SPRING HAS SPRUNG!

When Abbey told me that I hadn't blogged for a LONG time I knew that I'd have to catch up this week. Actually, when I checked out my BLOG it seems like I had begun a blog here before this one but it is not here. I thought I wrote something after Adam suprised me with a visit back to Rochester on April Fool's Day but since there is no blog here to substantiate that, I guess I must be losing it! Or our computer froze with my blog begun and I hadn't saved it along the way. It seems since Al installed OX on our MAC, this computer gives me more problems than I care to think about! That could very well be where my blog disappeared to!

This weekend's trip to NJ for Easter was terrific! As Abbey would say, we did plenty of eating and drinking, so a good time was had by all. We began our eating adventure on Thursday night by stopping by the Tiffany Diner on Rte. 17 to have dinner before arriving at the Residence Inn where we were staying. On Friday, we headed out to Bottle King while Adam and Abbey were at work to put the finishing touches on their Easter Baskets and then to Whole Foods for sushi for Good Friday lunch. They had a California Roll there with shrimp that was delicious as was their California roll with snow crab. When Adam got off of work we headed down to Cricket Hill Brewery for their "TOUR" from 5pm until 8pm. Abbey joined us there after she got off. It was an experience. Abbey got a tshirt that reads IITYWYBMAB which stands for "If I tell you will you buy me a beer?" The whole tour experience is free and is best done with a designated driver. We took home an assortment case without the Blide selection because that one wasn't available in bottles yet...only in growlers for $8 ea. The case went for $20. Adam, Abbey and Al chatted with Rick (the owner) and Dave (the brewer) for much of the evening. When it was time to leave we headed over to Bella Notte (I think that was the name of it) for awesome Italian food. I had shrimp parmigana which was soooo good!

Saturday was the most beautiful day of spring to date. It was predicted to reach 80 degrees and I know that it got well into the 80's for sure. We picked up Adam and Abbey and Adam drove us to Pennsylvania to check out a couple brew pubs there. We began at the Pocono Brew House and had beer along with lunch. My boneless chicken wings with celery and blue cheese dressing was classic pub fare but it was delicious. From there we headed to the nearby outlet mall run by the same people who do the Woodbury Commons and the Finger Lakes outlets. Adam scored with shoes (Reebok) as did Al (Rockport) and Abbey got a spring wardrobe at the Gap! I sat and knit on my poncho (and caught some rays) so that I could show it off to my Knit Wits group when we meet again after the break. Before heading back to NJ we also stopped at the Barley Creek Brewing Company but that place didn't impress me as much as the Pocono Brew Pub did. When we arrived back at the apartment, we loaded up the mattress and boxspring into our Caravan along with all the other stuff that was being sent back with us. Adam and Abbey called in a pizza and antipasto salad order to Oakland Pizzeria and brought it over to where we were staying for dinner. We stopped at A&P on the way back to the room and got a huge Easter chocolate chip pan cookie for dessert. All the food was delicious but the company was even better.

Al was thrilled to have Adam and Abbey join him for Easter Mass and then everyone returned to the room to see what the Easter Bunny had left. Contrary to Al's belief, Adam was surprised and impressed that the Bunny had found Transformer and M.A.S.K. dvd's to put into his basket. Abbey seemed to enjoy the prospect of individual cans of Sophia (a pink sparkling wine by Coppola) that we'd found for her at Bottle King (I mean that the Easter Bunny had found for her). After packing up for our return to NY we headed off to the Easter Brunch at the Mahwah Sheraton. It was fabulous! Our 11:30 seating time was perfect for the food was freshly prepared and the crowd hadn't converged on the place yet. They did have a musician who was playing songs so badly that without listening to the lyrics you couldn't tell what song he was playing. That alone kept Abbey and me entertained. They had a terrific spread that was out of this world on the buffet table but my favorite thing was a mixed greens salad topped with huge, fresh red raspberries and blueberries and served with a blue cheese vinegrette dressing! YUMMY! And they had HAM. That was the one thing that Abbey and I thought we'd have a hard time finding, since most of the buffets that she'd checked out had lamb or turkey or beef but no ham! What's Easter dinner without ham? Well, after stuffing ourselves and having a delicious fresh berry sundae that Al made for me (from the fruit on the top of the salad), it was time to say goodbye to the kids and head back to NY. We left at 1:24pm and arrived in Rochester before 7pm. Got the car unloaded and the mattress and boxspring into the house and then just crashed! Being with Adam and Abbey this weekend was the best! We enjoy NJ even more every time we visit. Can't wait to see them again for Aaron's graduation in a few more weeks. Now this gets posted before anything happens to my computer and consequently my blog! Until next posting...