Kerhonkson, New York
As I mentioned, my dude and I spent the July 4th weekend upstate in Kerhonkson, NY. I've been upstate several times since I've moved to New York, for day and weekend trips, but this was definitely my favorite one yet. We arrived on Friday afternoon, after taking the Metro North to Poughkeepsie, where we picked up a Zipcar at Vassar College (Meryl Streep's alma mater,but of course).
On our way to gather supplies, we explored the town a little and that's when I fell in love with the abandoned diner and bowling alley—upstate New York is a total gold mine of abandoned roadside structures, handpainted signs, old neon, shady-looking motels and pretty much everything else I love to see on roadtrips.
Friday was pretty chill—we grilled steaks and corn (YUM) and just enjoyed doing things that I definitely took for granted when I lived in Ohio. Never underestimate the restorative powers of some grilled meats, a cold cocktail, wonderful company and a sky full of stars.
We had planned to go hiking on Saturday (the fourth), but it rained all morning. I actually didn't mind the slight change of plans and we ended up having a perfectly lazy day. After meeting Gnome Chomsky and exploring Kelder's Farm, we fulfilled our patriotic duties and had soft serve from a roadside stand, pulled over to investigate what my dude thought was a dead porcupine (he was 100% correct), grilled even more meats (kebabs!) and headed into town to watch the local fireworks.
As much as I adore the city, there are moments where I do slightly miss living somewhere much less competitive. We knew the fireworks were supposed to start at 9:30 pm—we arrived at 9:28 pm, pulled over to the side of the road, walked across the street, set down our blanket and a few minutes later we had a completely unobstructed view of the fireworks. Of course the display wasn't as spectacular as the Macy's show, but the whole night was perfect and totally stress-free.
On Sunday, we finally got the weather we had been wishing for and squeezed in a short hike before heading back to the city. We did a loop around Sam's Point Reserve Park, which took about an hour. The view from the overlook was so breathtaking that I think I even said "this is the best view I've ever had," because it was totally true. We were also surprised (and I, delighted) to find the ruins of a few abandoned shacks scattered along the path which made an already wonderful hike even better.
We saw diners, butterflies and bees, bought corn from a roadside farm stand, tried desperately to find sparklers (but failed), considered going into the shady-looking Tom's Taxidermy hoping he had a clearance bin (but chickened out), browsed a cluttered antique shop, touched a goat, talked to pigs, took a photo that looked like we were picking Gnome's nose, watched the stars, listened to the rain and ate two very delicious breakfast sandwiches. My only complaint is that it all went by much too fast.