Dinner at Francesca's

Hello everyone,

Well we have not done any travelling so far this summer and due to work schedules and other happenings we won't go to far, but all the more reason to discover new places in our own back yard, so to speak.  We did that one night early in June when we went to Francesca's Cucina, http://www.francescas-cucina.com/?p=home, to celebrate our 9th Anniversary. 

You enter the restaurant through the bar area which seems a little dark, and even though that is your first impression it will not be the impression you are left with.  Reservations are highly recommended, even on a Tuesday night it did get busy.  We sat in the courtyard, which was like visiting an Italian villa.  It was a lovely night and the weather was perfect for dining al fresco.  Nick, our waiter, who we highly recommend, and I repeat highly recommend, was attentive but not overly attentive and saw to our every need without being intrusive.  The food was delicious and fresh.  We are already planning a return visit soon. 

Eating at Francesca's was relaxing and enjoyable like visiting a friend and being able to linger and appreciate the time spent with good company. 

Shuffle off to Buffalo

Well, it has been a while since I have done any travel blogging, but then again, it was Winter and my husband and I do not do too much travelling in the Winter. Living in the Northeast, especially this year, makes it tough to travel, and with gas prices being on the incline it does make it difficult. This year we think our 6 hour travel circle will be reduced to 3 hours. There is still a lot to do within that 3 hour circle. You don't have to travel far from home to feel refreshed and find something new and exciting.

We did take a long weekend to travel to Buffalo recently. There was a guitar show my husband wanted to go and it was a nice mid-Winter break.

We stayed at a Hampton Inn right near the Walden Galleria Mall. It was a busy weekend there with a lot of families in the hotel for a hockey tournament, but we really did not notice it at all. We did not get any noise from the halls or other rooms and the kids seemed to have all been tucked away by 10 pm. The breakfast area was filled and cleaned at all times and the friendly staff greeted us each morning with a smile and "good morning." We would defiantly go here again. We really have found that Hampton Inns are a great value. You get a great breakfast, large selection, hot and cold options, juices, coffees, teas, cereal, make-your-own waffles, and the list goes on. We have always stayed at one with a pool and sauna area and this one was no exception with a large area with tables and chairs and plenty of towels.

The Walden Galleria is a huge mall but with a lot to offer. It was very crowded the day we went; a lot of visitors from Canada come over to shop. There was a great Italian restaurant there called Bravo Cucina that was excellent.

Buffalo has a lot to offer the entire family; sports, art, music, shopping, and outdoor activities. Don't forget that Niagara Falls is just a short 30 minute drive north and Canada is just across the Niagara River.

Linda

Lake Placid

Lake Placid is the home of 2 Winter Olympics, 1932 and 1980, and the High Peaks of the Adirondack Mountains; and now our occasional home away from home. We visited lake Placid for Labor Day weekend for 2 nights and 3 days. This was a great trip and we are already planning a trip back for Thanksgiving weekend.

Let me start with our hotel. We stayed at Art Devlin's Olympic Motor Inn, http://www.artdevlins.com/, which is on the south end of Main Street but still within walking distance to much of the village. I am going to start with the bad -- there are no hooks in the bathroom to hang a robe or wet towel. Now the rest -- We were impressed from the moment we pulled into the parking lot. The motel grounds are very well maintained and landscaped. Check in was easy and quick. The words "oh, my god" actually came out of both our mouths upon entering the room. The first thing you see upon entering the room is a wall of windows where the sliding glass door is that open onto a private balcony and what you view out of the wall of windows is absolutely magnificent. There was a great view of the mountain and we could see the ski jumps from the 1980 Olympics. The room itself was very spacious, clean and newly updated. We had a king bed and small couch, chair an coffee table. The room was so comfortable that my husband who normally only sleeps about 5 or 6 hours a night slept for 11 hours. When we checked out we made reservations for Thanksgiving weekend in the same room!!

Restaurants:

Gordo's (for menu only www.lakeplacidmenus.com/gordos_menu.pdf) -- This is a new eatery in Lake Placid. This is a good place for lunch, but it is small with very limited seating. Consider this more of a "fast food" type place. They serve tacos, burritos, quesadillas, etc. I had a special combo of a small soup and two tacos. The soup was pumpkin chirizo; it was hearty and flavorful. The tacos were made to order with unlimited toppings. My husband had an huge burrito and soup. We hope they do well and would definitely stop in again for lunch.

Wiseguys (http://www.wiseguyslp.com/) -- This is a sports bar on a street just off the south end of Main Street, only a few blocks from our hotel. The website is not at all a good indicator of the restaurant. The menu is typically bar type food, burgers, sandwiches, nachos, etc. I had a great club style aandwhich called the Stakler, the turkey had great flavor and there was plenty of bacon and how could anything be bad with bacon. My husband had a burger and he loved it. It had great burger flavor without being overwhelmed by the taste of the toppings. Service was friendly and attentive, portions were doggy bag sized. The prices were reasonable for the area and for the portion sizes. We are looking forward to going back at Thanksgiving to take in a football game and enjoy the great food.

Lake Placid Pub and Brewery (http://www.ubuale.com/) First I must say this, if you go to Tripadvisor you will see several negative reviews, and to those people I have this as a remark, Lake Placid Pub and Brewery is a pub and BREWERY. Translated this is a bar that happens to sell great pub food, it is NOT a restaurant that makes their own beer on the side. The restaurant is upstairs and only has about 20 tables for seating (note: there is an outdoor seating area for times of good weather), you can sit at the bar and eat, but there is not alot of seating there either. Given this and the fact this is a place where people linger to enjoy their drinks, chat, and relax; there may not be a long line of people waiting for a table but wait times might be an hour, which was the case when we went. We got lucky and found two seats at the bar and had dinner there. The food was very tasty and fresh. The veggies in our quesadillas tasted like they were picked and delivered that morning. The bbq pulled pork on our nachos was had great flavor. Oh yeah, the beer is not bad either! Well worth a visit just remember, be prepared to wait.

Vernon Downs via Cooperstown

We left Albany and headed east to Vernon Downs. Now anyone who knows New York State knows that getting to Vernon Downs in Vernon, NY from Albany via Cooperstown, NY is taking the long way, but let me explain. We had been in Albany on Saturday with our next stop being Vernon Downs on Sunday, we took a detour to Cooperstown on the way. We took Route 20 West out of Albany to get to Cooperstown, our real destination being Fly Creek. We had lunch in Cooperstown at a great little place called The Doubleday Cafe. We had visited this restaurant about 6 years ago and it is still just as good. It is small and it gets very busy during peak meal times, but it is a good lunch at reasonable prices for Cooperstown. The menu consist mostly of burgers, sandwiches, and salads with a specials board. Cooperstown is a quaint little town where baseball is king, but there are other things to do in the area. One of those "other things" is a place north of town, just off Route 28, called Fly Creek Cider Mill, www.flycreekcidermill.com. This is an actual working cider mill, pressing in the Fall, with a great store with a variety of sauces, dip mixes, New York State maple syrup, cheese, apples, candy and lots more. There is a duck pond in the back of the mill with a variety of ducks. There are feed machines where you can get corn to feed the ducks, a play area for kids, and a food stand with good menu for lunch. There is always sampling and events on the weekends. A great little afternoon trip to take a break from the baseball.

Next stop was Vernon Downs in Vernon, NY. Vernon Downs, www.vernondowns.com, is a racino, a harness racetrack with a slots only casino. We have stayed at the hotel several times and in the past have given it positive reviews. This time, we had some disappointment. We had decided to splurge and get the King Jacuzzi Suite.

One little side -- all the rooms are what they call "suites"; they are not two room rooms. The rooms have a small wet bar area with a small dorm room refrigerator, microwave, sink, and counter with small coffee maker, a sitting area with a pullout sofa, coffee table, two person table and chairs; there is a very short divider wall to separate this sitting area from the bed and dresser area.

Back the the King Jacuzzi Suite. This room is the second highest rate room and from the pictures we saw online, which are no longer online (maybe others had the same issue), it appeared to be a two room room with a good sized jacuzzi. This room was just a larger version of the regular rooms basically. The jacuzzi tub was in the sitting area and it was just a regular tub with some jets. The room was so big we could have had a party of 20 people and still had plenty of room. It was alot of empty space, not other furniture, no second tv. It was not worth the extra money. Definitely a lesson learned.

Overall, our view of this hotel is going downhill; it is in the little things. I will say the rooms have always been clean. What I am finding is that there is just a sharpness to the entire location that is lacking. The uniforms of the front desk staff seemed a little dingy, and check in was not rude in anyway, but there was just a lack of friendliness and true attentiveness in the whole thing. I called down to the front desk after we got to the room to request toilet paper, there was less than 1/2 roll, and extra pillows, the response I received was "I'll try." There are tiny areas where maintenance is lacking, for example some peeling wallpaper in the bathroom, the refrigerator in our room was not on when we arrived, the hallways seemed very warm and humid.

We understand that this is not the Vegas style hotel or casino, but as they increase rates on rooms the customer service level needs to improve but it is not, it is going backwards and even the small issues in rooms need to be fixed and maintained.

There is a continental breakfast that is available free Monday to Friday. It is a basic continental breakfast with juice, milk, coffee, a variety of breads for toasting, fruit, yogurt and some cereals. We have only eaten breakfast once, it was not the greatest, but if you just want something to get you started you can manage to find something. The pool and jacuzzi are nice amenities to this hotel, but it can get crowded on weekends particularly when there are alot of families.

Would we stay again at this hotel? We will, but not anytime soon and defiantly not in anything but a regular room at some kind of specials rate. Take care to look at the website and take advantages of special rates that may be available.

happy travelling.

Quick overnight in Albany, NY

I can't say much about Albany, we were only there overnight, but I will tell you what I do know.

Our goal was a concert in Saratoga. Staying in Saratoga during the summer season, especially a weekend, let alone a holiday weekend can be very expensive. We were on a smaller budget this weekend. We choose to stay in Albany, about a half hour drive from the concert venue. We chose America's Best Value Inn, www.americasbestvalueinn. We had never stayed at this chain, but the price was right, $44.95 plus taxes. The reviews of this hotel were mostly favorable on Tripadvisor; we have learned to read between the line in some of the reviews. We felt comfortable with what we found so made the reservations. I must admit that when we arrived the pictures we saw online did make the place seem a little nicer that what we found in person. I remained calm and we checked in. The clerk behind the counter greeted us immediately and was very friendly and polite. All the rooms have exterior entrances. When we got to our room and opened the door we were pleasantly surprised. The room was clean and of good size. It also smelled fresh and clean. We had a dorm size refrigerator and a small microwave in the room. A light continental breakfast was available in the morning, we did not eat breakfast there. There seemed to be several construction workers staying there and a few families, but it was quiet at night. Overall I would say this was a good place to stay. The hotel does need some exterior clean up, but it does look like that is being worked on, the rooms were a good value for the money. This is not the prime area for hotels in Albany, that would be Wolf Road and you pay the price for being 5 minutes closer to things. There is a Subway a few blocks in one direction and a Domino's Pizza and a Mr. Subb a few blocks in the other direction. If you are looking for a decent place to stay and not expecting anything great this is a good deal.

happy travelling

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