Lisa's Vineyard Hopping Birthday

Over the weekend we celebrated Lisa's thirty-second birthday by hitting up a couple of vineyards in the Hudson River Valley here in New York.

We started off the afternoon by meeting up at Lisa and Andrew's house in Westchester and then driving up about an hour to Nostrano Vineyard, where Andrew had made a reservation for the eight of us to do the wine tasting (Which included seven of the estate wines) and eat lovely charcuterie board.

When we were done with our tasting we decided to go sit outside and enjoy the prefect weather. 

While we were outside we drank more, ate another (bigger) charcuterie board and just enjoyed each other's company. It was honestly the epitome of #WeekendVibes.

At some point while we were just hanging out, a staff member rudely informed us that a private event would be starting at 5:00pm. So we decided to leave and go check out Benmarl Winery and Vineyard, which was only fifteen minutes away from where we were.

While at Benmarl we ordered a few bottles of wine and a couple of pizzas, and just enjoyed the view (Which was spectacular) and each other's company.

Eventually we decided it was time to pack it up and end our lovely day because four out of the eight of us had to drive back to Long Island.

It was honestly the prefect day to do what we did. And aside from the rude employee at Nostrano we had an amazing day hanging out and celebrating the birthday girl.

#Butleriverun 2018 In Huji

This past weekend we went on our annual trip to upstate New York to hang out on Phil's family property and to go rafting. It was a cluster fuck as per usual but that's what we've come to expect from every third weekend in July. But because I don't wanna go into detail about the cluster fuckness of it all, here are some pictures I took throughout the course of the weekend in Huji...

Urban Exploring In NYC...

Because Phil and I like to go on little mini adventures, back in January we promised each other that we'd set aside a handful of days throughout the summer that we would dedicate to exploring various local-ish locations. And since I had planned our Montauk and Brooklyn adventures back in June (Which you can read about here if you haven't already) this adventure was Phil's to plan, so he decided that we were going to hop into his car and go "Urban Exploring" in New York City.

The first stop of the day was Fort Tryon Park in Washington Heights, where we visited The Cloisters (The Cloisters is a museum that is a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, used to exhibit the museum's extensive collection of art, architecture and artifacts from Medieval Europe), went for a walk around the park and had fake brunch at the New Leaf Restaurant & Bar, which was meh.

After lunch we walked back to the car and headed over to Grant's Tomb, or General Grant National Memorial as it is now known, to see the finally resting spot (And the largest mausoleum in North America) of the 18th President of the United States of America, Ulysses Simpson Grant and his wife Julia.

When we were done admiring all of the marble work at Grant's Tomb we headed across the street to The Riverside Church. Which is a big beautiful church that was the site of Jackie Robinson's funeral back in 1972, as well as where in 1967 Martin Luther King Jr. voiced his opposition to the Vietnam War in what is now known as the Riverside Church speech.

We walked around the church for a little bit before hopping back into the car and stopping at the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument, which commemorates Union Army soldiers and sailors who served in the American Civil War.

After checking out the monument (And watching some shirtless dude practicing with a bullwhip Phil and I dropped Justin off at Grand Central Terminal because he was going to a Mets game that evening, then drove back home because we were tired.

It was a fun little day in New York City. I always have a great time exploring with Phil and Justin, so I can't wait until our next little mini adventure day.