Upstate NY where Anthony lives. My guess is that there may be other areas that also experience something similar, but I don't know. 

Anyway... On Saturday, we drove to take a tour of a historic home called Olana. The house was very interesting and we had a wonderful tour guide who appeared to be in her late 70s or early 80s. For dinner, we had fresh oysters and a risotto made with homemade bacon, corn, and shrimp. Not only was this good, but it inspires me to want to learn to make bacon. 

On Sunday, we visited the town of Red Hook and another neighboring town. We went to the farmers market and ate tons of great food all day long. For lunch, I had mac and cheese at a gastro pub. Dinner was at an Italian place that served fresh pasta - one of my favorites - and bread with a homemade olive oil that was by far the best I've ever tasted. 

Yesterday (Monday), we took another driving tour and visited Woodstock and a few other places. I had seen the sign for Woodstock many times, but had never stopped by. It's just about what you might expect- a sleepy little alternative town. Last night, I participated in Mexican Monday with Anthony and Tyler, eating enchiladas in front of the TV. I may have to adopt this tradition as I've been making Mexican food quite a bit lately myself. 

Today, I slept in and after a nice breakfast of fresh eggs, Anthony dropped me at the Albany Airport for my flight. Luckily, I made both of my flights. I'm now heading back to Memphis from Charlotte. 

I am hoping that tonight I will get to spend time with my friend Dan W who is moving to DC tomorrow after being accepted into medical school (congrats!!). I will miss Dan W, but I'm happy for him. And I'm sure he's ready to get his life in motion after a long stay in Memphis for grad school. 

I'm a bit nervous to get back to it this week. There are so many things going on the next few days that its going to be a challenge to keep up. Hopefully, I will find a little time here and there to relax and check out my pool. It's a luxury I haven't been able to enjoy yet this summer. 

Last but not least, I will have information soon about an online auction for Memphis To Moore. A few of the items arrived after the event, so we will be using the opportunity to create an online sale. Stay tuned for more details and let me know if you have an item that you'd like to donate for the auction. 

Change of scenary - my trip to New York

Just after I knew what the date of the Memphis To Moore fundraiser was, I booked a flight.  I knew that after two and a half intense weeks, I would want to take a break for a few days.  Yesterday morning, I headed to Upstate New York to visit my friend Anthony.

I was scheduled to fly on US Airways.  I woke up yesterday morning to two voicemails from US Airways saying that my first flight to Charlotte was cancelled and that I would miss my flight to Albany.  My first thought was that the entire day was about to become a disaster.  (My college roommate Adam used to always say that he hated to travel with me because something would always go wrong on my trips.  He joked that I had bad travel luck.) 

Fortunately, just the opposite happened.  US Airways booked me onto two Delta flights.  When I got to the Memphis airport, I approached the priority counter to ask that they add my frequent flier number to my tickets.  This was the best decision I made all day because it resulted in me being upgraded on both of my flights to Albany.  Delta is no longer serving meals in first class for the flights I was on, but they kept my wine glass full and brought me wonderful shortbread chocolate chip cookies all day. 

On my second flight, I sat next to a man who had to be in his 90s.  He was mentally very sharp and shared his entire life story with me.  He had been married twice and both of his wives died.  His first wife had breast cancer in the 70s before there was advanced technology.  They had 5 children before she died and he was left to raise them all.  In the 90s, he finally remarried to a woman who eventually developed dementia.  He was left to care for her for 7 years before she past away 2 years ago.  He not only has a lot of grandchildren, but he also has great grandchildren and was on his way to one of their high school graduations.  He lived his entire life in New York state, but recently relocated to Nashville to be near one of his children.  The thing that struck me as a bit funny was that he was very unsure about my age.  He would say things like "I'm not sure if you are old enough to remember this movie..." (and I would think to myself "I'm not as young as I look") ..."it starred Clark Gable."  But of course, I'm not that old.  Clark Gable died almost 20 years before I was born. :-)

There was also a terribly cute family on one of my flights.  The parents had four small children.  The mother obviously liked to sew because they were all wearing outfits made with the same fabric.  Here's a photo:

I made it to Albany safely and on time.  We drove through the RPI campus and past my old house in Troy where I used to live with Adam.  It looked very much the same, although different at the same time.  The school has built a new digital technology building that looks very modern compared to the rest of the landscape.  The house I lived in looks about the same too.

After our tour of Troy, we headed an hour away to Red Hook, NY where Anthony lives and maintains his Five Goats Farm.  We had a great steak dinner last night with the intern who helping out with the farm.  This morning, I got to meet the animals which included 5 goats, 2 llamas, chickens, and bees.  Here's a photo that I took of one of the goats.

As you can see, it's been a total change of scenery.  What a nice way to unplug for a few days!

New Ivies - RPI Honored

Recently, RPI was named to the "New Ivies" list. I was going to keep the news to myself, and have been successful until now. But, since I was just there a few days ago for hockey and I ran across the article tonight, I thought I'd share.

To read the entire article, click here: http://www.newsweek.com/id/39401/page/1

Explanation for the New Ivies list:
You could call it a classic case of supply meeting demand. A generation ago, elite schools were a clearly defined group: the eight schools in the Ivy League, along with such academic powerhouses as Stanford, the University of Chicago, MIT and Caltech. Smaller liberal-arts colleges—like Williams, Amherst, Middlebury, Swarthmore and Wesleyan—were the destinations of choice for top students who preferred a more intimate campus. But in the past few decades, the number of college-bound students has skyrocketed, and so has the number of world-class schools. The demand for an excellent education has created an ever-expanding supply of big and small campuses that provide great academics and first-rate faculties. The bottom line: that one "perfect" school need not break a student's heart. The colleges on the following list—the "New Ivies"—are beneficiaries of the boom in top students. We selected them based on admissions statistics as well as interviews with administrators, faculty, students and alumni. In some cases, admissions directors have also provided examples of "overlap" schools—rivals for applicants to the colleges on our list.

Here's the description of RPI:
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, N.Y. Applications to RPI were up 23 percent in 2005—a reflection of the school's reputation as an educator of scientists and engineers. The class of 2010 is 29 percent female. Students like the school's state-of-the-art facilities, including the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies. RPI also operates a co-op program that lets students work at companies like IBM. Hockey is big on campus; RPI has a Division I team that's won two national championships. Skiing is also popular; the campus is just 45 minutes from the Adirondacks and the Catskills.