Stonehill Reunion in Upstate New York

My first vacation of the summer was this past weekend. My friend, Kait, who is living at Stonehill for an internship this summer, and I made the four hour road trip up to Queensbury, New York to visit a couple other friends from school. Kait and I stayed with our friend Carrie, whose parents graciously opened up their home to us. A trip to upstate New York would not have been complete without including Kathleen, my roommate from last year, who is from Clifton Park. Kathleen came and joined Kait and I in “the Q.” Here's a picture of the three visitors:

Our weekend began with a lovely summer dinner with Carrie’s parents, and a quick outing into Lake George (at my request) so we could get some Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. And that was a good idea if I do say so myself; the ice cream was yummy! Back at Carrie’s house, her friends came over for a pool party and campfire. It was fun to meet a friend’s other group of friends; not to mention the new Facebook friends I had a couple days later!

The next morning we had a light breakfast of fruit and crepes, and then headed out with a smaller group of Carrie’s friends to go kayaking on the Hudson River. Kait and I were a little nervous because we aren’t used to being so outdoorsy, but Carrie’s friends were so helpful, except for one thing. I was wearing my clothes over my bathing suit in the kayak, and they decided I should get flipped over. So not once, but twice, during the trip I got flipped into the Hudson! It was all in good fun though, and I enjoyed kayaking. The worst part was being sore for two days from the extra exercise that my arms aren’t used to.

The scariest part of kayaking was our destination. We kayaked out to a rope swing that hangs off of a tree over the Hudson. We all swung from the rope and landed in the river. I only jumped a couple times though because hitting the water from such a height kind of stings the skin. I even ended up with a pretty dark bruise on my leg from holding onto the rope! Rope swinging was something I’ve never done before, and I’m always up for trying new things and being a little adventurous. I don't know if you will believe it or not, but this picture is of me on the rope swing!

Saturday night, Carrie, Kathleen, Kait, and I got dressed up and went to dinner in Saratoga. It was kind of funny, because even without planning it we all chose to wear white pants. (It must have been a Stonehill thing.)

We had a yummy dinner at a little international place. Then walked through the park in Saratoga, and had a laugh because while we were all drinking from the springs that taste more like dirty pipe than water, Kait dropped her camera into the urn with all the pipes for the springs! We had to ask someone for help to get it out! Here I am drinking from the springs:

We also posed for more pictures during our walk through the park. We think this will make a lovely Christmas card picture!

We also had to pose in front of one of the painted horses:

And we rode the carousel! I felt like I was a young kid again. But I also felt like I will be friends with these girls for a long time to come.

Saturday night we had another campfire with the new friends we went kayaking with during the day.

Sunday morning we were going to take a hike, but we woke up and it was raining! So instead we went out for a big, yummy brunch, which was totally fine with me after kayaking the day before!
It was a really nice weekend get-away. And I really enjoyed spending the weekend with a few friends from school. The friendships that I have made at Stonehill are one of my favorite things about Stonehill. I wouldn’t have believed two years ago that it would be my college friends and not my high school friends that I will stay close with over the years, but now I can understand why so many people told me that. I’m extremely lucky though because I am still friends with my classmates from high school, but now I have even more friends from Stonehill.