Our first few days in the Hudson Valley were spent catching up with friends - it was great to see everyone again! We arrived on a red eye flight Friday morning in Newark and our first order of business when we got to the Hudson Valley was taking a nap. Second order of business? Pizza. Specifically, Giacomo’s - always a must on our visits (and we might have visited more than once this trip). Fortified with sleep and pizza we ventured out with Becky to Vassar to go for a walk around campus. In the evening we had dinner at Eric’s house and helped prep for Oktoberfest. It was a fun evening catching up and we immensely enjoyed hanging out with our friends again.

Unfortunately the next day was very rainy, but it didn’t stop everyone from coming out for a rockin’ Oktoberfest. Lots of good food, drinks, and company. I really appreciated being able to see so many friends easily in one place (coordinating with everyone separately on these trips takes a lot of work!). Prost!

On Sunday we spent the day with one of Norah’s friends. The girls chose to go to the Palisades Mall where we had lunch and the girls did some shopping. It turned into a beautiful day and I couldn’t resist stopping at Bear Mountain State Park on the way back. It would’ve been nice to do a proper hike, but we made do with a visit to Perkins Memorial Tower and admiring the views from there. Back on the east side of the river we had a quiet evening at Eric’s house hanging out and catching up on our zzzzz’s. Great start to our trip!