Comfort Inn Fairgrounds - Syracuse

We had a nice, quiet, chilled out day. So relaxed, in fact, that I completely forgot that we had any plans, but finally realised we were going to Scott's parents (pre-Thanksgiving) when he had his coat and shoes on and I was still in my PJ’s.

Had my first taste of pumpkin pie and spent the evening chatting about all the Thanksgiving food preparations and what to expect tomorrow.

Waffles for breakfast again! Today we went for a walk up to a really pretty waterfall and had lunch by the lake in Ithaca, sandwiches with ham, cheese, pickles, salami and mustard (which I made btw). Then a little drive up to Scott's parents place with a detour around his home town, was cool to see the farm where he grew up.

Met Scott’s family and had fish and chips for dinner, just like home! Quiet evening in front of Fox News and making plans for the next week.

You know I love blogs. So, what better way to keep us all in touch and see the terrific things happening to the Vogel family? Post your events, travels and pictures to this blog for us all to see! Post often. Mom needs to know where you are, if you are all OK, and I want all the info over coffee each morning! I love you all!

... restaurant for lunch. Yucky. No Guy Fieri here.

After we settled in at the Skaneateles Suites, a very nice new cluster of individual cabins outside town, we drove around downtown Skaneateles. The town is a magnificent collection of mostly Victorian houses that look like they have been in the family and maintained in pristine form since the late 1800's. They obviously have a very strong Historical Commission that insists on upkeep. Some of ...

... br>anyhoo
We finally went to the infamous and usually crowded Lafeyette apple festival. It wasnt too crowded because all the smart people knew the wind would be freezing cold. It was the first time that I realised I would need scarf, gloves and a hat. That thought cheered me when I was dreading the cold weather, at least i will be able to wear my hat collection for some months before I get back to Aus and it is too hot to add any extra bit of ...

... For lack of a suffient American translation of the word.. Bogan's. It was great just to stroll and people watch. With 5 tickets, I pretty much saw everything.
How does it compare to the ekka in brisbane?
I can't compare it to the ekka sufficiently because they are different and I am most likely bias. I do think that it is bigger and there are a lot more food vendors and ...

... so happened that my connecting flight at JFK was at 7:30pm. If I took the delayed flight, it said I would arrive at JFK at 7:18pm, which only leaves me with 12 minutes to change flights. I thought to myself 'There was no way I was going to make it.' That is, if in fact the flight time did not change and there was no other further delay. So, as soon as I realized that I was possibly not going to catch my flight, I immediately panicked, my heart stopped ...

... was really cool. So did the other SU people down in the breakfast area. The PSU people gave them grief. I found that to be true too at the Outback bowl where PSU played Tennessee and I wore stuff from each school. The UT people thought it was cool, and I got grief from the PSU folks. Oh well. I found it didn't matter once the game started. I was all PSU then. The game started at 3:30, but there was a Penn State Tailgate ...

... weekly jam session. A killer night. The next day was a busy one, as I had been invited to sit in with my friends Mighty Lester on the West Stage. These guys keep getting better and better, covering a lot of stylistic ground, while keeping the rhythm solid and the horn section punching away. Guitarist Lenny Terrenzi and I caught up before the show and even called our booking agent, Jo-Ann Freda to say hello. I got to watch Mighty Lester ...

... next stop). We arrived in Syracuse at 5pm and look up where the local Hostel was, there was only one so we drove there to check in. When we arrived at the hostel it was a 100 year old mansion and not in the best condition in the world, but we rang the door bell and had no answer, then a very old man came to the door and asked us what we would like, I asked if there was any beds for the night and he let as ...