Mini Reunion and More

July 26th was the day it was time to hit the road and travel to upstate New York to celebrate Rich’s and my 55th wedding anniversary at the same church we were married in on July 29, 1967. But we also had a mini reunion and more! This was the first time Lia has been to New York and her mommy, Rich and I haven’t been up to visit since 2017! So it was definitely a trip to look forward to.

We stayed at the beautiful Landing Hotel in Schenectady, New York which was the same one we stayed at five years ago. Schenectady is an old town and the site of the hotel and Rivers Casino is located where the American Locomotive Company, also known as ALCO, was located.

A little history of ALCO, in 1848 the Schenectady Locomotive Works was founded where they built railroad locomotives. They merged with ALCO in 1901 and made Schenectady their headquarters. Both Rich’s and my grandfathers worked there in the early 1900’s.

The hotel is built along the Mohawk River with a bike and walking path and it was interesting to see they kept some history of the locomotives along the path.

Wednesday

The first stop we made as we arrived to Schenectady was to Jumpin’ Jacks Drive-In located in Scotia, just across the river from Schenectady. That’s been our old stompin’ ground for fast food forever!

We had a beautiful view of the river from our hotel room with a railroad bridge crossing the river about 1/2 mile from the hotel. Lia and I took a walk along the path from the hotel to the bridge but I didn’t know we had to climb a dirt path to get to the tracks but I made! Lia will be sharing some beautiful wild flowers we saw on our hike on an upcoming Friday Story Time by Lia.

I don’t remember which day we ventured down to the Casino but as soon as I entered I found a shiny penny on the floor by a machine, I know it was from my mom! Thanks mom!!

Thursday

Thursday was an exciting day! We went to Howe Caverns where the caves are way underground. Lia loved the visit and she wrote a blog about it so I’ll share her link. There is an underground river and it was 52 degrees in the cave!

But that’s not all for Thursday, my cousin’s son and daughter-in-law have a Cookie House in the Helderberg Mountains area and they drive to different locations like the ice cream trucks do in South Carolina. It just happened to be about 30 minutes from Howe Caverns so of course we had to go visit.

They have homemade cookies and ice cream and Lia was so excited when they invited her into the Cookie House to help make cookies! It’s not the way Lia drops the dough by scoops on the cookie sheet when she bakes cookies at home, the Cookie House has a huge machine that has a hand crank and when Lia turned it, a whole row of cookie dough popped out on the baking sheet. She was also amazed at the size of the huge mixer in the corner! Look at the size of her Unicorn ice cream cookie sandwich! I haven’t seen my cousin Ruth and her hubby Jack and their kids since I don’t know when! It was great to see them again and have Alex and Lia meet them also. Lia posted her Friday Story Time blog about her visit to the Cookie House! You can visit the Cookie House on their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/BlackSheepHoney or their website http://www.blacksheephoney.com/

Rich met Lenny back in 1966 when he started to work at Schenectady General Electric. We have been friends with him and his late wife for over 66 years and enjoyed watching their children grow up. We always surprise Lenny when we go “home” for a visit.

Friday

Rich and I celebrated our 55th wedding anniversary on Friday July 29th and we then drove past Proctor’s Theater on State Street where it all began on December 25, 1965 with Rich and I meeting on a blind date! As we stopped by the church where we were married back on July 29, 1967 the bells were ringing, so beautiful.

Friday was our anniversary and Sunday was Rich’s birthday so my sister and her boyfriend along with Alex, Lia, Rich and I went out to dinner. When the waitress found out it was Rich’s birthday, she put together a surprise dessert with Lia’s help. Lia even cleaned off all the tables in the area we sat in! They were ready to hire her! LOL

Saturday

Saturday was the day we all waited for. My older sister Anne lives in Albany, NY, my younger sister Nancy lives in Maine and we live in South Carolina. It’s hard to get everyone together at the same time and place but after 30 years we finally had a mini reunion! The last time we were all together was in the early 90’s and since then Anne has lost half her body! Nancy had a cool idea to dress similar as to that picture and when she asked me if I had a shirt with the same colors as the original one, I told her I still have that shirt!!

Anne surprised Nancy and me with tee-shirts! Anne is the oldest sister and she make the rules, I’m the middle sister, the reason we have rules and for younger sister Nancy the rules didn’t apply to her! This was so true when we were growing up since Nancy is 10 years younger than I am! There are close to 213 years of love (and sometimes no so much. LOL) between the three of us. Since we are a silly bunch, Nancy said we need to make silly faces and Lia jumped in for the picture! This is the first time Anne has met Lia other than seeing her on Facebook.

I’m so glad we got together for our reunion and bring back old memories! Of course Lia made cookies and bread before we left on our trip and she packed boxes for Anne and Nancy.

As we left my sister’s home in Albany we’re traveling up Central Avenue back towards our hotel. Alex yelled, “LIA!!” I turned around thinking something happened to Lia but then realized she noticed not one but two car dealerships. One was LIA Dodge, the other LIA Toyota! Now most people spell the name either “Leah” or “Leia” so when we saw the exact spelling as Lia we had Rich turn around so I could get pictures. So me being the friendly type, I ran in the Dodge dealership and told them about Lia so they handed my a keychain.

Then I ran back to the car I took Lia in the dealership to meet them. She made a big hit and the manager gave her some LIA pens and more keychains! She looked at his shirt and said, “You have my name on my shirt!” We also found out they have a LIA Kia so Alex figured we have to go to the LIA dealership when Lia is 16 years old to get a good deal on a car!

Sunday

St. Anthony’s Roman Catholic Church in Schenectady was founded in 1901 and completed in 1921. In 2014 it was heavily damaged due to a fire. The church suffered heavy smoke and water damage while the fire damaged the sanctuary, altar, paintings, statues and stained-glass windows. It took about two years to rebuild and now it’s as beautiful as before.

Early Sunday morning Lia, pop and I went to the 7:30 AM Mass and had our marriage blessed. After the service was over we had our picture taken at the same place we did for our wedding! So many beautiful memories over the past 55 years!

A visit to the park is a must for Lia and then we visited a few friends before getting ready to pack up and head home. This is the same park that our children played in when they were younger and then Alexandra and Zac when they were little tykes!

Monday

Late Sunday evening after watching a beautiful sunset from our hotel window, Lia and I took the suitcases to the car since we planned to leave about 2AM Monday morning. After making two trips to the car Lia decided she had enough and was ready for some sleep. We had a great trip to upstate New York for our mini reunion and more!