Saratoga Springs, NY
When we left off yesterday, I'd just picked up my dad from Logan Airport in Boston and we were headed west towards my uncle Jeff and aunt Gale's house in Saratoga Springs, NY.
Over the 10.5 months I lived in Boston, I spent quite a bit of time with my dad's brother and his wife. I stopped there on my way to Boston in October, then went back for Thanksgiving (driving with my cousin, who is currently attending Boston University Medical School) and again in April for the dog show Rennie was in, in Troy, NY (suburb of Albany). I'd also visited my aunt and uncle a couple times before moving to Boston.
So I knew their house and the area pretty well by the time dad and I got there at about midnight. Fortunately, my aunt and uncle were still up and we sat around for an hour or so after unloading the car, talking and sipping wine and trying to decide what to do the next day.
The next day was, after all, my 30th birthday! Saratoga Springs is a pretty upscale place - it's a bit of an artist community and is home to the New York City Ballet every summer. However, it is most famous for its horse racing and the Saratoga Race Course. Somewhat unfortunately, I'd never managed to get to Saratoga during racing season. This is not terribly surprising, considering that racing season is all of 6 weeks. But I was pleased to discover that for my last trip there, and on my birthday, the race track was open.
Now, I'm really not much of a gambler but I am awfully fond of horses! So I agreed to get up the next day and go to the race track. It was, apparently, an experience not to be missed!
So we got to the race track the next day at around 11ish and wandered around a bit. I took a bazillion photos at the race track to test out my rapid-fire camera setting. Most of these turned out to be pictures of horses' hooves or random shots of the track but I did get a couple great pics. One of the best is in this post. Here are a couple more from the race track:
We spent a few hours at the race track and I had a good time. i hadn't been to the races since I went with my dad once when I was about 9 years old. I ended up losing about $10, which was all I bet. My father, however, almost won $100,000 on a trifecta. Unfortunately, close only counts in horse shoes, not horse racing.
After the races, we went back to the house for a little while and then into downtown Saratoga Springs for dinner at Sperry's Restaurant. Following that, we had ice cream cake back at the house:
That candle has the best explanation of age 30 I've ever seen: "18 with 12 years experience." Love it! By the time we finished with dinner and cake it was pretty late and I was pooped from all the packing and moving preparation I'd done the previous week. Still, we all hung out for a while chatting. It was to be the last "occasion" I'd spend with Jeff and Gale for a long while and I was glad to get to spend some more time with them, as well as my cousin Amanda.
We were set to head west the next morning, bright and early so I finally sent myself to bed in preparation for the big drive.
Comments
I went to the track for the first time 2 summers ago - it was fantastic! A friend of mine knew someone with box seats so we got to sit in the swanky section ;)
Did you ever make it to a concert at SPAC? I use to go to at least 2 a summer when I worked in NY, just love sitting on that hill listening to some good bands, MISS IT!!
TGIF . . . Tarra
Posted by: Sara | August 11, 2006 01:53 AM