thanksgiving 2005 - albany, new york

my friends dan and anna invited me (and our friend vince) up to albany to celebrate thanksgiving with them this year.

we left on wednesday afternoon.

usually, i go up to the museum of natural history on central park west to watch them inflate the giant balloons for the Macy's parade. i was going to show vince this spectacle, but sadly, by the time i got off of work we had to head to grand central to catch our train.

next year i'll be back.


grand central was mobbed, but that was to be expected. we made it aboard the train just in time to grab seats. some folks had to stand for the entire hour and a half trip. too bad suckas!


here's vince looking out at the hudson. the ride up to poughkeepsie is really beautiful. the tracks go along the river the entire way.

dan met us at the train station and then we drove to albany. in all, it was about 3 hours of travelling.

after dropping off our bags at dan and anna's place, we headed straight to...

the foosball table at this funny bar called 'cheers'.

we played for a while, ate some fish n' chips (kind of), almost got into a fight with the locals, played some more, and then headed home.

along the way, dan said that anna gave him a list of things that he was supposed to pick up at the grocery for the next day's meal. vince and i tried to talk him out of it since it was so late but, no. he said that if we didn't go to the grocery store, anna would be super mad.

once inside the gigantic supermarket, dan handed each of us a case of beer and grabbed two big bunches of flowers. it became apparent that there was no list and that we had been tricked.


we forgave dan after laughing at him for about 5 minutes while he tried to figure out how to scan the groceries into the register by himself (there were no cashiers on duty).


the next morning was thanksgiving.

when i looked out the window, this is what i saw:

the first snowfall of the year! perfect timing too.


we spent the day rotating between playing xbox, board games, and poker. i have almost no idea how to play poker at all, but it was still tons of fun. vince was the champion.


at one point in the day, anna brought out bowls of the most delicious borscht ever.


here's her spread. it was so, so, so tasty. she even went WAY out of line and made me some fake turkey made out of quorn.

it was one of the tastiest meals ever. thanks again anna!

the rest of the trip was a blur of laziness, drinking, video games, and drinking.

at one point though, we ended up here:

bowling!

for some reason, bowling and thanksgiving go together so perfectly. i don't know why this is, but it's great.

to make things even better, the del lanes was super old school. it hasn't been made over into one of those obnoxious Extreme Bowling-type places.

not yet anyways...




um, ok...so my sweater matched my bowling ball.


after a vicious battle between vince and i during the first game (we scored in the 170's and 180's!), play quickly devolved into seeing who could bowl the best using their left hand.



the next day (i think) we went out in search of a big, giant, delicious breakfast...

we found it at this place called Peaches.

it. was. so. good.

i think that i ate something called the new orleans omelette. it was fantastic.

so that about wraps it up. i'd love to post the hundred pictures of us playing xbox until 4am, but i'll spare you (and me/dan/vince).

thanks again dan and anna (danna?) for a really great, fun-filled weekend. if you ever want to have me visit again, there's a slim chance that you might be able to talk me into it.