My Recommendations:
- Ohio - Hocking Hills State Park, Lebanon's Applefest (9/25, 10am-7pm) and the Golden Lamb Inn
- Vail, Colorado -Vail Marriott Mountain Resort & Spa, Sweet Basil restaurant, Les Delices de France ('The French Deli' as the locals call it)
- Kentucky - the exquisite Keeneland Racetrack in the heart of Lexington horse country (10/8 - 10/30/10), Red River Gorge State Park, Natural Bridge, bourbon tastings, Fort Boonesborough
- Vermont - The Equinox Golf Resort & Spa, Orvis Fly Fishing School, Orvis School of Shooting, The British School of Falconry, leaf peeping
- Washington - Whidbey Island (The Saratoga Inn, Deception Pass State Park), Seattle (Kimpton's Hotel Vintage Park)
- New York State - Hunter Mountain, Finger Lakes
- Not a thing.
- Especially don't write off anything because it's rustic or primitive. Whether it's a B&B, restaurant, shop, or apple orchard. Explore it. In the Fall, I have found the more primitive, the more adventure!
Fall is my favorite time of the year!
I love the colors of the foliage, the cool nip in the air, crisp apples and fresh apple cidar, pumpkin patches, champagne and Keeneland Racetrack, Indian corn and squash to bring Fall into my home, spending Halloween 'Trick or Treating' with my niece and nephew, and small town Fall festivals.
One of my favorite things to do in the Fall is to explore. What I call 'getting lost' ~ simply getting in the car and driving, following the path of 'let's take that road' and 'turn down this road' to see what we find and where we end up. Tripping over quaint towns, strolling their shops of crafts, sipping hot apple cidar, small town restaurants with homemade pie. I love pie. The fun is never knowing what you'll find. Sometimes I come home that night. Other times I find a B&B.
Another favorite of mine is hiking. Fall hiking is the best. Not too hot, not too cold.
I was fortunate to grow up with my own private hiking grounds. Approximately 150 miles east of Cincinnati, Ohio is a place where, as a friend of mine says, "my heart is." My heart actually lies in three places (to-date) ... Meigs County, Ohio; Olmo, Italy; and, Sorrento, Italy. The latter two places lead to explorations to be shared at another time. But, ahh, Meigs County, Ohio. My Father and his 9 siblings (yes, 9) grew up in Meigs County and while only three live in the area still, most own property in these wooded foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. When I was a young girl, we built a cabin on our acreage. My summers and many weekends were spent hiking the hills with my brothers and my cousins. We chased deer on motorcycles (I holding onto Brien, my older brother, who did the driving), took late night wagon rides arguing over who would drive the tractor pulling it, named the paths we created and the creek pools and rock cliffs that God created. Years later, I would enjoy the same with my step-children, Matt & Meagan, teaching them how to identify the tracks of animals.
Having moved five years ago to New York, I can no longer decide, on a Friday evening's drive home after a long work week, to quickly pack a bag and be on the road to my little slice of heaven. I miss being able to stop the world and hop off for a few days on the spur of the moment. It's a bit trickier to get out of Manhattan at the last minute.
A nice thing about New York is that a short drive out of the city and you're in beautiful countryside with lovely mountains. The Hudson River School existed for a valid reason. As does ZipCar. I'll never forget my awe the first time I drove out of the city and through the Hudson River Valley. Memories of the many paintings my Father had from the HRS flooded my mind. I had loved the paintings, and I fell in love with the Valley. The trick to getting out of Manhattan and into surrounding areas for hiking is transportation, given I sold my car when I moved here. The one time I made a Friday spur of the moment decision to head out found me extremely fortunate. After an hour search on the internet I was able to get the one rental car that was unreserved within a 30 mile radius of Manhattan. So spur of the moment here can be ... tricky tricky.
Love, Marriage, and Hiking in Vail, Colorado
The second weekend in August I had the honor of attending a friend's wedding in Vail. This was my first trip to Vail and I will always remember stepping out of the plane and smelling the clean, sweet air! On the drive to the town of Vail, I absorbed the spirit of the mountains and finally understood why my brother and sister-in-law plan to retire here.
Vail can be a forgotten adventure in the summer and fall. While I have yet to visit during the winter ski season, I can only imagine the crowds and assume I prefer it in the off-season.
A word to the wise: In booking this trip, I was able to find good deals on flights, hotel, and rental car. For the first time, I booked flights through Marriott's online travel ... which I didn't know existed ... and was able to save another $50 off the already low fares offered by travelocity, expedia, and airline sites. The only issue was the ticket was issued by either United or US Air (I can't remember which), but the fight was actually on the other airline. My online check-in took about an hour as none of the airline sites had my reservation. While in the security line, the woman in front of me shared that she booked the same way and went to the wrong airline the day before, causing her to miss the flight. I was thankful that I completed my online check-in versus giving up and simply checking in at the airport kiosk.
Family and friends were staying at the Vail Marriott Mountain Resort & Spa where the wedding was to take place. We arrived a few days early so we could enjoy the mountains and some hiking. After checking into the hotel, I immediately went to the spa for a massage (now becoming a ritual on my personal travel). I have had only one good massage at a hotel spa before (Fitzwilliam Hotel, Dublin), but this upped the count to two. This massage snob found the massage to be fabulous!
Hiking up the mountains was a bit of a challenge given the high altitude ... it was a bit painful to breathe. I left my friends and went back down the mountain to ride the gondola up. I was very disappointed with myself. But, once on the mountaintop, my disappointment faded with the awe of the sights. Joining my friends for the hike down was fantastic and very therapeutic.
Watching my friend dance with his bride that evening so very happy, brought to mind something that I'd heard often in church: That quite often, we meet someone when we have so much happening in our life...changes, pain, problems, whatever...and we determine it's not the best time to bring someone new into our life. We can't make room for them or we think we must have our life sorted out before getting involved. When, in fact, God is bringing someone into our life at that moment because He knows it is what we both need.
It was a reminder to me that life is short and when we care for someone, we should put aside circumstances ... and pride ... and simply go for it.
Life. Mountains. Hiking. The freshness of Fall. Love. This weekend.
This is what life is about.
1 comment:
I remember the first (well, the only) time I visited Vail. It was for a project that was driving me kind of nuts. Our crew had a long ride from the airport up into the mountains. Everyone else was falling asleep. I couldn't believe my eyes. My jaw hung open. One of the guys noticed the look on my face and asked what was up. I said how in the world can you sleep--it's overwhelmingly beautiful here.
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