Coming to you from 34,000 feet

Well hello there! Like I said in the title of this post, I am typing this from seat 31F on Delta Flight 2986 from Atlanta to New York's LaGuardia Airport! I am returning from a very fun and very tiring girls weekend in Charleston, South Carolina and wouldn't you know it, they finally go Wi-Fi on planes (What's that? You're telling me they've had this for a while? Well pardon me, I'm the girl who's had the same cell phone since George W. Bush was President, but I digress...)

Anyway, I will not be recapping the weekend in Charleston just yet, that will have to wait until I sort through the 200 or so photos I took and can summarize appropriately. Stay tuned :) Right now I'd like to blog oh-so-belatedly about Taylor and I's first anniversary trip to upstate New York.

I already blogged about our early anniversary weekend at Taylor and Talia's wedding in Newport, RI. We decided we'd also like to do something somewhat special on our actual anniversary so I planned a one-day getaway to upstate New York for apple picking and wine tasting (among other things). Now, you might have guessed that this isn't EXACTLY how Taylor would have elected to spend a Sunday in the fall (especially not the part where we had to be on a train by 7:45am). However, the Jets had a bye week, the Giants were playing on Monday, and I had already bought the tickets so off we went!

The day started out eventfully when, just as we were getting on the subway to head to Grand Central Terminal, I realized that I had forgotten our train and tour tickets! Luckily, we were able to hope in a cab that took us home and then to Grand Central and we arrived with plenty of time.

I decided to don a new and most unusual article of clothing for the trip, a yellow sweater with black poodles all over it that I had recently purchased at H&M. Here's a shot of it - I mean us! - on the train.

From First Anniversary Trip

The train ride up was arguably the most beautiful and most surprising part of the trip. The entire trip is right along the Hudson River with beautiful views of the fall colors on the west bank. Here are a couple of shots I took through the train window:

From First Anniversary Trip

From First Anniversary Trip

The itinerary for our trip had us arriving in Poughkeepsie, NY at around 9:30am, boarding a bus, and visiting 4 sites for about 1 hour each before returning later. The four sites were: a cheese farm, a quaint little downtown called Millbrook, NY, an apple orchard, and a winery.

We had expected it to be a small group of like-minded New Yorkers just looking to escape the hustle and bustle for a day. Well, we got everything right except the small part. When we arrived, there were over 150 people and 4 full-size coach buses to carry us all!! That's New York for you, crowded EVERYWHERE!

Nonetheless, we boarded the bus and headed to the cheese farm first. I'll tell the rest of this story in mostly photos.

We made some friends:

From First Anniversary Trip

This goat had a cold and kept weezing, it was cute!

From First Anniversary Trip

The lady said she wasn't sure what this bird was called but only knew that it is Polish....you don't say!

From First Anniversary Trip

Rastafarian sheep!

Next, we headed to downtown Millbrook where most of our time was spent in a bar watching football and grabbing a bite to eat!

A pretty tree we saw on the way:

From First Anniversary Trip

From First Anniversary Trip

Next stop, the apple orchard!

From First Anniversary Trip

He thinks my tractor's sexy...

From First Anniversary Trip

Ready to go!

From First Anniversary Trip

Sadly, the harvest came really early this year, so this is my "where are them apples?" pose!

From First Anniversary Trip

Taylor took charge of the hunting and gathering (spotting and picking?)

From First Anniversary Trip

From First Anniversary Trip

And he got one!

From First Anniversary Trip

This one is for my mom, especially the bright red tree in front!

From First Anniversary Trip

6 lbs of apples later became...My first ever apple pie!!!

From Fall 2010

From Fall 2010

I included the pre-cooking photo because it looked so much better and I forgot to take a photo before digging into it. It turned out really well if I do say so myself!!

Our final stop was a winery where we got a very good tour of the facilities and some yummy upstate New York wines:

From First Anniversary Trip

From First Anniversary Trip

Taylor was very proud of this reflection shot.

From First Anniversary Trip

Barrels and then in the case above them is what the inside of a used barrel looks like.

From First Anniversary Trip

Lovely sunset on the way home

From First Anniversary Trip

If you look on the island in this photo, you can see the frame of a building. It was a hollowed-out, crumbling castle and look SO COOL

All in all, a VERY fun day! :)