Fun in Fall – A Lovely Day in New Paltz

There are few places more awesome to visit this time of year than the Hudson Valley. So we recently headed up with some of our friends to one of our favorite towns, New Paltz, to take in everything that the season has to offer.

We started the day picking apples at one of my favorite orchards, Dressel Farms, which offers gorgeous, sweeping views of the Shawangunk Ridge.

We followed that up with a stroll down Historic Huguenot Street, spending a bit of time in the old Walloon Church Graveyard. Quite a perfect place to be with Halloween coming up 🙂

We then spent a great amount of time meandering around the Nyquist-Harcourt Wildlife Sanctuary. It was so serene and enchanting, especially with the golden light of the late afternoon.

We finished off the evening with a hearty, rustic Italian dinner at one of our favorite Hudson Valley restaurants, A Tavola. I highly recommend, well…everything. Haha! Love that place.

There’s still a lot of time left in the fall season, so we will definitely be taking another trip up that way. So stay tuned for more ;)!

 

Summer Rewind – Farewell to the Season

After all the anticipation, through the doldrums of winter and the temperamental weather of spring…just like that…*poof*… summer is about to be done. I’m sad to see the season go, but this year was really an enjoyable time, overall. Things started off incredibly hectic, but they evened out just enough for me to enjoy some super pleasant weekends with friends, family or just plain solo. I didn’t take too many photos to capture some of my summer moments (which I now regret as I compose this post, heh). But, of the ones I did take, here are just a few of my favorite shots.

Strolling around Brooklyn Bridge Park

Hitting Up Le District and enjoying Umami Burger for the first time

A short weekend in Washington DC with my dad, checking out a few monuments at the National Mall

My dad and me 🙂

I didn’t know DC had canals!

A late summer afternoon stroll in Central Park

Yes – I AM outside! And it’s awesome!

Fare thee well summer… until next year…

100th Post!!! Summer Rewind – Fourth of July Upstate

First things first…

I cannot believe that I have reached my 100th post! Wow!!! It has required quite a bit of work, but I really do enjoy working on this blog. And I hope that you all out there have found it be to be enjoyable and helpful, too. A big thank you for reading!!!

Now, on to the post…

We’re already halfway through summer (*sheds a little tear*), and, oh my, it has been quite a busy one. Each week has seen me pounding the pavement with my clients, so I haven’t had a lot of free time. But the free time that I have had has been well spent. In particular, this year’s Fourth of July weekend. We took advantage of the almost perfect summer weather that weekend to head up to some of our favorite places upstate with some of our friends – namely, Fishkill Farms, Innisfree Garden and Millbrook Winery. The time spent there was so relaxing and almost magical. As I’ve said time and time again, we New Yorkers are so blessed to have such an abundance of things outside of the city so close by. Wineries, farms, beaches, mountains…you name it, and New York state pretty much has it. That’s why I love New York 🙂

Here are a few of my favorite shots from the weekend.

The trees at Fishkill Farms were full of gorgeous, delicious cherries!

A view of the cherry trees at Fishkill. So. Many. Cherries.

A beautiful vista and man made geyser at Innisfree Garden.

A view of a lush, overgrown pond in Innisfree Garden.

One of many waterfalls found in the garden…

My first time ever seeing a real life lotus blossom. Now I know why these flowers inspire thoughts of peace…

A little upstate summer imagery 🙂

Looking out on the vineyards at Milbrook Winery.

Things in Spring 2015

Okay, so I’ve been massively delinquent when it comes to my “A Day in My Life” posts. That’s because the days in my life have been quite busy with me running all over the city, heh 🙂 But with less than two weeks left in spring, I figured I ought to share some highlights from the season with you. Even though work has had me slammed over the past few weeks, I have found some time (and energy) to enjoy the sights, smells and sounds of spring around me, both here and elsewhere.

Dia:beacon

Early on in the spring, my husband and I took a much needed day trip to Beacon, NY to check out Dia:Beacon. Even though we’re regular visitors to the Hudson Valley, and have taken Metro North on numerous occasions, we still managed to NOT make it to Beacon. I’m so happy we finally corrected that. Dia now rates as one of my favorite museums dedicated to modern art. Here are a few of my favorite shots:

Brooklyn Botanical Garden

My husband and I also finally decided to take advantage our proximity and become members at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. I had just enough down time to be able to enjoy the blooming of the cherry blossoms in all their splendor, as well as the gorgeous, fragrant first batch of roses in late May.

 

toronto

For Memorial Day weekend, we decided we really, REALLY needed an extended break from NYC. So we decided to go away…to another city 🙂 Toronto to be precise. We’d heard so many rave reviews that we figured it was worth a visit, and boy WAS IT! Toronto is a fabulous city with so much to offer – we were really kind of overwhelmed with the options. Since we only had a few days, we stuck to some recommended highlights – St. Lawrence Market, West Queen West, Kensington, the Royal Ontario Museum, the Beaches and the University of Toronto. We’re definitely excited to go back again and take in even more.

CN Tower

The famous St. Lawrence Market – home of the best bacon EVER!

The bountiful, beautiful fruit at St. Lawrence Market

The Distillery District

West Queen West

Street art from Graffiti Alley

A serene afternoon on the campus of the University of Toronto

Royal Ontario Musuem entrance

Allen Lambert Galleria in Brookfield Place

A cute, quirky block in Kensington (which, btw, has banging Jamaican food)

Love ya Toronto! 🙂

in and around nyc

And finally, to close things out, some shots of NYC in bloom this season 🙂

Definitely looking forward to savoring the last few days of spring and then welcome all the things that summer has in store!

Winter Wanderings – Meandering Around Park Slope & Boerum Hill

With winter (finally) on it’s way out this week, I thought today might be a great day to share some of my favorite winter time shots. Now seeing as how we had one too many days below 30 degrees (and 20 degrees), the distance of my expeditions were quite limited – I basically stuck to my own neighborhood of Park Slope and the nearby ‘hood of Boerum Hill. But hey – at least both areas are marvelously gorgeous 🙂

Enjoy this last ode to winter!

Winter Wanderings – Brooklyn Museum “Killer Heels” Exhibition

Despite being just a hop, skip and a jump away from it, my husband and I have only been to the Brooklyn Museum once. As in, ever. This is crazy in light of the fact that it’s the second largest museum in all of New York City. Yes, all of New York City, with its dozens upon dozens of museums! It would be a terrible shame to be so close to an institution of such great importance and not take advantage of it.  So we decided that we needed to remedy this, immediately. And our timing was perfect, since the Brooklyn Museum has a positively fascinating exhibition going on entitled “Killer Heels.” The exhibition not only takes a look at heels throughout history, but the social trends and feelings that they signify. I love things like this that take day to day objects and makes you think of them in a new light.

The exhibition will be there until March 1st. So if you haven’t seen it yet, GO!

For more information – http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/