Where To Now?

There are many historical sites in the Capital Region that I've wanted to visit. Today, I was out in Albany Rural Cemetery doing some headstone photography. As I was wrapping up my work I noticed the Pruyn family headstones. This reminded me that I had not yet visited the Pruyn House , a historic site that's just down the road from home. So, rather than going straight out of the cemetery to go home, I turned right and made my way to Pruyn House. (For those of you, like me, who are not accustomed to seeing "uy" in names, it sounds like a long "i"... so imagine that the name is spelled "Prine House" and you'll be pronouncing it correctly in your head.) This home was built between 1825 and 1830 on land owned by the Van Rensselaer patroon. The home belonged to the patroon's land agent (i.e. rent collector), Casparus Francis Pruyn. He was the sixth generation of Pruyns to live in America, the first having arrived in the 1660's. Althou...

Today, I'm taking a vacation from being on vacation. Kef and I had planned a trip to Sedona back before life was turned upside down. At the time, we were both in Texas, so traveling to Phoenix was going to be cheep and easy. Now that we're both in Albany, it's a little more complicated. We began our day at 4:30 am, getting up and ready to be at the airport for an early flight to Charlotte, the Queen City. I'll look up why it's called that later. I got in the slowest possible line at security, and Kef set off alarm bells in the pre-check line with her super scary Vix vaporub. She started feeling sick yesterday... hopefully the vapors will heal her. What I learned about an early morning at the Albany airport is that the Starbucks employees are in their own little world, and in no rush to be a helpful part of yours. Not that we were in a hurry... but if we had been, the fact that they had to heat our breakfast by rubbing two sticks together... and remake my la...

We began our day with the dogs running outside. This property has 60 acres of land attached to it, with plenty of open space for Roxy to get up to full speed. We piddled a good part of the morning away... which is just what you do on a weekend,  especially a vacation weekend. By 11:30ish we were starting to get hungry. We came to the house with no people food, only dog food. So we set out in search of a lunch spot.  As we drove into Albany, we made a little detour down Edgewood Circle... the little enclave of homes where Kef will be living soon. As we came around the circle, we noticed a woman walking toward a mailbox at the house next door. Kef took the opportunity to stop and meet her new neighbors! They are very connected to the community and are a fascinating couple. I think she'll have some opportunities to get to know many people in the community as a benefit of her newfound connection with them. After a nice visit, we pulled into the driveway at the h...

I flew into Albany via Chicago late this evening, arriving at midnight. Kef and the girls met me at the airport and I thought we were headed to the hotel. But as we continued driving longer, I began to suspect a surprise was coming. As we crossed the Hudson River under the cover of darkness, I really wished I'd arrived my first time in the daylight. But the stars were shining brightly... and Saturn seemed to be guiding us into the woods. We continued to follow gps directions for about an hour until we pulled onto a dirt lane marked Lee O'Knobit. Rising out of the darkness was an old 19th century farm house... which is ours for the weekend! Pictures will come tomorrow when it's daylight.