A few weeks ago a friend wanted to take a day trip to see a show that an Artist I had introduced her to was having in Hudson, New York. It was a gallery that I'd been wanting to visit for a while and the Artist is a lovely one whose work I always enjoy seeing and supporting, and so we began to plan a day when we could go. As the trip is around a two and a half drive and my friend would have to work the next day, she suggested that we try to find a place to stay overnight so we could enjoy the most of our visit to that lovely area. The time of the year being prime vacation time meant that most places where we would have liked to stay were at their highest prices. If we had more time to stay it might have made sense to treat it like a very short vacation, but for a few hours of rest none of them seemed like the most economical choice.
As I put on my travel planner mindset, I started looking at out of the way places that were in the same general area but not in the town itself, and one place that appeared seemed almost too good to be true. The price per night was about a third of what the other places were asking, and it seemed like it was only a very short distance outside of the town center. The only way to book it seemed to be online and I couldn't find a telephone number or a website easily. Because it seemed like a mirage in a way, I kept searching for a way to actually speak to someone to see if this place really was as nice as it sounded, and finally I found a number that seemed to be related in name. The place I was looking to stay in is called Micosta Leisure Inn and the telephone number was for Micosta Enterprises, so I dialed the number and a very nice voice answered the phone saying he was Steven. I asked if I had reached Micosta Leisure Inn and he said yes, and when I explained that I'd been having difficulty finding a number for him, and he said I'd found the right place.
During that first conversation with him I discovered that not only had I found the place I had been trying to find information about, but I'd really found some place that was extra special. He was so friendly and helpful, and from the sound of his business I think he must be very busy, so his helpfulness and friendliness was even more appreciated. He described the rooms he had available, and they all sounded great, and when he said there was one that had a door that opened onto the garden where the strawberries were starting to ripen and that I'd be welcome to pick them, I told him I'd definitely take that one and another one near it as long as my friend agreed that this was the place to stay. When my friend gave her approval I booked the rooms, and Steven told me that the raspberries and strawberries were both ripening. It really was such an extraordinary place to have found and he had been so friendly that a part of me was still thinking that maybe it couldn't be as wonderful as it seemed. There was something about it that still seemed to good to be true, but I thought to myself that at least it was economical and if it turned out to not be what I was hoping for it was only for one short night.
When we arrived to check in, Steven was even nicer in person if that is possible. He is one of those people who makes you feel at home while also leaving you to yourself and your privacy. Micosta is just a few minutes drive from the center of town, but it's in a lovely very rural feeling area with sloping hills a a waterfall flowing over a dam on the nearby river. The rooms were just as he had described and even better. He had said they each had a full kitchen and they were so fully outfitted that any cook could have been happily at home there. The decks outside the rooms were comfortable and large enough to sit and enjoy the lovely view with friends, and the room he had described as opening onto the garden was not only well planned out and comfortable, the garden had a full sized raspberry and strawberry patches side by side in fully ripening rows, with blueberries at the beginning or their growing season to one side and fruit trees just beyond.
Micosta Leisure Inn I think must be some kind of magical place because I enjoyed it so much even for that one short night and following morning that I felt as if I could have had a real vacation there. As we were getting ready to leave and I told Steven how wonder it was, he told me that I was welcome to come back any time, and that the tomatoes would be ripening in the fall. I'm not sure how I found Micosta, and I would think that perhaps it was all just a beautiful dream, but the strawberries and raspberries I brought home with me were as real as they come, though fresher and more lovely than any I'd had in years. The memory of that beautiful garden and the experience of being there will continue to inspire me as I look forward to more beautiful days to come.
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