The Poconos

I'm currently in the process of planning another trip to the Poconos and thought I'd share these photos from last year. We rented a cabin through Airbnb to accommodate our big group. Now that we're out of college, it's nice to have weekend getaways to catch up with those you don't see as often. Between school and jobs, it's hard to get everyone's schedules to line up, but we managed to last year. It was one of those weekends where everyone was together the entire time - talking walks down to the water, making meals for eight people, doing acroyoenjoying a few beverages and being silly. On Saturday we all loaded into my boyfriends pickup truck to go bowling. Everyone who was in the bed flung their bodies out of the truck when we got to the location, car sick from the drive. I don't remembered how we bowled, if I had to guess I would say not very well. I remember a piecemeal weekend (though that could be from the homebrewed beer) - my boyfriend and I wearing matching overalls, everyone in red flannels, playing games, running around, belting out lyrics to country songs, Chloe making her famous tater tot casserole, me falling asleep in the middle of cooking dinner. Being in the Poconos during fall is so nice with all the leaves changing, when it's not too cold. It was such a special weekend that I'm really adamant to do it again this year. 

Great White North

Here are some pictures I took while my boyfriend and I were on vacation in Canada. We drove from New Jersey to Ottawa, then Ottawa to Cochrane, took the train from Cochrane to Moosonee, took the train back and drove to North Bay, then to Toronto and finally we visited Niagara Falls on the way back! Over the course of a week we spent more than forty hours traveling, but the boy and I are both firm believers in enjoying the journey and we both love a hearty sense of adventure (que the Indiana Jones theme song). It was an incredible trip. We rented the cutest little apartment in Toronto which made the trip all the better. With classic tapes of Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin and heck, maybe a little MC Hammer, there was always music playing in the background, transporting us into another era.

The highlights were eating poutine, making blueberry pancakes on Sunday morning, seeing Niagara Falls, the train ride to Moosonee, clutching my boyfriend's hand while we both tried not to fall ice skating (which we totally didn't!) and of course all the nice people we met. In particular, a man named John Miller who went out of his way to make us feel welcome in Moosonee, took off of work to give us a tour, and invited us into his home. We talked about everything from the Louvre and eating locally to the best way to tan the hide of a moose he shot himself. To date, he is probably one of the nicest and most genuine people I have met. Just a week shy of sixty, his mission in life seems to be to make everyone he comes in contact appreciate the place he has made his home. And get this - he has a tiny dog named Brutus who sits on his butt with his back legs out to the sides and his paws in front of him to eat his dinner. I've never seen a dog sit while eating, or as John Miller says - "he doesn't eat, he dines." Cheers to a man who, though he has a large family of his own, makes strangers feel like they're part of it even, if only for a day.