My first Mirror Project submission.

I took this picture at Alison Winery during the trip Marc and I took to upstate NY for his birthday. It was great to go upstate on our own and see it as a tourist, rather than as someone who grew up 45 minutes from our destination. You can see the photo here, and more pictures from the trip here. We left on a Friday evening, drove up to Kingston, NY, and stayed at the beautiful Black Lion Mansion. The mansion sits at the very highest point in Kingston (the first capital of NY State) and we had an octagonal room that looked out over the downtown area of Kingston (called the Rondout), the Hudson River, and Rhinecliff.

Saturday morning we were up early and had breakfast with the B&B snobs, then drove to Mt. Tremper to do something I've been wanting to do for a long time -- see The World's Largest Kaleidescope. Okay, there are lots of things I could say about this place, and some of them would be mean. I think I may have built up the experience a little bit in my mind, but suffice to say, there are some crazy leftover hippies in upstate NY, and we found one of their business ventures. In addition to the actual kaleidescope (which is inside a silo, to give you some idea of scale), they've got this odd blacklit area with huge homemade kaleidescopes. There was 70s rock blasting and a bunch of old ladies from a bus tour saying things like, "my, this is fascinating!"

When we left Mt. Tremper, we headed to Woodstock (where we found more hippies) and walked around a bit. After a scenic drive, we headed back to the mansion for a quick nap, and then Marc's birthday dinner at Blue Mountain Bistro. The food was delicious, but the wait staff was a bit overworked and we felt neglected a few times.

Sunday we took the Dutchess County Wine Trail home, where we fully participated in the classic winery gimmick: liquor 'em up, and sell 'em your wares (or, if you prefer, the crack-dealer's motto: first one's free). We found some great Hudson Valley Region wines. I can't wait to open the Clinton Vineyards' Seyval Blanc. Yum.

That's about it! All this as an intro to my Mirror Project photo. Enjoy!