Late Friday night (around 1:30am actually), my friend, Christine, showed up from DC. She took the weekend off to help me settle in and explore Woodstock with me. Being Memorial Day weekend, the town was pretty packed. I’m interested to see if it is always this busy on the weekends, or if it was overflowed because of the holiday. We did a lot of the tourist-y things like going to the markets, visiting all the little stores, and eating at LOTS of the fun restaurants. I got to introduce them all to my new place of employment (Joshua’s Café) and my internship (The Center for Photography). The majority of the weekend was spent just taking it easy and finding where everything is in the town.
After an amazing breakfast at Oriole9, my parent’s left on Sunday, which meant a drive to Albany and a little bit of a haphazard tour around the city. While they were here, I let Dad be on camera duty and barely took any pictures myself. I'll see if I can post some from him later...After dropping them off at the airport, Christine and I tried to figure out what to do for the night. We ended up basically extending what we had already done…going to a few more places to get quick bites to eat and sitting at an outdoor bar for what turned into a few hours
On Monday, Christine and I woke up and headed to Bread Alone to get coffee and a quick breakfast. Bread Alone is Woodstock’s local coffee shop that also had an amazing lunch menu (meaning very vegetarian AND wallet friendly!). We stopped by the natural food store to pick up some things for our day and headed to the mountains. Our first hike was 5 miles up to Overlook Pass. It was definitely a tough hike (visually, a lot like Lapham Peak, for all you Delafield’ers who know, but basically a constant climb). We came across an old, abandoned hotel before getting to the top…
It would be an amazing place to do a photoshoot…though getting equipment up there would be a challenge. I was exhausted when we got to the top, but it was definitely worth the view…
The walk down felt like it took about 20 minutes, much of which was spent running (or leaping?) because we couldn’t slow ourselves down…
At the base of the hike is the Karma Triyana Dharmachakra monastery. It is the largest Buddhist monastery in the eastern United States, so of course Stine and I had to see what it was all about…here are a few pictures taken there.
We met a woman who worked there and she encouraged me to come by for some of their ceremonies or teaching nights. I’m definitely excited to go back and observe…she mentioned drums and incense and chanting…I can’t pass up seeing what all that is about!
After that, Stine and I headed to find the Kaaterskill Waterfalls; one of the higher falls in New York. After a little bit of confusion and nearly giving up, we finally found them. The hike up was only ½ mile and had a definite man-made path of stones and tree roots. It was really fun to hike up while following the waterfall the whole way. Upon reaching the top all I wanted to do was lay down on the rocks and relax. Stine climbed a little farther while I stayed here and enjoyed the view…
When we were done and fully relaxed, we hiked back to the car (passing a guy with a Brewer’s shirt), and headed back to my place to shower and get ready for dinner. We went to the Garden Café on the Green, the sole vegetarian restaurant in Woodstock. The meal was amazing and incredibly filling (so much that I get leftovers for lunch today!). After dinner we walked back home where we went through my portfolio, talked about what I wanted to do with my summer, and tried to plan a time for me to visit her in DC.
Today is my first day “alone” in Woodstock. I have plenty to do to organize and get caught up on things I put off for the last few days. The other interns from CPW and myself plan on getting together for a drink (or two) tonight to meet each other and talk about our time in NY thus far. Tomorrow, the internship begins…
