Memorial Weekend in Dutchess County

For Memorial Weekend, my parents and I took a road trip north to Dutchess County and spent some time in the small towns of Rhinebeck and Red Hook, where we stayed over Friday night in a charming Victorian Bed and Breakfast called "The Grand Dutchess." I didn't feel like taking too many pictures on this excursion, so I didn't get a photo of the B&B, or of anything much. But as you'll see below, I got a couple photos of the lovely homes in the local neighborhood, and I got some pictures at Montgomery Place, a historic mansion which we toured. The grounds of Montgomery were vast, and my favorite part was a frog pond almost hidden within a shady grove of trees. The pond was seriously crawling with cute, fat green frogs! I used to be obsessed with frogs when I was little, and it's been so long since I've seen any, so that made my day.

We also ate at a few good restaurants while on this trip and drove around the beautiful neighborhoods, admiring all the cute houses, as I said before. But most of our trip was spent dragging me around while Mom went antique shopping, her favorite thing to do. Definitely not my favorite thing to do, unless it's Asian antiques we're talking about. I didn't have much fun with that, but dad was very patient with mom as usual.

But the part of the trip that made it worth it wasn't even at the destination. On the way up to our destination, something caught my eye by the freeway: I saw a building nestled high up on a cliff amongst the trees, and this striking structure was designed distinctly in the style of Japanese architecture! It got me so excited. On the way back home, to cheer me up, Dad pulled off the freeway and we found the entrance to this place! Turns out the building is "Mount Fuji" Japanese Restaurant, which doubles as a special events center thing for weddings and celebrations of sorts under the name of The Views at Mount Fuji. So, we parked our rental car and took a look around the place and I took some photos. It has a huge red Torii gate entrance, a koi pond and garden, a shinto-style shrine (not sure if it's legit) with a bunch of mini-torii leading up to it, and when you get inside the elegant main building, the views into the valley below are spectacular! It's basically the restaurant of my dreams. If you know me, you know I love things Japanese. And this was like BOOM! Japanese. I was like, "Okay, we are so coming to eat dinner here for my next birthday!" Wow, what a discovery for me.

Slideshow time! And please--comments, comments, people! They make me feel good about having this blog thangy.