Thankgiving Week

Thanksgiving was a great break this year. It was very nice to get away from town for a week and just relax. Beth and I flew up to Syracuse, NY on Tues and returned Monday night. My Mom's side of the family and my Grandparent's all live near Syracuse so we were able visit with a lot of family. We had Thanksgiving at my Aunt Gail's house which involved all the standard foods; turkey, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes and a lot of bread choices (banana, pumpkin, poppy-sead, cranberry). I think my Mom baked bread for a week straight! I probably don't have to say that we all over-ate at every meal. My Mom brought their espresso machine and treated us to latte's every morning and the cooler was full of Yuengling beer all week. Life was good!

We took Beth around to some of the popular places like Armory Square and Skaneateles. There is a great brewery in Armory Square called Empire Brewery. I was happy we were in the time of winter ales and enjoyed one and then had a black and tan. I'd say Yazoo tastes a bit better, but I always enjoy trying new microbrew beer that has character. A couple days later we headed to Skaneateles with my Aunt and Uncle and their two daughters. Skaneateles is a small quaint town on a beautiful lake and has a Dickens Christmas show each year with a lot of characters dressed in period clothes including Scrooge. It was snowy and bitter cold but a fun trip. We got some coffee and did some shopping in the little boutiques. We had lunch in a famous fish fry place called Doug's Fish Fry which had the best fish and chips I've had outside of England and McGuinness pub.

Saturday my parents drove us up to Niagara Falls which was only 3 hours away. I hadn't been to the falls since highschool and had never been in the winter time. It was cold, windy and snowed for a while. Beth had never been to the falls and I realize winter time wasn't the best time for her to have her first visit, but I think overall she enjoyed it. We started on Goat Island and took a bunch of pics of the American side of the falls. You can see the horse shoe falls from Goat Island but the weather wasn't cooperating and it was very foggy and misty. We left and drove over into Canada to get a better view of the horse shoe falls. The weather cleared on our way over so by the time we parked and meandered down to the side of the falls, we were treated to some great views. I was very surprised to see that the Canadians were still offering their "behind the falls" tour. People were down by the bottom of the falls with yellow rain suits on. Not entirely strange except it was about 30 degrees out!! The American side had already closed their tours that go to the bottom of the falls for the season. Overall the town of Niagara, NY was very run down. There are a lot of abandoned stores with plywood over the windows. The Canadian side was the exact opposite. Beth said it looked exactly like Gatlinburg with the Ripley's Museum, Haunted houses and glitzy stores. Clearly the Canadian side is prospering, in direct contrast to the American side.

Overall it was a great trip and a great departure from the Nashville grind. Now it's back to life and back to eating sensibly! hah

You can view all my pictures from our trip here on my Flickr Page: Thanksgiving Trip