Weekend in New Paltz
So I had a very good weekend and felt like mentioning it. I went to a wedding in New Paltz and spent the weekend down there.
Saturday I drove up to Hyde Park to see the Vanderbilt Mansion. What can I say, it was breathtaking. The furniture and decor inside cost almost twice as much as the cost to built the mansion itself. The property and the gardens were breathtaking. My friend commented that the Italian gardens resembled a couple of Pompei gardens that she had seen on her trip to Italy.
www.nps.gov/VAMA
Afterwards we ended up going to a picnic and a hike in Lake Minnewaska that was out of this world.
http://www.newpaltz.org/nplakeminne.html
The place has no alcohol policy but us Russians can't party without booze so I had to sneak a 12 case of beer and some beer coolers for the ladies and even conned a Park Ranger to help us drive it up to the top of the mountain (about a mile or 2) to the picnic area, since cars were not allowed up there and only rangers on ATVs go around monitoring things. The Ranger was really cool and said that alcohol is not allowed but as long as we had plastic cups to pour and didn't use bottles, he'll "pretend" he didn't see anything. One of the best picnics I've ever had since the views are great and the company was even greater. Most of the people in that crowd are hippie vegetarians but boy do they know how to party.
In the evening, we swam, had a nice dinner on the Hudson at one of those touristy restaurants but the food was pretty good albeit resembled a bit of glorified Applebee’s menu.
The wedding the next day was AWESOME! It was all outside interfaith married. and had a reform rabbi (with an earring and guitar!) and a reform priest (woman). First interfaith marriage I’ve been to and it was great, full of music, speeches and overall greatness. The reception was in a restaurant that was a remade 1759 colonial.
http://www.locusttree.com/
Fun people, great food, overall awesome weekend at a Hippie Wedding. I can't even begin to tell of how much fun these people were. Too bad most don't live in NYC and were from all over the great U.S.