easy peasy

I realize not everyone has access to a car in Boston, at least not often enough to go on a bunch of hikes and excursions around New England. But everyone can use a little time "out of the city" every once in a while. So these are my favorite places in Boston to get the feel of being away from the city, even just for a bit.

i see the ocean!

Today, we meant to get up early and hike either Mt. Greylock or Mt. Washington. But, as it turned out, we didn't wake up until around 10. So, with sunrise being so early (4:15 today!), we didn't really have enough sunlight for a three hour drive and a day-long hike. But we still wanted to get out of the city, and last night Julie brought up the idea of going out to the Cape instead. So, on a whim, that's what we did.

THIS ONE'S A DOOZY.

THIS HIKE WAS THE BEST. WOW.  Monadnock is an awesome climb.

Keeping in the spirit of #tbt....For the first hike of the season this year we went on probably the best hike I've done in New England and one of the best I can remember doing. Living in Boston, or really anywhere in New England, is great because we're within a reasonable driving distance of a zillion mountains. (That's basically what got me thinking I could write about this for a decent amount of time in the first place - between the hikes we've already done and the innumerable amount of hikes we have left to do, there's stories aplenty and plenty to come.) Monadnock was Julie's idea (check out her awesome blog!), but she thought of it in the spring before we all scattered for summer break. So coming back, we decided to take it on! The view from the top looked incredible, so we did some research, got a crew together, and headed out.

Monadnock summit from the road

First off I'd like to point out that Monadnock is WAY taller than it looks from the base. Its 2149' feet to the summit, and it took us a few hours get to the top - though we did stop to take in the views every few minutes. There's a couple main trails  - the White Cross and the White Dot - but we decided to take a combination of the smaller trails to challenge ourselves and to avoid running into a bunch of people. (Just for the record, we took the Lost Farm trail to the Cliff walk and bald rock to the amphitheater trail to the Smith summit trail, and it was intense and beautiful). Monadnock is pretty popular, and there were a good number of families and other groups hiking the two main trails. Even on the smaller footpaths we ended up running into

a lot of people on our way up. The trails are steep and rocky at times, but there are plenty of places to stop and "look at the view" to give yourself a breather. Though the park people may not thank me for saying this, I really recommend getting off the trail a bit to get the full effect of just how awesome the views are all the way up the mountain. We did, and it definitely added to the perfection of the whole experience. We even sang some Pocahontas tunes off the side of the mountain at one point, and got some love from other hikers on their way down.

                 
As we got higher, hikers coming down started telling us to watch out for the "gale" at the top. When we started, it was literally the perfect day to hike. The sun was shining and it was around 60-70 degrees, so it wasn't too hot and wasn't too cold. The later it got, the cloudier it started to get. We made it to Bald Rock, which was probably about an hour from the summit, and the sky was completely grey. The closer we got to the top, the more we started catching on to just how intense this gale everyone was warning us about actually was ...

is it ski season yet?

I only went skiing for the first time last year. Growing up in Tennessee didn't really offer that many chances to hit the slopes - though I did waterski for a few summers. Even after I moved up to Boston I never went because, lets be real, what college kid has the funds to ski all that often. Between renting all the gear I don't have and the pass itself, its usually over 100 dollars per trip. BUT THEN...we discovered Crotched Mountain in New Hampshire.

winter is coming....

Flurries have started to fall, and I'm sure everyone has their own feelings about the freezing cold and mountains of snow New England gets dealt this time of year. Most of us that aren't used to freezing our asses off for months and never seeing the sun tend to lock ourselves away and hibernate, and this post is for us! The outdoors don't shut their doors when it gets cold! Skiing isn't the only thing to do on snowy mountains! And honestly one of the most fun hikes I've ever done was is Burlington, Vermont in the middle of January. So for my first official winter post (yikes), Mt. Philo.

Look how happy we look! Can't have been too rough...

Burlington is literally the coldest place I've ever been. We didn't spend a ton of time exploring the actual city, mainly just around UVM. But after our first night (which was insane, Burlington kids know how to have fun), the whole crew decided to take on Mt. Philo, a small mountain right next to Burlington. By this time, snow had been on the ground for ages. I had no idea we were going to do this, it ended up as more of a spontaneous thing, so all I brought was Hunter boots which, though great, are less than effective for hiking in snow. But it ended up being all the funnier for it.

The trail didn't start out too intense, there were even some stairs right at the beginning, but the higher up the mountain we got, it got more interesting.

          

   

The higher we got, the icier the trail got. At times we were literally falling over each other and sliding back down the trail. *Reminder* I'm wearing Hunter boots. Hunter boots. On an icy trail winding up the littlest mountain that ended up taking quite a while to climb between sliding back down and laughing about it. Not to mention we were all fairly hungover, which made everything at once more difficult and hilarious. Hiking in the snow may seem like the worst, but get some friends together, don't wear Hunter boots, layer up and get ready for some slapstick mountain climbing - which will warm you up anyway! Pretty sure I ended up unzipping my coat after about half an hour. And once we got to the top, it was so worth it. Definitely freezing, but definitely worth freezing for. 

          

       

               

     


So if, like me, you get a bit stir crazy after a few weeks in the city in wintertime, get your favorite people together and tackle a mountain. I mean come on, who doesn't love watching their friends slide down mountains like cartoon characters? Hilarity and great memories will no doubt ensue so DON'T FEAR THE SNOW - its all in the mindset y'all ~ (and the footwear).

it got too cold

...so in honor of everyone's favorite hashtag to hate, here's a summertime throwback.

One of the best weekends I remember was the weekend me and Miles spent in Maine. Maine is one of the most underrated states in terms of how nice everyone is, how pretty everything is, and how good the food is. (Obviously we all know where to go for a lobster roll, but that's not all they got!)  We went two days in a row, if that tells you anything, and they were completely different experiences. One was a low key sunset stroll; the other a goofy, fun filled day of sunshine and froyo.

I got it into my head I had to go to the beach at around one in the afternoon on a Saturday, which is realistically when we would have wanted to get there. But this was Summer 2012, the last summer ever, and I was NOT going to miss out on my last chance to go to the beach. We gathered together some "beach materials", as if I even knew what that entailed, and started driving towards Maine. We hit a ton of traffic, but eventually made it to Wells Beach, and it was love at first sight. We got there late, but it was perfect. We strolled for a few hours and then got a delicious meal by the beach, and it was great.

Here are some photos from Wells. Wish I had more, it really was such a beautiful place.

 

 

The next day when we woke up, we both packed our bags and headed right back up to Maine. But this time, to Short Sands beach. A completely different experience, but what a fun day. The water was absolutely frigid but ya girl went all the way under. The pictures pretty much tell the story with this one, so enjoy those summer vibes in this cold New England chill ~~

Slamherst

Miles and I decided to spend our two and half year anniversary in Amherst, MA. We like to go driving - if you can't tell that yet - especially now that fall is in full swing, and a cute day trip out to a quieter town than Boston seemed like the perfect way to spend the day. (I also pushed pretty hard for it as I'm an Emily Dickinson fan, and she lived in Amherst her whole life). Little did we know it happened to be a "halfway to St. Patrick's Day"celebration, which we didn't find out until we had already gotten there - and from a pretty funny source. We tried local beer, explored the Farmers' Market, and drove around the surrounding fields and woods to get a good enough dose of nature.

We had intended to maybe go to a winery outside of Amherst or maybe on a hike, but we left a bit late to hike and once we got to Amherst and parked, we ended up just walking around downtown and eventually getting food at a local bar called The High Horse, which brewed its own beer. The beers were pretty good! The food photographed a bit better than it tasted, but I did still eat all of it so I can't say I didn't enjoy it! I got their IPA and Miles got a Belgian Wheat Beer called Mr. White. All and all they were good! I'm crazy for hops so I would have loved more, but it was fun to drink the local juice!

Probably the funniest and least expected thing about our excursion to Amherst was that it happened to be halfway to St. Patricks Day which, for UMass kids, is a cause for celebration. Tons of people were lining up outside and pouring out of bars downtown dressed in full St. Patricks day regalia. I wish I had gotten a picture, but you can imagine the atmosphere. It was pretty funny and I wouldn't have had a problem except that I had been dying to go to Antonio's since we had decided to come to Amherst, as I'd seen it was the best pizza in the area and I love pizza, but it was SO FULL of a combination of drunk college kids from the bars and families coming from the cute outdoor farmers market a block or two away. The combination of so many of the two in such close quarters was a bit much so we ended up at High Horse, which worked out anyway! If this little trip taught us anything, it was how to make the most of curve balls and still have a chill day when the destination is completely different than we expected.

All in all I'd say Amherst is a fun way to spend a day in New England, especially in fall, but the town itself wasn't what I expected. Chalk that up to my own ignorance though, before deciding I wanted to go there the only thing I knew about Amherst was that Emily Dickinson's house was there. Sometimes I just get these ideas and get REALLY excited about them without really thinking it through or even investigating that much. Had I realized there would be a halfway to St. Patty's day celebration, that it was like that, I definitely would have approached the whole thing with a different mindset and come with my drinking cap on. Still, everywhere surrounding Amherst is gorgeous, and its worth the drive out just for that. If you're looking for a good time surrounded by 18-24 year olds, and some families and young professionals scattered here and there, it's a fun place to stop through. Who can dislike a place that doesn't just celebrate St. Patrick's Day, but the half-way mark too? As a former Irish Dancer, I can respect that.

Em+

leaf peeping

Yeah I'm serious!


New England has some of the most most vibrant leaves I've ever seen this time of year. A few weeks ago I was looking online for somewhere to hike in the Berkshires, when I stumbled across "leaf peeping", which it turns out is a thing in up here. So, naturally, I didn't want to miss out and ended up convincing Miles to drive all the way out to the western-most county in Mass. The best time to go is really the first or second week in October, so we were a bit late to see the leaves in their peak. Still, it was impressive.