Scenes from the Weekend

A nice long 3 day weekend spent road tripping around New York!

A wedding at Peek n Peak for our friends Ian & Amy

(of course, I forgot to take pictures during the wedding, so one of my pretty hotel pillow will have to do)

A breakfast at the Blue Heron Inn on Findley Lake

A morning stroll (and pretty flowers) around Bemis Point at Chautauqua Lake

Bench sitting and relaxing at the lake

A few days spent up in Ellicottville, New York

wandering around and enjoying Holiday Valley Resort!

Dinner & drinks at Ellicottville Brewing Company

A sunset hike to the top of the mountain at Holiday Valley!

A nice afternoon dip in the water at the Allegheny Reservoir on our way back through Pennsylvania :)

And one last stop before heading home: North Country Brewing for dinner (one of our favorites!)

Great summery weekend!*

Trying our best to soak up every last ounce of summer before it slips away!

Hmm, where to next weekend? ;)

Woodstock, New York! {New England Vacation}

Welcome to Woodstock!

Our last stop of vacation before heading home was Woodstock, New York!  We were so excited to visit Woodstock again.  We stopped here once before about 7 years ago while we were on a little road trip right after we graduated college (whoa, that was 7 years ago... #old) and we had been meaning to come back ever since.  And we finally did!

I love this little town...

And Levon Helm too ;)

(if you don't know who he is, then we can't be friends...)

We stayed in this little cabin in the woods that was only a short walk into town...

We spent a lot of time just wandering around town, checking out all the artwork and little shops...

(and I got an awesome new purse in one of those little shops that I loooove!)

We also happened to stumble upon a bar that had live music

and oh my goodness, this band was sooo good!

And definitely one of the highlights of our entire trip... visiting THE BIG PINK!!!!!  In this house, The Band (one of my all time favorite bands) recorded their amazing album Music from Big Pink.  Words cannot describe how awesome it was to stand in front of this house.  We were in giddy music fan heaven.

FYI, here's a reference pic to the Big Pink on the album...

(still looks the same for the most part!)

What a great ending to a really great vacation!

And when we arrived home late that evening, we were greeted with all of this awesomeness

that my mom left for us (well, mainly for Brett's birthday)!  These are the perks of letting your mom know your garage door code... ;)  Oh, and her math is a little off... Brett turned 30 not 50! Hahaha :) 

And thus concludes my recap posts from our wonderful New England Vacation!

Now, where to go next... ;)

Portsmouth, New Hampshire! {New England Vacation}

Hello and happy Wednesday!*  What do ya say we jump right into a few recaps of our wonderful New England vacation?  We just got back about a week and a half ago and I have finally had some time to sit down and recount our great trip!  So here we go...

We broke the trip up into a couple different places that we planned to visit: Portsmouth, NH, Portland, ME, Lake Winnipesaukee, NH, and Woodstock, NY!  On the Friday that we left, we drove straight to Scanton, PA (with a stop in State College for dinner) since it was a good mid-way point on the way to Portsmouth.

On Saturday morning, we woke up bright and early ready to start our first full day of vacation!

Portsmouth, here we come...

Of course, not without a Dunkin Donuts stop for some road trip fuel first... ;)

On the drive up to Portsmouth, we started looking for fun stops along the way.  And oh what do ya know, we were really close to a brewery (Smuttynose Brewing Company) and of course decided to stop!

We took a really great brewery tour which ended with a tasting and lots of beer talk.  Really cool brewery!  And obviously we couldn't leave without a 6 pack of delicious Smuttynose beer!

Then it was time to hit the road again to Portsmouth.  We arrived in the afternoon and spent a lot of time walking around the cute little town.  There was a lot going on, with live music and little arts festivals, and we just strolled around and took it all in.

Before dinner, we decided to stopped for a beer at Portsmouth Brewery because the fine people at Smuttynose gave us vouchers for a free beer there.  Score!

Then it was time for dinner!  We ate at the River House which was located right on the water.  We dined on their deck overlooking the harbor and timed it perfectly to witness a beautiful sunset.

After dinner, we roamed around the town a little more and even stopped at a cute ice cream shop (called Annabelle's!) along the way!  Yum!

And oh oops, we ended up back at Portsmouth Brewery for another beer before calling it a night...

Great start to vacation!

Up next... Portland, Maine!

Home Sweet Home...

We are back from vacation!

While I compile all the pictures from my real camera, here are some of my instagrams from the trip...

We had such a great time exploring the North East coast and everywhere in between!

Definitely a trip to remember.  Be back soon with some real recaps! :)

Summer...

A weekend spent almost completely outside is the best kind, in my book.  Last weekend, we jumped in the car and went on a little brewery & camping adventure.  We headed north, stopping at a couple breweries along the way: Voodoo Brewery & Southern Tier Brewing Company (separate post coming on these!).  Then we continued on and spent the summer night camping on Chautauqua Lake.  There's something about sitting around a fire, surrounded by nature, and just being completely content.  And nothing beats waking up to the sunshine pouring in your tent and going on a hunt for a delicious breakfast (on a zebra plate!) and hot coffee.

That is, until the forecast takes a turn for the worse, and the dark clouds start rolling in, and it's time to pack it up and get outta there as fast as you can!  But at least it held off until Sunday afternoon. :)