Finger Lakes Fall Wedding Anniversary Trip

 I've decided if I ever win the lottery (unlikely since I don't play) or if my husband's company ever cures cancer and makes it big (much more likely) we will just have to buy a little lake house up in the Finger Lakes, NY because I am just completely smitten with the area! My husband and I just got back from a longer trip up there for our one year wedding anniversary and even though we've been there multiple times before I just can't get enough of it!

I've done recaps of most of our prior trips up to the area and I wanted to recap this trip as well since I get a bunch of DMs on instagram asking for suggestions of where to stay/visit/what to do up here - so it's nice to have a resource online to point people too! Here are the recaps I've written before:

Finger Lakes Day 1: Hiking and Seneca Lake Wineries

Finger Lakes Day 2: Cayuga Wine Trail

Spring Visit to the Finger Lakes on Keuka Lake

Summer Seneca Lake Finger Lakes Trip 

All Day Finger Lakes Wine Tour 

We tend to go up for a long weekend, but this year because of COVID we haven't been traveling to as many places so we both had a good amount of PTO to use up still so we extended our stay a little longer this trip.  It's about a 4/4.5 hour drive for us to get to the most southern part of the Finger Lakes, so instead of doing all the driving on Friday morning we booked a hotel in Binghampton, NY which is only about a 3 hour drive and headed up after work on Thursday.  Since my husband and I recently moved we are still waiting for a lot of our furniture to be delivered (we have no couch and haven't even set up our TV yet!) so we actually had a really fun time just hanging out in the hotel and watching the presidential debate on the TV Thursday night. 

 

I try to "ration" the wine that we buy up in the Finger Lakes (aka don't drink it all at once and save it for some more "special occasions") but it's been awhile since our last trip so we only have about 2-3 bottles left over, one of which was this late harvest Riesling from Hermann J. Wiemer which was a slightly more expensive bottle than I normally buy so I was really trying to save it for a special occasion.  Well, apparently a Thursday evening in a random hotel in New York sitting in an oversized Tshirt and my underwear watching presidents debate was just that occasion - lol. We had a fun night with some good wine, and got to bed on time so we could get up Friday morning and start our vacation!

 

Binghampton was about 1 hour and 20 minutes away from our first activity Friday located right outside of Ithaca, New York.  We checked out of our hotel and went into the town to grab some breakfast before hitting the road! We stumbled upon Strange Brew Cafe downtown where we were able to grab a table outside to have a cold brew, latte, and breakfast sandwiches. I got the "garden" sandwich on a bagel (add bacon) which was SO GOOD and the perfect breakfast to fuel up for our hike!  

 

We decided to go back to Robert Treman State Park which we had hiked one time previously.  There are beautiful views here and the park is really pretty large - we got to hike peaceful parts of the woods and see views of gorges and waterfalls.  It's really a beautiful park to visit and we had a fun time during our hike.

All Day Finger Lakes Wine Tour

I left off on our most recent Finger Lakes trip documenting a pretty epic first day staying on Seneca Lake for the Fourth of July!  But we had a lot more of our trip ahead of us, so I wanted to share the rest of trip our trip to recommend some more fun places to visit in the Finger Lakes :)

Friday morning I woke up to a beautiful, sunny morning and IMMEDIATELY knew I needed to get out on the dock to enjoy the morning beauty on the lake.  I made some coffee from our Air BnB's Keurig, put on a baiting suit, and tip toed out the front door while bae was sleeping with my kindle and coffee to enjoy the morning on the lake.

This may not sound like a big deal - going out to relax a morning on vacation...but I have to be honest.  This is a pretty big deal for me.  For so long during my weight loss journey, I was very dedicated with working out almost every single day.  ESPECIALLY while on vacation while I was enjoying extra treats and food I felt like I NEEDED to workout in order to "earn" those extra indulgences.  I've learned though, FINALLY as I've found a greater balance in my weight loss journey that it is OK to be able to just live your life sometimes.  I still workout almost everyday during my "regular" day-to-day life, so it's been a refreshing feeling to be able to give myself enough grace to be able to take a vacation and actually *VACATION.* To feel no pressure to go out and run 5 miles, no pressure to choose the lowest calorie option on the menu for each meal since I was also having a few drinks, no pressure to do anything except LIVE! It may seem trivial to some...but honestly this was just a very freeing moment for myself to just enjoy having a relaxed, no effort required morning for me :)

Anywho.  Enough of that chat ;) We decided that for our first "full day" in the Finger Lakes we needed to take advantage of our favorite service in the area - hiring a driver for the day to take you around to all the local wineries!  On our last visit to the Finger Lakes we discovered "Main Street Drivers" where you could hire a driver to come and meet you at your home/hotel/airbnb who would drive your car around for the day! It's a lot cheaper than paying for a private car service...and a heck of a lot cheaper than a DUI too. We had so much fun with our driver Steve on our last trip that we knew that we needed to book him again to have a day where we hit up a bunch of wineries and didn't have to worry about the driving portion of things.

Another nice thing about hiring a driver - they are often local and know the area well and can give you some added discounts to places you visit! Steve took us to Boundary Breaks Winery on a whim our last trip to the Finger Lakes because he could get us free tastings there.  It was never on my "itinerary" of places to visit but we really enjoyed it on our last trip, and decided to start there on our first day out of this trip! I really, really like the Rieslings that they offer and they also have a beautiful large, open and airy tasting room.  One of the best parts - the VIEW from their backyard! Both times we have visited we have had a GREAT tasting experience here!

Summer Seneca Lake Finger Lakes Trip

I recently got back from my 4th trip to the Finger Lakes region and feel like it is my DUTY to share this little slice of heaven with you all again! If you live within reasonable driving distance to this wine country in Upper State New York - you NEED to add it to your bucket list of places to visit.  After four trips, I still can't get enough of the region!  William and I had such a fun trip over the 4th of July so I thought I would share everything we hit up on our trip in case you want to plan your own visit!

We decided to drive up on Wednesday night, the day before July 4th and stayed in the Corning/Elmira area of New York which made it about a 3.5 hour drive for us from the Philly suburbs which was feasible to fit in after work.  When we got up Thursday morning then the bulk of our driving was done and we were ready to enjoy our vacation! We stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn in Corning which had a GREAT breakfast buffet.  We ate up and then drove just about a half hour North to go hiking at Watkins Glen State Park. This park is SO beautiful: it has various gorges and waterfalls that you are able to hike through that were all formed by glaciers years ago.  It costs $8 bucks to park, but the views and nature is completely worth it.  

We hiked the "Gorge Trail" which had the most views of all of the water falls and other sites.  

We parked at the South Entrance and hiked down and then back up the Gorge Trail in just under an hour.  There are steps to climb and some slippery terrain, but overall it is not a super strenuous hike.  If you want a little more of a workout: we hiked Robert Treman State Park on our last trip and THAT was a hike!!!

A Weekend Trip to Nantucket

I became obsessed with the idea of visiting the island of Nantucket after reading multiple books by Elin Hilderbrand that all are set on the island. I love to travel and explore new towns and I really have not been to many states in New England. With 3 days of PTO left to schedule for the year and a little bit of cash burning a hole in my pocket, I finally decided that now was my time to YOLO and get bae on board for a long weekend trip up the Island!



I thought about alternatively titling this post “How $10 books made me drop $3,000 to visit a tiny island for 3 1/2 days” buuuuut decided against it, lol. Nantucket is definitely not the most budget friendly travel destination, but for me it was worth it to visit. I also think it is very doable to spend much less than I spent to visit the island (um, like maybe don’t go to dinner at the most expensive restaurant on the island on the very first night and order a $100 bottle of wine for the table) but I had such a fun trip I wanted to share the details of how I got there, what we did, what was worth the big bucks, what wasn’t, etc. in case anyone ever thought of planning their own trip!



We decided to visit at the end of September and fly out on a Friday, and return on a Monday. Our first night was Friday September 28th which was past peak season for the island so that definitely helped with costs for lodging. There is not a super direct way to get to Nantucket: it is an ISLAND after all, so you either have to fly in (there are limited direct flights, and most have a transfer at JFK which involves transferring to a VERY small aircraft) or take a ferry in. We opted for the ferry route so we flew from Philly to Boston, rented a car at the airport, and drove about an hour and 40 minutes from the Boston airport to Hyannis, MA which is where the ferries leave from. In hindsight, my boyfriend who travels a bit more said it might have been slightly easier to fly into Providence, RI and drive down from there since that airport isn’t quite as busy as Boston is…but overall either option should work. There are buses that go from the airport to Hyannis area, and we also looked up uber prices but ultimately just decided on renting a car for flexibility. There are two different ferries you can take into Nantucket: the “fast” ferry which is only an hour long, or the “slow” ferry which is closer to 2 ½ hours. We opted for the fast ferry through The Steamship Authority. They have you park in various lots around the ferry (you have to check their website to see which lot they are currently parking in) and then they have shuttles that take you over to the ferry area. Parking rates vary during the season, but ours was only about $13/day for off-season so it wasn’t too much money to leave the car there for the long weekend. You can take cars on the ferry over to Nantucket, but it costs $400 to transport it there and back. Unless you are staying way out in the boonies of Nantucket and want to do a ton of driving, you really can get away without a car fine. There are lots of taxis, ubers, and the downtown area is very walkable.

We arrived at the ferry dock just after 1PM, dropped off our bags, but then the ferry didn’t leave until 2PM and we were STARVING from traveling so we scurried over just about a block from the ferry dock to grab lunch at Baxter’s Cape Cod. They were friendly, had really fast service, and had super yummy drinks! I got a “Hyannisport Mimosa” (sparkling wine, grand marnier & OJ) and a white sangria and both were scrumptious. My boyfriend tried a local pumpkin beer and got the clam chowder and some fish and chips and enjoyed them both. I got my first LOBSTER ROLL of the trip (!!!) which was fine, but keep reading for where I got the best one on the trip :) Overall if you have time to kill before the ferry this place was a cute little spot to visit and the service really was quick so you shouldn’t have to worry about missing the ferry!



We got on board with plenty of time and then started the hour journey over the island. There is food and drinks (regular & alcoholic) available to purchase on the ferry, but not a ton of options. We sat inside for a bit but then decided to venture outside even though it had been raining all afternoon. I’m glad we did though: even with the rain and wind it was so refreshing to be outside (in the middle of the ocean practically) and then we got to watch as Nantucket came into view! I giddy like a little school girl when I saw the island getting close: I was SO excited to get there!



I looked at a few different options for where to stay in Nantucket and ultimately decided on the Brass Lantern Inn Bed and Breakfast. They had great reviews on Trip Advisor, were located really close to town, and were decently affordable for what our options were(there ain’t no Motel 6’s on this island folks). I found one Air B&B that was a little cheaper, but ultimately decided on this place because they provided breakfast and my boyfriend and I are pretty social people so we thought it might be nice to have some other people around.

Spring Visit to the Finger Lakes on Keuka Lake

I have seriously fallen in love with visiting the Finger Lakes and wanted to share all the details of my last trip for anyone else who is considering visiting the area! My boyfriend and I made a trip last September for my birthday weekend (read about day 1 here and day 2 here).  It was my second trip to the area and Will's first time visiting and he liked it so much that we planned another trip back at the beginning of May this year!

From where we live in the Philadelphia suburbs it's about a 4 to 4.5 hour drive to southernmost area of the Finger Lakes so it's a pretty doable trip for a long weekend.  We left on a Thursday evening after work to make the drive up and it was pretty smooth sailing: it's a very scenic drive actually complete with designated "scenic overlooks" outside of Williamsport PA :)

We got up to the area by about 9PM and were not quite ready to just check into our hotel and go to bed...so we cruised around the town of Bath, NY which is right outside the town we were staying in on Keuka Lake looking for any place that was still open. One thing to take note of: the Finger Lakes area is a pretty QUIET area.  Besides all the winery attractions, there are not a lot of other things going on! Not many places are open late.  We found a restaurant online called "Liberty" that was supposed to be open late, but as we were walking around trying to find it we found The Office Bar  in Bath instead.

Now let me say this...if you ever find yourself ever staying on Keuka Lake I would not go out of your way to visit this local watering hole, but if you are up for a good time and meeting some locals, it's open late and fits the bill! We wandered in (we were literally greeted at the door by a man with one leg) and I was immediately worried about what I could find to drink (I don't like beer and most "townie style bars" serve really crappy cheap wine) but I forgot that I was literally in one of the best wine counties in America so even crappy townie bars serve good wine! I was so happy to get this tiny little bottle of local Finger Lakes wine after the long drive. 

My Girlish Whims Does Nashville

I up and went to Nashville last weekend!

I had never been to the city but my boyfriend travels there often for work and always told me how awesome it is - I was always jealous until I was left with a few extra PTO days from work this year and I decided to fly out to meet my bae on one of his work trips and we extended our stay into a long weekend full of fun! Suffice it to say I think I ate and drank my way through Nashville in four days but I had the BEST time and wanted to share some of the cool places I visited in case you ever find yourself in the city.

I flew out Thursday morning and took taxi from the airport downtown (only $25) to the hotel that my boyfriend's work was putting him up at - The Hilton Garden Inn Vanderbuilt which was a really nice hotel.

I unloaded my bags, had some lunch I had packed from home and settled in for a bit until it was about 1:30PM and my boyfriend wasn't done work until 5....so I decided to take myself out exploring!

Me being me, my first thing to explore was the local wineries in the area ;) My first stop was to the Belle Meade Plantation which once was a mansion and 5,400 acre thoroughbred horse farm back in the day. I paid $15 to do a walking tour of the grounds which included a tasting a their winery on site! The grounds really were beautiful and I took home a yummy blackberry wine but I have to say...$15 to just walk around a bit and get to sample 4 tiny samples of wine seemed kind of steep to me.  Go and check it out for sure if you are a history buff and want to get away from some of the hustle of the city, but this was one stop I would probably skip over if I did everything all over.

My next stop was just an uber ride back towards the city to try Grindler's Switch Winery. The true winery location is located about an hour outside of Nashville but they have a tasting room in Marathon Village which is a set of cute little shops (including a distillery and store from American Pickers!) right in the city.  I had a much better experience here.  They had a few different tasting options but I chose to try all of their wines for $8 which was then waived if you bought three bottles of wine (which I did to take some home!) The employee doing the tasting was very friendly and personable as well as everyone else in the tasting room - it was a great stop for sure.

After the tasting I decided to just walk the mile back to my hotel: I found Nashville as a whole to be a very walk-able city and when it was too far or too cold to walk - uber and lyft were really cheap.

I finally got to meet up with my man when he got done work :) And we went out to explore some more of the city for my first night there! We stopped in a few different places including The Tavern for an appetizer and some sangria (bae always comes here and orders the buffalo cauliflower while staying in town for work). Yummy drinks and great atmosphere in here - highly recommend! We also wandered into Slider House for a cider quick since it was close by.

Finger Lakes Trip Day 2: Seneca Lake Rental and Cayuga Wine Trail

After such a busy first day of our trip to the Finger Lakes, waking up at our vacation cottage Saturday morning to a beautiful view of Seneca Lake was such a great way to start the second full day of our trip.

 

I rented a house right on Seneca Lake called "Caywood Cottage" from VRBO and it ended up being the perfect spot for us.  It felt nice and private because it was tucked away back in the woods, but after just a short three minute drive through a winding back road full of grape vines, you hit the main highway and so many other local wineries were close by.

Our cottage actually shared a drive with a winery called Silver Thread Winery.  We did not end up getting a chance to visit this winery due to our busy schedule, but luckily the VRBO owner had a bottle of wine from Silver Thread waiting for us at the cottage upon our arrival the day before! We took the bottle home with us - so we will still get a chance to try this wine at some point :)

The cottage had a full kitchen which was convenient, but we decided to drive up to Geneva for breakfast on our second day.  We ate at the Pier House and I have to say - the food and service was terrible. I would NOT recommend going there!!! The only good thing they had going for them was their location right at the top of Seneca Lake: after breakfast we spent some time just walking around the park at the lake soaking in the sunshine and it was a nice and relaxing way to start the day.

After a little dilly dadiling though...it was time to get back to THE WINE! Our first stop on Saturday was to Three Brothers Winery. This place is HUGE and a must stop if you ever go to the Finger Lakes!

Finger Lakes Trip Part 1: Hiking and Seneca Lake Wineries

I recently went on a long weekend trip up to the Finger Lakes in New York for my birthday and I wanted to share a few pictures from my trip and some of the places we visited! I had been to the finger lakes one time before a few years ago but my boyfriend has never been, so I was excited to show him the area and explore a few new places I didn't get to visit the first time around.

We drove up on a Thursday evening and got to Ithaca area pretty late (it's about a four hour drive from where I live outside of Philly.)  We stayed in a hotel in Ithaca Thursday night then went out Friday morning to go hiking at Robert H. Treman State Park which was only about 15 minutes outside of the downtown of Ithaca.

This park was BEAUTIFUL! The gorges and waterfalls were just simply amazing.  The hike was so much fun!

It was a fun hike - but not the easiest in the world ;) We parked at the lower park entrance and took the Gorge Trail to climb to Lucifer Falls (the stunning show of the park) and the upper entrance to the park.  It was a little over a two mile hike one way with a decent amount of stairs along the way including the "steep stairs" section shown on this little map!

I had a moment where it dawned on me that I was actually doing this hike and climbing all of these stairs FOR FUN - when I was heavy I never would have wanted to do something like this! I would have just been hot, sweaty, tired and grumpy the whole time!

I still got a little sweaty ;) but I was all smiles during the hike - even on those dang steep stairs.  Getting to the top of the park and being able to look out over the 115 foot falls and see views for miles and miles - it was an amazing experience!

We took a slightly easier trail back but overall ended up hiking over two hours and a total of five miles.  At the very end of the park there is a spot you can go swimming during the regular season: there is even a diving board installed right next to these waterfalls that you can jump off of into the swimming area.  For late September the weather was actually really nice and I totally would have jumped right in if it was still in season and we were allowed to.  If I ever come back during the summer I would DEFINITELY do this hike again and pack a baithing suit for the bottom - I'm sure the water would be freezing but would feel so refreshing after such a great hike!

After our hike we drove about 45 minutes up to Seneca Lake to where I rented a cottage for the weekend (I'll share more about it in my next post!).  We showered and changed and then it was time to hit up the wineries!  I subscribe to the annual plan at Rent the Runway so I got a free rental dress for my birthday that I decided to wear out for this first day.  At first I worried it might be a little too fancy for wine tasting but I got SO MANY COMPLIMENTS on it throughout the day that I think it ended up being the perfect fit (quite literally) for the day.

 We stayed on the Eastern side of Seneca Lake in the town of Lodi New York and there were SO MANY WINERIES so close to us! My boyfriend was so surprised: as we got close to our house we literally just started passing one winery after another - he couldn't believe how many there were! It's a wine lover's dream vacation location!

The very first winery we went to ended up being one of my most favorite: J.R. Dill Winery.  It was a smaller, family owned winery but I loved every single wine that I tasted and they let you put the full $5 tasting fee towards any purchase of wine which I always appreaciate.

They were across the highway from the lake but there was still a beautiful view from the deck.  Since this was the first winery we visited I was ready to do my tasting, buy my wine and then move on to the next one but my boyfriend requested that we relax for just a little bit before moving on.  We each got a glass of Riesling which is my favorite wine and the Finger Lakes region is well known for growing great Riesling wines.  My boyfriend doesn't normally liked Rieslings but he even enjoyed them on this trip!

Jamaica Trip 2014

So I said I would get this up last week but that didn't happen! Whoops! It's now been a little over a week that we've been back from our Jamaican vacation. I'd say I've rested up enough and now I'm ready to go back!!!!

Here are some of the more memorable moments from our trip:

These were our first drinks in Jamaica on our bus ride from the airport to our resort. We stopped at a little rest stop and I ordered the "fruit wine" listed on the menu...then the Jamaican lady said "OH you mean the run punch!" and proceed to pour it for me.   Then Shawn got offered weed by our bus driver (the first of many offerings haha)

We got to our resort (sans any weed in case you were wondering) and enjoyed lots of time relaxing on the beach! The beach was BEAUTIFUL. The water was soooo clear and the sand was so soft and white.  The grounds crew at the resort raked it every morning! They also had wait staff that would deliver you drinks on the beach.  I enjoyed many of these Caribbean Oranges every day!!

I also enjoyed taking a break from reading Game of Thrones (love the series but not exactly a beach read) and managed to read THREE books while we were away (it took me freaking FOREVER to read three Game of Thrones books!!!)

It was so nice to be able to dress up and go out each night with hubby. Drink and relax all day... then get cleaned up and go out to dinner and drink more at night.  I could get used to that kind of life :)

There's nothing like paradise...is there???

We went on two different excursions on our trip; the first was a day tour that started at the YS Falls! We hired a driver from Rocky's Taxi and Tour service for the day which was a great day to experience the falls and other place we visited. On our honeymoon in Jamaica we got to climb up Dunn's River Falls, but these falls were more scenic and calm than that excursion for sure.

 There still were fun things to do though: Shawn swung off a Tarzan rope really high off the water!

I was way to scared to do that :) But I enjoyed taking pictures in the beautiful scenery!!!

We got a "water massage" at one of the fall spots, that was fun!!!

And I sucked up my fears and jumped off one of the smaller water falls.  It really was fun!!!

After the YS falls our driver for the day drove us to the place to catch a boat to the Pelican Bar! It's a bar in the middle of the ocean that you can only get to by boat...here we are on our way out!

The Pelican Bar is a wooden shack built up on a sandbar in the middle of the ocean. No joke! No running water or bathrooms or anything.  Just the big old ocean!

The inside was so cool.  Lots of memoribilean left behind from other visitors.  And not very touristy either.  We were the first "tourists" to get there for the day and the Jamaicans didn't really greet us or anything haha.  They were just enjoying their game of dominoes and relaxing.

Eventually some more tourists showed up and we all ordered drinks and started to have a good time.  Nothing quite like drinking a rum and ting in the middle of the ocean!

 

 Shawn and I also ordered lunch while we were there.  There was only one option (remember no running water!!!) but we ordered it and it was GOOOD!!!!!  Some kind of fish (I think Snapper??) with a spicy flavor rub and rice.  I'm not one for spicy foods but it was soooo good I ate it anyway and washed it all down with some more rum and ting :)

The next day we went out on our second excursion: a Jamaican Pub Crawl on the One Love Bus!!!!

This bus is driven by a Jamaican named Lenbert who comes and picks vacationers up at theirs resorts and takes them to 7 authentic Jamaican Bars.  He doesn't even charge you anything....but he does such a good job everyone tips him very well at the end of the night!!

The thing about the bus is that it had seats for about 16 people...and then  a big open space in the middle.  We picked up over 40 people and crammed them into the bus!!!! No such thing as a personal space that night!!!

We had fun visiting some authentic Jamaican bars (and drinking more rum and ting...I think I'm addicted....)

The second bar we went to was in one lady's living room!!! Doesn't get more authentic than that!

Our "last bar' was located along the cliffs in Negril.  There was a mini light house constructed down a bit from the bar that two little Jamaican boys would jump off of for tips all night.

It was such a fun experience.  I said "last bar" because on our way back to our resorts we all started chanting "one last bar, one last bar" and then Lenbert took us to one more place haha.  Then all 40+ of us crammed back into the bus and danced to the reggae music he had blasting until we were all dropped off.

After our two excursions we gave ourselves one last full day to just lay on the beach and relax at our resort.  We took this picture on our last full day in Jamaica: I'd give anything to be back on that beach right now!!!!!

This trip was worth every last penny. It was so relaxing and fun and beautiful! I think I could go to Jamaica over and over again and never get tired of it :) Until next time Jamaica....one love!!!