Our Celebrations and Vacation in the Adirondacks

On Friday morning we left on a 5 hour trip across our state to my son’s home in the Adirondacks. This was to celebrate my Granddaughter’s Sweet 16 Birthday and to celebrate Father’s Day for Hubby and my son.

For all of you who remember my granddaughter’s birth, when I first started blogging and how excited we were, yes she is 16 now and old enough to get her license. The time has flown and now she is a wonderful, smart, young woman. We love spending time with her and especially enjoyed celebrating this birthday.

I asked her a while ago where she would like to have her birthday dinner. At first she chose Red Robin. But then she changed her mind and wanted to go to Denny’s. So off we went that evening to Denny’s. We have not been in a Denny’s in years and they have sure changed. The food was delicious and the service was fantastic. We have one near our home and we don’t go there but we will consider it in the future. The bill including tip was $100. which I didn’t think was too bad for the 4 of us. She loved it and that is what was most important.

On Saturday night, we all went to Texas Roadhouse to celebrate Father’s Day. Hubby had never been to one. Even though it was very crowded the wait was not too long. My son used the app so we were able to wait in the car instead of in the crowded front of the restaurant. When they called us to come in to wait, we were bumped up to the front of the line and were seated pretty quickly.

Our steaks were so tender and so was the seasoned shrimp. My granddaughter was happy with her chicken tender dinner. With drinks, tax, and tip, dinner came to $177. for the 4 of us. However I had $150. worth of gift cards that I purchased for $120. last December on a deal at Top’s grocery store. So my OOP was only $27. But the true savings was $30. after purchasing the cards. Hubby loved the food and service which was excellent. He wants to go again. So the next time we visit my son, we will do that. I am hoping that Top’s will have that deal again this Christmas and I will accumulate some more gift cards.

After two dinners out, we were tired of eating out. So we celebrated my granddaughter’s birthday on Sunday with presents, dinner grilled outside and her ice cream cake that my son had made at a local ice cream place in the area. Then we had a fire in the fire pit in my son’s yard that evening which was very enjoyable.

We took my granddaughter back to her Mom’s on Monday about noontime so that she could spend some birthday time with her. So all in all she had a wonderful birthday celebration and we loved it all.

On the way back to my son’s home, he took us on a tour of Clifton Park which is where we lived for over 3 decades and where we raised our boys. It was a wonderful place to raise them. It actually made a list a couple of years ago as the 2nd best place to raise a family in the country.

I had been in Clifton Park about 14 years ago so I knew how much the area had grown. But Hubby had not been there in over 25 years. He could not believe how much construction both residential and business had occurred there since we moved to the desert. The traffic is so congested. There is so much more shopping than when we were there. But we both quickly decided that we would not want to move back there. It is so much more peaceful and quiet in the Adirondacks. Beauty is all around you.

Tuesday morning, we headed back to our little town in western NY. The thruway did not have much traffic so it was a nice ride. We hated leaving my son and granddaughter but we were happy to be safely home.

We spent a bit of money this weekend but it was worth every penny. This is one of the reasons that we are so frugal. So that we can do things like this which are very important to us. We did save a bit of money on the trip though. I packed our lunch for the trip out and we ate in the parking lot of a rest area. We also brought coffee, water, and snacks with us. I also made two loaves of homemade pumpkin bread to bring to my son. My son wanted to make us breakfast before we went home. But we were so stuffed from all of the food this weekend, we declined. Since we left early, we knew that we would be home by 1pm and could eat here if we needed to. However, we were not hungry and never ate until dinner when we made shrimp cocktails.

Today our new landscape company is coming to do all of the yard work, put in a new garden with bushes and a tree in the backyard. weed and mulch all of the gardens. I have a telephone call to make to find out about putting in something new here in our home. I will talk about that some time later when it is occurring. I also need to run some errands. Our terrific neighbor who lives next door watered all of the our flowers and hanging baskets so they wouldn’t die while we were gone. So I need to pick up some craft beer as a thank you. We also have a short grocery list.

Oh BTW, I forgot to tell you. I went grocery shopping with my son to both a Hannaford and a Market 32 while we were there. My mouth dropped open when I saw the very large reduced priced meat sections in both stores. It was a shopper’s dream! I have never seen anything like it. Market 32 which is Price Chopper merged with the Top’s corporation a while ago. I don’t understand why we don’t have sections like that in our Top’s stores. But I can tell you that the next time I go to visit my son, I am bringing 2 large coolers so that I can get meat.

I hope you all had wonderful Father’s Day celebrations! TTYL!