Tales From the Minivan

After a fairly good sleep, we hit the road again just before a stop at Dunkin Donuts for Breakfast.  I say it was fairly good sleep but what I mean is everyone slept well except Mackenzie and I.  She was up sniffling most of the night and her sniffling kept me up most of the night.  I need to get her into see her doctor again for more allergy testing.

Pokemon was loaded up again with a whole new series of episodes, and we fired up the iPod Touch in the front, with a Best of the 80’s compilation Andrew found.  I think Mackenzie is growing an appreciation for the one hit wonders of the 80’s that her parents adore.  I know she was surprised when I belted out every single word of the B52’s Love Shack!  I think I surprised myself too!  We got back on the road and just made it into Connecticut and the boys needed another potty break.  This time we stopped at a more familiar place!  I was surprised as I new Tim Hortons were starting to branch out through the US, but had no idea they were down as far as Connecticut.  Here’s one that we stopped at in Vernon/Rockville, CT.

The directions I printed up from Google Maps had a us taking a few different routes I probably would not have looking at the Road Atlas.  I really enjoyed this route though, and it didn’t add any extra time.  The estimated travel time was 5 hours, and we made it in just over that as we hit a little bumper to bumper at a few of the tolls.  What I like about the route was that it took us through some of the more scenic routes, one of them being the New York State Thruway across to New Jersey over the Tappan Zee Bridge, which connects to the Palisades Parkway on the other side of the Hudson River.  The traffic was heavy as it was Saturday morning, but my co-pilot kept me in check with very good navigating!

We ended up finding the resort with no difficulty at all, and were here early!  Luckily they still let us check in as our little house was ready!  The resort we’re staying at is called : Sciota Village at Big Valley (CY-ota).  I kept pronouncing it wrong all week!  Try googling it!  I couldn’t find a while lot of details or reviews, but for the price we paid for it on SkyAuction, I couldn’t really complain.

Our little self-contained unit (Iroquois) has 3 bedrooms, and 1 bath with washer/dryer.  A full  kitchen including a dishwasher.  It’s just the perfect size for us and all one level!  A huge bonus with a very active toddler!  It wasn’t the most modern unit we’ve had, but it served our needs and was close to outlet shopping and the major highways and attractions of the Pocono Mountains. Here’s a few photos of our house and the surrounding views.  I thought I took more indoor shots but I guess we were too busy exploring!

The view of the house from the left lawn.

Back yard

View from the front yard

After we got settled in we headed out to get some dinner, we weren’t up for Friendly’s again so we tried out the Cluck U Chicken.  Of course as soon as I saw the name I immediately thought of LOST I know all of you Losties will know what I mena.  Andrew attempted to order the 911 hot wings, but was discouraged from it.  I guess you have to sign a waiver to do their 911 Challenge, and if you are able to eat 10 of their wings without anything to drink in an allotted time frame you get your wings free, a t-shirt and your photo on their Wall of Fame.  I will admit I was being impatient and just wanted to eat and made Andrew get the regular hot.  Turns out the hot was more like a medium and he ate all of his 10 in a few minutes without a drink.  I think we may have to go back.

As always grocery shopping took forever as there is just so much variety down here.  I picked up some new things, some breakfast  and dinner foods and a few pints of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream including Mackenzie’s favourite- Phish Food and mine Karamel Sutra!