So today is the summer solstice, and officially the “start of summer”. If summer has only just started, who knows what temperatures we will see over the next couple of months as it definitely feels like summer is already in full swing here in New York.

I started the week with an outdoor cinema event with the girls on the East River. It was hosted by Whitney Cummings (who created the TV series Two Broke Girls) and the film was “16 Candles”, a 1980s classic American chick flick. We drank local beers and listened to a band as the sun set, and then settled in for the film once it got dark…

I’ll definitely try to get to some more outdoor showings before the summer is over!

A couple of friends from university were also in town this week, so, seizing the chance to try another rooftop, I took them to the Spyglass for some cocktails – shame the view wasn’t better though….

We saw some jazz at the Rum House afterwards, and as my friend said, you feel like you’re on the set of Mad Men. I think I won their “best tour guide award”, or at least I like to think I do.

Now, when living in a big city like New York, it’s important to be conscious of the environment, so this weekend, me and my friends decided to do our bit and recycle some grapes… i.e. drink some wine! We hopped on a bus to Pennsylvania, which, although you may not think of it as a famous wine region, is recognised as an American Viticultural Area (whatever that means), for a wine-tasting tour.

We started off by posing for our girl band cover amongst the vines…

Before moving on to our first tasting… It started off sophisticated…

But quickly led to pulling funny faces with our tour guide:

We went to three different vineyards, and although were given a few too many Chardonnays for our liking, but we did enjoy some Chambourcins and a very nice dry Riesling which I think most of us bought a bottle of as it was so different to what you normally associate with Riesling. There was the chance to sample some wines made from blueberries, strawberries and cherries but we all found these a bit too sweet.

We mainly just had fun playing in the vines… Album cover number 2: 

And number 3: “walk into the distance and turn around”:

Our favourite winery was the last one which was a really family-run business that had been handed down through the generations and had some great sparkling wines.

A lovely day with some great friends – by the third winery they were all promising to come and visit me in London next year so I will hold them to that!

Just remember, Amys still run the world…

I’ve got some special guests arriving next weekend so expect many more exciting things on here that I have been saving to do with them.