Kings of the Road

We spent two days of our Fourth of July weekend planning this trip, and we think we’ve chosen some pretty cool places to visit. Although deciding on hotels and bed and breakfasts was a bit stressful—how do you know what you’re really getting yourself into? Does “rustic” mean we’ll end up in a quaint trailer-park-turned-bed-and-breakfast, sharing an outhouse and brushing our teeth with rusty water we had to pump from an old well?
Here’s our itinerary:

Friday July 21:

We’re starting the trip at a party north of Baltimore. Larry’s Masters Degree Program is celebrating its 5^th anniversary. We’ll be sleeping in Aberdeen, Maryland.

Saturday July 22:

We will head to the mid-Hudson Valley area to Gardiner, New York, and stay at the Cedar Hill Farm Bed and Breakfast. This looks like a fabulous place, and we’ll be staying in the Shiraz room. We almost had to stay at the Super 8, and I am thrilled that the bed and breakfast came through. And by a strange and amazing coincidence, Rhett Miller lives in the same town! We’ll be stalking Rhett enjoying the scenery, visiting wineries, and touring historic mansions.

Sunday July 23:

We will be staying at the Albergo Allegria Bed and Breakfast on Sunday night in Windham, New York. We’ve booked the October Room. Windham is just a short drive from Gardiner, towards the northern end of the Hudson Valley area, so we’ll spend the day checking out the sights, visiting more wineries, and hopefully we’ll be eating dinner at the Basement Bistro, if they can fit us into the reservation schedule. The restaurant has a ten course tasting menu focusing on locally grown products. Yum. Update: Terrance from the Basement Bistro just called. They cannot fit us in the schedule on Sunday. Since he said the chef could not recommend a single restaurant in the area, I guess we’ll be eating cornnuts from a vending machine.

Monday July 24-Wednesday July 26:

On Monday, we’ll leave the Hudson Valley and drive north to Montreal, Canada, where we’ll spend three nights at the Hotel St-Denis. On va essayer à parler en francais ici. Bonne chance. (For all you anglophones: I am going to try to speak French here. Good luck.) We’ll be eating dinner at Au pied de cochon, the magical foie gras goodness restaurant, on Wednesday.

Thursday July 27:

We’ll say au revoir to Montreal and head south to the Adirondack Mountains in New York. We’ll be staying at Art Devlin’s Olympic Motor Inn, voted best Olympic Motor Inn in Lake Placid. We’ll spend the day enjoying nature as we float down a river in inner-tubes. Sounds relaxing.

Friday July 28:

We’ll still be hanging out in the Adirondacks, but we’ll stay the night at The Inn on the Library Lawn. We’ve booked the Edgar Allen Poe room. (I would have preferred the William Shakespeare.)

Saturday July 29:

We pack up and head home.