Weekend Update

Somehow, we managed to have a most peripatetic weekend without really going too far from home.

Saturday, we went to Randall's Island for free hotdogs, thanks to Hebrew National. I didn't ride the mechanical bull, I had no idea Cheryl Hines was there, but we ate our share of hotdogs with bloggers and marveled at Randall's Island. Really - it's kind of astonishing. I've driven over the Triborough Bridge thousands of times, and never ever descended down. There are a hundred ball fields, in the shadow of the Triborough and Hell Gate bridges, sharing the island with a psychiatric hospital, a fire department training center, and a wastewater treatment plant. The park was packed with people, and you could only smell the sewage when the wind blew in the wrong direction. Oh, that's not fair - it's a terrific public amenity and I'm happy to have been there.

Sunday, we traipsed in the other direction, because I wanted to see Margaret Roach's garden and it was on the Open Days tour. It's lovely, by the way, with a human quality to it - we walked away thinking "I can do that", which may or may not be true. The girlie was thoroughly entranced by the frogs in the frog pond, though I think she liked the flowers too. I was amused that she was able to identify some things - "that's a bleeding heart, mama, and we have some of those [alliums]". Afterwards, one thing led to another and instead of heading south (and home), we headed northeast to Great Barrington (yeah, Massachusetts). With the help of Yelp (and their really good iPhone app), we found an great pizza shop on the main drag, followed it up with some excellent ice cream, and - finally - headed home.

We probably put more miles on the car than we really needed to, but it was fun.