Halloween Festivities

Credit goes to the staff at Mexican Radio!

     I'm a little really behind with this blog seeing as it's already November, but better late than never, right? This year, Jim and I adhered to our normal Halloween traditions and added in a couple of new activities to make it one of the best ever! I must admit that we were both a little disappointed that we couldn't decorate like we have in years past, but we're already scheming about how we can make the front yard and porch of our new house positively frightful for the two or three trick-or-treaters who actually decide it's
worth it to venture down our long driveway
next year!

One of the corn maze creatures

     The weekend before Halloween we spent a Friday night at Liberty Ridge in Schaghticoke navigating the haunted corn maze,  Forest of Fear, drinking hot apple cider and checking out some new features, including Cinderella's carriage (as you can imagine, this was one of the highlights for me:-).

      Saturday night we met up with Julie and Beth before heading down the Thruway to the Headless Horseman in Ulster Park (a little over an hour south of Albany). This place is consistently ranked the #1 haunted attraction in the U.S. In addition to a mile long hayride, there's a haunted corn maze, five haunted houses, excellent gift shops and sideshow performers. It is definitely not an experience for the faint of heart! This year the hayride story was gruesome as ever, but we were fortunate to be sitting in the center of the tractor (much to Jim's
chagrin), so we often had  advance warning
when a ghoul was about to jump out at us.

The Cleopatras

   On October 29th, we attended a spooktacular Halloween party thrown by Julie and her roommates. As you can probably tell, I was Cleopatra (a nod to my love of HBO's Rome), Jim was Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde and Julie was Foxy Cleopatra from the Austin Powers movie. People were surprised to hear that Julie and I didn't plan our costumes in advance. In reality, I wanted to be a flapper all along, but couldn't find any suitable outfits at the local costume shops. Luckily, she was a really good sport about the whole thing! 

       

Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde

        Julie and Jim partnered up for beer pong (as usual), but this time they went 5-0 until their string of victories was broken. It was so fun to watch them and, thus, I have nicknamed them the Hall-O-Famers! Jim came in second place for scariest costume (I think the contest was rigged...the person who won had a pretty half-hearted werewolf costume...BOO). Later that night, another attendee confessed that he's had a crush on Julie for over a year...no he didn't tell her, he told me!!! Who says that to someone's older sister? Was he looking for my approval? It was even more strange because this was the first night I've ever really spoken to this kid and he wasn't even inebriated...how awkward!!!

What a great night!

   The night before Halloween, Jim and I decided to head to one of my favorite restaurants of all time, Mexican Radio. (They have the best margaritas I've had outside of Mexico because they don't use mixers...the base is always generated from fresh squeezed limes - delicious!) The plan was to travel along Route 9S where there are typically a lot of homes and yards decked out for Halloween. Unfortunately, my lack of navigational skills led us astray and before Jim realized it, we were halfway 

to Dutchess County (oops!). The map app 

on my precious IPhone got us back on track 

and we FINALLY arrived! 

Jim's chimichanga

     We chose a great night to eat there because all of the waiters, waitresses and bar staff were dressed in costumes and there were carved pumpkins everywhere, which surprisingly complimented the normal motif. Our meals and drinks were fantastic and I think Mexican Radio is now on Jim's list of one of the best restaurants in the area. I realize that for some of you Hudson is too much of a trek; however, the owners are opening another one in Schenectady in
                                                                          2011, plus there's always the original in NYC.
                                                             

My favorite boys on 10/31/10!

     Since Halloween fell on a Sunday this year, we didn't have much planned for the actual holiday. Buster agreed to dress up as a pumpkin for the second year in a row and Jim handled the trick-or-treaters. We only had 6 all night, but bought 2 bags of candy. As you can imagine, the candy was gone by mid-week, precisely why I usually refuse to have so many sweets in the house! Til next year...