We need to do laundry and to find a place with WIFI (small town libraries are a good bet for this) for some planning.  The nearby burg of Kent seems to have them both.  It is a lovely curly rural drive including a few miles on Kent Hollow Road.  The streets of Kent are lined with great old houses and lots of coffee houses, restaurants, art galleries and other cute shops.  It looks like a fun place to visit another time.  We have things to do today.  The laundry isn’t quite where Beatrice, our trusty garmin, indicates but we manage to find it; bonus, they have WIFI so we can kill two birds with one stone!  We dawdle over the chores just long enough to justify lunch out.

We randomly select Wilsons Bakery and Café.  It is a cute place with local roast coffee, sweets and a wide range of sandwiches from turkey on white to the portabella on za’atar sourdough. That’s what I had.  Kent went for the Cuban.  We found a table in the midst of things and very much enjoyed the people watching as we munched.   It is a comfortable place to hang out.  Next time I will use their WIFI…it comes with coffee!  We grab a loaf of the sourdough and a couple desserts to go.

Hurray, the rain stopped.  We are going to have a campfire.  Long pants, fleece and a roaring fire and it is perfect for enjoying a quiet evening.  The night sky is darker than expected here in the east.  We can even see a bit of a streak of the milky way.  It is a lovely way to end a great day.  No s’mores though.  We need to get marshmallows.

The bears showed up in camp yesterday evening.  Park staff ran them off pretty easily while much of camp watched.

A bobcat crosses our path just as we were coming off the Park nature trail.  So cool.

The nature trail climbs to the top of the ridge overlooking the lake.  There are a couple perfectly placed benches.  We try them out of course.  It is a quiet Monday with forest birds and bluejays making themselves heard.

We are set to meet up with Kent’s sister, Tammy, in Hartford next week so we are heading that way today.  Our destination, Waramaug State Park in Connecticut.  We zig-zag our way east on lots of county and lesser state routes through some lovely small towns.  Some are clusters of cottages with a smattering of historic roadhouses and Inns and some are collections of old mansions and new behemoth summer homes.  The drive is short, just two hours, and uneventful.  Waramaug is a small park and sites pretty close together but it should be just fine for our short stay here.  Occupancy will likely fall dramatically during the week.  No Verizon service again though.  That is a bit of a bummer.  Investigating trails and local activities is a bit of a chore.  We will see how it goes.  Signs posted at the dumpster warn us to be careful of the mama black bear and her three cubs who have been raiding the dumpsters of late.  Of course, I’d love to see them but know that they will get in trouble if they don’t keep their distance.

It is mid-day Thursday in the Catskills and pickings are slim for open eating establishments.  Outdoor tables under bright yellow umbrellas and a sandwich board listing intriguing mocktails draw us to Sweet Sues.  We start with a margarita and a cucumber spritzer.  Delightful.  My lunch choice is brisket hash…the Catskill version is sort of deconstructed but excellent.  Two beautifully poached eggs sit atop a shallow bowl lined with herby roasted potato quarters.  A large slice of grilled onion peeks out from under a crisped slab of beef brisket that is draped across the entire dish.  Not at all like I expect hash to look!  It tastes as good as it looks.  Kent’s Hog Johnson sausage, ham and eggs plate is more traditional (add a grilled tomato and tomatoey beans) and “ok” rather than spectacular.