Darren Herman

Having lived and worked in Manhattan for years, it’s hard to step away and get out of the urban jungle.  There’s so many things to do in the city but sometimes it’s nice to venture outside.  Today, Sherri and I headed up to New Paltz, NY to the Mohonk Mountain House for a day of hiking.  The weather couldn’t have been better, around 82 degrees and sunny so it was a fantastic day to be outside.

We ventured 1hr and 15mins north of our home in Westchester (took i87) and listened to some XM Satellite Radio on the ride up (more on that in another post probably tomorrow).  Since we arrived around 11:45am, we went straight to the Granary Cookout where we had previously made reservations for a lunch feast:  ribs, burgers, chicken, steak, salads, fruits, vegetables, cakes, pies, etc.  After eating a hearty lunch, we took a short break and then began our traverse up to the Skytop Lookout House atop Lake Mohonk.  The hike wasn’t too strenuous but a perfect warmup for our upcoming trip to the Grand Canyon, Bryce, Zion and Yosemite (leaving Sunday).

There are plenty of pictures here that we took along the way and some of them are semi-artistic shots that I was fooling around with.  I’m one who easily gets caught up in the noise and meetings of Manhattan, but getting out to reset is an amazing feeling.  On the way back, we listened to the new Dave Matthews Band album that is sold in Starbucks and we really enjoyed it.  The song, “You May Die Trying” is really resonating with us and I’m loving the drum beats Carter lays down.