A fairly short post this time. It was my last day in NY today and what better way to spend it than with some family friends who moved over here to Mamaroneck. So I packed up my stuff, checked out of my hotel and headed to Grand Central to get the train out of the city for the day, stopping via Starbucks en route for an iced coffee. I forgot that because of the amount of shopping I did, my bag has almost doubled in weight which made it so hard to carry compared to when I was coming out but I made it in one piece. I felt so beyond amazement that I was getting a train from Grand Central. I went and grabbed my ticket and then went and found my platform and jumped on the train. It was about a 45min train journey out of the city and it really flew by and from the station it was about a 10min walk to their house.

We ventured off out for brunch and onto Bear Mountain State Park for the day which was super nice. First, brunch, which obviously included coffee as well. We went for pancakes at a quirky little café and I think the kids got further with theirs than I did. I was so stuffed. I chose pancakes with a forest fruit compote and whipped cream on top, coupled with a latte (of course) and they tasted divine. The compote was still warm and though extremely sweet, was super lush. I didn’t manage to finish it but I also did enjoy the latte, and I think it goes for most independent cafés and coffee shops both in the UK and elsewhere, the coffee is always so much smoother and rich which makes it so lovely. The coffee shop had all sorts of little trinkets and was super quirky and so my vibe so I was in my element, and the whole village / town that it was in just reminded me of what you see in the movies sometimes, the suburbs of the states which just look incredible.

From here it was onto Bear Mountain. We jumped back in the car and headed off. We first wandered around the Zoo there which almost played the role of a sanctuary for animals that are native to the park, including two bears that were super incredible. Both had medical conditions and were being cared for in the Zoo, where they might not have survived in the wild. We then wandered around the perimeter of the lake which was lovely, there were so many incredible photo opportunities and the whole scenery was just so picturesque. We had some fun taking different photos and exploring different parts including doing a bit of off roading rock climbing to get some cool pics on top of some of the rocks by the lake.

Final stop before heading back was to the top of the Mountain. We didn’t have time to hike it because of what time I had to be back in the city to get to the airport, so we drove to the top to see some of the incredible views. From the top of the mountain you could see the entire city line of Manhattan in the distance. I spent the majority of the day just so fascinated at all times and was so happy I got a day out of the city to explore other parts of NY. From here we drove back to the house and then I headed back to the station to jump on a train back to the city.

I got back to the city and headed to the pickup spot of the bus back to the airport. I started getting concerned as it was super delayed and in my head I was thinking of alternates I could take to get back to the airport that wouldn’t cost a small fortune, but I stuck it out and before I knew it I was on a bus, passing through Times Square and back towards the airport. I couldn’t believe this was it, a whole week gone in a flash. I arrived back at Newark Airport and got a final US Starbucks before checking in and heading through security. I went to a diner in the airpot (most things were closed by this time) and grabbed some dinner before finding my departure gate and chilling out until time to board. By this point I was absolutely knackered, I was just so excited to get on the plane so I could go to sleep. We boarded around 22:00 and I took me seat, the other lady and I were so happy as well because no one was sat in the middle so we had some extra room to stretch out and sleep. I put my headphones on and before we had even taken off I was soundo, I woke up with around 1.5hours left of the journey and in time for some dodgy breakfast before landing back home in London. Now to battle with the M25! Thankyou for sharing my exploring with me this year and see you for more adventures in 2023. I have so many countries I want to check out next year so let’s see how many I can tick off. In the meantime, smile and speak soon. Mads xxx