Upstate New York

While I've been crying woe is me here and there (and everywhere) that Kevin works the longest hours, we did take some time in the past couple of months to enjoy Hudson Valley (in upstate New York) on a few day trips.  The Hudson Valley is known for its gorgeous foliage in the autumn, and after years of living here, we wanted to take advantage.

On the first trip we went apple-picking, and the second we did a hike on Bear Mountain. 

Trip Numero Uno

Before going to the apple orchard, we dropped by Blue Hill at Stone Barns (basically this sustainable, fancy farm/restaurant built on Rockefeller land) to grab a bite to eat at the cafe.

And meet some turkeys.

Do they look fat enough yet for Thanksgiving?  Perhaps not.  We offered them some tasty prey to help remedy the situation.

Bunni and Rikki were neither amused nor fooled, and stayed back.  Rikki yapped her little head off from a safe distance.

Then we headed west to Warwick to pick apples. Lotsa lotsa apples.

View of some of the trees and surrounding hills.

There was this artificial lake that afforded some nice views.  The lake made me think of this episode from Tales from the Crypt where teenagers are sucked into the pond by a black blob.  Some of them try to find refuge on the floating dock thingy (like at the right of this picture), but they die anyway.

Happy picking. 

We weren't the only ones having a good time.

She can't even hold her tongue in her mouth.

Nothing like happy pugs.  After seeing our pictures from this trip, my mom got upset at Kevin for not taking enough pictures of her beautiful daughter, who is too good for Kevin.

Trip Numero Dos

We had so much fun on our first trip (despite there being no photographic evidence that I was even present), that we returned shortly afterwards to hike on Bear Mountain.  This is unusual for me. I don't particularly like being away from my TV and refrigerator and an ice cream store.

There was a little Oktoberfest and we partook of the sausage, kraut, beets and German potato salad.  Good to fortify with 10x more calories than we would expend on the 2-hour hike.

There were some beautiful views, even before we started the hike.

Then we started.

Shortly after this picture, the path veered rather sharply up towards the sky, at approximately a 70 degree angle. I'm not joking.  I thought my thighs were turning to acid and that I was going to pass out.  Ne'er you mind that a 70-year old woman booked it past me, muttering something about "slowpoke" as she shoved me aside.

But it was worth it in the end for some really wonderful views.

Look, it's the tall white man and his little Asian bride!

After we hustled back down the mountain, we figured we deserved some good grub. And good grub we got, in the form of soondubu jjigae at So Kong Dong in Fort Lee, NJ.  I'd tell you in detail about the meal, but Serena over at Big Apple Nosh gave a great rundown of the restaurant and you must be tired of me at this point.  But still, a few pictures.

There was even a Trip Numero Tres with my friends to enjoy the Halloween events of Sleepy Hollow, but the pictures bite the big one so I'll just say it was lovely and awesome, especially to have some girl-time.

How's everyone's autumn going?