Mohonk!

About a month or so before Thanksgiving, my husband told me to keep that Saturday and Sunday free- no interpreting jobs or anything. I asked him why, and he smiled mysteriously and said only, "You'll see."

He'd booked us a room overnight at Mohonk Mountain House. (http://www.mohonk.com/) He'd been there before, a few times, on work retreats, but I had never been, and I'd always wanted to go. He got his mom to babysit for Frank and managed to keep it a secret until Thanksgiving, when my brother-in-law spilled the beans over dinner, prompting Darrel to say to his mother in an exasperated tone, "I can't tell you anything, can I??" (To be fair to my brother-in-law, by the look on his face, I don't think my mother-in-law had mentioned to him that the location was a surprise to me. Oopsie.)

Anyway, the trip was lovely...even though I'd awakened Saturday morning with Frank's cold that eventually became bronchitis and a serious URI that kept me out of work for three days. It took us about two hours to drive up. We checked in at 3:30pm and then wandered the grounds a bit. That was their first day lighting their Christmas tree there, at 5pm, so we went outside for carols and stuff, too. Dinner Saturday night was formal; I even bought a new dress for it!

Sunday we woke up and had the breakfast buffet, and then went for a hike, me hacking and wheezing the whole way up to Skytop. The view in the end was well worth all the wheezing- you could seriously see for MILES in every direction, and it was one of those clear, crisp fall days. (For those who see my Facebook page, my current profile picture is from about halfway up this hike.)

We had lunch buffet, and then checked out at 2pm and came home. We had, of course, forgotten that this is one of the major travel days of the year, and got stuck in some serious traffic coming home, but we arrived home shortly after 5pm.

It's late right now, and the pictures are somewhat screwed up here, but I'll fix it another time.

Oh, one more thing...this was a definite splurg for us. This place is so luxurious, and the staff...well, I felt rich while there! Polite nods, calling us "sir" and "madam"...I kept looking around to see who they were talking to! They really know how to run the place and make you feel like a queen, that's for sure!!