Friday, July 12, 2024- Troy & Greenwich NY

       Emma has been living out in the Hudson Valley area for over a month now.  She didn't want us to come visit while she was taking a college summer course, but that ended this week.  We're taking this opportunity to go see her.  Abby has been missing "my Emma" and is looking forward to seeing her sister.  As it happens, Julie's cousin's daughter is having a graduation party this weekend too, and they're not far from Emma, so we decided to use that as a springboard for the weekend.

     We had a slightly later start than we might have, but we were packing the car with things that Emma wanted us to bring from home that had been left behind in the bigger move.  The GPS on the phone says it should take us something like four and a half hours to get to Albany, but we've learned that when you're travelling with a four year old, it will really be more like six hours.  We had already stopped twice when Julie happened to check the "Find My Friends" app and saw that her parents were at the same rest area that we were about to pass.   Since it was about 11:30, we decided to surprise them and stopped to have lunch with them.

      Our hotel room is in Troy, and we arrived at about 3:00-- too early for the party and too late for any real touring, so we decided to check in and let Abby use the pool.  The hotel is the Hilton Gardens which seems expensive, but is still a cheaper option than many other hotels that are closer to Emma's place.  Our room is one of the biggest that we've stayed in, at least in recent years.  There were a few bigger ones in Germany and maybe somewhere else, but this suite is quite large.  The door opens to the living room area that is probably bigger than the one in our home.  That area is adjacent to the dining area/kitchenette.  The bedroom is beyond that in a third room.  There's lots of room to spread out, so we'll have to be careful about not leaving anything behind tomorrow.  We brought in some things from the car that we either need or didn't want left in the heat, and let Abby go to the pool.  Dad even joined her and Mom for a dip.

     Julie's cousin Stephanie was in our wedding party, but we never really get a chance to see much of her except at family gatherings.  The last time we saw her was at Anna's wedding last summer.  When we were invited to her daughter Caroline's high school graduation party, we hoped to be able to make it there.  We've never been to Stephanie and Chris's place, and it was about a 45 minute drive out into the country to get there.  They live on a farm, complete with cows, cornfields and chickens.  They're in such a rural spot that Julie's dad swears he saw a moose as he was leaving their place the last time that they visited, and he might have.  When we got there, the party was underway out under a tent, and Julie's folks had saved us some seats.  We said hello to Chris and Steph and congratulations to Caroline.  Then we got in line for the barbecue.  Initially, Abby was disappointed that no one was going into the pool that was right next to the tent.  She seemed to get over it when a nearby mother introduced her own almost-four-year-old girl, and they played together for the rest of the evening.   The party started to break up a little after seven, so we said our thank yous and good-byes and went back to the hotel.  We're anxious to be off to see Emma tomorrow.