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Fall   •   Favorite things   •   Local   •   Travel

Olana {The Home of Artist Frederick Church}

Oct 20, 2014
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One of the big things on my bucket list this year was to visit Olana. Olana is a historic site that is only about an hour away from my home. I have wanted to visit for quite a while, but never made the trip down to actually visit. This past Saturday I convinced my brother Andy and his girlfriend Lauren that it was a good idea to visit. We hit the road at around noon and arrive just before 1:30pm. We didn’t make a home tour reservation before we went (mistake) but were lucky to get onto a tour anyway.

 

The home was built in the early 1870’s after the Church family returned from a trip to the Middle East. The home may seem odd from the outside, but stylistically it makes more sense when inside. Generally homes in the Middle East are built around a central atrium- Olana is built in a similar style, but the central hall is inclosed due to the fact that we live in upstate New York.

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The Middle Eastern architecture is similar to what they would have seen while visiting Beirut, Jerusalem and Damascus. Because of the wonderful views (the house is situated on the top of a large hill) many large windows were also incorporated into the design. From the inside these arched windows are framed and make the views seem like works of art themselves.

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Unfortunately the house did not allow pictures on the inside, but I can tell you that the home is beautiful (photos of the inside can be found here).  Original artwork by Frederick Church and other artists from the Hudson River School can be found in every room of the house. All of the furniture in the home is original as well. Lockwood de Forest (a student of Frederick Church) contributed many hand carved wooden pieces into the home. These carvings were insanely impressive. Intricate wooden fireplace mantels, the wooden balcony, and many pieces of furniture can be found throughout.

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After the tour of the house we decided to explore the grounds a bit.

After leaving this lookout point we were caught in a freezing cold rainstorm. We made our way back to the car as fast as possible and then explored Downtown Hudson for a bit. After hitting up a food-truck for some delicious chicken soft tacos, we headed home. It was a great day! I highly recommend visiting Olana if you live in tri-state area!

Favorite things   •   Life   •   Local

The Swing Of Things

Apr 25, 2013

Good Morning!

Wow. Can I say, sorry for the total disappearance. I have been busy with work and life in general, and have once again found myself spending whatever free time I had left reading or watching an embarrassing amount of Psych. And once again, I find myself missing posting about life happenings and developing recipes. A few weekends ago, I went hiking with a brother and a friend and really enjoyed myself! I have a few of the pictures below.

Stay tuned for some fun posts! I am back!

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Photos by Chasie Swick

Life   •   Local   •   The Weekender

The Weekender

Mar 18, 2013

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I hope that everyone had a great weekend! Anyone out there do anything fun for St. Patricks day?

I have a GIVEAWAY winner for you all! Sorry this took so long for me to get together for ya. Carolee, you are the winner of the giveaway! I will be contacting you to get your information!

Sunday I got myself up and took Buddy for a walk before headed to a late morning yoga class at Saratoga Springs Yoga. If you live in the area and have not been to Saratoga Springs Yoga, I recommend it! I purchased a new member special a while back, $40 for a month of unlimited yoga! Talk about a good deal. I had been paying about half of that for a drop in class at other studios. My month is up this week, so I will be trying to get a couple of other classes in.

Fun links from around the web:

80 seconds of Pug puppies getting a bath

Do you have kids? Check out this fun nature scavenger hunt!

11 reasons to love Megan Draper on “Mad Men”

Current favorite song: Sweater Weather by The Neighborhood

Currently rereading: Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. This is one of those books that I reread every once and a while. While there are some sections of the book that are irritating, there are other parts that really stick with me. Oh, and I would love to go on a “No Carb Left Behind” tour of Italy as well.

Workouts of the week:

S – Off – Steps Taken 5,992 (via my Fitbit)

M – 2 Mile dog walk – Steps Taken 9,125

T- Can’t remember… – Steps Taken 8,155

W – Nada – Steps Taken 7,445

TH – Zippo – Steps Taken 5,807

F – 3 mile run + Arms- Steps Taken 16,219

SAT – 2 Mile dog walk – Steps Taken 11,000

This has been a pretty horrible week workout wise. Here come the typical excuses, work, weather, laziness. I was just in a general funk. This will be a better week! I am happy to see that my numbers were MUCH higher at the end of the week.

(The weekender is inspired by Teri at  A Foodie Stays Fit)

 

Local   •   Saratoga   •   Weekend

Saturday

Mar 17, 2013

Hello Hello! After a busy week at work, I have finally made my way back. How is everyone?

Lets do a quick weekend recap. Chris and I spent Friday night with our friends at Forno Tuscano in Downton Saratoga Springs. It happens to be restaurant week in town, so if you happen to live in the area, head on down and check it out! Many different restaurants are offering three course dinner menus for $20.13.  After dinner Chris and I went to galactic bowling for the first time in a long time (I kicked ass, obviously). Today I slept in until after 11am – I can’t remember the last time I did that! Something about going to bed after 2am makes sleeping in VERY easy…

After waking up, Buddy and I went on a quick 2 mile walk before heading out on an adventure with my family. Living in Upstate NY, there are lots of fun things to do when you have an open afternoon. In the paper recently there was an article about a local Maple Sugaring business opening their doors for breakfast and ice cream. Um, hello. We were there!

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Dry Brook Sugar House is about an hour out of Saratoga Springs in Salem, NY. After arriving, we visited with some of the beautiful horses and checked out what maple products they had available. We picked up some still warm syrup and maple candy before getting some amazing vanilla ice cream (maple syrup + vanilla ice cream is out of this world).

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 After having fun at the Sugar House, we headed home. On the way, we made a couple of pit stops. My brother (the history major) and my dad (the history buff) spotted an old graveyard on the way and we made a point to check it out on the way back. We explored and spoke with the town historian who happened to be there.

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On the way home we noticed signs for a covered bridge so I requested a pit stop so I could check it out. It was bitter cold, but totally worth it. I love seeing things like this!

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I hope that you all have had a great weekend!

Favorite things   •   Life   •   Local   •   Travel   •   Uncategorized   •   Winter

Franklin Roosevelt & Sonic

Jan 25, 2013

Okay, best title of a blog post EVER. This past Monday (Martin Luther King Jr. Day) I loaded into the car with my brother and dad for an epic adventure to the nearest Sonic. I had never ever been to one. I am teased by the commercials pretty much daily and was so over it. I needed a slush and some tots of my own! We left for our grand adventure and arrived in Kingston NY by about noon.

It was glorious.

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I ordered a lemon berry slush (with extra berries) per suggestion of Heather. It was amazing. I would drive back down again just for that slush. The slush / tot combination was awesome. I would have ordered more awesome food, but we had plans to visit the Culinary Institute of America and were going to pick up lunch. Pretty much immediately after our sonic visit we found out that it was closed. Good thing my dad basically split his BLT with me anyway Winking smile.

After our tot and slush adventure, we headed to Franklin Roosevelt’s house. We made it just in time for one of the tours that they were giving that day. Gosh, being in the old house made me feel like I was at Highclere Castle (where they film Downton Abbey). I had to hold back from running to the servants wing and looking for Anna.

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The front of the house

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Franklin Roosevelt’s bedroom. Pretty shnazzy.

It was a really fun day! I love having last minute adventures.

What is your favorite thing at Sonic? I am jealous of you guys who have them locally!

TGIF!

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