It was labor day weekend and I had to get out of the city. With the boyfie, of course. Yes, I’m always looking forward to the weekend but we don’t always get a 3 day weekend, I don’t think I want to stay home and watch Netflix. Girl gotta have a great weekend story to share with my coworkers on Tuesday! The thing about weekends is that I don’t want to travel too far and the good thing is, there are many places not too far from me that I haven’t explored! And this time, it’s Poconos!
Leaving New York City to Poconos!
Since it’s summer, it’s perfect for hiking and it’s what Poconos is all about! Nature. Perfect. And it’s only a 2 hour drive from my place, the drive won’t be too bad at least. It’s been a while since I went hiking so I was pretty excited for this trip, the last hike I went to was probably Canopus Lake and that was last summer. That’s a long time ago..

Hiking in Bushkill
The highlight of my Poconos trip and the reason why I went to Pennsylvania. One of the most scenic attractions in Poconos Mountains is Bushkill. It’s the perfect weekend getaway for families, individuals and even a group of friends. Hiking, picnics, fishing, paddle boats, you can have it all there!

Being in the city all the time just makes us crave for nature and I wanted to enjoy it as much as possible. So, paying $16.50 to enjoy waterfalls here is definitely worth it for me. There are different trails which accommodates individuals, couples, families with children and you still get to see waterfalls. Since it was just my boyfie and I and we drove all the way to Bushkill, we took the red trail as we get to see all 8 waterfalls. Take a look at the trail map here!
One really interesting thing about the hike are the names of some of the waterfalls. I kept the boyfie entertained by coming up with weird stories and logic about how these waterfalls got their names. He was obviously not impressed and chose to ignore me.. I ended up entertaining myself instead *giggles

Now I’m really curious who named the waterfalls and what’s the story behind it. Whoever named them must have been getting married soon.. Or wanted to get married quite badly.. Or.. You guys got any idea?

Cresco
Callie’s Candy Kitchen and Pretzel Factory was definitely an impromptu visit! We stumbled upon this suggestion and since it was only 5 mins away from us, why not? You can’t say no to candy…. Plus, it was too early to head back into the city (:
This is a pretty interesting place as it shows how candy is made, the equipment is on display as well as videos which is eye opening. Now that Halloween is approaching us, there are lots of decorations and Halloween-related candy for sale in the shop. So excited to see pumpkins again, maybe I’ll go to a pumpkin patch again!

Stroudsburg
I barely saw much of this small town as it was on Labor Day itself and not many places were opened. This town wasn’t part of our plan but since we had quite some time before heading back to the city and it’s not out of our way, checking it out won’t hurt. Plus, it was raining that day so I wasn’t really up for anything outdoor, if I didn’t have to check out of my Airbnb by 12pm, I would’ve been hugging my blanket and watching Netflix til it’s time to go.

As for food, I would say there are a lot of options in the same area, it’s all about what you want to eat.
It was a really short trip this time, we left the city Sunday morning and reached NYC the next day by 5pm. If you’re looking for a relaxing trip, you can consider Poconos as an option!

I only live a few hours away from the Poconos and have never been there. I’ve been thinking about solo traveling and this may be a good spot for me to try. It looks really interesting and this is really informative. I’ll have to come back to this post when I decide to go there 🙂
The candy kitchen will definitely be on the list.
Thank you for reading! (: Do share your journey when you’re there and I’m curious to know what decorations the candy kitchen will put up on regular days. I can tell the Christmas decorations there will be nice (:
It is great that you got to spend some time in Poconos. A weekend is still good enough, hehe. The views from the hike looks amazing! You can’t beat waterfalls, hehe. It’s one of those nice rewards after a hard-working trek. Oooh, the candy kitchen looks pretty cool. Glad you enjoyed your time out there! I need to make a visit myself, hehe.
Nancy ♥ exquisitely.me
Yes! Go reward yourself with a weekend getaway, you won’t regret it! (: