Here’s a good example of why our family feels very fortunate to live in this region. Jeremy and I had a day to ourselves last weekend, and we made the most of it (with a focus on food, naturally.)
We started in Dobbs Ferry at the Dawg House, where Jeremy had the Miami Vice and the Boston Terrier, and I had the Mango Tango and the Windy City Dawg — the last easily earning the highest marks in my book. Just down the street, we walked off some minimal percentage of those hot dogs with a hike along the Old Croton Aqueduct Park, where we spotted lots of wineberries (more on that later.)
Jeremy enjoys his ice cream at Bluebird.
Following our hike, we were off to Bluebird Ice Cream Parlor in Cross River. A long way to drive, perhaps, but hand-crafted ice cream calls, and the reviews were excellent. Jeremy had Chocolate Pudding and Triple Berry, while I had Strawberries & Nata (unsweetened cream) and Stumptown Coffee. Crazy good, and we brought a pint of the coffee – thoughtfully chilled down to 20 degrees to survive the car ride – home with us, where it has been reluctantly shared.
Our adventure wrapped up back in New Rochelle in the Nature Study Woods, where we collected huge numbers of wineberries.
Lots and lots of wineberries!
These are like small, tart raspberries that grow wild in amazing profusion for a few weeks in mid-summer. Best to shove a whole handful into your mouth at once to get the full effect – just be sure no one is watching. We endured – well, mainly Jeremy endured – lots of mosquito bites and a few thorn-pricks, but all well worth it. How often, after all, do we have a chance to amass a literal bucketful of deliciousness from our local woods?
All in all, a great day!