Last weekend started at another gig, but this time it featured a friend of mine from the town where I grew up who was doing a mini tour of New York’s Irish bars with her folk band. They did a great job, with a huge repertoire of songs – they even managed to get the regulars to join in, many of whom knew an impressive amount of the songs! I love when people from home pass through NYC so always let me know if you will be in town!

And then on Saturday morning, having seen the weather forecast for a beautiful day and needing to escape the city, Dara and I headed, as you may have guessed from the title of this post, into the woods! Harriman State Park to be precise.

We hopped on a bus, our bags stuffed with a picnic, suncream, sunglasses, some sketchy directions and several litres of water, and hopped off again at a town called Tuxedo. After a little difficulty locating the trailhead, we found a couple of other friendly hikers who clearly marked us out as amateurs (maybe we gave it away by setting off on a nine-mile hike clutching a bundle of papers and our iPhones rather than a map) and showed us the way. Trails in this part of the country are marked by a series of blobs on trees, e.g. follow the red dot on white blobs, then at the big rock, switch onto the red dash on white etc etc.

However, once we found the start, I’m proud to say we navigated with success, crossing treacherous rivers….

Climbing over boulders…

And of course, chilling by the lakes that we found along the way … Exhibit 1:

Lake Sebago

Exhibit 2 where we ate our lunch:

Lake Skenonto

There were only about 10 other hikers out all doing a variety of different trails so we all kept bumping into each other and advising on which trails to take and by the end of the day we felt we had made loads of new friends. It was also so peaceful – you could hardly hear a thing once you were in the woods! Such a great way to spend a day.

We got back to the town a bit early for our bus back to the city so we celebrated our success with a couple of beers at the town’s one bar, which just happened to be playing country music, making us very excited for our upcoming trip to Nashville!!

Happy Hikers!

Sunday was another beautiful day so after a quick brunch at Uva (I know I went there last week but there was so much on the menu I wanted to try), I headed down to Central Park with my friend Anastasia to lie on the grass and read in the sun. We also took a detour to the blossom trees which were showing off their beauty in the sun – I love this time of year!

And then you’ll never guess where I ended up on Tuesday evening – I would never have guessed this either. A colleague of mine had a spare ticket to a benefit being hosted by the Archaeological Institute of America called “Saving Ancient Places” and asked if I would like to go along. Never one to turn down an opportunity, of course I said yes. It was a black tie affair so we donned our glad rags and set off down to the venue which was right on the river with a great view of the sunset. I’m sorry I didn’t take any photos so you’ll just have to use your imagination. As we sipped on champagne and admired the view, we saw plenty of archaeologists in the crowd but also many others who had just taken an interest in archaeology and the need to protect history, particularly in light of the events taking place in the Middle East. We took our seats for dinner which was themed around traditional ingredients of the Mayans, the Romans and the other ancient civilisations. We feasted on octopus ceviche, duck papusa with cherry mole, filet mignon with figs and gorgonzola and a Cassata di Oplontis for dessert, a traditional honey-based dish (in Pompeii I think!), before an auction started. This was the first time I have ever had an auction paddle so I was very excited, although sadly the bidding quickly went out of my price range….

I’ll try to get on a more regular blogging schedule again but check back again soon for this weekend’s adventures (hint: it includes my new favourite place in NYC:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrh8qDdvBhNZpFehMUNDm8A) and my upcoming birthday celebrations!