I lived in New York City for over 15 years and when I moved more than an hour outside of the city into a life on a lake, my city friends asked me – What do you do all day up there?

I can understand their skepticism.  In my 20’s I said to myself, I will never live anywhere but New York City.  This is the best place to live.  Then in my 30’s, I said to myself, I will never live more than 30 minutes outside of the city.  That became, I will never live more than 45 minutes outside of the city.  And now I am more than an hour from NYC and loving life.

Life in the city was great while it lasted.  I danced professionally in ballet and modern companies, so NYC was the perfect place to be.

How I miss life in pointe shoes with constantly throbbing and bloody feet, directors always yelling at you and telling you, you are too fat … Not.

I did love being a dancer though and the energy of the city, that never-ending rush of things to do and places to go. But as the years passed, that same on-the-go energy started to feel chaotic and stressful and I never felt relaxed. When my husband Jim and I saw this house on the lake, we instantly fell in love.  Yes, life is slower here, and you can’t just walk out the door and be at a restaurant or bar in 2 minutes, but there is so much to do here.

We take the dogs on long hikes and runs (Central Park was nice for Pinot when we lived there but nothing beats real nature and breathing in fresh air).

I’ve started a vegetable and herb garden.  I have no idea what I’m doing but I must have some sort of beginners luck because the garden is growing like crazy, giving us more vegetables and herbs than we can eat.  They make great gifts to my city friends.

We go for canoe and rowboat rides right off our backyard.  Our city friends love this!

There’s a beach right besides our house so in the summer we go swimming or just relax on the beach with friends.

We are part of a neighborhood dog walking group called the Woof Pack and we go for walks around the lake with the pack.  Great way to socialize dogs (and humans!).

We host some pretty awesome barbeques in the summer where our friends and family from the city get to experience life in the country 🙂

And in the winter, we can play on the lake when it freezes or just enjoy the beautiful view.

So for those that have been wondering what we are doing up here, you can see that for us, there is life outside NYC and life is good!