Thanksgiving in Vermont

We spent our second Thanksgiving in a cosy lake-side cabin in beautiful Vermont with Columbia friends. 

We left New York after work on Wednesday night (both cars laden with food and drink including the all important turkey), arrived after 1am and pretty much fell straight into bed. 

I was very happy to wake up on Thanksgiving morning, pull back the curtains and see the above view out of our window.

Our home for the weekend on Lake Rescue

We felt kind of like nine Europeans pretending to be an American family at Thanksgiving! 

We started the day with a very tasty American pancake breakfast followed by a nice walk round the lake to take in our surroundings and rebuild our appetite for the main event.

 Then it was all hands on deck for a lovely relaxed afternoon of cooking...

 The turkey was very much a group effort!

And then we ate far, far too much food..

Followed by more wine, amazing pumpkin cake and games in front of the fire.

The best thing about Thanksgiving is that when it's over there are still 3 more days before you have to go back to work!

We spent the remainder of our Vermont weekend going on walks, making good use of the canoes that came with the house, visiting the maple syrup producer next door, eating, drinking, playing games and generally relaxing.

Hike up Okemo Mountain with spectacular views at top

Unfortunately we completely misjudged how long it would take and ended up walking down in the dark - which was a little challenging! Thank goodness for Iphones and the torch app!

A week of being a tourist

We've had our first UK visitors this week and it's been brilliant fun. 

It was so lovely to get to spend time with such good old friends and have the chance to show them some of our New York discoveries.

We really made the most of every minute (I went a bit Monica with a printed schedule!) and the 6 days were spent walking, talking, exploring, drinking, shopping, laughing and doing a lot of eating (of course). 

More details on what we did to follow but here are a few photos of us being tourists in Manhattan (and Brooklyn).

Come again soon please!

(Last 3 photos courtesy of Cat - thanks)

Saturday night in Chelsea

Had a lovely New York Saturday night with some lovely new New York friends. 

P and L kindly took us to a great exhibition opening in a warehouse by the river in Chelsea then we went for dinner and drinks in nearby Park. 

We ate delicious wood-fired pizzas in the Garden (which is an atmospheric indoor garden).

Then moved into the Red Room, which was like a Chinese influenced speakeasy, for drinks.

 Now enjoying a rather lazy Sunday. 

Tomorrow is a national holiday for Martin Luther King Day, it's currently -3 outside and we got a huge bunch of Collard Greens in our veg box this week so think we might attempt some Southern comfort cooking this evening.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!