Our Town

Last weekend we had a little getaway at the Catskill Mountains. Despite its lackluster name, it's actually a charming little town. It's most famous for the Kaaterskill Falls, which is apparently higher than Niagara and a lot prettier. 

Kaaterskill Falls

Plus you get to climb to above 1/3 of the way up, and if you want to risk falling over the precipice you can choose to climb all the way up (which I did, and almost fell). I couldn't have survived without my trusty little walking stick.

A lot of tourists leave their mark after climbing up the falls. 

Carvings on stone

The falls was only a few minutes away from our Twilight Lodge. It's really easy to miss when you're driving because the entrance to the hike is barricaded from the highway, so people who don't do their homework wouldn't know to stop there.

There's a nearby North/South Lake where you can go swimming or boating. We rented a two-person kayak. It was so relaxing enjoying the fresh country air and beautiful scenery (although we almost crashed twice into the bushes due to my steering...or lack thereof =).

North/South Lake

You can also hike up the mountains from the lake. There used to be a very famous hotel called the Catskill Hotel where the presidents and VIPs from around the world used to stay for their R&R. This is the vantage point from where the hotel used to be. 

View from the (former...now demolished) Catskill Hotel

Another beautiful way to enjoy the mountains is to take a sky-ride from Hunter's ski resort. There's also a zipline for adventure extremists. We went a little late in the day so we couldn't stay to take pictures at the top. But the ride itself was worth it.

Ski-lift

It's actually quite a steep climb, definitely not for the faint of heart. Once the ski-lift got stuck - I guess to drop someone off below - but we were at an uber high altitude, so to feel the cart dangling 1600m from ground was not cool. (Ok, I admit it, I'm a big chicken. Sorry for the people down there hearing a crazy girl scream her head off =)

After the sky-ride, we tried our hand at a round of mini-golf.

This shot here is an amazing hole-in-one, made by hubby =) Unfortunately I spent most of my time fishing out my ball out of the creek.

After another gelato at the Astor House, we went for a drive. A couple of towns over you'll find a lovely cow ranch.

Cow ranch

Reminds of the raw milk I drank the other day. Although it was unpasterized, it tasted a lot like normal milk, just a lot fresher. 

Main Street is the happening street in Tannersville, the town next to Twilight. We checked out the General Store on Main Street. It was the cutest little store ever!

Plaques bearing adages

What a cute little wittle rabbit

Guess what this is?

A popcorn machine! And what is this next one for?

A food scale! Guess small towns need to measure small stuff...like jelly beans.

Ole-fashioned countertop

They even sell ice cream floats and burgers here! The setting of this countertop reminds me of the 70s, and even the teens hanging out here had an old-school twang. They were signing yearbooks while sipping on Coke.

I was surprised by the number of general stores. Every town had its own General Store. This one is Twilight's. It sells mostly canned items and a whole lot of souvenirs.

Twilight General Store

I found this pretty funny - an ice cream cone on top of a closed down shack...

Ice-cream shack

And of course, no town is complete without...

Yummy Asia

That's right - even this town with a population of 500 or so has its token Chinese restaurant.  And it was funny that when I went to this jewelry store the owner asked me if I were the daughter from California. I was like, "Excuse me?" The shop owner explained to me that the Chinese couple who ran the Chinese restaurant had a daughter living in California who was visiting town that weekend. Wow, everyone does know each other in a small town.

Jelly blob from jewelry store

Being around nature and living in a small town makes you take in the little things in life, like watching the sunset or taking time to smell the hydrangea. Only downside is that there's not a lot of places to hide from your wife....muwahaha.