Travel isn't easy for everyone. Some of us have pets, kids, jobs that require us to stay nearby the area at certain times, and other  responsibilities.  So instead of taking only long vacations throughout the year, I wanted to share some ways you can just enjoy a few days off or a long weekend with a staycation at your own home.

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My Getaway at Bear Creek Mountain Resort

This past weekend I got the chance to get away for a night with my boyfriend and head about an hour and a half from Harrisburg, to check out Bear Creek Mountain Resort.  This resort is located in Berks County, Pennsylvania and offers skiing, snowboarding, and snowtubing in the winter.  In the summer, spring, and fall bear Creek Mountain Resort offers hiking, biking, boating, disc golf, tennis, and a nearby golf course.   They also offer a ballroom facility for weddings and other celebrations.

The drive was very quick and the directions from their website were extremely easy to follow.  I really enjoyed the scenic backroads as we got closer to the entrance.   

THE HOTEL

When we arrived and checked in at the hotel, we headed straight for our room and were so pleased to see the beautiful modern look mixed with a touch of wilderness as soon as you look out the window! 

 Our deluxe queen suite had a living area with a TV, coffee table, and plenty of seating.   It was nice and spacious to relax in and watch some Shark Week!

 There was also a dining area and a kitchen which had a mini fridge, a microwave, a coffee maker, a sink, and some storage space. 

 The bedroom had 2 queen beds and another TV.  

 There was a very nice bathroom with a vanity room next to it.  This is the vanity area, and I spared you the toilet pictures of the actual bathROOM. There was also a hair dryer as well as an in room safe.

 And THIS was our view!

 The garden areas were so pretty and relaxing and the little path was a nice way to walk around to get to different areas of the resort. 

 Our room was on the slope side so if you look up in the above photo, you can see the ski left and the bottom part of the slope that everyone uses in the winter!

THE LAKE
Bear Creek Mountain Resort offers some beautiful scenery as well as some outdoor activities for the whole family.   They had some paddle boats and kayaks available to take out.  We had dinner reservations at 5:15 PM (Wait till I get to THAT part!) so we had some spare time to leisurely stroll around the Resort outside so I could get some photos. 

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Wine & Cheese Cruise on The Pride of the Susquehanna Riverboat in Harrisburg

This week I got to do something super fun that included the Susquehanna River, Cheese, and a wine!!! Yes...... a dream come true! On Sunday, The Pride of the Susquehanna Riverboat held it's First Wine & Cheese Cruise of the year!   

 My best friend and I decided to make a date out of it!

 Before I tell you how my evening went, I have to say that I was ecstatic to see my blog's ad on a tabletop on the Riverboat!  Literally, I was speechless!  

 After we boarded the riverboat, we were told to take a glass of wine off the bar, and choose a place to sit.  We were also handed 3 tickets (they would be for the other 3 wines to sample over the course of the evening).  The wines were Dreaming Tree Wines....sound familiar? Maybe because Dreaming Tree is a Dave Matthews Band song...and guess who created these wines... Dave Matthews himself along with Steve Reeder! How cool is that!

 First up was Everyday White followed by Chardonnay!   So delicious! I really like white wines and seriously this wine was sweet but not overpowering... and it tasted great with cheese! 

 Crush Red Blend and Cabernet Sauvignon were next. I liked the red and I was surprised because normally, I'm super picky and only like white wine. 

 And the veggies and fruits and cheese were delish!!   After we were done listening to an informative few minutes about the different wines, we got to get some munchies and then we could walk around on the boat.  This was the super fun part and let me tell you... the next best thing to owning your own boat in the summer, is getting to ride on one and not have to do the maintenance for it so this was such a luxury for me to get to be on a boat.  I saw tons of other people out on the river and it was just so nice to be out on a sunday evening on a cruise! 

 Here I am, rambling to Daniela about how good the wine is and how excited I am to look at the water!

 Striking a pose! Look at the scenery! Such an amazing time!

 And tomorrow I get to go on an Arooga's Wing Night Cruise!! I can not wait! Definitely try out the Riverboat at least once this summer. I promise you that you will not regret it! Plus, every two weeks I have a giveaway for tickets to their monthly wing night cruises and Moonlight cruises so PLEASE ENTER! Stay tuned for my review of the Wing Night Cruise!!

Merlot Release Party at the Vineyard at Hershey

This past weekend we attended the Merlot Release Party at the Vineyard  at Hershey.  It was going to be a splendid event and I was so excited to go!  They even posted a full schedule so we knew what time everything would be going on. 

We arrived around 3:30ish and brought our blanket and chairs and picked a spot in the huge field so we could sit and enjoy the live music and some wine as the evening went on.  Then we headed up to the tasting room to sample some wines.  I wasn’t a big wine drinker before because I never really knew what I liked.  There were sweet wines and dry wines.  I learned that I am not a big fan of dry wines.  They were good but I couldn’t drink a whole glass if it were in front of me.  The sweet wine was delicious though and I fell in love with the Pink Catawba.  Johnny fell in love with the Raspberry wine.  We each bought a bottle of our favorite..and later on I ended up buying another because I was so concerned I wouldn’t have enough for the next few weeks.   We headed back down to our seats, put our purchase at the blanket and went down to visit the vendors.

I want to point out that it was a great crowd.  Everyone was very friendly and happy and worrying about having my purse or wine stolen wasn’t even a concern.  It was so nice to be able to walk around without a care in the world.  

One of the vendors was Torchbearer Sauces  and they had some amazing flavors.  I’m not a big fan of hot sauce but their honey mustard was delicious!  You should definitely check them out!!  They were very friendly! 

Another vendor that I fell in love with was  Little Ditty Pops.  They were basically cake pops and they were so delicious! I tried dark chocolate (goes good with Merlot) and white chocolate (goes good with the Raspberry Wine) and I couldn’t get enough! 

I also found something I want to add to my Fall bucket List.  A Splash of Art  offers a painting session  where you get instruction on how to paint a picture.  Everyone paints the same picture but it’s cool to see how they all turn out slightly different.  They are holding a class at the Hershey Vineyards in November so I think I’m going to sign up.  You can bring your own wine and sip on it as you paint and they provide the supplies, you just have to supply your drink and snacks!

After we checked the vendors out we walked around the pond and took some photos.  It was so relaxing!  I even got a photo with Merlot Mike, King of the Grapes.   

And a bit later, the helicopter delivered some Merlot and the winemaker LP Vezzetti was there and he even signed the Merlot bottles!

They were even giving helicopter rides, how cool is that!!  We went back to our seats and enjoyed the live music of Ryan Jeffreys and All Jacked Up!   It was so fun and relaxing to lay on the blanket and enjoy the beautiful weather and music.

Little Ditty Pops! Yum!

We headed home at about 9 and both agreed we had the BEST time ever and I can’t believe how much I was missing out on when I said I never liked wine.  Of course I am picky so I probably will only ever drink my beloved Pink Catawba from here on out!!!  I will definitely attend a lot more events at the Hershey Vineyards.  It was great and I have no complaints.  If you are ever in the area you HAVE TO CHECK IT OUT! It’s well worth it.  And a special thank you to Jason Reimer who was very accommodating for me!  Customer Service is such a big thing for me!!!

Stella and I Were On A Boat!

This Saturday was the Ride the Pride with your dog event with The Pride of the Susquehanna in Harrisburg, PA and the Harrisburg Humane Society.  It was 2 tickets for $40 and dogs ride free.  I chose Stella to go on this little ride! I was so excited because I have never been on this boat, even though I've lived in the Harrisburg area my whole life.

We arrived about an hour before the scheduled time and when we signed in we immediately got a gift bag (for humans) and a bag to fill with treats from the dog treat bar.  They even had doggy ice cream.  How cool!  Under the pavilion nearby was a catered lunch of hotdogs and hamburgers from Flinchys! It was really good and it was nice to get a chance to visit with all the other doggies that would be going out on the boat.

Finally, the boat came back from it's previous ride and it was time for us to board.  I was one of the second people on so we headed to the upper deck of the boat and found a table to sit at.  It was a very comfortable ride and they were so friendly to us as we boarded.

Once we left the dock, it was a surprisingly smooth ride and the captain was so nice.  Before we set off, he actually was visiting with a lot of the dogs.  It was so nice to see what Harrisburg looks like from the river instead of the land!  This is the perfect way to have a super fun date night during the summer. 

Stella and the other dogs did so well on this trip.  They were just happy to be out with their owners!  Oh and I almost forgot to mention above that we got to meet some really sweet dogs from the Harrisburg Humane Society that were up for adoption! During the cruise, a woman from a local photography company came around taking our pictures!

The cruise lasted almost an hour and it was really fun to hear the history of Harrisburg along the way, played over the loud speaker!

And I tweeted and Facebooked a few pics online the way.  In our last ten minutes, it of course started raining but we had a roof over us so it was okay but it was really interesting to be out on the river during a storm.  We arrived back to the dock and we all dead sprinted towards the Pavilion where the event coordinator, Heather, welcomed us to stay and wait out the rain with more food, ice cream (for people and for dogs) and beer!  It was so much fun! The staff was so nice.  They kept coming around asking everyone about their dog and they remembered names which means a lot to people!

At the end of the entire event, I left with the above goodies! It was such a fun time and I will be sure to attend next year and I also plan on riding the Pride again! They have all kinds of special event cruises like dinner cruises, mystery cruises, etc.

Hope you enjoyed my recap!

Summer Bucket List: Indian Echo Caverns

the entrance to the caves!

This past Saturday we headed out to Indian Echo Caverns in Middletown, PA.  It's a beautiful place for people of all ages.  You can take a tour of their huge caverns, check out a small petting zoo, pan for gold and gems, and shop in their huge gift shop.

me holding my ticket

When we arrived, the first thing we did was take a tour of the caverns.  It was beautiful inside.  We had to go down a huge flight of stairs to start though.  I mean like 100 steps!!  The caverns at certain points are 100 feet under the ground!  Our guide instructed us not to touch any of the rocks or walls because the oils from our skin can make the rocks stop growing!!!

Me in the caves

The rock formations inside were beautiful!  It was a nice balmy 50 some degree temperature and it was very damp and drippy but not so much so that it ruined our time.  I actually enjoyed it.  There was even a little underwater pond! 

The guide explained what some of the formations look like, which had all the kids laughing.

Towards the end there was a little area that a man used to live in.  He lived there until he died.  She even showed us where he slept.  I was amazed that someone honestly lived in a cave.  I guess he ran away from some life problems he had and then when he didn't show up to the farm he worked at one day, they went looking for him!  He slept high up on this rock ledge, and it's a wonder he never fell off!

After the tour, which was about 45 minutes, we headed up to pan for gold and gemstones.  It was called Gem Mill Junction and basically, you purchase a bag of sand of your choice.  Some have gem stones in them, some have fossills, and some have a mix of both.  You pick up a panning box and head to the water area.  It was so fun that me and my boyfriend couldn't stop smiling and chuckling!

Honestly, I think I saved money because if I would have purchased rocks from the gift shop it would have been way more expensive.  I dumped sand in mine and began to sift and immediately saw some gem stones.

I got some really cool stones! And we even had brochures to explain to us what each stone was.  Johnny had a blast doing his as well!!

After we placed our findings in our baggies, we headed to the petting zoo because you know I can't pass up the opportunity to see an animal!  There were goats, sheep, and roosters and chickens! They were pretty lazy probably because all they do is eat.  But we did get some cool pictures.

Overall, I had a blast and for the price, it was great! There's even a playground for kids and a huge area to picnic at, which is where we ate our hotdogs after our cavern tour! If you are ever in the central PA area I highly recommend you check it out!