Saturday after the farmers market, while we were sitting outside, Marty asked if I wanted to make deliveries on Sunday instead of Monday; Sunday is our scheduled day off.
“We can get up early and make the deliveries then find a place to stay for the night, a place with a pool, somewhere just to relax,” Marty said. Since last July, we haven’t been away for a night when we visited my sister Jen in NJ.
After checking the weather forecast, we decided that Marty’s idea was a good one. After spending over an hour looking for hotels with an outdoor pool somewhere in upstate NY, we went with something we already knew. Back in 2017, right after we started our business, we did the same thing staying at the Marriott in Albany, NY.
The Marriott is updated and modern with a nice outdoor pool and only an hour from home. Once we parked our delivery van in the parking garage, it didn’t seem like we were “just” at a hotel in Albany. Once on the property, we could have been anywhere, really.
Before we checked in, we ate lunch. We went to a place near the hotel called Toro, a Mexican restaurant with a cool, hip vibe. We sat at the bar, we are bar people, and ordered drinks. We hardly ever drink during the day, but we were on “vacation,” so why not?
We both ordered delicious tacos; I had shrimp tacos and Marty braised pork ones, but the best thing was they had free gluten-free house-made tortilla chips with salsa! This is a huge deal to gluten-free people!
The food was good, the service was great, and I left with a good margarita buzz on. Toro is very gluten-free friendly and has a separate gluten-free menu. Again, this is also a big deal to gluten-free folks; I never trust a place that basically makes you free-ball your meal and hope you don’t get glutened. It’s happened to me many times; that’s how I know.
We got to check in at 1 pm instead of 3 pm. We quickly changed into our swimsuits and hit the pool. We had the entire pool to ourselves…the whole day! Perfect since we just wanted to lay on lounge chairs and do cannonballs into the pool. “Cannonball!”
We stayed at the pool all afternoon, then we relaxed for a bit in our hotel room and took showers to go out to dinner. After hemming and hawing over where to go, we decided on an Asian bbq & hot pot place called Mosu.
We wanted to go somewhere different, with a different food experience. We picked a place with interactive dining. Whenever I watch food travel shows, and they do cool things, I always whine that I want to do fun stuff like that, so we did.
Mosu and was located directly next to Toro where we went for lunch. Their menu was clearly marked with gluten-free items making the meal stress-free. We first had to decide if we wanted to bbq our food or have hotpot. We picked bbq since it was warm out, and we wanted to grill our own food right at the table. Hotpot could wait until cooler weather.
Next, we had to choose if we wanted all you can eat or order plates and bowls of items to grill that were priced separately. We weren’t sure how quickly that would add up, so we chose all you can eat. In retrospect, we didn’t eat nearly as much as other people; next time, it will be less expensive to order items and add them up at the end of the meal. Lesson learned…but now we know for next time or hotpot.
Our server, Ally, was very nice, informative, and was knowledgeable about their gluten-free choices. We were given an iPad to look through the menu; the iPad is also where you started ordering your food. It took a couple of minutes to understand what to do, then Marty started firing away, ordering different things.
Ally lit our grill table, and the next thing we knew, servers started being small plates and bowls of the items we picked. We each had a set of tongs for grilling and got started.
We picked sliced filet mignon and thick-cut ribeye steak: garlic shrimp, pork belly, and pork collar. We also ordered a small bowl of white rice, spicy raw peppers, onions, garlic, kimchi, and the star of the show, pickled daikon radish. Weird that the radish was the star of the meal, right? The pickled daikon hit four senses sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. It cut through all the fat from the meat and balanced it out.
For the second round, we ordered more ribeye, garlic shrimp, and curried chicken. Then we hit a wall. I eat small portion sizes anyway; I tried to pace myself and not fill up too quickly since we picked all you can eat.
We did save room for a small ramekin of creme brûlée, which was delicious! One of the choices for dessert was s’mores, such a great idea for the grilling tables; even though it wasn’t gluten-free, Marty asked for just marshmallows since we can’t eat graham crackers. He’s a kid when it comes to toasting marshmallows. He gets an intense look of concentration on his face when he is roasting marshmallows. Lol!
I told Ally our server how much we enjoyed the pickled daikon, she told us we could buy some to take home, which is exactly what we did.
We slept great and checked out early, taking a different way home. We found a bunch of consignment and thrift shops on the drive. I picked up some really great boutique items for less than $5 each…and none of them were black. I’ve been buying different items in different colors to sprinkle into my once all-black wardrobe.
It felt so great getting away. Otto and Klausie survived without us, no problem. We are spending the night in a hotel this Sunday night as well. I have an early appointment at the IBD (Inflammatory Bowel Disease) Clinic at Dartmouth Hitchock. My doctor that I love left, his fellowship was over, so I need to meet the new providers caring for me. Luckily, I am in remission with my ulcerative colitis, so it should be an easy appointment. I hope I like my new provider as much as I liked Dr. Colburn. I am also off the hook and don’t need to have my next colonoscopy until next year. Yay!
We had a really fun time together. We didn’t talk about the business or look at our phones at all. I only used my phone to take photos and get directions to places. Now I feel rejuvenated and happy to have spent the day at a real pool and catching some rays; it finally feels like summertime to me!
