The country Living Fair- Day One

 Marty and drove down to the Kingston/Rhinebeck New York area for four days of adventure.  The reason for the trip?  The Country Living Fair was for the first time, being put on "close to home."  Well, six hours drive away from home but about as close as one could expect it to be.  It was raining when we left Canada and it rained all the way down.  We only got off course twice so I guess it was a good trip over all.
This is the view from our motel balcony.  We stayed at the Superlodge and it was passable and a good deal at $90 per night.  When I made the reservations back in March many options were already spoken for.  No, I would not want to stay at the Superlodge again.  As I said, it was passable, but not terribly comfortable.

 I  had gotten early-bird tickets and we were part of a handful of die-hard early, early-birds who arrived a half hour before the early-bird gate opened.  There were only 2500 early bird tickets sold. It was still raining.
This gave us an hour and half of crowd-free shopping and visiting before everyone else got in.  It was so worth the extra money.

 The place was awash with umbrella'd folks.  It was pretty cool out too.  Much of what you wold see was under roof so it was a fairly comfortable way to visit many of the participants.  There were a few whose tents were outside and some simply didn't show up as it was too wet that day.

 Inside the Country Living pavilion, there were great displays as if pulled from the pages of their magazine and books and T-shirts etc. for sale.  Here, Marty is making friends with a canine topiary.

 Outside the gardens and surroundings were wonderful.  Even this water feature made the place seem more special.

                                          The Koi weren't bothered by the weather at all.

 I really loved this metal tiered display piece.  Every time I got close to it Marty got nervous.
No, it wouldn't fit in the car, or so he said.  Hmmm.

 In the same booth was this large glass jar.  At the beginning of the day it was this full of rain water.

                      The Fair folks thought of everything.  Even a sign for the rainy wet weather!

                                                         Not the best day for ice cream.

                                    The live  music played, no matter the weather.

When we passed by later, the jar had a lot more water in it!  It was a wonderful day, in spite of the rain and the set-up and venue for such a grand endeavour was perfect!!  More pics tomorrow. Those Country Living Folks sure know how to put on a great fair!!
We got back to our motel cold and soaked.  After a good night's sleep, we were ready to do it all again.