Kicking It at Keuka Lake
Katy, Kim, Charlotte and Pat standing in front of the Lake
I am sad to inform you that I have completed my final planned travel activity taking place while I am here in America. Now, that is not to say that I will not be going on any more adventures, it means that all the scheduled events and weekends away have reached an end. Also approaching is the end of my stay here in the States but more on that at a later date.
During the last week of June, Katy and I decided to go stay with a friend in New York, but we weren’t staying in New York City, we were travelling to one of the finger lakes, specifically Keuka Lake near the town of Penn Yan. This beautiful lake is about 3 hours drive from the Canada – America border with a cooler and less humid climate than down South.
Although the drive up was in two parts, the way back was a total of 10 hours driving, which is enough to drive anyone crazy (Katy is already crazy so she managed the journey pretty well). On the way there we stopped in New Jersey to visit Katy’s family for a few days before driving the remaining 4 hours to the lake house of our friend Charlotte on the Friday. I met Charlotte through one of Katy’s housemates and she graciously invited some us from NC State to hang at her lake house, her family live in the nearby town, a 45 minute drive for her when not at school, sounds like a great time… we didn’t feel the same way about our drive. The house backed onto the lake and offered a wonderful view of the lake from multiple angles.
We all stayed in the same room with a double bed and a camping bed to split between the three of us. It was fun to have the old school aesthetic of a ‘girls sleepover’, of course Patrick, another friend of the group, would join us to watch movies and laze around in the evenings.
The weekend was much time spent eating good food and drinking whilst out on the dock or in the back garden that lead right out onto the lake. Although rain was predicted not a drop fell during the daytime which was convenient because we also spent a lot of time out on the water. I tried paddle boarding for the first time, which was hard work especially when the tide of the lake was against you. We also did a couple of tubing trips and to recover from that aggressive endeavour we got floats and drifted on the water by the dock.
Our activities weren’t just water based either, we spent time playing board games, which my team won by the skin of our teeth (Shout out to Katy and Patrick, solid team members) and playing cornhole.
For my Non-American friends and family, cornhole is a game where you have a 3ft board propped up at one end and hole cut out in the centre about 1/3 from the top. You throw beanbags onto the board and into the hole. Your score needs to add up to 21 and if you go over, your score goes back to 0. You stand opposite your team mate and take it in turns to throw. A bag on the board is 1 and in the hole is 3. It’s harder than it looks!
We went to a local brewery that had just opened in the area and played card games and had drinks there too. We also went to a winery and to an ice cream parlour which was also a lot of fun. I also enjoyed, once again, taking pictures of the whole trip. Check out the Picture Project to see some of the latest snaps.
Overall, it was a very chill and interesting trip but now I am ready for a month of downtime.
Originally published: 13th July 2019
