They Were All Yellow

It really is fall. The leaves are finally changing color here (although this photo is actually from two years ago, in Iowa-sorry to cheat but it was taken by yours truly!) and the temperatures are mild and cool. My immediate reaction once I can no longer wear summer clothes, which really used to be a lifeguarding swimsuit & something comfortable over it for about a decade, is to immediately switch to sweaters and layers and boots and coats. It dawned on me this week that it's still pretty nice here in NYC, having been in the 60's most of the last few weeks, so my usual knee-jerk reaction to dress like it's an Iowa winter has been rather unnecessary. It has also ironically been much warmer back in Iowa than here, when there's usually a frost or two by now and some light flurries of snow. 

As much as I'm not a cool or cold weather girl (the irony of growing up in the Midwest and moving out East is not lost on me here), I do love the gorgeous changes fall brings to my scenery. Hopefully, I'll get to spend a little time admiring the legendary east coast fall foliage this weekend. 

What's your favorite thing about fall? Leave a comment below!

Grown Up Pumpkins

Ok, I'll admit-I actually do kind of like Fall & Winter, if only for the decorating, DIY and craft possibilities! As a kid, I carved a pumpkin pretty much every October. The adult part of me still wants to roast the seeds, but I want my pumpkins to look prettier. I've rounded up some of my favorite carved & no carve pumpkin ideas.

Lattice-carved pumpkins, Flower pumpkins, Ribbon pumpkins & white pumpkins, all via Better Homes & Gardens. Other pumpkins via Pinterest.

There are so many cute, easy ways to dress up a pumpkin, from ribbons to glitter to leaves to flowers. Don't forget to make use of the pumpkin insides, either! My favorite thing to do is roast the seeds-this year I plan on roasted the insides, as well, so I have my own fresh pumpkin puree to use in all kinds of goodies.

Walkway Over the Hudson

As promised, a recap of my trip up the Hudson last Saturday!

It all started when I was browsing Time Out New York's website, reading their list of 101 Things to do This Fall & I saw #2: the Walkway Over the Hudson. It's a 1.5 mile bridge across the Hudson river valley, with trees & hills lining both banks for miles. I knew Jessica (check out her blog here!) would love to go, so we picked a day & met at Grand Central in the morning (& both checked take a train from Grand Central off the bucket list). Fair warning, there will be a lot of photos in this post.

View from the train. Out the other side, you could see the Hudson, all the way up.

After we got to Poughkeepsie, we were immediately ambushed by about ten cab drivers all at once, but we opted to walk...even though we had no idea where we were really going. It turned out to only be about 10 minutes inland from the train to get to the start of the bridge, though!

Looking south from the bridge (Poughkeepsie is to the left)

The walkway.

Jessica getting the best angle for her photos (really, she's a pro!).

I do believe I was jumping up and down on the bench, which made Jessica a little nervous. Ignore that and check out the view!

We walked the entire length of the bridge and discovered there's a loop you can walk or bike around some of the trails, but we didn't have time to cover it so we headed back over and decided to check out the downtown area of Poughkeepsie. It turns out, there's not a whole lot to see. It's a really neat area, but seems to house a rougher neighborhood right now and a lot of the store fronts were closed. It's a shame because there was a lot of great artwork, including sculptures, murals, and architectural aesthetics to see as we walked up the street (my favorite mural is showcased at the bottom of this post!).

Painted sculpture in front of the Poughkeepsie Journal

My favorite building of the trip, the Poughkeepsie Journal! The gate arch reads: "Here shall the press the people's right maintain."

We stopped to get some food before catching a train back, and as I have dietary restrictions we found a great hot dog/vegan place called Soul Dog! I know that may sound like an oxymoron, but if you're ever in Poughkeepsie I strongly recommend you make a stop. The above photo is of our (lightly sweetened) mint iced teas.

The below photos are all of a mural painted near downtown Poughkeepsie depicting popular stores that existed there near the turn of the 20th century. It's oddly placed on the back of some buildings, but as you can see, I couldn't resist the urge to get a little closer...I have a thing about imitating/interacting with sculptures, artwork and people, and captured one of my best imitations to date here! (My friend Steve has photographed a lot of my adventures and proclaimed this my best work-he's still back in the Midwest, but you can check out his highly entertaining, slightly offensive twitter here.)

*all photos taken by myself & Jessica