Mom and I left Thursday morning to drive a little over five hours to Rhinebeck, NY, for the Country Living Fair.  Our plan was to meander our way up, stopping at antique malls along the way.  That plan didn’t materialize because I didn’t have much time before the trip to plan the route and choose stops.  I’m usually very organized when planning shopping trips, but the weeks leading up to this event have been full.  So, we just followed the boring GPS route, only stopping at Best Buy so Mom could replace her broken phone case and I could replace my phone cover that’s been cracked for almost a year.

It was an enjoyable drive, though, and we listened to a wonderful audiobook that kept us entertained.  (We were listening to The Ride of Her Life, which is such an incredible true story.  We’re hoping to finish it on our way to and from Lucketts in under two weeks.)

I didn’t plan a shopping route, but I did manage to book reservations at a historic inn – The Beekman Arms, which is the oldest consecutively run inn in the US.  I’m still surprised we got a room, but we did!  The inn is less than a mile from the fairgrounds where the event was held, so it was a fantastic location and a charming place to stay.

The entire village of Rhinebeck is charming.  I learned that one of our former youth kids (who is a grown man, married, and with kids of his own) was born in Rhinebeck, and the hospital, which was new at the time, would give the new parents a congratulatory lobster dinner.  My mom called me late last night to tell me about that, so I figured it deserved a spot in the blog post.

Of course, my old-house-loving soul was thrilled to stay at a place with creaky floors, wide doors, antique oil portraits, hand-carved beams, and rim locks.  Always.

Once we were parked, unloaded, and settled in our room, we decided to eat dinner at the inn.  We only had a car picnic of apples and Cheez-Its since breakfast, so neither of us felt like wandering around the town, charming as it was, looking for a restaurant that looked good.  We could eat at the inn and simply walk upstairs to turn in early.  It was a good decision.

I loved seeing more of the rooms at the inn, and the meal was incredible.

My mom and I both ordered the Schnitzel with spätzle and asparagus.  Since we lived in Germany for several years, we can be a tough crowd when it comes to German food, and this was expertly prepared and delicious.  We both yummed our way through dinner.

The next morning, I poked my head in a few other rooms on our way out to breakfast.  The Beekman Arms shares a breakfast room with the Delamator Inn, so we walked down a block to grab a quick bite before we set off for the fair.

I’ll tell all about the fair in another post, but we enjoyed dinner on Thursday night so much that we decided to eat there after the fair, too.  We were both exhausted from a full day in the heat and humidity, so we liked the idea of having dinner close to our room again.  We got to see another part of the inn, which I enjoyed.  I doubt these benches are original, but they definitely had some age to them and were so impressive.  Mom and I were each able to slump on our benches, enjoying the quiet of our little booth.

Mom ordered a bowl of soup, and I selected the Dutch pot pie.  Again, it was delicious.  I wouldn’t put it at the level of the schnitzel, but it was still amazing and a perfect finish to the day.

Well, it was almost the perfect finish to the day.  It turned out that an apple tart with vanilla ice cream was the perfect finish to the day, along with getting in bed at 7:00 and reading for a few hours until I finally came down from the antique market high.

Outside of the fair, the Beekman Arms was the only thing we experienced in Rhinebeck, but if we were going to pick a place to camp out, that was a pretty good choice.  More on the market, who I finally got to meet in person (or reconnect with after several years), and what I purchased coming up…