Wedding in Little Falls, NY

Stacy and I went to a friend's wedding, yesterday, in Little Falls, NY, a small generally depressed turn of the century industrial town. It's about an hour and a half drive from Albany, directly west on interstate 90. We scheduled a night in a B&B, The Gansvoort House, so we could celebrate without considering the return drive. We left Albany around noon on a beautiful sunny cool day. By the time we reached Little Falls, the clouds had grown to fill the sky with an ominous dark grey and we had driven through a shower or two.

Little Falls lies in the Mohawk River valley surrounded by lush rolling hills and family farms as far as the eye can see. We easily found the bed and breakfast. The Gansvoort house was one of many industrialist's victorian mansions perched in rows along the few blocks edging up the hill away from the old brick factories lining the river. The owner of the B&B intercepted us before we rang the bell and disturbed some piano recording in the main room. He led us around the side of the house and into the carriage house "suite," which they had substituted for our room in the main house in order to allow his visiting family to be together. Alright with us, the carriage house was roomier and quiet.


The Gansvoort House B&B.

The wedding ceremony was in a 19th century church with only a small cemetery sharing its hill top. Entering, it smelled of must and wood, and had a fabulously spartan interior. Above the pulpit was a hand painted picture of a bible about six feet wide with "The Bible" written in old English letters across it's open pages. Above that a simple painted cross. Hanging from the center of the ceiling was a large victorian oil lamp. Apparently, this church is not electrified, at least not the main room. The ceremony was, in its way, rather spartan, too. Lovely, really, with a youngish minister who was a terrific boogie-woogie dancer, we later discovered at the reception.


Snells Bush Church, Little Falls, NY

The reception was at a restaurant/banquet room called The Castle, because it was, in fact, a stone castle. We entered first into a dark basement rathskeller for a glass of lovely wine before the reception began. Then upstairs to a happy affair with a local Rocka-billy band and wonderful food (I had the largest slab of prime rib that I can ever remember eating - yummm).

We stopped at a pub downtown for a nightcap on our back to the The Gansvoort House. A shot of tequila in a typical friendly tin ceilinged long dark place with a half dozen men hanging out at the bar. Stacy and I were the quick center of attention, what, with our formal party attire.

This morning, breakfast was in the B&B solarium, a lovely glassed in porch. Just us two. The Proprietor, a sweet man in his seventies, small, thin, and dressed with expensive casual tailoring, cooked our apple fritter and sausage breakfast and entertained us with stories of the town and his family. Turns out he is a retired surgeon who had immigrated from Argentina over thirty years before and was now an amateur jazz trumpeter, painter, and children's book writer. He was also ministering to a two year old toddler while the rest of the family slept in.

The weather had turned gloomier and gloomier and by the morning rain was the forecast. We drove back to Albany after a brief look at parts of the famous Erie canal that brought this town into prosperity in the last century.


Remains of aqueduct in Little Falls, NY