Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park at Lazy River, Gardiner NY

Welcome to Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park in beautiful upstate NY.  This is where my sister and I stayed for three nights this past weekend in order to attend the 2014 Country Living Fair in Rhinebeck, NY.  We had a wonderful time during our stay there.  The Catskill mountains are breathtakingly beautiful.  We were lucky enough to travel across the Hudson river several times and the western view from the Kingston Bridge was gorgeous.  We met some great people during our stay at Yogi's and saw some
spectacular sights along our journey.  Here are some of the highlights of our road trip.  And yes, there was food!

When I arrived at my sisters house, she was sitting on her front step waiting patiently for me.  As I drove into her driveway and looked over at her and her hat, I couldn't get out of the car quick enough to snap this photo.  Was she ever ready for a weekend full of sun and shopping!

Off we went!  I was the driver for the trip and she was my co-pilot with maps in hand.  I had programmed the directions into my "smart" phone, but half way into our trip, the phone decided to stop guiding us.  It's a good thing we brought the old stand by maps!

Part way into our journey we decided to stop for a breakfast break in Middletown CT.  While sis went into Dunkin Donuts to grab us something, I stayed out in the Jeep and gave that great hat a try on.  Fuel in the tummies and we hit the road again.  Journey on....








Once at our destination, it was eating time again.  (I know, it sounds like food fest but we did get lost a couple of times and that added to the total trip time)  We found this lovely eatery in Gardiner NY called Cafe Mio.  What can I say but great food, great atmosphere and a great big thank you to Marie. 

Just a few more miles to get to our cabin...

#82  Our home for the next three nights.  I'll bet the Jeep springs will be happy when we unload everything!  And we brought everything!  Isn't it always the way?




We were running short on time to get to the fair
for the first day so we dropped our stuff off and headed north toward Rhinebeck.





The Hudson River Bridge was so pretty.  I had to take a few shots on the ride over.  There's a walk bridge you can go on to cross over the Hudson too!  We didn't do that, but there were many pedestrians up there when we drove under it.  I'm sure there must be some sort of parking lot at the entrance for your vehicle.  Perhaps the next trip we will give that a go.  Perhaps....(it's a wide river!)

Sadly, we were too late to catch day one of the fair.  We did learn how to get there from the campground though.  So, it wasn't a total waste of a drive.  It was quite scenic actually.  Lots of historic places.  The Vanderbilt Mansion, Hyde Park and downtown Kingston to name a few.


Heading back west toward Yogi's for the evening.















The following days views from the Kingston Bridge.  The Catskill mountain range from high atop the bridge.


Back at the campground, we had an air show all weekend of sky diving parasailers!  It was so cool!




Our Friday night gathering.....Maureen, Gail, Carolyn, Lindsey and Lisa.  Please girls, tell me if I got it right! :)  Oh, and that fire?....I made that!
I think there may have been some ghosts in this shot, but still a fun bunch of campers.
Funny story here.....Early one morning, I had to make my way down to the "comfort station" you can just see it in the trees at the bottom of the hill.  All of these cabins share this one station.  I threw my hoodie on over my jammies and headed down.
There are two rows of cabins.  The ones in the back are one room cabins and the ones we stayed in are two room cabins.  With a full bed, bunk beds and the loft in the two room ones, you can sleep 4-6 adults and kids comfortably.  Cabin 83 had about that many guests.  Anyway....

I made my exit from the comfort station to head back to the cabin.  Looking down at my first tracks in the wet grass and at all the clover, I made my way back up the hill.  I reached the fire pit area which had blue stone coverage.  I noticed a tiny white sea shell in the rocks and bent down to pick it up.  Hmmm...I thought to myself, 'I did put all my sea shells in my hoodie pockets from Thursdays trip to the beach'.  I can't believe I lost one...and another...and even more.  I picked up a good hand full of my precious shells.  I placed them at the end of the picnic table and proceeded up the porch stairs, all the while looking for any stray shells I may have missed.  Once at the top of the porch, I placed my hand on the door handle while looking puzzled at the bag of trash we left on the porch...(not like us) and then the leopard print beach towel hanging on the porch railing told me (finally) that something wasn't right.  I was at cabin 83 not ours!  Phew!!!  I let go of the door handle and tip-toed off the porch and ran over to our cabin.  When my sister came outside she asked me why I was laughing.  I said, "You're not going to believe what I just did".  to which she replied, "What, did you go to the wrong cabin?".   

Here's what the inside of OUR cabin looked like....




















Until the next adventure.....

2 comments:

debbie said...

lovely, just like reading a novel... you are a very talented person. thank you so much for taking the time to share you life experiences and adventures with us...xoxoxo

Gail said...

Hello Debbie,

Thank you so much for the great compliments! I am more than happy to share these adventures. Glad you enjoyed them, and thanks for commenting!