Twenty-four hour getaway, forty-five minutes from home

Last Thursday we drove to lovely Lambertville, New Jersey (about 45 minutes from home) and used a Christmas present - a LivingSocial voucher for the Chimney Hill Estate Inn Bed and Breakfast.

In addition to a nice old farmhouse (the older part built in 1820, the newer part in 1920), this B&B has suites in the "barn" (it's not like any barn I ever saw), and is also an alpaca farm.

Upon arrival we were given a bottle of wine, a $50 certificate for dinner at a local restaurant, a $25 voucher for the alpaca-related item gift shop, and two bags of alpaca food. (Plus a voucher for a tour of a local winery, which we didn't use. I remember being so thrilled with my first winery tour, and with the next three or four, and then it started to all seem like just a sales pitch to try to get you to buy wine, and the thrill was over, just like that.)

But this was my first experience with alpacas, so I was suitably entertained. The alpaca herd is guarded by a pair of llamas, although I forgot to ask what they are protecting the alpacas from. Llamas look a little more intimidating than alpacas:

Alpacas seem to have some rather serious dental situations going on, but they nibble food right out of your hand with their almost prehensile lips, resting those enormous bottom teeth against your hand. It's weird, but not unpleasant.

Dinner was at Anton's at the Swan.

I had duck breast.

Neil had a steak.

This was one of the best dinners we've ever had. In the top twenty without a doubt.

But I will remember Anton's not only for the food, but because it had the only women's room I've been in that is decorated with erotic posters, magazine covers, and art - not hard core, mostly just funny stuff. Still, I've been in a lot of women's restrooms and I've never before seen one with such an obvious theme. Perhaps I've just been going to the wrong restaurants.

The next morning we woke up a couple hours before breakfast was served, so we drove into Lambertville to a local beanery (I've been wanting to use that word!), Rojo's Roastery. The owners are very serious about coffee. Inside, tables and chairs are placed inside space that is filled with huge bags of coffee beans, a vintage gas-fired roaster, and lots of coffee equipment. I wish they had been roasting beans while we were there:

Then we drove back to Chimney Hill for breakfast, which was Heavenly Bananas, bacon, home fries, and a sausage and cheese strada. Everything was great except the coffee, which tasted like water after the good coffee we had just had at Rojo's.

We said good-by to the alpacas, and got rid of the rest of the alpaca kibble.

There was time to sit on the little balcony outside our bedroom and read a few poems.

And time to look at some of the outbuildings on the property. I don't know whether or not this is a common type of shed, but it looks unusual to me.

We visited the alpaca gift store, where we exchanged our gift certificate for a man's tie and a little coin purse for our granddaughter. But there were lots of other knit and woven items, very pretty.

We drove across the Delaware River to New Hope, which is Lambertville's sister city. Both are tourist towns, very old - lots of restaurants, galleries, antique stores, book stores, gift shops. A bicycle club was visiting on this perfectly gorgeous day.

You can't tell from the photo, but it was a group of more than twenty cyclists, and they are all over 60 years old.

On the main street there is a church that has been turned into a restaurant.

I admired the hand-crafted items for sale, with a very contented non-desire to purchase anything at all. (What a pleasant change from the continual frustration of my earlier years, when I wanted to OWN everything I admired.)

If I did have lots of money I might be tempted to buy odd things, like this etagere featuring carved monkeys.

You can't really appreciate it until you look a little closer.

 It's probably a good thing that I don't have $28,000 to throw around casually. It seems as though it could be one of those impulse purchases you regret later.

I walked across the bridge between the two towns, while the peaceful Delaware flowed calmly below.

Because New Hope and Lambertville are both centers of artistic endeavors, you will sometimes see an odd grouping of items in someone's back yard, perhaps waiting for use in an installation, perhaps just a collection to be admired.

The clothing stores have their own ways of getting the attention of shoppers.

And other shops advertise on benches.

All in all, it was a lovely way to spend Thursday afternoon through Friday afternoon. What a refreshing change of pace for just twenty-four hours.