Hi there! I've been missing this little blog and wanted to pop in to share some recs from our recent jaunt to the Hudson Valley...

Raven has only a few weeks off from classes, and with my summer full of work (yay!), we knew we could only do a short trip. We wanted to stick to a strict budget, so I began researching hotels and Airbnb's in the Hudson Valley.

Maybe it's the homebody in me, but I'm always a sucker for a pretty hotel. I knew we wanted to find somewhere cute, charming, that allows dogs, so imagine my delight when I stumbled upon Hotel Tivoli. Basically the perfect home base for a quick trip, dog friendly, with breakfast included (always a must in our book - we're big breakfast fans).

A quick (and scenic!) 2 hour drive brought us to Tivoli on Sunday, where we decided to have a quick hike before checking into the hotel. We headed to Tivoli Bays, a wildlife preserve, which was nice and shady. We started our hike at the boat launch, and were kind of bummed to see that the water was really low (NY state is having a big drought), so there were tons of bugs and lots of mud. Rather than wade in the water like a normal dog, Charlie happily padded right through the mud and was completely covered. After a quick, buggy hike, we decided we'd be better off at a swimming hole, and drove 20 miles to Woodstock to the Millstream Swimming Hole.

The swimming hole was great, and Charlie, normally terrified of water, was really into cooling off in the shallow pools between rocks. After about an hour we decided to head back to Tivoli to check into the hotel. (I didn't take any pictures at Tivoli Bays or the swimming hole - only Snapchat - oops!)

The cool thing about Tivoli is that everyone is friendly and chill. Charlie was allowed to come with us everywhere. Once we checked into the hotel we had a late lunch at Murray's, a cafe in what used to be a church. Amazing iced coffee and food here!

After lunch, we spent a couple hours at the hotel watching Stranger Things on Netflix (must watch!!) and drinking gin and tonics before heading to dinner - with Charlie! - at Traghaven Whiskey Pub. Another cool thing about Tivoli? Loads of local ingredients and plenty of options for vegetarians. Side note - Hotel Tivoli does have a really beautiful restaurant and bar on the bottom floor of the hotel, we just opted out because we knew we wanted to enjoy breakfast there.

Monday morning we enjoyed breakfast outside on the porch. All of the pastries, even the granola, were made in-house at the hotel. After stuffing ourselves, we headed over to the Tivoli General to stock up on supplies for lunch: basil limeade, a crusty loaf of sourdough, homemade hummus, and black truffle pecorino.

We then headed to Poet's Walk (thanks Jeff and K for the rec!) where we enjoyed a brief but gorgeous little hike. FYI, there isn't a ton of shade on this walk so I'd avoid it on a 90 degree day, but the view was worth it.

We stopped at the Migliorelli Farm stand to stock up on fresh fruits and veggies, then ate our lunch by the water in Rhinecliff and hightailed it outta town just as the sky opened up. We had such a blast exploring the Hudson Valley and I cannot recommend it enough! We already decided to make this trip an annual one - let me know if you have any questions!

That's all I've got for you today, but come back next week for a pretty post on real style by real women :).

xoxo,

aok