Labor Day weekend was my birthday, so the girls and I took a road trip to the Berkshires in Massachusetts, which was quoted by a Real Housewife of New York to be the place for “people who can’t afford the Hamptons”. I am happy to call it the Twerk-shires instead, as there was appropriate birthday twerking sprinkled throughout this trip. She can keep the Hamptons.

We stayed at an Airbnb in a little town called Chester, and we got an entire house for the four of us. It was perfectly quaint, with lots of space for us to spread out, and very close to great hiking trails. Here are some of my favorite moments.

The house.

It was such a luxury to have that much space. I’ve never lived in an actual house – only apartments and rooms – so I actually got a little nervous the first night. It was really quiet, no cars or lights outside. If you recall the scene from Spice World, when all the girls go to the choreography bootcamp in that big dark mansion and have the same nightmare, it felt like that to me. We all were a little spooked.

Thankfully, those heebie jeebies were worth it as soon as the sun came up to greet us in the morning. There was a porch to sit, drink my coffee and read a book. So I took advantage of that as much as possible. It was SO beautiful.

^ Happiness in a picture! Tangent: recently I haven’t been able to put this book down, Naked Economics by Charles Wheelan. I randomly picked it up when I went on a shopping spree at The Strand. It’s a 101 on economics but without graphs, formulas and derivatives – the author explains using clear real life examples to illustrate the concepts that I had previously thought were too complicated to understand.

Some examples include the role of the Federal Reserve, stocks and bonds, inflation, human capital, how tax incentives guide behavior, the housing market crash in 2008 etc etc. I’ll probably read it all over again because there’s so much information to absorb. I recommend this book to everyone and I hope that you’ll read it with a bagel and a coffee too.

The hikes.

4 city girls excited to hike but it’s not real without sunglasses and a selfie.

A real ass locomotive!!

Keystone Arch Bridge.

I’ve never been the adventurous one (unless we’re talking food), but maybe 26 is bringing it out of me. To get to this beautiful spot, we had to hike down a super steep trail, one that required an actual rope to hold on to in case hikers should slip. I didn’t even know where it would lead, but I just kept going and it was very rewarding to get here, as you can see 🙂

Another gorgeous hike.

The best view!

The Birthday.

My favorite birthday greeting.

The yummiest brunch I’ve had in a while, and an absolutely delicious jasmine maple latte. This was in a small but VERY cute town called Lee, Massachusetts.

It was a perfect birthday spent with great company and #views.

See you again here soon! My favorite music friend Rosendale just moved to NYC and we are cooking up another FUEGO MIXTAPE (a cute cover) to share with you very shortly.

xoxo,

Trace