I arrive in Hyde Park, NY

I am writing this blog to keep a record of my Culinary vacation at the Culinary Insitute of America (the CIA).  I am attending a culinary Boot Camp that is held at the CIA through their Continuing Education Department.  You might be wondering how I even heard of such a thing.  Well, about 3 years ago, I read a book, "The Making of a Chef", by Michael Ruhlman.  In this book, the author attended the CIA, and wrote a book about his experience.  I loved this book, and it was great to live vicariously through the experience of the author.  I have always enjoyed cooking from the time I was very young, and it is a hobby that has also turned into a passion as of late.

For no reason one day after I finished reading the book, I went to the CIA's web site.  There is a section on the site "for food enthusiasts".  This is where I learned of the Boot Camps.  It took me a few years to finally follow-through on enrolling in the Boot Camp, and the week is finally here!  I start the Basic Skills course bright and early tomorrow on Monday -- at 6 am!

Today I travelled from my home of Pittsburgh, PA to Hyde Park, NY, which is the location of the CIA.  My flight was scheduled to leave Pittsburgh at 8:30 am.  I woke up around 5:30 am in order to make sure I got to the airport with enough time to allow for getting my bag checked, and going through security.  When I got to the airport I checked the flight schedule, and of course, my flight was listed as 'Delayed'!  Of course!  The weather was great for flying, clear, but apparently the airplane had scheduled maintenance and it was taking longer than expected.

I checked my bag with minimum waiting in line, and I got through security fine.  Luckily I did not get chosen to go through the full-body scanner this time (thank goodness), and I was able to go through the regular metal detector.

The flight was delayed 2 hours, and I didn't really feel like I was "on vacation" until the flight was in the air.  I flew to Newark, NJ, got my bag from baggage claim, and then I had to take the Airtrain to the Rental Car area.  I selected my vehicle (since I have membership in the National Emerald Aisle Club) and plugged the address of the hotel into my GPS, and started the drive up to the CIA.

I could see the entire island of Manhattan as I left the Newark Airport.  Luckily I was able to follow the directions on the GPS -- there were a few close calls where I think I could've easily turned by accident and gone through the Lincoln Tunnel, or over the George Washington Bridge.  Seeing NYC was tempting, and it made me want to try to take a trip there one of these years.

The drive up took about an hour and a half, and I found my hotel, the Courtyard Marriott in Poughkeepsie, NY.  Due to my work as a consultant, I am a Platinum Elite Marriott member, or something like that, because I stay at Courtyards all the time when I travel for work.  So when I got into my room, it was comfortable and familiar to me, like my "second home", which is kind of sad but oh well, it's true!

After unpacking my clothes, I drove about 15 minutes north to the CIA campus.  It is a beautiful campus, with large old buildings in the collegiate style, with the Hudson River in the background.  Since it is the end of the Thanksgiving holiday break, all the buildings were closed, and there weren't a lot of other people on the campus.  It was kind of fun to have the place virtually to myself, and I did a quick walk around the campus and took some pictures of the buildings.

There were some banners that were hung around the campus for the holidays, and I took pictures of them because they were food-themed and really clever.  The sayings were: "Happy Hollandaise", "Soy to the World", "Merry Crispness", and "Seasoned Greetings".  Funny.

I scouted out where I am supposed to park tomorrow, and where to go for the orientation and class.  With that done, I got back in my car, and slowly drove through the rest of the campus, passing the library, the many different dorms and residence halls.  There were some students unpacking their cars, so I assumed they were coming back for the rest of the semester after the Thanksgiving break.  It brought back memories for me of when I was in college and I would travel back after the break.  I admit I was jealous of these students since they get to study cooking and food service.  It's like Hogwarts for food people (instead of magic folk).

I left the campus, and drove to a supermarket (Price Chopper) in Poughkeepsie.  I just got some cereal, bananas, and milk.  I hadn't eaten anything since 7 am, and it was already 3:30 pm, so I was getting a hunger headache.  But I just wanted something simple and bland -- I think there is going to be enough opportunities to eat some great food this week, so I thought going simple is the best thing for now.

I am planning on going to sleep rather early tonight.  Besides the fact that I need to wake up super early tomorrow, I got up super early today, and I know I am going to be sleepy earlier than usual.

Well, wish me luck tomorrow!  I am hoping it will be a fun experience, and I hope I learn something.  Also, I hope the other Boot Campers are nice and we get along.  I am not expecting to make any new or life-long friends, but it will be really interesting to learn everyone's stories and see what brought them here for this Boot Camp experience.