Snowshoes and Cocktails

I love weekends! Rather than complain about the snow, yesterday we decided to enjoy it by heading to the Weston Ski Track, right off of the Mass Pike, and only about 20 minutes from our house, for some outdoor fun. If you were reading the blog last winter, you may remember our first adventure at Weston Ski Track. On this day, I learned what a great workout a few hours on snowshoes is and declared it my favorite form of marathon cross training.

Yesterday was very cold but bright and beautiful in the Boston area, and we arrived at the Weston Ski Track in no time, rented snowshoes, and were on our way.

We immediately wandered away from the groomed cross country skiing trails to trudge in the two-foot deep snow. It’s better that way

A little pond and tiny streams, hills, and trees provided us with constant beauty, and a couple of falls into the deep snow provided some belly laughs in the snow. The sky, as you can see in the photo below, was magnificent. I was truly amazed that these berries survived the winter.

The path among the trees was quiet and well worth veering off for.

Don’t I look glam?

On our walk, we discovered this badly broken tree, likely affected by one of our wintry storms this year. If you squint, you can see the head of a little woodpecker, pecking away with delight at this wonderful discovery. He was LOUD!

We spent over two hours walking around the Weston Ski Track property, which is actually a golf course during the warmer months. This truly is a great workout; our hearts were pounding, our legs sore, and I was as tired as could be when we got home. I love fresh air!

After a long bath with Philosophy Hazelnut Espresso bubble bath, I made a blogger-inspired dinner. . . you will have to wait until tomorrow for that! But I will share our post-snowshoe cocktails with you. Inspired by our Thursday dinner at The Elephant Walk, I decided to make Lemon Ginger Martinis. I started by making a quick ginger syrup with water, sugar, and chunks of fresh ginger. Hint, take the peels of ginger and run them in your garbage disposal. It smells amazing!

In addition to the syrup, the other ingredients for the martini were vodka, limoncello, and a splash of bubbly ginger beer.

And a squeeze of half a lemon in each glass.

I very simply added four teaspoons of ginger syrup, two shots of vodka, two shots of limoncello, and about 1/2 cup of ginger beer with ice to a cocktail shaker and shook. I poured it over a pasta strainer into my favorite Waterford martini glasses which don’t get enough use! They are lovely, and I was excited to dust them off.

A day of snowshoes, fresh air, and beautifully sunny blue skies added to a strong but incredibly delicious cocktail was enough to knock me out. I absolutely love how a day in the snow, like a day at the beach, just takes it all out of you. Bliss.

I already asked this question last year, but since I have some new readers, I would love to know: what is your favorite day trip from where you live?