Kerry Beck

Hunter’s interception against Waco

Hunter with his 2 biggest fans

Last Friday, Ashley & I drove to Houston for the International Quilt Show.  We met my mom in Hempstead and all drove downtown together.  We had a blast.  I forgot how much I enjoy crafts, fabric and needle work.  I rarely did any of that in Idaho.  I guess I never found places to inspire me in these areas.

On Saturday, I sat down to make a pillow from felted wool, but one of the pieces in the kit was wrong.  So I couldn’t even cut the background piece to get started.  I was pumped up & ready make something…anything.  On to the next project I got yesterday.

Have you seen needle punching?  It’s the lastest fad, and lots of fun.  I couldn’t find my embroidery floss.  I know I saw it when I unpacked my craft boxes this summer, but now I can’t remember where I put it.  So, off to Joann’s Fabrics.  I decided to make a pumpkin, in time for Thanksgiving.  I may use it as a coaster.

Here’s the back.  You can see the special needle inserted into the weaver’s cloth.

Here’s the front.  No, it’s not finished.  When I get it finished I’ll post a picture.  It goes very fast, so I hope to finish it this week.

Breakfast was served around 9am in a wonderful setting. It was true New York style with the noise level growing in intensity. In other words, it was getting louder as we ate. All the others at the table were from New York. We enjoyed visiting with past Wine Campers and learning about their winery experiences in California and New York.

We also enjoyed Chris’ wonderful breakfast, fresh fruit, banana/blueberry bread, frittata with home grown zucchini, and potatoes. All of it was delicious. I never thought about putting zucchini in eggs, but I really liked it!

We felt so at home at Harvest Inn. When we return, we will probably spend all our nights with Darolyn & Chris!

If you are interested in learning about wine, wineries or getting the scoop about North Fork, then stay at the Harvest Inn. Twice Chris called the owners to see if we could do something special. He called North Fork Table and Castello DiBorghese winery for us. We took him up on the special tour of DeBorghese vineyards, a winemakers walk with the winemaker, Marco!

Let me just say that Chris & Darolyn know the wineries in the area and can give you expert advice for your North Fork stay!

We got lost going to Jedediah Hawkins, but finally pulled into their gorgeous driveway. The Inn was the Designer Showcase a few years ago where several designers pulled together their talents and refurbished this house that was falling apart. Let me just say, this inn is beautiful. It is worth going just to see how beautiful it is.

We waited for them to reset our table and enjoyed a quiet meal. We split the soft-shell crab. I had a bowl of wild mushroom soup that was great along with their spice rolls. The sauce under the crab was wonderful. We’re both not sure about eating the soft shells, but we did anyway.

I had a glass of Martha Clara Shiraz that really grew on me as I enjoyed it. Steve had a glass of Cabernet, I believe from Macari.

Although I enjoyed another evening of chef cooked food, I think I would have enjoyed at least one casual dinner. We already ate at Bobby Flay’s and Scrimshaws and we plan to eat at the Frisy Oyster tomorrow night. If I could do it again, I would have found a cool, casual restaurant that had fried shrimp or hamburgers. Something not too fancy and down to earth.

This is the one place I knew I wanted to stay on our visit. I’m so glad I did. When you stay with Chris & Darolyn, you feel like part of their family. As we walked up to the house, Chris put down his wine and showed us into their home. Previously, he was entertaining past Wine Campers on the porch. Darolyn showed us our room and told us we might want to visit with the Wine Campers outside.

I wanted to take a nap so I laid down for awhile. Steve joined everyone on the front porch. That’s where he learned about various wineries on the island.

After my nap, I joined Steve on the porch and talked with others about their winery visits. Chris even called North Fork Table to see if they could squeeze us in tonight. We decided to keep our reservations at Jedediah Hawkins.

As we drove away from By The Bluff B&B, we ran right into Lavender By The Bay.  We stopped and looked around at the lavender farm…quite interesting.  I’ve always read about lavender and the calming effect it has.  I had fun looking around and seeing their huge farm in back.

I woke up and read the clock wrong.  I thought it said 8:30 so I got out of bed and took a shower since breakfast is served from 8:30 to 9:30.  When I got out of the shower I realized I had read the clock wrong.  It was really 7:30am.  And, I could have slept another hour.  Oh well, I had some time to write!

Breakfast was delicious!  French Toast with Cooked Apples, Quiche, Fresh Berries…yummy!

After breakfast, Patricia showed us the Main Suite they just opened this year.  The room is named after her aunt, Auntie Kate, and is a gorgeous suite with a claw foot tub.  I love the colors Patricia uses in the entire house.  Truly classy!

We’re off to visit some wineries, cheese shops and whatever else comes our way!

After a series of crazy events, we finally got Gentry off to Philadelphia to meet Grandma. She’ll spend the rest of her senior trip with my mom. My mom takes each granddaughter to Pennsylvania after they graduate.

It was quite interesting getting her off as our plans changed frequently. The rental car place did not have any cars in Manhattan so we took a cab to La Guardia because they were suppose to have cars at the airport. Wrong! But we only waited about 15 minutes and received an upgrade to a Jeep Cherokee. (Note to self: Cars are probably not available in NYC when you make reservation.)

Finally, we were on our way down Long Island. Our first stop was Sagamore Hill, Theodore Roosevelt’s home. Before he married, TR bought 155 acres atop the hill overlooking Oyster Bay. After he & Edith were married, they moved into the huge house. TR’s requirements for the house was it be big enough for a large family…lots of kids.

We toured the grounds and saw their pet cementery where several dogs and horses were buried. As we visited rooms in his home, I was pleasantly surprised to see books in almost every room. From my readings, TR read about 5 books a week. There is even an article he wrote calleld, “The Books That I Read And When and How I Do My Reading, by Theodore Roosevelt”. He sounds like my kind of person. We discovered that his Gun Room has more books than any other room in the house.

Gentry rushed back to the room in hopes of watching Michael Phelps compete for his 8th gold medal in this Olympics.  We arrived around 11pm - race time!  The team was walking on to the platform and we got to watch history being made.

We rushed to the Minske Theater on Broadway for our show since we didn’t realize how late it was after dinner. We sat down less than 5 minutes before the curtain rose. All of us wondered how they would perform this animal play with people. It was amazing! Actually, Gentry told me later she wasn’t sure if she would really like it since people were acting as animals. Afterward, she said it was one of the coolest shows she has ever seen. We all agreed!

During intermission we could look down on Broadway and see all the people on Times Square. Minske Theater was a great location as you were right in the middle of things, but you didn’t have to be on the street.

Another great event for our last night.