Carnegie, Kayaking, & Apple Pickin'

Happy Monday little blog friends! I had a week worthy of three bucket list cross offs. Tuesday, I had the opportunity to go to Carnegie Hall and see the Philadelphia Philharmonic play some beautiful music. They played a piece inspired by "Starry Night" which was quite dark but still lovely. They also presented selections from Romeo and Juliet in the second half and it was fantastic. What I left the famous hall thinking was that even more than the beautiful music I heard, I was struck by the sound. The acoustics are just unbelievable! I sat pretty high up and felt like I could hear each and every instrument. It's hard to explain, but I hope everyone can visit there one day. It's a beautiful piece of history and you will be blown away by that sound. WOW!

Need a cough drop?

On Saturday, I achieved a life long fall dream: apple picking! Ever since 11th grade, my brother Ben, who introduced me to my beloved Food Network, and I would watch Rachel Ray. RR introduced me to the idea of apple picking in upstate NY and the apple cider donuts. This life goal was a long time coming.
So, I tagged along with a sweet group of friends and headed upstate in the Zip car! It was one of the days that the sun is in the perfect position, the air is crispy yet warm in the sun, and it smells like fires burning. Perfect. After an unbelievable drive upstate studded with golden, red, and pale pink trees, we arrived at Wright Farms. We bought apple cider donuts and our apple picking bags and headed out. I picked probably 20 apples (Golden Delish, Granny Smith, and lots of Braeburn) and ate numerous ones off the tree. We frolicked through the trees, took a hayride, and took in the views of the Hudson River Valley. It was a glorious day!

One last fun experience to share, kayaking with Carly! We were running on the Hudson and saw the sign for free kayaking and Carly talked me into it! I am so glad we did it because it was loads of fun! The water was chilly but it was a sunny day and fun to be out on it. We accidentally floated a bit too far and got whistled at, which those who know me, know I hate hate hate being yelled at. I was panicked but the true mortification set in when they sent someone out to reiterate that we were floating too far. Typical. So, we kayaked around a bit more and turned in our paddles for the year.....or forever.