2.1.2014 - Chowderfest!

One of the big events in Saratoga Springs is Chowderfest!  So we decided to go this year.  Jim mentioned it to Kyle & Julia and they decided to make the trip up to go with us, so we were excited.

Kyle & Julia had some transportation issues....MegaBus was all sold out, Greyhound was sold out one way and expensive, and Amtrak really expensive and inconvenient times.  So they rented a Zipcar (more about that later).  We had planned to meet downtown at a convenient parking spot...however, when we got close we realized that was never going to happen.  It was packed everywhere!  We eventually found a spot on a side street a few blocks away from downtown and felt lucky to find that.  Kyle and Julia did the same when they got there and we met on Broadway.

We were all surprised at how big this event was.  This was the 16th year for the event and apparently it has grown bigger every year.  This year 85 restaurants participated!  For $1, you got a 3 oz (or sometimes bigger) of chowder - and there was every kind of chowder imaginable...we sampled chipotle corn chocolate chowder (my personal favorite), crab chowder, Irish whiskey ale chowder, and a couple of dessert chowders (yogurt and Ben & Jerry's).  Everything was so good!  The lines seemed long to get into some of the places - and some had stands outside - but things moved quickly and it was fun to catch up with Kyle & Julia.

There were tons of people everywhere you looked - in the paper this morning, it said that last year had over 25,000 attendees from as far away as Canada, and this year probably beat that record.  The weather was amazing!  After lots of cold days, the temps were in the upper 30s.  Our last stop was the Olde Bryan Inn which was next door to the hotel we always stayed at when we were visiting and we just sat, had a drink and talked.  While we were in there, it started spitting a little snow which made it pretty too.

 

But the forecast had called for snow and since Kyle & Julia still had a long trip back, we found our car and then drove to find the Zipcar.  And quite the car it was - they had gotten a new Mercedes! 

It was definitely a fun day - we enjoyed having Kyle and Julia experience our first Chowderfest with us!  I'm sure it will be the first of many!