Don’t get me wrong, I love New York, but sometimes you just gotta get out and smell the roses outside of the city. The friend I stayed with during my trip to New York actually lives about an hour outside of the city, which means she has a car. This was awesome because we were able to explore the area surrounding the city for a couple of days. For some reason I never realized how beautiful New England was until I explored it on this trip. So here are some of my favorite things that I did.
Angry Orchard Brewery: So, disclaimer. I love Angry Orchard normally, so I was probably a lot more excited about this stop than someone that doesn’t drink cider would be. First of all, this place is beautiful! There are orchards for as far as the eye can see and mountains behind those. Second, you get a little history lesson as you are walking into the tasting room that tells you all about how Angry Orchard became a thing. And probably the best part, the tasting room! When you visit, you get four tastings for free and then pints range from $5-8. The best part of the tasting is that they have flavors you can only get in that tasting room. Honestly, all of the flavors are great and you get to drink with a beautiful view. It’s a great little afternoon trip.
Visit Yale University: Apparently I am trying to visit all of the Ivy Leagues at some point. Visiting Yale put me at three and it was well worth the visit. The campus is huge compared to Harvard, but not quite as big as Cornell. And it looks like a straight up castle. Plus like at Harvard, I felt smarter just by stepping foot on campus. We probably walked around the campus for close to two hours and I felt like I realistically could have continued on, but I wasn’t wearing comfortable shoes and my feet started to hurt. And I wanted a milkshake.
Stop for lunch and ogle the houses in Greenwich: Secretly one of my favorite activities is to go ogle at mansions that I will probably never be able to afford. I am pretty sure I got this little trait from my mom because I can still remember doing this with her when I was a kid. Greenwich was the perfect place to continue this little tradition. The houses were absolutely stunning and the downtown area was so cute. The food options were plentiful and there were fun little boutiques sprinkled along the street. We ended up settling on a salad shop because sometimes you just need some lettuce in your life.
Go for a drive through the Hudson Valley: One of my favorite things I learned while on this trip, was how pretty the Hudson Valley is. There are beautiful mountains and green everywhere. And the Hudson is amazing to drive along with all of its cute little towns and fantastical views. Between the greenery and cute little towns, I was about to up and move to New York after this trip.
All in all, the things you can experience outside of the city are almost as amazing as the things you can do in the city. And obviously I still need to talk about those things. So check back next week for my final New York post, where I am talking all about my time in the Big Apple. Until next time, friends… CB
