Rhinebeck, NY Part 2

our anniversary trip

Thanks for reading Part 1, y’all ready to dig into day two? Let’s go!

Day 2 of our 10 year wedding anniversary trip began with a visit to Hudson Roastery. Maybe this is an ageing thing, but I like more and more, when Lou and I stay physically close. Sitting on the same side of the table, walking close and holding hands or his arm, sharing meals. In my mind we look like little wrinkled old people wearing matching tracksuits, sipping coffee and naming things as we see them.

Me “Oh there’s a dog over there”

Lou “yup, I see that dog over there”

Me “well that’s a real big dog isn’t it?”

Lou “that is a big dog, yea”

We spend a lot of time physically apart, always have, that’s how it goes with loving a touring musician. We really cherish the time we get in the same space. As I write this I’m counting down the hours until Lou gets home from a mini Dino tour of the UK and one Berlin show.

Ok, back to our morning coffee. I had black coffee, Lou had espresso, we shared two savory croissants (parmesan and leek + spinach and feta) and one order of Shakshuka. Our food was delicious. Oh my goodness, we ate every last bite of each thing we ordered. The service was so friendly and welcoming. Definitely would recommend Hudson Roastery if you are in the area. I didn’t buy any of their coffee beans but I wish I did. Next time!

Properly satiated, we headed back to our mini apartment/boarding room at Wm Farmer and Sons. Showered, packed up and headed out to Rhinebeck. Not gonna lie, getting two nights away (thanks to family for childcare) felt incredibly indulgent and also so necessary. I felt very grateful.

I must insert some fashion appreciation into this post.

I always appreciate a full length mirror in hotels/motel/airbnb etc. I was excited for my outfit on our Rhinebeck day. Clothing is my great joy. It’s my #1 fav art. Going to fashion school* for my knitwear degree is still one of the best decisions I ever made. I’m trying hard to curate an intentional wardrobe. Being that my knitwear and crochet designs are the slowest fashion possible, I look for pieces that inspire me, to add to my own wardrobe. My top is from Ace & Jig and it has this beautiful texture (reminded me of Mondrian). The stripes are actually “raised” in the weave and soft. I love their pieces. My pants are Everlane, a company I like supporting for their manufacturing practices and transparency. My shoes are Chloé, these were on my wish list for soooo long. When I got a notice from Nordstrom that my dream shoes were on sale, I knew I would regret it if I didn’t jump. I sent Lou a link to my dream shoe ON SALE (half off!) and said it was my dream Christmas present. He came thru for me. I think it was the most we’ve ever spent on a pair of shoes but I love them. I plan on passing them down to Izzy or possibly being buried in them. Or I just wear the shit outta them and that’s that!

The drive from Hudson to Rhinebeck was quick. (less than an hour) We arrived around lunch time and our room for the night was not ready until 3, so we parked and decided to get lunch and walk around. Rhinebeck is a very pretty town. I felt like moving there when we arrived. It’s small but close to other cool towns and of course, NYC isn’t that far away. The vibe felt chill and almost elderly (this is a compliment! Old people are the best), kinda like the East Coast version of Palm Springs (another place I like a lot). Slow feeling yet active, peaceful, pretty darn quiet at night, gorgeous neighborhoods, and a bustling walkable town center with restaurants and shops. I’m assuming a hospital nearby too. Seems like a great place to grow old. Speaking of old, look at that picture. Me posing in front of Beekman Arms Inn, The oldest Inn in America!! What?? Cool right? We decided to check out their restaurant for lunch.

The tavern at the inn was dimly lit with low ceilings giving me incredible Outlander Vibes. I loved it. (same time period I believe) Again, like in Hudson, the service was fantastic. I love nice! What was even nicer was our lunch. Guys, this was SO good. We both loved what we had. You must go here for lunch. I implore you. I had a delicious glass of sauvignon blanc, a bowl of mushroom soup, and the Italian Sub Salad. My god. Flavor!! Everything was so flavorful, seasoned perfectly and my salad was glistening. I love when a salad glistens. Lou had the avocado toast that was topped with salmon and an arugula salad. We were delighted. This was a good start to our day in Rhinebeck.

After lunch we walked around and checked out stores. I was surprised to see a storefront for Adel Chefridi Fine Jewelry. Pre-pandemic, pre-podcast, pre-Barlow Family online store and Substack, I did the craft fair circuit selling my adellelouise knitwear. Adel, the jeweler, often had a booth at the same craft fairs as me. I always loved his work, so it was sweet surprise to wander into his very own brick and mortar shop. We finally met in person, his wife was also there and we got to shake hands and chat. He lives in Rhinebeck, nice choice Adel. His store is beautiful and he is incredibly talented. A must see!

We did have one store in mind that had to be visited, Samuel’s Sweet Shop, where Paul Rudd is one of the owners! How sweet is that? Wink Wink. Lou has a real soft spot for Paul. He was not at the store, but we are pretty certain his son was working. The son (we believe) cracked a joke about Benny Blanco having wrote a song that was playing in the store. Lou and I were delighted. I bought a little treat for a friend who also likes Paul Rudd.

Speaking of actors, we were walking down the street, continuing on our journey thru downtown Rhinebeck, when we got stopped by a huge dog on the sidewalk. It was one of the big beautiful fancy looking dogs who paused for a second and took up the sidewalk space. Lou and I kinda halted then went to go around the dog when all of a sudden I heard a voice…Some actors have voices that give them away immediately. I knew it was Téa Leoni before I looked up. Sure enough, it was her. I felt shy because I was aware we were practically bumping into each other. She was connected to the guy who had the dog. Was it her boyfriend? Was that her dog too? Who knows. I think they went into a bakery. We went in the opposite direction, talking about her in whisper speak, as you do when you have unexpected celebrity encounters.

After Hudson we were a little “shopped out” to be honest. The stores were all very nice in Rhinebeck, but we were a little more curious about the surrounding neighborhood. The homes are really beautiful and well maintained, so, like the budding old couple we hope to be, hitting my 8,000 a day step goal sounded like a fine idea. We walked back to our car, dropped off my purse and my candy shop purchase, drank some water and hit the streets.

Lou and I thought this home was particularly lovely.

Our walk was so nice. Quiet. Wide streets. Sidewalks and blooming Lily of the valley which smells incredible. We walked for quite a long time, got my steps in and then some, weaving our way thru the neighborhoods. We ended up back downtown and went to a restaurant to check their menu and use the bathroom. As you do after a long walk. It was a cool looking place, but the menu sounded a little heavy for us that day. So back we went to our car, it was time to finally go check in and “check out” our room for the night.

We stayed at a place called The Gables. It’s similar to a Bed and Breakfast, except without the full meals those places usually have.

Pros One of the owners, John, greeted us when we pulled into the driveway and he was great, super friendly. He made sure we knew what the heck we were doing. We got our key and found our room. Our room had a king size bed that was super comfy, good bedding and lots of pillows. There was a big closet and a huge bathroom. We had a big jacuzzi tub, bonus points for that! The common area had free water/drinkware you could take back to your room. In the morning John made croissants from scratch and had coffee. We thought his croissants were great. The Gables has a perfect location. You can walk to anything in town, it’s super close to all the things in Rhinebeck. The owners were there in the “home” but respectful, not up in our business. They seem to live in another part of the house. I’m sure they would have been available if we had questions etc.

Cons We were very excited to take a big jacuzzi bath together after walking around all day. BUT we had to go CVS (literally steps away-that’s a PRO) to get shampoo/conditioner/bubble bath because the bathroom had one tiny bottle of each. Like the really small travel size. The product would not have been enough for Lou’s hair (and body) and definitely not enough to share. Whereas the place in Hudson had high quality full size bottles of body product. Once we were back at our room and filling up the tub I went to get in and slipped. The bottom of the tub was extremely slippery and there wasn’t a mat or a textured bottom. There was no safe way to grip your foot in the tub to get in. I really dinged my leg and let’s just say, it was throbbing. Took me a minute to shake off the intense ouchie pulsing thru me to “relax”.

This picture is 5 days after it happened. It was pretty dark and crazy looking and very painful for days. I still have a fading bruise but it’s not hurting anymore. I felt worried for other folks getting into that tub! Note to self: bring a shower mat if you can! When Izzy was younger I never traveled to a hotel without one. I had a small foldable travel one and used it all the time. Izzy was in a lot of hotel rooms on tour and having one really made a difference. I also brought a small collapsible step ladder for her to reach sinks in hotels etc. The last CON is simply that Lou and I felt too exposed. Like, the door to our room was right next to the common area. Our door was shut, but I can’t say it felt super private. I think we are better suited to hotel rooms/apartment/entire home to ourselves. At night the hallway light was a border around the door, hence creating a night light! But you may like it dark when you sleep. I generally do. I brought my eye mask and was grateful for it. And depending on how exhibitionist you are, making sweet love, might feel a little less appealing in this environment. Just saying.**

After we bubble bathed and rested for a bit, it was time for dinner. Where to go? Lou and I figured we’d had such a stellar lunch at Beekman Arms Inn, why not try dinner? Also, it’s about a 5 minute walk from The Gables. Easy peasy. Oddly, as we were leaving the Gables, Téa Leoni, her man friend and the big dog were walking down the sidewalk. Were they following us? Should we invite them to dinner? Lou and I pretended they were low-key stalking us and hightailed it to the restaurant. We did not have dinner reservations, but we figured it was okay on a Tuesday night. It was ok! We were seated right away and in a different room than lunch. Oddly I don’t think anyone was sat in the same as us the entire dinner. It was a lovely space and again, our server was wonderful. Sweet, personable, easygoing. We shared a bottle of wine, ordered shrimp cocktail and roasted brussel sprouts to start. I’m not sure if this is the right saying, but “don’t push your luck” keeps coming to mind. Unfortunately our dinner was, um, how do you say….bad? Not good. Mediocre? Mid? Dry? Odd? I thought roasted brussel sprouts would be a safe bet but what was placed in front of us was completely inedible. Lou and I couldn’t deny it. They were terrible. I felt like I pulled some birch bark off the tree and thought it would be a great appetizer. The shrimp cocktail was fine. My entree was pot roast and sweet potatoes, Lou had roasted chicken and sweet potatoes. Pot roast is a comfort dinner from my childhood. I loved it and have a fairly forgiving attitude about it. I’ve had many pot roasts. But this one may have put me off pot roasts for awhile. I’m not sure how it could go so wrong, but my god, it was bad. Lou was equally dismayed with his chicken dinner. He called it “unremarkable and pedestrian”. Ouch. Welp. What the heck? How could our lunch be so incredible and dinner was flat out dismal?

(ok the wine was good-but that’s liquid) Sigh. oh well. At least we had a short walk back to our room at The Gables.

The next morning we packed up and headed back home. It was rainy, not my favorite weather to drive in. But we ended up listening to Wrecking Ball by Emmylou Harris on the way home and that was a beautiful finish to our anniversary getaway. If you don’t know the album, give it a listen. She’s amazing!

Thanks for joining me! Did you enjoy coming along on our anniversary getaway?

I wonder what our next adventure will be.

with love,

Adelle

*I discovered when writing this that the fashion school I went to, FIDM (fashion institute of design & merchandising) Los Angeles had closed just this past March. It was “swallowed” I guess you could say by another school. It looks like they have much fewer degree offerings and no Knitwear Degree anymore. Too bad.

**If I was on a solo trip to Rhinebeck, I’d stay there again. I’d bring my bath mat of course and my eye mask. The proximity to town is a huge perk. The neighborhood is super quiet at night, felt very safe, and it’s beautiful to walk around. Leg boo boo aside, we really enjoyed Rhinebeck!