Last weekend, Jessica and I trekked up to Baldwin Vineyards near Pine Bush, NY, to attend the final weekend of the Strawberry, Chocolate & Wine Festival. We met up with my buddy Sean, who first proposed the idea in the smartest way possible: he told Jessica about it first, knowing full well that once she decided it was on our agenda, I was locked into the trip.

Despite continuing our tradition of getting horribly lost whenever we cross the state line into New Jersey (don’t ask), it was a great experience. Not only did the trip afford us an opportunity to get out of New York City and remember what fresh air is like, but we also, well… drank quite a bit of wine. I believe we sampled around 15 different wines, each one supplemented with a different dessert.

After the wine tasting, we went for a hike. I’ll admit being a bit skeptical of the whole proposal at first, since large amounts of wine and jagged cliffs usually don’t play well together, but Sean assured me that it was “a short walk for a big payoff.”

He wasn’t lying.

As you’ll see in the photos, the view from the cliff speaks for itself. Unfortunately, I think our camera is in its death throes, so the photos have a purplish tint where there should be white sky. I’ve tried to adjust them a bit, but this was the best I could do. When I have a chance, I’ll work on them a bit more and see if I can get them looking a bit less like a post-apocalyptic radiation vista and more like the breathtaking sight they were for us. Sean also took us through some of the trails inside the surrounding rock formations, and though our camera wasn’t really capable of showing it, the scene was spectacular.

Click on the image below to view the flickr photoset:

Wine and a Hike: October 2008