Gotta Love the Belgians

Check out this event in West Chester.

Paris Market

Sorry it took me two and half months to buy iLife 2009 to download my pictures from Paris. Life took over with work, the holidays, graduate school and trying to stay healthy (eating my favorite food of the season - cookies!!!!). I was joking with Brad that it was great that he rode for six plus hours yesterday but he better not go and take three weeks off the bike. Little did I realize that I have been off the bike for three weeks!!! I have a long way to go getting back on the bike at 100%. Right. I forgot I posted some pictures back in November. I had downloaded all my pictures at Cory's as no one else took hundreds of pictures like me. :-) I have a few other fun ones to come later.

Anyways, I salivated over my market pictures for hours last night. Here is the best video I took of the market that happens every Sunday right below the flat we stayed at in Paris.

Maximus

We drove to Laurel Ridge State Forest and had an awesome ski. Lots of time on the road but worth it. Next time we will make a weekend of it. Hilarious part was that I was caught in the web cam probably around the 2 pm pass of web cam yesterday!! Yo~Hello Kelly Yoder!! Awesome skiing. Brad and I ended up at Iron Hill afterwards, hence, the title of the post. Yum!!!!

Maximus
OG: 1.100 Color: 14 IBU: 35 Alc by Vol: 10.0%
The strongest of the Abbey ales, our version of a Quad is brewed with specialty Belgian candy syrup, chocolate malts, and a unique Belgian yeast strain, giving the beer a full body with flavors and aromas of dark fruit and spice.

Northug & Norway

Just like cycling, cross country skiing has it's epic finishes. Check this out. The announcing is fantastic, too.

2010

I am ready for a new sport but I need snow in a close proximity!! As usual, I over did it and am being knocked out by the common cold. I am sick of the 10 cups of hot tea, airborne and emergen-C and have hit the bottle(s). When I get Iphoto back on my computer, I will post some pictures of the old ceramic bottle of Michter's - found one on ebay. Riiight; the seal was broken and "contents removed" to allow shipping worldwide. As a immature teenager, I broke into my dad's liquor and drank most of it like a fish. Luckily, I have this set of Michter's with a pitcher, glasses and this decanter that has some of the tasty whiskey left for me to enjoy as an adult.

Back to my little excursion north for cross-country skiing, we rung in 2010 in Pulaski (Pull-ask-I), NY at a fancy o'le Super8. WooHoo. We got the low down on places to eat on New Year's Eve and we headed to Eddies. Right, O! We did have decent meals and complimentary glasses of wine. Bob & I had the scallops that were possibly previously frozen but alright. Karen and Brad had pretty good meals in Lobster Pie and Chicken Parmesan. We were back at the Super8 by 9:30 and sleeping by 10.

Our last day of skiing yesterday had warmer temperatures that made the skiing sticky. Hugh didn't groom the trails at all as to not make them icy for the normal skiers. So Brad worked his ass off skate skiing in three + inches of powder and I cracked. I skated about half a foot on each side and would not glide any further. After an hour walking in the skis up the hills and skating in short bits, I took a break then switched to the classics. After we left Osceola/Tug Hill for home, we detoured to Ithaca to check out the town and have a good meal. We ran into bad weather so the detour was a little more than expected.

Brad and Karen had fresh corn beef sandwiches were out of this world. I never had one and tasted Brad's. Wow. I can't wait to order one. I had the Thai butternut squash soup, Thai chicken quesadilla and Brooklyn Chocolate Stoudt. Simeon's was a great place to eat when we didn't have the Moosewood to dine at.

One last note on dining, we had burgers and breakfasts at the Osceola Outpost and we were set with fresh home cooking. It was located at the only intersection where we skied. We had the locals serving us one morning as the waitress overslept. We got the scoop that her mother does not like the new boyfriend. Two guys and the cook got us set up until Brittany arrived. We were trying to figure out why the "waitress" seemed a little out of sorts as she was the cook. The retirees kept the coffee flowing. If we don't get enough snow for other ski centers, I would come back to the Tug Hill Plateau.