Hot, then Rain.
On Saturday morning, I got up and packed. Jenny took Petunia the pug dog for a walk, and came back with a pretzel croissant (I think it must’ve been from the Upper West Side Birdbath/City Bakery) for me to take on the train – thought about taking the other half of my giant Panuozzo sandwich from the day before, but opted for more breakfast-y things instead; the croissant and a banana. We discussed bakeries where I could grab a bite at Penn Station, but in the end I didn’t have time. I cabbed to the station and had to ask how to get to track 5 West, where my train was already boarding. I ended up on the away-from-the-Hudson-River side, but with a seat to myself.
We were about half an hour late into Rhinecliff, that Wikipedia calls a “hamlet” in upstate New York, but Amtrak kept us informed and I was able to text Rach. She went and had a coffee at the Rhinecliff Hotel.
We went and wandered in Woodstock, and I bought a dress at the Flax store. 40% off. It was really hot – in the 90s, and the car, Rachael’s new Subaru Forrester, said the temp was 103° when we got back in, but that must’ve been from being parked in the sun – it dropped to 86° when we got moving.
Flax linen dress, hanging in my closet back at home
We went to New World Home Cooking for dinner. We split the spicy green beans for a starter – they were good but a little too grilled for me – too much char, or not exactly char, more like grill gunk. I had a big hunk of BBQ salmon, that came with a yummy peanut slaw, and rice that looked really boring but actually was well-seasoned with lime and cilantro. Rach had the Thai salad, so I gave her a hunk of salmon to top it, and Iain had the Indian fish fry, that came with more of the slaw. We were way too full for dessert.
In the morning, Rach and I went for a walk with her neighbor, Helene. It was still hot and sticky, in the high 70s.
We drove into Rhinebeck for breakfast at one of the Bread Alone’s (we got coffee at the Woodstock one the other day – iced). Then we went to the farmers’ market. It started raining when we came out after eating, and by the time we got to the parking lot of the grocery store where we went to finish our shopping, it had dropped to 60°. We bought two pounds of rhubarb, and made a big batch of rhubarb sauce.
My egg sangwich
Rachael’s avocado toast
Rachael’s sister and brother-in-law and niece drove up from Albany in the late afternoon. It had settled into to steadily rain. We took umbrellas, and went into Saugerties to see an art show at Cross Contemporary Art, Portia Munson’s scanner pictures, and to buy fancy chocolates. Home, and BLT’s on Bread Alone bread, roasted potato and asparagus salad, and a big green salad, from Avi’s garden, lost of nice young greens and herbs. I used handfuls of the dressed greens as the lettuce in the BLTs. We had three kinds of bacon – some really thick, all natural honey bacon; thinner sliced and maple or brown sugar bacon; and tempeh bacon. This time we had room for dessert – Avi brought a rhubarb galette that we ate with vanilla ice cream, and some of us indulged in extra rhubarb sauce on top.
It went down to the 40s on Sunday night, but we just closed all the windows and Rach got me an extra blanket, so on Monday morning I woke up all cozy in the guest room.
Waking up all cozy in Rach’s guest bedroom
I got the train in Rhinecliff – a river-side seat this time. Even though I was on the correct side of the train, I still didn’t get a picture of the brick ruins, Bannerman’s Castle – but plenty of other people have.
Amtrak station in Rhinecliff NY
It rained the whole train ride, and was still raining when I got to the City, but I got a cab fairly easily, and told the driver I was going to LaGuardia. We had only made it about two blocks when I gt a text from Delta saying my direct flight to Madison, that was supposed to get me home by about 5:00, had cancelled. I quick called Jenny, to ask if I could sleep on her couch another night. She said sure, and they were going to lunch, so I should join them. I told the cab driver we were going to the Upper West Side instead of LaGuardia, and even he thought it was a good thing that delta had let me know the flight cancelled soon enough that i didn’t have to shlep out to the airport, and come back. Would’ve cost upwards of $100.
Jenny and Jared and I went to a place called Jacob’s Pickles – a little slice of Brooklyn on the Upper West Side. One of those places with really good food in a casual environment – the napkins were white kitchen towels with a blue stripe, and the drinks came in Mason jars. Ruth Reichl talked about the experience in those kinds of restaurants when I went to hear her Tuesday night; more on that in a minute. Then we went to see The Clouds of Sils Maria – I think I liked it better than Jenny and Jared did. We had avocado sandwiches and salad and tucked me into bed on the couch – Jenny hadn’t even had a chance to wash the sheets yet – early so I could get up at 4:00 to make my 6:00 AM flight. And it was the easiest taxi ride ever, as Jenny had predicted; I was there in about 25 minutes even though the driver missed the exit for the D gates. He turned off the meter (made a show of it of course) and brought me back around.
