New Yorkers, we’ve been spoiled by the weather, haven’t we? Mild temperatures in the mid 60s, sunny, the fall foliage at full peak. Sometimes the neighborhood feels like a movie set. How has Fall been in your neck of the woods?

Yes. It really did snow on Saturday. The abnormal weather in a year of freakish weather continues, so why not snow in October? I don’t even think they were forecasting any snow here in the city – and the brunt of it was up north where over a foot of snow fell and millions of people lost power – but the flakes started coming down late morning. When we woke up Sunday, however, it was pretty much gone.

Back as you were, October.

…in a house in Tarrytown New York, right next to the Hudson River called “Sunnyside”. It seems fitting on a fine Sunday in October to spend the day around the towns that the Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle was set, on the grounds where the author who wrote these stories lived. The house is completely intact and furnished as it was since the mid-19th century. I couldn’t take photos of the interior of the house during the tour (led by women in costume waiting for you in the various rooms – okay that was a little bit creepy to walk up to a room and see someone in period dress sitting alone in a rocking chair), but Mia found the house particularly fascinating.

There is no better place to experience Fall than the Northeast, especially in charming river towns by the Hudson. You can argue with me all you want, but it’s true. The leaves are a little late in peeking this year up in the Hudson Valley as of last Sunday and it’s slow to trickle down here in the city too. Which just means that we have a few more weeks of Fall color to look forward to before the trees bare their branches.

We didn’t really travel much as a family when I was a kid. I do, however, remember a few summer weekend outings spent in Montauk or the Poconos, renting out a group of motel rooms with other family friends and their children. It didn’t really matter where we were, really. It was all about hanging out with friends, like on a really long playdate, and a break from routine and everyday life.

These trips sometimes remind me of those childhood vacations full of families and kids. It’s one sort of vacation when you go to a place as a tourist not knowing anyone, but it’s another trip altogether when you spend it with a family who make the place home, no matter how many times you’ve been there. It’s a different, and I would say, more meaningful experience.

What is it about vacations that make it feel like it happened a million years ago once you get home? This was our first day on the San Juan Islands with our friends Sara and Thor and it feels so long ago even though it was the weekend before last. It’s actually a cool and rainy day here in NY. Prelude to what Fall might bring. School starts for the girls in 2 days, but first…more photos of the island to come…

The first time I visited the San Juan Islands was during a 3 day class retreat in college nearly 20 years ago. We went to Orcas Island and rented a big cabin in Doe Bay hot spring, driving in caravans of cars and buses full of music students and instruments and getting on the ferry in Anacortes. Needless to say, it was rad.

There would be a few other trips during my time in the NW, but my last time in the San Juans was 3 years ago when I took my parents there on a day trip to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. This is the island that our friends Sara and Thor (of the lakehouse) live year round and we went to visit them.

Anacortes is always cold and foggy. You could tell that it catches people off guard sometimes if they’re driving up from Seattle because they come unprepared without sweaters and hoodies. Our hour long ferry ride this year was a complete white out. I’m not even sure how the ferry knows where to go! But sometime after the 45 minute mark the fog slowly started lifting. A sliver of island could be seen…then, sunshine!

We spent the morning by the wharf on Sunday morning and yeah…we were one of those tourists who keep the San Francisco fleece business afloat and healthy because Claudine was freezing and we had to run in and buy her something warm. And people were swimming in this water! At 58 degrees!

Apparently the gang all had a grand time and played old school pinball and other things while I went to my photoshoot in a nearby neighborhood. A seagull snatched Mia’s corndog right out of her hand (not the first time this has happened either – Claudine lost a hotdog to a seagull in similar fashion on Long Island). The view and the water, however, was worth all the shivering. I’m sort of fascinated by the fog. It hovers over the city waiting to roll in like a smoke monster. It always looks a bit ominous far away on the horizon.

We had a weekend of extremes: Saturday the girls and I laid around the apartment and didn’t do much except to go get bagels in the middle of the day, but Sunday was super action packed. We started the day off at Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture. You can read more about the place here. We didn’t eat at the fancy restaurant, but did get lunch at the Blue Hill Cafe and ate in the courtyard. There must have been a wedding or event that day because there were lots of women dressed in breezy summer white dresses and guys in seersucker and crisp button down shirts. Or maybe people dress like that all the time to go to brunch on the farm, I don’t know. Stay tuned for tomorrow to see where we ended up the second half of our Sunday.

Did I mention that there is no electricity or running water at Sara’s lakehouse? That means a lot of reading on the porch and early bedtimes, 2 things I don’t really do anymore. It also means the first night is spent staring at the darkness at 4am in the morning because no matter what time I go to sleep, I just wake up 5 or 6 hours later. The outhouse is also a bit of a (short) walk away from the house, which means that I usually choose to hold it in even though I need to go pretty badly because really, who wants to get up in complete darkness in the middle of the night and fumble toward an outhouse with a flashlight? It sort of reminds me of when I used to go camping. The days are ruled by the hours of daylight since there isn’t any electricity, and so you sleep and rise with the sun. When you wake in the middle of the night and can’t go back to sleep, waiting for those first glimmers of morning light can seem like forever. Miraculously, I slept through the 2nd night and woke up to the gentle sound of rain.

You might recall that last year we met Sara Jensen at her family lakehouse, a house that her great grandfather built in 1906, located 1 hour north of NYC. Sara and I had never met before up until that weekend, having only just chatted over the internet, and I guess she decided that we were not scary strangers or anything because she invited us back again this year. It’s funny what kids remember or don’t remember from the past, but the girls have fond memories of spending the weekend at the house last year and couldn’t stop talking about it the week or so leading up to the 4th. Now, it just feels like a part of summer to us.

(oh, and shhhh…don’t tell anyone we were roasting store-bought marshmallows. totally forgot to bring our own this year).