Bear Mountain

Brandon had his last summer break, so even though we wanted to spend some of it in Manhattan, we thought we would take a couple days to escape to the mountains. Our trip to Palmyra made us very hungry for the outdoors. Tori has been asking to go camping but with all our stuff in storage, that wasn't entirely an option (like not an option at all obviously). Brandon, as always, found us the perfect two day retreat to meet all our needs just a 45-minute drive north of Manhattan called...you guessed it, Bear Mountain. 

It was everything we wanted. Fun amenities, rustic lodge accommodations, our own rental car, forest, oh and we could see the sky...in it's entirety...without having to crane our necks at the right angle from our windows. Also, we definitely told the kids it was camping.

Driving toward Bear Mountain...loved the drive.

Freedom!!! 

"Try to be in love together." - Tori

A boy and some water.

They had a carousel just across the lawn from the lodge and it was, literally, the most perfect carousel. I'm determined to find the best, and so far, by my book...this one is the dreamiest.

Tori had to ride in the "princess carriage" pulled by a swan. She fits the part, I will say.

This bear had his work cut out for him haha, Brandon seriously is such a great Dad to hop on with Brighton.

Hugs for her swan.

Okay, right?! Dreamiest!

And if you weren't convinced yet, it comes with a fireplace. All I could picture was coming here in the winter while it was snowing, with my hot cocoa in one hand and my babe in the other, riding the carousel then snuggling up to the fireplace. Dreamiest!

They even provided rocking chairs. Jennie written all over this!

But wait...it does get better. First carousel -that I've seen at least- with a wild turkey.

A view of our lodge...we were roughing it big time.

If you can picture this, having seen the above picture now, upon arrival we let Brighton out and he literally ran across this field. I was calling for him to come back but he just couldn't. So much open space!! Going inside the lodge, things just got better. It was a very tasteful, fancy cabin feel with so many great little details, like oars for handles on the cabinets, lamps with iron compasses, even the linoleum in the bathroom was perfect. Beatiful establishment.

Our room featured these two hallways to little windows.  The selling point for the kids!

One of their dining halls! Someday I will have my NYC penthouse/luxury cabin! Not tacky, no.

Up until now, the Boise Zoo had been my favorite. Perfect size, exciting animals, BUT this one stole my heart. Maybe because I was already in a mood of euphoria, but, seriously, Brandon and I actually enjoyed it too. And with swimming in the near future, I was surprised Tori was as excited and interested...at all, let alone genuinely so. It was great!

Tori loves eagles. 

And finally swimming. I thought this was a pretty cool pool. But then, I'm not sure there was anything I disliked about this place.

That evening things would continue to get even more amazing! Stop it Bear Mountain!! How will we ever go back to Manhattan? They had a car show on the lawn of our hotel complete with oldies music and BBQ. Seriously, if I wasn't homesick before, this sent me over the edge. So much nostalgia. 

Tori picked her favorite car...the batgirl mobile.

And I picked mine

And then I had my first peppers and sausage. Oh and about went into cardiac arrest from all it's goodness. 

An actual ladybug. 

And these balloon animals cost us a pretty penny, but seriously, these are balloon animals.

Clearly, Brighton loved his.

Tori could have had a queen sized bed all to herself, but she opted for this. She really wanted to go camping. 

The trailhead to the Appalachian trail was right outside our door, so our second day there we planned a little hike up the hill. Which turned out to be even more little given Tori's disdain for the great outdoors. Apparently, she can talk the talk.

Overlooking the lake.

Poor Brighton, wasn't until after that we realized how awful this must have been for him...and Brandon for that matter.

The very start of the trip...soon after, it was tears and "Ew, ah, a bug, Mom a real life bug. I'm scared." Such a priss.

Our check out was early so with a day left with our car rental we decided to cash in on some of our fav places from back west that we don't have much access to in the city. First stop, Taco Bell (pretty much all I ate during Brighton's pregnancy). 

The GPS brought us here...to this dead end. It was pretty convinced we were at our destination. 

After the let down of no Taco Bell, we thought we would hit up a Walmart and get some groceries that we could transport right to our doorstep. We ended up in this extremely Jewish town, which I'm not even going to sugar coat this, it was creepy. And it wasn't a super Walmart. 0-2. So, our final stop would take us back onto the island, to a restaurant we had been wanting to try in Harlem called Dinosaur BBQ. It wasn't that great, but a gem in the otherwise disparaging froths of Harlem.

And that was family vacay part 1. It was seriously, so perfect. Exactly what we needed to keep morale high and adventurous spirits satisfied. We hope to visit again soon!