Last weekend (9/22) was Kinsey and I's 5th wedding anniversary! We decided to take a long weekend trip to New York. After much searching, we found a nice converted barn around the Woodstock/Saugerties area. We'd never been to that area before and thought it would be perfect for a nice and relaxing anniversary weekend.
The place was really nice and open. I especially loved the wooden beams and floor throughout! Here's the downstairs area (complete with our mess of bags on the table!) and below is half of the upstairs area (looking across the room from the bed). Lots of good natural light and a very quiet area. On Saturday night, there was a fairly quick thunderstorm and it was pretty cool to look out and see absolutely no lights or rain except every so often when the lightening would light up the entire sky.
A box of delicious chocolates awaited us when we got to the barn/cabin from the owners! They were so good!
On Saturday, we went to see the Saugerties Lighthouse, which sits in the Hudson River. The lighthouse is only accessible (other than by boat) by taking a 1/2 mile trail. The trail is not accessible during high tides, so you have to plan your hike accordingly. The lighthouse is actually a bed and breakfast as well. I would love to be able to stay here sometime!
Kinsey and I LOVE apples, so of course we visited a few orchards in the area. Our favorite apple hands down is the Macoun. It's very common in New England (we had our very first at the Bar Harbor Farmer's Market...yeah!), but not so common were we live. A few orchards have them, but they only have a handful it seems and they're just not the same taste.
We went to Minard Orchard on our way back home and loved it. First of all, they had lots and lots and lots of fresh, great looking, perfect, crisp Macouns. We bought a huge amount (we very well knew that these may be our last for the season!) and were so excited to taste them. (The apples were wonderful! We have a small handful left and are cherishing every last one.) Then, we got Kinsey's favorite thing, cider donuts. He said these were the best he's had. They had the usual sugared ones and (yes!) non sugared ones (which is a rare thing to find where we live). Of course, we topped off the trip with some freshly pressed apple cider.
Now we're wondering, is it worth a 4 hour drive to go back for more? (Probably!)
We went to Minard Orchard on our way back home and loved it. First of all, they had lots and lots and lots of fresh, great looking, perfect, crisp Macouns. We bought a huge amount (we very well knew that these may be our last for the season!) and were so excited to taste them. (The apples were wonderful! We have a small handful left and are cherishing every last one.) Then, we got Kinsey's favorite thing, cider donuts. He said these were the best he's had. They had the usual sugared ones and (yes!) non sugared ones (which is a rare thing to find where we live). Of course, we topped off the trip with some freshly pressed apple cider.
Now we're wondering, is it worth a 4 hour drive to go back for more? (Probably!)
On Sunday, we also did the Walkway over the Hudson. It's billed as the longest, elevated pedestrian bridge in the world. The bridge spans 1.28 miles long each way, so we got so good exercise walking across and back. It was a beautiful and clear day and you could see for miles and miles.
View from the bridge. The right side is in Highland and the left is in Poughkeepsie. This was a great way to end a wonderful trip!
