My sorority sister, Dana, lives in Brooklyn and turned the big 3-0 this past weekend! I took the train down and met up with her, her husband Ryan, and some friends and family at a small brewery for some drinks and pizza. The only picture I have from the brewery is of the bacon and egg pizza I ordered. Whoops.
After I left, I decided to roam around a bit before getting back on the train…and wound up taking a walk over the Brooklyn Bridge! I’ve actually never done it before (along with 99% of tourist attractions in NYC). It was a lot longer than I thought and that combined with all the walking I did earlier in the day left me exhausted. I was more than happy to sit down on the train for the ride home!
On Saturday, Maranda and I explored parts of lower Westchester County! I tend to overlook this part of New York because I’m either doing stuff close to home or taking the train directly into Manhattan. But while making plans for the weekend, I really wanted to go to an all-you-can-eat sushi place and the closest place that has it on a Saturday is in Eastchester. Once I knew we were going to be down there for the afternoon, I planned another outing in nearby Valhalla.
Maranda came to my house and then I drove us down to Eastchester. Our destination was a surprise for Maranda so she kept making random guesses but once she saw the sign that said “Sushi Castle”, she knew exactly where we were going. We arrived shortly after they opened and the restaurant filled up quickly. Maranda and I ordered a mix of rolls, sushi, and sashimi. Everything was delicious and we even ordered a second round! There were three foreign men at the table next to us and they ordered a HUGE plate of just sushi and sashimi – it was a beautiful sight. We realized we had missed an opportunity. I definitely want to go back and will NOT be wasting any room in my stomach on rolls. Also – we added up the price of what we actually ordered vs. the all-you-can-eat price and we definitely got our money’s worth!
After we rolled our stuffed selves out of the restaurant, we went to Kensico Dam Plaza in Valhalla. I had been once before for a photoshoot and had always wanted to go back. Walking around after our large meal felt GREAT and we even worked up an appetite to visit the ice cream man! We climbed this huge flight of stairs to get to the top of the damn. It’s a little crazy to see water right below you on one said and then this huge drop into the park on the other side. This made us decide that dams are really cool and we want to plan more hikes to visit dams before Maranda leaves. (Do you know how hard it was for me to keep typing dam instead of damn this whole paragraph??)
So okay, definitely want to go back to those two places. Other places that are close by that I’d like to get to:
Rye Playland (an amusement park)
White Plains (lots of bars and restaurants!)
Parks near the Tappan Zee Bridge (since I didn’t get to go watch the bridge get blown up in person…they moved the date from a Saturday to a Tuesday at the last minute)
Croton Gorge Park (there’s a dam!)
The best part – lower Westchester County is only about an hour from home AND we had a car with us so we were able to get back later in the afternoon and do things locally! I guess I’ll have to stop forgetting that area of New York exists…
This summer is flying by! Last month, James and I went up to Lake George for the annual family weekend that my dad’s side of the family hosts (that happens to coincide with my aunt and uncle’s birthdays). This year, it also happened to coincide with a MAJOR heat wave so if we were outside, we were most certainly in the lake.
James and I at the Sagamore before we boarded the Morgan
James, Lilly, and I drove up on Thursday. We went to breakfast Friday morning and then did a big grocery shopping for the weekend. We spent some time at the beach and then came home. Ashley drove up and joined us Friday evening. She got there after dark and it was still so hot so we decided to walk down to the beach. We thought we were the only ones there (it was SILENT) but then suddenly these three middle aged women emerged from the lake holding champagne glasses. They went up to James and asked him why he wasn’t swimming and he just pointed to his cast and was like “uhhh…foot’s kinda broken?” so then they left but not before creepily chanting “enjoy your summer night” repeatedly. So if that’s not weird enough, after they were gone I turned around to see which way they went and saw that there were only two sets of wet footprints even though there had been three women. So apparently Lake George is haunted by middle aged women.
My cousins and I at our aunt’s party.
My uncle threw my aunt a huge birthday party on a boat for her 65th birthday on Saturday evening. The boat left from the Sagamore and cruised around Lake George for 3 hours. We had cocktail hour on the upper deck and then went downstairs for an amazing buffet dinner. Afterwards, we went back to the house and had an after party and James got my aunt to do pickleback shots!
James and Lilly riding in style on my paddle board.
On Sunday we visited the Adirondack Winery in Bolton Landing before Ashley had to leave. We wound up splitting a case of wine for the house and because we bought gifts for a few friends. Ashley went back to Connecticut straight from Bolton Landing and James and I went back to the house and brought Lilly out on the paddleboard with us. At night, the “adults” went to the Firehouse for dinner but we stayed out on the lake and met them at Windchill for ice cream – it was National Ice Cream Day so it was super appropriate.
James and I originally were supposed to leave Monday to go camping in Vermont but after he broke is foot, we decided to just stay up at the lake a few extra days. We tried to go to Fort Ticonderoga but it was pouring out and it required a lot of walking outside so instead we drove back down to Bolton Landing and went to the Bolton Landing Brewing Company. It opened up two or three years ago but this is the first time I’ve visited. We each got a flight of beer and split some tacos. The beer was great and so were the tacos! We will definitely be visiting again. After Bolton Landing Brewing Company, I made the same mistake I have made so many times before on trips to Bolton. There is a bar on the main road that advertises that they offer a raw bar. I love oysters so every year it seems that I am lured in by this sign, only to be disappointed (one year they served the oysters in a BOWL of ice with the shells tipped so everything slid out of the shells). I really need to start following my own advice – if a raw bar only has one type of oyster on the menu, it’s not a raw bar. So yeah, we stopped in this particular bar to get oysters and while they weren’t served in a bowl this time, they weren’t good.
My flight at the Bolton Landing Brewing Company.
The weather was much better on Tuesday and we drove down to Lake George Village. We played mini golf and got lunch at one of the many bars that overlook the water. We also went and sat on the beach for a bit but didn’t go in the water.
James and I during our trip to Bolton.
Wednesday was our last day at the lake. We spent the morning paddleboarding and going to the beach – the water was SO warm that even the sand under the water was warm. We reluctantly packed up and left in the afternoon. When we were in Ticonderoga, we noticed that Route 22 ran through town so we decided to take 22 home instead of the usual way. It was a super scenic route and everything was fine until we got to where 22 meets I90 – we found ourselves behind a truck with an oversized load that was going 30 mph the whole time. We were behind this truck the ENTIRE rest of the way home. At one point, 22 widens to two lanes in each direction. A car in front of us went to pass the truck but one of the vans following truck (you know, the one with the lights and “WIDE LOAD” sign) literally swerved to block him from passing the truck. It turned a three hour drive into five. What a way to end our trip!
For the first thirteen and a half years of my life, I had no cousins on my dad’s side of the family. And then came Anne Marie!
With our large age difference, she quickly earned the nickname “Rugrat” (shortened to Ruggie) as she tagged along for whatever adventures she could. By the time she was 13, she was the same height as me and wore the same size clothes as me. We also had the same (expensive) taste in makeup. Even though that she’s now the taller one, I still call her Ruggie in person and in letters.
Since my uncle works for the school, he got to go on stage and give Anne Marie her diploma!
In what seems like just a few short years, Anne Marie has grown from a small girl, too timid to jump off the boat into the lake, to a grown woman that is graduating from high school and heading to college! I am so stinkin’ proud of my little cousin and I can’t wait to see how much she learns and grows in college.
Jake’s birthday was on May 31st which was the same day we went to the Yankee’s game. We thought we were going to miss out on the celebration but the game ended superquick and we were back on the road and heading home at around the same time the group was just getting to Bull and Barrel. We texted them when we were about 15 minutes out and met up with everybody there.
Bull and Barrel is a large country-themed bar just over the New York state line. They brew their own beer (the blueberry is my favorite!) and they have a mechanical bull in the middle of the room. I can’t ride the bull due to a neck injury (and let’s be real, I make a fool out of myself enough each day…I don’t need to add more opportunities to do so) but some of our friends rode the bull! I tried to get some pictures and videos but it was pretty dark. The guy in charge of the mechanical bull even let Jake ride it again after he fell off the first time.
Birthday Boy Jake
After we were done at Bull and Barrel, everybody came back to our house to hang out in a quieter setting. We stayed up wayyy too late and it definitely reminded me of a Friday night from when I was younger!
A family friend recently posted that his grandson’s baseball team was doing a fundraiser and had bought a block of tickets to a Yankees-Red Sox game. James and I jumped at the chance to go (he’s NEVER been to a baseball game and I’ve not been to the new stadium yet) and our friend Ross joined us.
It really wound up being a great day. The larger group took the train down around 3 but since we had work, we drove down around 5. The drive actually wasn’t too bad, only a bit of traffic at the end. We found parking easy enough and got into the stadium relatively quickly. Our seats were amazing! The weather was perfect – we all packed our 440 sweatshirts so we could take matching pictures but it wasn’t even cold enough to wear them (we did put them on for a photo though). Oh and the best part – the Yankees won!
After we left our Airbnb, we headed back south. My mom had recommended several wineries for us to stop at along Seneca Lake but because it was a Sunday, most of them were still closed at the time we were traveling.
Kayla had told us that we should check out the gorge in Watkins Glen. It was pouring out but James and I wanted to since we were right there. We had seen part of it from the road when we were driving the day before and honestly didn’t know what to expect. We just thought there was a little area right off the road – nope. It’s a HUGE PARK. Even though it was pouring, we still hiked a little on the trail. It was amazing to see the path the water had carved for itself. The water was coming down through the rock with such force that it looked like a water slide. We definitely want to go back later this summer!
Since we didn’t get to make our own glass the day before at the Corning Museum of Glass, we bought tickets to an afternoon glass blowing session right after we left Watkins Glen. We had lunch when we arrived in Corning and then went to the museum to do some shopping before our session began. James and I both go to make something and they let us go at different times so we could get pictures of each other! James actually got to shape the glass for his sculpture which looked super cool and is something I definitely want to try.
We started driving back towards home after we finished our glass blowing session but since it was so early in the day, we decided to stop along the way as things seemed interesting. On our way up we had spotted a casino called Tioga Downs right off the highway. We decided to stop and as we were pulling into the parking lot, there was a sign that the antique barn was open! James was definitely not as excited as I was, although he did wind up finding a tool organizer that made his boss jealous. I found some vintage Pyrex dishes that were way cheaper than what I had been finding them for in Connecticut. Also, fun fact, Pyrex was made by Corning! So it was totally an appropriate souvenir. We went into the casino itself for a bit but we’re spoiled after living so close to Foxwoods and Mohegan so we hit the road again. We made one more stop in Binghamton to have dinner and got home in the early evening.
James and I both really want to go back to the Finger Lakes region for a long weekend this summer so hopefully I’ll have another post about this wonderful place later this summer!
Earlier this month, James and I joined several of my sorority sisters and their significant others in the Finger Lakes region of New York to celebrate Kayla and Josh’s wedding. Kayla is my “big” in our sorority. We have this habit of dressing, looking, and acting alike so it was no surprise that Kayla ALSO ran off into the woods to get married. Unlike James and I, her and Josh aren’t planning a big reception so this was our time to celebrate. PLUS Kayla and Josh live in California so I don’t get to see them that often. It was absolutely refreshing to have a bunch of us under one roof just like it was in college…except with boys…and a baby…that’s also a boy.
James and I drove up Friday after work. We stayed in this huge, old (haunted) Airbnb in the middle of nowhere. Everybody was arriving at different times and by the time we arrived, everybody that was already there was settled into bed. James and I went to our room and got a decent night’s sleep except for the part where Jess, Phil, and their baby arrived at 4 am and James didn’t KNOW anybody else was arriving in the middle of the night so he thought a ghost baby was out to get him. Whoops.
Saturday morning, I woke up to the wonderful sound of my friends chatting away downstairs. I found my way to the living room and promptly dove onto the antique couch they were sitting on. After a bit of catching up, we all sat in the large dining room to have breakfast together. I wish the weather was a little bit nicer – there was a large covered porch off the dining room that would have been perfect but it was chilly.
After breakfast, we headed into Corning to pick up Irene and visit the Corning Museum of Glass. Several of wanted to do the “make your own glass” session but we just didn’t have enough time. We went through the museum and saw several demonstrations including glass blowing. After the museum, we grabbed lunch at Mooney’s which I guess is a chain that they also have in Buffalo? Half of our table ate like adults and ordered sandwiches and the other half of our table ordered giant platters of mac and cheese…you can guess which end James and I sat at.
For the afternoon, we visited one of the many winerys bordering Seneca Lake – Lakewood Vineyards. Some people will come to the area and rent a party bus and do an entire wine tour (saw a few of those during our travels) but we stuck with just the one winery. The lady serving us was so nice (she reminded me of Maranda’s mom) and she gave us plenty of extra samples. We purchased a bottle of rose wine from the winery.
Since we had such a huge lunch, nobody really wanted dinner. Also, the weather turned out nicer than predicted (for Saturday only) so we sat around the bonfire drinking wine and eating junk food including roasted marshmallows. Once it got too dark, we went back into the house and played the Harkin House favorite, Quiplash, before heading to bed.
Sunday morning we had to check out of the house pretty early but we came downstairs to find that everybody had surprised Kayla and Josh and James and I with wedding cakes and cards! Irene even played “Happy Wedding Day to You” on the piano – if you’re curious it 100% sounds like “Happy Birthday to You” haha. After enjoying cake for breakfast, we quickly checked out and parted ways. Some people went straight home, others went to visit family and friends in the area. James and I went on our own little adventure which I will write about separately.
The Harkin Chronicles 