Dancing, history and yoga in Massachusetts

While Mark was umpiring in Oneonta, Danielle camped out at Pinewoods for a long weekend (4th of July, to be exact) of contra and English country dancing. I also got to do crafts, singing circles, and board games. Fun fun fun.


Danielle found a friend (Jeff) to canoe with on the lake in Southern Massachusetts, in deer tick country. Fortunately, no ticks landed.


English country dancers groove on a wooden floor at Pinewoods during a dance workshop.

Back in time


After dancing, Danielle took the time to visit historical Massachusetts. A woman (pretending to be from the 17th century) waits for visitors to enter her home at Plymouth Plantation, a few miles from where the explorers landed back in the day. I took this photo quickly from the window; it looks like a painting to me. I love it.


Danielle stands in the dry dirt road at Plymouth Plantation, where actor/historians answer questions as if they were living in the 1600s. The water in the background is Cape Cod Bay.

A yoga break


Chairs overlook the Berkshires, just a half mile down the road from Tanglewood at the Kripalu Yoga Center. Danielle spent a few days there after the dance at Pinewoods, doing relaxing yoga and making new friends. It was a wonderful place.


Danielle and new friend Libby look at some flowers at Kripalu while on a walk. The flowers were actually an herb, but I forget which one.


Libby is all smiles at Kripalu.


Even being immersed in a yoga retreat center can't pull some people away from their texting. LOL. This is Emily (sister of Libby), who was part of my relaxation course. She plans to go for her yoga teacher training in October. You go, girl!

Danielle and Michele at a square in Montreal.


We visited Danielle's father, Jacques, who drove down from Quebec to lunch with us.

(Click photo to read cutline above.)
Aunt Michele treated us well at her home in Montreal. We dined outside on her garden terrace.


Mark and Danielle stand in front of a replica from one of the Easter Island statues ... in Montreal.

Chillin' in Vermont

According to Danielle, the Ben & Jerry's website said that the last tour of the day was 5 p.m. Because of that, I drove like a bat out of hell to make it there in time. As we walked through the door we realized that tours continued until 9 p.m. Oh well. All in all, the tour, at $5, was a great value.
Some highlights:
*Both Ben and Jerry are no longer involved with the brand's day-to-day operations.
*Our tour guide, a high school girl, quizzed the group on the brand's commercials, and Danielle answered the most questions correctly.
*I tried Milk & Cookies; Danielle can't recall the one she tried.



Driving on the Vermont highway, the sun was just setting. All those cool little smudges in the windshield come from Danielle's toes. :)


This was the backdrop as we played disc golf in Burlington, Vt. The good thing: we found a pro course and were finally able to let our drivers loose. The bad thing: because of the woodiness of No. 18, I lost my favorite driver. Oddly enough, the disc golf course was only five minutes from Ben & Jerry's.



We found the cutest little cookie place en route from Vermont to New York. It's called Vermont Cookie Love and had amazingly soft chocolate chip cookies. This one has ice cream and whipped cream. The road ran parallel to the mountain range. Along the way, we also saw a llama.

Lake George, Saratoga, NY

Between shopping opportunities, Mark stands in an alley that eventually overlooks Lake George on this cloudy day.


Mark peers over the second-floor balcony of a shopping square in Lake George. We were too cheap to pay any money into the viewing machines.


As we drove through Saratoga, Danielle, rolled down her window and asked the driver in a nearby car if he could recommend a place that had good live music. So we went to Gaffney's
We had yet to imbibe on the trip so I immediately asked Danielle if she wanted to do a shot of Maker's Mark. (How could we not after touring the famous distillery in Bardstown, Ky.?). It was rough going down but it was the beginning of an incredible night. From what I recall:
Mark: I knew that I could put one over on the tipsy Danielle as soon as I saw this guy. She had a few drinks and was becoming a little loopy so I said, "Hey Danielle? Grab your camera and come here. Do you want to get your picture taken with Hulk Hogan? He's right over there." She actually believed me and proceeded to walk in the direction of the Hulk Hugan impersonator. To me, he looked nothing like Hogan. He was a lot shorter and had a pot belly. But Danielle couldn't tell the difference. "Hulk, is it really you?" she said to the plump Hogan. He put his arm around Danielle as I snapped a photo. He then walked around the bar a bit, imitating some of Hogan's theatrics. It wasn't until 20 minutes later that he finally approached us again, showing Danielle the picture of himself posing with Hogan. I couldn't stop laughing.
Danielle: OK, yes. He got me. But it was kinda mean, don't you think?


Upon closer inspection, Danielle realized this was not the actual Hulk Hogan. She did find it curious that he was so short.


At the bar, we had live music:
*the band, Acoustic Circus, did an amazing cover of Stephen Stills' "Love the One You're With"
*Mark asked the lead singer if he covered any Dave Matthews' songs and he said, "Dave doesn't do me and I don't do Dave."
*two college kids did funny dances behind the band (to the delight of the capacity crowd)
*and, of course, what will go down as "The Hulk Hogan Incident."