this summer has been full of trips to the hudson valley for me. after a year in china, it's hard to believe that i'm back in new york for good, so i haven't had the urge to stray too far. plus now that we're going to be in poughkeepsie part of the week, it's basically my new (second) neighborhood. it's been great exploring more of new york state.
as a last hurrah before the semester starts, hhh and i rented a place in copake with some friends. the town is teeny tiny - the town center consists of a diner and the front porch market. there's not much else! but it's equidistant between hudson and great barrington, ma, so there's plenty to do. the copake hillsdale farmers market is nearby for some great local produce, flowers, eggs, and meats. the house was this incredibly picturesque and very rustic lodge (too rustic! i killed about 15 spiders while we were there).
i lounged by the pool, read books, watched numerous episodes of a really bad (but very engrossing) canadian sci-fi show, took long walks with willa, and ate really good home-cooked meals by my friend sarah, aka our resident chef. (she even made hand-cut pasta!)
the more ambitious among us played tennis and biked on the harlem rail trail, but i was happy to just squeeze in a leisurely stroll up to bash bish falls. (well, we did have to walk all the way to massachusetts.) on the way there, we walked past the historic site of copake iron works, which is housed in this adorable white cabin.
there were a lot of people at the falls, but it was still pretty glorious. nature!
we made it to great barrington mid-week, and had some reeallly delicious breakfast sandwiches at rubi's as well as a cinnamon donut muffin and some coffee cake. rubi's is actually right behind rubiners, a cheese place with a nice selection of cheeses from all over.
i'm looking forward to spending more time out of the city. but i'm going on four days now here in the poughkeepsie apartment, and find myself missing nyc. good thing i'm going home tomorrow!
