We just spent a great Memorial Weekend in the Catskills. We have a house in Grand Gorge, so I can not comment on the price of the hotels and motels in the area, although I have gone to the Ramada Inn on exit 19 in Kingston and enjoyed my stay. We started our trip on Friday. We left the City about 8:00 PM and ran into some light traffic. We stopped at the rest stop on the I-87 by exit 15 for some dinner. The rest stop was clean and has a nice variety of places to eat. I had two 15 year old girls with me, so we had Burger King. We had veggie burgers and salad, both were very fresh and reasonably priced.

Saturday morning we woke up early and went to Prattsville community garage sale...The Boy Scouts were having a sale and a Chinese auction...We bought tickets and did some shopping. After that drove down route 42 and then turned down route 28 and headed east. We went to Catskill Corners to The Spotted Dog Restaurant. We had lunch there....they make the best hamburgers there and the price was reasonable...party of 3 bill was under $30.00. After that we headed back to Prattsville where we stopped at Pratt Rock and hiked the 1 mile hike up the mountain to see all the stone carvings in the mountain. We went back to the boy scout tent for the Chinese Auction...we won two very nice items...not bad for a $4.00 donation. We stopped by the local grocery store and bought some dinner items....hamburger, hot dogs etc...and went back home. The girls occupied their time with two ride on lawn mowers and a row boat. Sunday morning we had big bacon and egg breakfast over a hot fire...(food tastes best cooked open an open fire). We then went to Red Falls....that is on Route 23A going toward Windam. The Falls were so beautiful. We brought some cold cuts and canned sodas and had a nice picnic there. The girls had a really good time there. Then we drove into Windam for a movie. After the movie we saw a Giant Garage Sale...this sale was to benefit stray animals...I picked out 1 item and asked how much, and the woman there said 5 items for a quarter....Well nobody had to twist my arm....I spent a $1.50 and got some really great stuff...(I only bought six items, but felt I had to donate more money for the poor little animals). Then I took the girls to Grand Gorge to Maureen's Place for some Brownie Hot Fudge Sundaes....they were yummy. Just wanted to let you know so far my trip has only costed me $300.00 with gas, food for 2 men, 1 woman and 2 15 year old girls, tolls...all those great places and the treasures from the Garage Sales. I didn't have to pay for lodging, but I know there are some reasonable ones in the area. We ended the day with a big cookout. The girls rode the lawn tractors and went swimming in the pond.

Monday morning we awoke early and headed for home....on the way back, we stopped off in Woodbury Commons for some holiday shopping. What a way to end a perfect weekend!

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