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While this is a shot of the Connecticut shore, it is not from my trip there last week. For the second straight year my visit back to the ancestral home (since 1976) was plagued by very wet weather. This snapshot was forwarded to me by former coworker who had a better day of it than I on his trip to the beach. I didn't even bother trying to go to any of the beaches (or more importantly a lobster shack as planned) due to the mess outside and I was having enough trouble trying to cram as much as possible into a short period of time.

I left Albany after attending a conference for work bookended by a trip to Cooperstown and a night on the town with a coworker with an astounding breadth of knowledge about and thirst for single-malt Scotch. Many of Albany's bars are open very late (4 am) but I am not really sure who would want to stay out until the wee smalls in Albany? It would be like staying out until 2 am in Des Moines but with the added thrill of possibly being mugged. That said we did not get back to the hotel until around 3:00 am for various reasons having to do not only with the Scotch but because we wanted to see as much as possible in one evening, the added time spent chasing down cabs to leapfrog certain neighborhoods, and the fried chicken stop from previous post. I managed to make it out unscathed.

It was strange to realize how much the distances in New England have shrunk after spending considerable time here in the Midwest. I used to think the Berkshires were far away from where I lived in CT but it was only a two and half hour drive as I went past nearly forgotten yet familiar terrain. I enjoyed each river crossing that brought me closer to my destination (Hudson, Housatonic, Connecticut). I stopped off at a friends house for a rendevous with the UConn crowd. The remaining time before driving back to Albany was spent in the company of friends and family near my mother's house and it was good to catch up with all, however briefly or at times somewhat fuzzy.

After dropping off rental car, I was trapped, in turn, in two airports for many hours due to the continued inclement weather which was annoying but did allow me to almost finish Mason & Dixon. I am savoring the last few chapters. I have some other things lined up but will save for a separate post.