Amy's Adventures Across the Atlantic: New Forest, New Adventures

Watch out men in tights, you have some new forest adventurers on the scene! (hah hah get it? ;) )

Today, our lovely little group ventured to the New Forest for a day hike to get out of the city scene for a bit--a most lovely idea indeed!

Are you sure I'm not in "Lord of the Rings" right now?

The bros

The cousins :)

Led by our fearless leader Erica who planned and scoped the whole thing out, we hopped on a train in the morning to Brockenhurst, a delightfully quaint little town tucked in the middle of nowhere. Grabbing a quick lunch, these adventurers set off for a beautiful 7+ mile hike through some of the prettiest countryside I have ever seen in my life! I wish my camera could do justice to how gorgeous it actually was! I felt like we were straight out of The Hobbit, traipsing through the Shire :)

One a penny, two a penny, hot cross bun :)

Foodie bucket list, check!

The day set itself up wonderfully for great conversations and ultimate bonding, not to mention excellent exercise and a breath of fresh air

My top gal and my seester for life, Emily <3

The hike was more of a casual stroll and it was especially neat because it led through TONS of different terrain: tall thin forest trees, open meadows with low shrubbery, grassland crags with rivers running through, a tunnel filled with a bunch of wild ponies (they're EVERYWHERE in new forest) , a wooded forest where we heard a tree creaking just before it fell (if it falls in the forest with 8 people to hear, what does that mean? Haha) and rolling hills of grassland with some of the most interesting flowers I've ever seen!

She got a growth spurt! Look mom, almost 6 feet tall!

Come to find out, ponies love Indian food!

We finished off the day with brownie ice cream sundaes in Brockenhurst with New Forest Dairy ice cream--delish! A well-earned reward for our day-long adventure.

Though we all loved having ice cream as a pseudo-dinner, that wasn't quite cutting it so when we reached Brighton, Kevin led us to his favorite Korean BBQ place to get bibimbap and we picnicked in the park nearby.

YUM! Oh, how I missed Asian food!