A Weekend With the Girls

Girl Day went into Overnight, finally. For those of you who don't know, Girl Day is when I go out with my circle of best friends, women I've known since elementary school. Five or six years ago we began setting up a day a month when we would get together and for lack of a better phrase, called it "Girl Day".

And now we've had our first Girl Day sleepover. It was awesome. We found a Bed & Breakfast in upstate NY, about 20 minutes over the Newburgh Beacon Bridge, called The Borland House.



Karen, Elisa and I drove up together and got there around 3. Finding that Borland wasn't yet open, we strolled around the streets of Montgomery and then to a cafe called The Daily Bean and had coffee. For two hours. That in itself is usually half of a regular Girl Day.

We moseyed back to the B & B and checked in. What a perfect place for an overnight. Our hosts were amazing and their house is unbelievable. I couldn't get over how warm and welcoming it was, to the extent that we kept gravitating to the cozy armchairs and sofas of the living room and falling into magazines while we waited for Jen.

We had two rooms in the Artists Annex which is an addition put onto the house two years ago. Jen and I shared, reliving our summers in Maine. We kept laughing about how like college it was, in the evenings when your friends would mooch around the doorway, "Whatcha doing?"



Carol served us wine and cheese around seven, and then we went out to dinner at a really great restaurant. Back in our rooms, I'd brought a bottle of Frangelico, and I really couldn't describe the scene that followed but I don't think I've laughed that hard in ages. We were just hanging out and being goofy and it was so great knowing that the fun could just go on and on and nobody was on a timeline. I seriously felt nineteen.



In the morning we tumbled downstairs to a magnificient breakfast. A FOUR-COURSE breakfast.



I don't think I've ever had a breakfast that came in courses before. Bill started us off with a little piece of warm coffee cake. Then came a parfait of yogurt, fresh fruit and granola. Then an incredible frittata with sausages, toast and sliced mango. He finished us off with a scoop of lemon sorbet topped with blueberry parfait.



After breakfast we collapsed back into armchairs, drank more coffee and read and talked and Elisa played the piano a little. I could have lingered there all day, it was so relaxing. But we checked out around noon; Bill took our picture on the front porch which is to die for. I dream of a house with a porch like that, and a row of rockers and a swing.



It speaks to our shared Musical Theatre Geekdom that as we seated ourselves in the rockers in unison I remarked, "this is like Evita" and immediately we all start singing "The Art of the Possible". If you know what I mean, you know what I mean. If not, don't ask.

We drove down to Woodbury Commons to do a little shopping and then Jen headed off and I drove home to put Karen and Elisa on the train back to NYC.

Good to get away. And good to come home.