A Weekend Getaway
After our followup appointment with the surgeon on Friday, suddenly, we found ourselves with a three day holiday weekend, no plans, and a cleared schedule for a week or two as we wait on further test results.
After a few weeks of hospital visits, surgery, and bad news and even worse news it was nice to have a little breather. As you could probably imagine, under these circumstances, we both wanted to get away for a bit.
Sheila wasn't in much of a mood for socializing so a weekend for us alone was what she really wanted and needed. I think there has been too much focus on conversations of cancer and treatment over the past three weeks and Sheila needed a break... and some rest... and some sleep... generally speaking, she needed some quiet time and a change of scenery.
Friday afternoon, we searched online for a hotel room for the long holiday weekend... as we expected, we had waited too long to book a hotel room on a holiday weekend. We even talked about the option of some time at the lake. We both decided we were far too exhausted to do anything anyway so we dropped the topic of heading out of town and opted for a little time for rest and sleep. The couch was looking good at this point.
On Saturday morning, we ate breakfast and then again decided it would be nice to get away for a bit. We discussed a few options but quickly admitted that we were both experiencing a bit of jello-legs because we were still so overwhelmingly exhausted. Besides, we still couldn't find any hotel rooms anyway. At this point we accepted the fact that we'd be napping and resting for another day.
Sunday morning we were finally feeling a bit more rested. My legs had previously been very jello-like but they were now feeling like I had a bit more strength although I knew I was still teetering on overwhelming exhaustion. Regardless, I was feeling better than before and I wanted to do something fun. We both definitely felt that we needed a change of scenery.
This time, our search for a hotel room yielded a room... in Springfield, Massachusetts.
We're very familiar with this area because we attend an annual train show here for three days every year so we've been traveling down there for the past eight years or so. We also head to Springfield whenever we need to do some serious shopping. Vermont is good for outdoor activities but definitely not good for shopping so we often will head to Springfield to find items we can't find in Vermont.
We found a lone hotel room in one of our usual hotels in Springfield so we made the reservation, packed quickly, and hit the road. Sheila's car was in desperate need of an oil change (we hadn't had time for the oil change in the past month because of all the medical appointments) so we added a stop on our way to Springfield for an oil change and some lunch.
While the car was in the shop, we were eating a delicious lunch across the street at Lui Lui's in New Hampshire... here, in this photo below, we are dipping their delicious fresh hot rolls in garlic oil...
I pointed out to Sheila that the wall behind her was covered in movie promotional posters in Italian...
Since these posters were facing me, I spent far too much time trying to remember Italian words and deciphering these posters... something in this one, I think, about a "Joyful and Visionary Ghost"...
The hotel bar has some new beers on tap... one, in particular, caught my eye... Yuengling. I've been hearing everyone rave about it for years... perhaps a decade or so... but I had never tried it.
Typically when everyone raves about something, it almost always turns out to be something I dislike intensely so I was not too optimistic that I would like this beer. If not, that would not be a problem since I had some beer in our refrigerator in our room.
I was definitely pleasantly surprised when I tasted this tap beer. It reminded me very much of The Alchemist's Lightweight beer but slightly mellower... and I like mellower when it comes to beer. This was a pleasant surprise!
We headed to Cracker Barrel for breakfast. This is the type of breakfast we cannot seem to find anywhere in Vermont... so buttery... so much meat... grits... sausage and biscuits... creamy eggs... cheesy hashbrowns... delicious french toast... and Sheila tried the blueberry pancakes this time around... oh so good and finished off with a baked apple dish...
After breakfast, we did some shopping in the Cracker Barrel Gift Shop...
We have a lot of shopping to do for Liza's upcoming wedding so that was foremost in our thoughts and our priority as we walked the Holyoke Mall. We both need clothes, shoes, and a few shopping bags full of other things so we did a lot of shopping for these items. Sheila hasn't picked out a dress yet so she still does not know exactly what she needs but we chose a few stores and checked what types of styles they carry. I managed to find a few pairs of comfortable shoes for myself though so that worked out well for me.
Best of all, we managed to squeeze in a nice change of scenery and we enjoyed our time together!
After a few weeks of hospital visits, surgery, and bad news and even worse news it was nice to have a little breather. As you could probably imagine, under these circumstances, we both wanted to get away for a bit.
Sheila wasn't in much of a mood for socializing so a weekend for us alone was what she really wanted and needed. I think there has been too much focus on conversations of cancer and treatment over the past three weeks and Sheila needed a break... and some rest... and some sleep... generally speaking, she needed some quiet time and a change of scenery.
Friday afternoon, we searched online for a hotel room for the long holiday weekend... as we expected, we had waited too long to book a hotel room on a holiday weekend. We even talked about the option of some time at the lake. We both decided we were far too exhausted to do anything anyway so we dropped the topic of heading out of town and opted for a little time for rest and sleep. The couch was looking good at this point.
On Saturday morning, we ate breakfast and then again decided it would be nice to get away for a bit. We discussed a few options but quickly admitted that we were both experiencing a bit of jello-legs because we were still so overwhelmingly exhausted. Besides, we still couldn't find any hotel rooms anyway. At this point we accepted the fact that we'd be napping and resting for another day.
Sunday morning we were finally feeling a bit more rested. My legs had previously been very jello-like but they were now feeling like I had a bit more strength although I knew I was still teetering on overwhelming exhaustion. Regardless, I was feeling better than before and I wanted to do something fun. We both definitely felt that we needed a change of scenery.
This time, our search for a hotel room yielded a room... in Springfield, Massachusetts.
We're very familiar with this area because we attend an annual train show here for three days every year so we've been traveling down there for the past eight years or so. We also head to Springfield whenever we need to do some serious shopping. Vermont is good for outdoor activities but definitely not good for shopping so we often will head to Springfield to find items we can't find in Vermont.
We found a lone hotel room in one of our usual hotels in Springfield so we made the reservation, packed quickly, and hit the road. Sheila's car was in desperate need of an oil change (we hadn't had time for the oil change in the past month because of all the medical appointments) so we added a stop on our way to Springfield for an oil change and some lunch.
While the car was in the shop, we were eating a delicious lunch across the street at Lui Lui's in New Hampshire... here, in this photo below, we are dipping their delicious fresh hot rolls in garlic oil...
I pointed out to Sheila that the wall behind her was covered in movie promotional posters in Italian...
Since these posters were facing me, I spent far too much time trying to remember Italian words and deciphering these posters... something in this one, I think, about a "Joyful and Visionary Ghost"...
The hotel bar has some new beers on tap... one, in particular, caught my eye... Yuengling. I've been hearing everyone rave about it for years... perhaps a decade or so... but I had never tried it.
Typically when everyone raves about something, it almost always turns out to be something I dislike intensely so I was not too optimistic that I would like this beer. If not, that would not be a problem since I had some beer in our refrigerator in our room.
I was definitely pleasantly surprised when I tasted this tap beer. It reminded me very much of The Alchemist's Lightweight beer but slightly mellower... and I like mellower when it comes to beer. This was a pleasant surprise!
We headed to Cracker Barrel for breakfast. This is the type of breakfast we cannot seem to find anywhere in Vermont... so buttery... so much meat... grits... sausage and biscuits... creamy eggs... cheesy hashbrowns... delicious french toast... and Sheila tried the blueberry pancakes this time around... oh so good and finished off with a baked apple dish...
After breakfast, we did some shopping in the Cracker Barrel Gift Shop...
We have a lot of shopping to do for Liza's upcoming wedding so that was foremost in our thoughts and our priority as we walked the Holyoke Mall. We both need clothes, shoes, and a few shopping bags full of other things so we did a lot of shopping for these items. Sheila hasn't picked out a dress yet so she still does not know exactly what she needs but we chose a few stores and checked what types of styles they carry. I managed to find a few pairs of comfortable shoes for myself though so that worked out well for me.
Best of all, we managed to squeeze in a nice change of scenery and we enjoyed our time together!
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