It took about an hour and 55 minutes to get to Saratoga Springs. I was very interested in Mark Lawson Antiques - they are the major sponsor of Antiques Roadshow on the local PBS channel, so I thought they would have a big store. I was looking forward to exploring it.
They were open from like 9 to 3, and had asked me to call with my arrival time. I gave them an estimate of 2 pm, and got there at 1:50. It's a smallish house. I had to ring the bell, and a man unlocked the door and let me into the foyer. They gave me my box of paperweights. I left. Duh.
They were on route 9, so I decided to just take route 9 home. Somewhere in Saratoga there's a street (at least) of gorgeous old victorian houses. I've always wanted to see them, but I have no idea where they are. Route 9 took me right through the center of the business district, which is full of old hotels - four stories of gingerbread verandahs (looking very New Orleans), for rich Victorian-era folks who came to "take the waters". Lots of boutiques, sidewalk cafes, hordes of people strolling. No parking spaces anywhere.
I did find the visitors' center, but couldn't find a parking space within six blocks in any direction, so I just kept going. I'll come back sometime either outside tourist season, or the middle of the week.
When Jay was in the rehab center in Schenectady, he and I used to explore Schenectady on our practice trips out, looking for glorious houses. Schenectady has some neighborhoods full of big old houses with wrap-around porches with fancy wicker furniture, towers, solariums, arched stained glass windows. Jay and I both loved stuff like that. If he had lived, we would eventually have sold this house (which had been built to his ex-wife's specifications) and bought a small old gingerbread house. He required a garden with a gazebo, and stained glass in the windows - I required a huge wrapping porch and non-rectangular areas inside. We both absolutely required a tall round tower. I was going to fill the next-to-highest level with pillows, for lolling and reading. He had plans for the top level involving a retracting roof and a telescope. (I once caught him looking speculatively at an old abandoned barn with an attached silo near New Paltz.)
Long ago, when I lived in Highland, my mother was visiting, and I was taking her to Kingston. Instead of going the direct route, I took her the back way, through New Paltz, Stone Ridge, Hurley, and uptown Kingston, so I could show her the colonial stone houses along the way. I was very enthusiastic, described the interiors of those I had been in, what history I knew of the others - until she finally said, "Why are you showing me houses? I have no interest in any of this. They're just houses. Old ones, at that." I was crushed. I would never do that to Daughter (at least, not on purpose.) Daughter - you always try to show me things in your area that you think I'd like. I'd like to see the things you like. (But not so much the people - strangers make me nervous.)
Well, the village is having its Apple Blossom Festival today, so I'm going to wander off now. The library will be having its $1 used book sale, and I'd like to stop by.
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