- Lake Minnewaska for Walking

Ayurveda nutrition tip of the day: Skip inulging in those frosty, soothing and undeniably delicious smoothies, frappachinos, iced cappachino’s etc… Beyond having one per week, you may be consuming more caffeine, sugar and milk fat than you realize. A delectable alternative? Make up your own coolers by combining in a blender: herbal mint tea, fresh lemon and/or lime, berries and/or watermelon, crushed ice and if you like a packet of artificial sweetener or a quarter teaspoon of brown or white sugar per 20 ounces. Go crazy and substitute the tea for club soda sometimes.

To celebrate the fourth of July, our family had decided to pack a picnic and head out to one of our absolute favorite places to walk, Lake Minnewaska! Here's our two-year-old gather rocks to toss into the lake. Thankfully, we arrived early and were winding up our visit just when the parking lots seemed to be peaking with other picnickers, bikers, walkers, etc… The weather forecast had promised overcast all day with showers starting in the early evening. Rain or no rain I had planned to get in a good amount of walking, and thankfully it worked out perfectly. Dad guided and piggy-backed our two-year-old on the trails, while I pushed around 45 pounds on wheels for an hour and a half. You see, the baby stroller weighs 29.5 pounds empty. In the stroller we carried along an overstuffed cooler, baby gear and a large beach blanket which added at least another 15 pounds. It was definitely a good workout!

There are many carriage trails at Minnewaska, so if your kids are stroller age you don't have to take Minnewaska off your list of places to take them. You'll all enjoy spectacular views, fresh air and endless trails upon which to walk, walk, walk! Here’s a link serving up all you need to know about Lake Minnewaska: http://lakeminnewaska.org/state.html. It will even give you directions. If you’ve never been before, fear not because once you arrive and pay the parking fee you’ll receive a trail map to get you walking in the right direction.

After visiting friends in Red Hook, we ended our festivities by having a sumptuous dinner at Max’s in Red Hook on South Broadway. We experienced attentive service, the entrées arrived very quickly, and the food was great. To balance out the pork ribs and cornbread I enjoyed, my entrée was a huge mixed baby green salad. I filled up on the salad first, so a small portion of ribs and corn bread hit the spot. It's the Ayurveda way, loads of flavor not loads of cornbread and ribs. Theresa J. Marquez recently did a review on Max’s for The Poughkeepsie Journal. Posted on June 21st, here’s a link to what Theresa had to say about Max’s: http://poughkeepsiejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070621/ENT02/706220301/1038. I hope you and yours had a wonderful 4th of July no matter what you were doing. Get walking.