A 30th Birthday Celebration for the Books: Hiking in Breakneck Ridge

Oh hey, Hudson River on a gorgeous, sunny day!

Hey friends!

So someone (ahem, me) just had a birthday, and it was a big one. That’s right, the big 3-0! So in honor of getting older, I decided to do something to make me feel younger–go on a 3-mile long, rock-climbing hike.

The place we picked was Breakneck Ridge in the Cold Spring area. It’s about 2.8 miles in total, and let me tell you — it is strenuous! 

Holy rock climbing!

I have some amazing friends who agreed to go on this hike with me!

Thanks for going along with my crazy idea, gang!

We all packed some food (and my husband packed a 3 liter bag of boxed wine to carry the entire way … what a husband!) and drinks and sunscreen and took off for the day. I would say it took us about 4 1/2 hours to hike it, but that included about an hour stop for a picnic at the top.

A tasty assortment of goodies, including homemade baked cookies by a good friend from college and Trader Joe’s brownies with a birthday candle from a former co-worker.

The 3-liter bag of wine that Chris took out of the box of wine he purchased, which he carried the entire duration of the hike. That’s my man.

There were many points of the hike that provided awesome and amazing overlooks of the Hudson, and it was the perfect day to hike—sunny and in the low 50s. Here’s a little bit of what we saw:

We envisioned this point being somewhere near the end. It was not.

And so, we all made it through, all the way to the end, and I was so proud of everyone…

After the hike, before catching the train back to the city, we stopped at the Cold Spring Depot (which is walking distance to the train stop) for beers:

And so that’s about it, my friends. I had such an amazing time. It felt nice to be outside, we had an amazing group with us and I’d recommend this hike for anyone who’s game for some awesome, strenuous rock climbing.

One other word of note: If you’re planning on catching the train from New York City to Breakneck Ridge, I’m told you can alert the conductor to the fact that you want to get off at Breakneck, and that sometimes they’ll stop there for you (otherwise there are only two stops directly at Breakneck a day). We thought we’d get off at Cold Spring and walk to the trail, but it turns out that’s about a 4+ mile walk. We were not game to do that before even starting the hike, so we had parts of our gang who were driving pick us up. Just something to think about.

Bis bald, friends! Off to London week after next! My lovely in-laws have purchased Les Miserables tickets for us for Friday night when we get there. I love London theater, and I’ve never seen Les Mis, so I’m really looking forward to this!

The Excitement of Upcoming Travel

Hi friends!

Well we’re firmly into the second quarter of 2013 here, and it’s time for me to start getting excited about some of the trips we have planned for the rest of the year.

So let’s see. For starters, my in-laws will be making their way to the U.S. the week after next, and Chris and I will be heading to London with them to watch Chris run the London Marathon:

^^A little flashback to when Steph and I first visited London back in 2010

Then, Chris and I booked a trip out to Arizona to visit an old friend of mine for the weekend of July 4th. Neither one of us has been before, so we’re super excited. We’re going to go camping and hiking, and visit Lake Powell and Havasu Falls:

September will be a big month for us, too. We’ll be heading to Australia to celebrate our wedding with Chris’s side of the family, and then taking a couple-day honeymoon to The Great Barrier Reef:

^^A little memory from our last trip to Australia (written about here and here). That’s Shawn the Koala, the subject of my soon-to-written children’s book series. Seriously. It’s coming.

There will be another trip in September two weekends before Australia, but that’s super secret for now, as it’s a surprise trip in honor of Chris’s 30th birthday. Let’s just say—I’m super excited about it!

And that’s about it (for now)! Bis bald, friends! I’ll catch up with you again super soon …

Back in the Borough: New York Day

Hey ya’ll,

Thanks to one of my favorite bloggers, I’ve been tipped off to this amazing video:

Oh New York, you really do capture the hearts of so many, don’t you? The entire time I was watching this video I couldn’t help but play Dave Matthews’ Ants Marching in my head. So I found the YouTube video for it. I suggest you try it—it’s pretty fitting:

“Take these chances
Place them in a box until a quieter time
Lights down, you up and die
Driving in on this highway
All these cars and upon the sidewalk
People in every direction
No words exchanged
No time to exchange

When all the little ants are marching
Red and black antennas waving
They all do it the same
They all do it the same way”

Down in D.C.

Me and Lise in D.C., circa 2006ish

Hey friends,

So I arrived back from my trip to D.C. to visit Lisa last Sunday and I have to say, I love that girl a whole heck’uva’lot. We actually met back in college when we both worked for our school newspaper, The Breeze, and we’ve been besties ever since. We’ve both moved around a couple times in the, ahem, EIGHT years since graduating from college (good grief), but throughout it all we’ve stayed in touch.

So back when Lise first lived in D.C., we used to do a whole lot of sightseeing when I would come and visit. It looked a little something like this:

Yeah … we’re pretty cute

Anyway, these days there’s almost nothing we’d rather do together than sit around drinking wine, eating delicious food and talking until we fall asleep. We did a whole lot of that on this trip (Guapo’s in Shirlington is one of our fave spots), as well as taking walks, playing with Lisa’s insanely adorable niece and practicing with my make-up for Chris and my wedding party at the end of April. (Lisa’s doing my make-up for that, so I got my make-up done for the first time ever at the Bobbi Brown counter at Nordstrom.)

This trip looked a whole lot like this:

Lisa’s detailed notes from my Bobbi Brown makeover

All the makeup we used to replicate the look back at her apartment. She did a fabulous job, if I do say so myself.

Anyway my dears, that about sums up my trip to D.C. Oh, we also saw ‘This is 40′ at the Arlington Cinema & Draft House, where you can order beer and food while you watch your movie, and Zero Dark Thirty the following day. Lise also lovingly allowed me to visit World Market, since we don’t have a store here in NYC, and we ate at the Nordstrom Cafe before getting my makeup done, which I would highly recommend for it’s deliciousness.

Okay, bis bald, friends! Chris and I may or may not be snowboarding this weekend at Windham, and we’re in the midst of planning a little hike with some friends for my birthday (perhaps here). Plus, before you know it it’ll be London Marathon time in April! Lots to look forward to, my friends, lots to look forward to …

In the News: New Travel Site, GetGoing.com, Launches Today

Can this new site make leisure travel cheaper?

Hey friends,

So I know I owe you a D.C. post (don’t say I didn’t warn you that we do a lot of hangin’ around when we’re together), but I wanted to jump on a press release that I received in my email this morning about a new travel site that, I think, has a lot of potential.

So the site, called GetGoing, works on what they’re calling a ‘pick two, get one’ process. What that essentially means is that users design two different trips (including dates, flight times, number of stops they want, etc.), and GetGoing works to get you the best discounts so you can actually purchase whichever trip turns out to be cheaper.

The system works because airlines often offer up to 40% off airfare for leisure travelers in order to fill up their empty seats. “Nearly one in five seats on all flights worldwide are empty, and we view that as a huge opportunity for more people to get out and see the world,” Alek Vernitsky, co-founder and CEO of GetGoing said in their press release. “So we decided to help flexible leisure travelers get great deals on those open seats by proving that they are actually traveling for leisure.” (Hence the reason users are prompted to pick two destinations.)

GetGoing is currently flying to hundreds of major airports in over 50 countries.

Check out the full video explanation of how the site works here:

What do you guys think? Would you try out GetGoing?

The Wheels On the Bus …

Are taking me to somewhere with better weather than NYC!

I’m on my Tripper Bus right now on my way to visit a BFF in D.C. I’ve got my Wi-Fi, my computer, some movies and music and my bottle of water … I’m good to go for the 4 1/2 hour ride.

I’ll update soon about the goings-on in and around D.C. (although in the name of full disclosure, I have to admit that Lisa and I do a whole lotta nothing — happily! — on these trips, so there may not be much to report).

Bis bald, friends! Hope everyone has fun weekend plans.

Back in the Borough: A Sophisticated Placed to Tea

Meeting a friend for tea feels oh-so-sophisticated.

Hi friends,

So I was out with another friend this morning at Alice’s Tea Cup, and I thought I’d throw up a quick post about it. If you’re a lover of tea (which I am not, but luckily the coffee is just as yummy!) or you have kids, this is a really fun place.

There are three locations around the city, but we visited Chapter III, over on 81st St. between 3rd and 2nd Ave. There are really cute decorations, they serve the coffee in humongous mugs …

And the scones are to die for …

Pumpkin and vegan banana scones with whipped cream and blueberry sauce. What?!

I glanced over at some of the tables around us, and the tea comes served in cute little tea kettles, too. We met up around 9:30 and the place was pretty empty, but by the time we left around 11 it was bumping.

Anyway, just a more sophisticated suggestion should you ever happen to be in this beautiful city. (You know, since my last blog post was about beer and pretzels!)

Bis bald, friends!