With a Little Help From My Friends

Started out heading back to Albany on a gray, cool morning. It showered lightly as we made our way through the small, lovely upstate New York towns to Cracker Barrel near the Albany train station. Thank goodness the clouds were starting to break up as we pulled into their parking lot. In fact, that was the last rain we saw all day.

Cracker Barrel goes for southern-fried rustic instead of generic 60's diner. Lauren and I sat under framed artwork of patterns for dresses from the 40's. I could see skis and older snowshoes over one table, 45's and their covers at another. The blazing fire in the huge fireplace felt good on that slightly chilly morning! Lauren had a hash brown casserole with two fluffy biscuits. I had thin but tasty pancakes topped with caramel, sweet cream, and fried apples. (Those fried apples taste much better on top of pancakes than they do as a side.) I thought it would be busier at quarter after 10, but it wasn't that bad.

We of course stopped in Cracker Barrel's gift shop on the way out. Cracker Barrel's country theme extends to their old-style candy, CDs of country stars, and for some reason, a lot of Peanuts merchandise. I just ended up with a cute, fluffy little stuffed cow I named Hoodsie and a pecan log. Lauren got a stuffed Eeyore for her mom and shirts for her.

By the time Lauren pulled into the parking lot of Crossgates Mall about 20 minutes away, the clouds were rapidly vanishing. She couldn't find a good space near JC Penney, so we entered at Primark. I'm not a fan of them. I can never find my size there. Lauren normally does well there, but finally admitted she couldn't find anything either when she joined me in the main mall.

There were small neon gold and white cranes scattered throughout the mall. They pretty much looked like gold and white versions of the Prince UFO Catchers at Colonie Center. Lauren didn't have any luck with them, even when we found a store with rows of them called Kiddleton. I got a cute little round knitted white duck and a butterfly-like creature with beautiful orange, black, gray, and green markings. She had a Godzilla tag. (I later discovered that her name is Mothra, and at least in the current film series, she's a goddess and a good guy.)

Our next stop was Dave & Buster's. The one at Crossgates doesn't have skee ball, but they have plenty of everything else. I spent over an hour and a half going from the pirate wheel (won over 200 on one try there!) to Monopoly to giant Space Invaders to giant Pac Man to ring toss. Got Mario on Mario Kart Deluxe; came in 1st on the Kingdom Way round. Didn't have as much luck with Crusin' Blast, despite my sweet cherry-red Cadillac. I came in 3rd on the Madagascar race with the dinosaurs. Got two cards for extra points out of the SpongeBob and Minions token machines. I had over 4,200 when it was all done. Got a really cute fluffy, floppy mottled brown-and-white teddy bear I named Honeycomb.

I peeked at FYE next. They moved and didn't have the selection they used to, but I came up with enough to do their buy 3 used items for $15 sale:

The Essential Collections - Deanna Durbin (Apparently an import, but I almost never see anything for her, not even on LP.)

Great Women of Jazz - Astrid Gilberto

The soundtrack for O Brother, Where Art Thou?

The third season of Supergirl (This wasn't part of the sale, but it wasn't a bad price.)

Next stop was Macy's. Lauren looked around, but all I did was use the bathroom. After that, we went upstairs and headed to The Arcade House. This is one large room with smaller machines and cranes with better toys than Dave & Buster's. Alas, neither of us had any luck there. They had a row of older games in the back. I played Burger Time and at least got through most of the first round, but I'm still no good at Defender. 

After we couldn't get anything out of the cranes at Kiddleton, we briefly moved on to JC Penney. It was getting late by that point, though, and we also wanted to get mini golf in. There's an indoor black light mini golf course across from Dave & Buster's downstairs. The theme is space. You navigate your neon balls around Venus fly traps, aliens, glowing "rock formations," and astronauts in neon green playing golf. Lauren won by a few points, but I got the only hole in one of the day.

We made a brief stop outside of Primark to use the bathroom before we finally headed out. At least the rain seems to have taken a temporary leave of absence. In fact, the weather was gorgeous when we drove past Albany and down to Mass Pike. It was sunny, breezy, and much warmer. If the dry roads were any indication, it hadn't so much as sprinkled in hours.

Lauren pulled in at Rico's house near Great Barrington around 6:30. Rico was letting his baked chicken brine when we arrived. He and his boyfriend Elliott were absolutely hilarious. It was funny just watching them together, and Lauren was hilarious with them, too. We chatted, then ate Rico's delicious, moist baked chicken with corn boiled in salted water. 

We were going to have dessert at an ice cream bar nearby, but apparently, it closed early tonight. No matter. I had cookies and Lauren had a popcicle while the guys chatted and laughed and drank rum. We tried to play the Train-themed card game Lauren picked up, but I don't think the guys quite got it. We ended up singing along to Garth Brooks (Rico is a big country fan) instead. We did much better with Golden Girls Against Humanity, which ended up being a riot. Elliott won by a wide margin. He had 7 to Rico and Lauren's 6 cards each and my 3. We had so much fun, it was late before we finally got home.