My Suburban Escapes

Day Trippin' in Lower NY. Get Out In It.

I am by no means a thrill seeker or adventure junkie. I’m a suburban mom with a craving for a bit of adventure. And I found it in my own proverbial backyard – Westchester County. You can do just about anything within a 60-mile radius of the Tappan Zee Bridge – hike, bike, kayak, fish, swim, ski, snowshoe, ride horses, and explore gardens and homes and ruins – and be home in time for supper. It can be challenging to break free of the daily grind, but there’s nothing better to make you appreciate it more upon your return.

“ROAD TRIP!” is a solid cure for restlessness, but we forget about the option as adulthood creeps in. Well, I’ve remembered it. And exploited it. And I am sharing it with you here and in my upcoming guidebook, “My Suburban Escapes,” which lists over 300 days trips with how-to instructions, divided into categories:

• A Nice Ride in the Country
• Easy Strolls and a Meal
• Art Strolls
• Garden Strolls
• Hudson Valley Homes
• Let Me Entertain You
• For Those Who Came Before
• Hiking
• Kayaking
• Biking
• Horseback
• Winter, A Season for Everything
• A Walk on the Wild Side
• Do It Like a Man

So go ahead. Get out there. Explore the lakes and rivers, woods and mountains, Revolutionary War battle sites, and Gold Coast mansions. There’s majesty and beauty waiting to be discovered. Wonder and awe await you. With a little research, a map, and my guidebook in hand, you’ll begin creating your own adventures.

Blog Feed

  • Ridin’ The Rails

    I have sustained more injuries loading and unloading my bike into the back of my truckthan from any other activity I’ve undertaken. I regularly jab myself in the ribs with the handle bars, schlonk my hips on the derailer and bite my shins on the pokey pedals as I throw my bike in again and…

  • What I Learned at Summer Camp

    I have the greatest summer job ever. For six weeks I get to immerse teenagers in the great outdoors. They arrive each morning at the Rye Nature Center for Paddle Adventure Camp and we return them safely each evening, filthy dirty and happy. Sleepy boys and girls of all shapes, sizes and temperaments appear, clutching…

  • To The Sea

    When I left NYC with my family on the Queen Mary 2, eastbound on a transatlantic crossing, I had my first true understanding of how connected to the sea the city is, a port town in every sense of the word. Police and fireboats hailed our exit, fishing vessels honked and sailors saluted as our…

  • Beating the Daily Grind

    “Only boring people get bored.” At least this is what I tell my kids when I hear the familiar whine. As says Eloise, my favorite children’s book character, “Getting bored is not allowed. Sometimes I comb my hair with a fork…..Kleenex makes a very good hat.” Or in grownup language: one can never get bored…

  • A Look at Christmas Past

    Some years preparing for Christmas comes as naturally as breathing; others, it’s a labor of love. When a labor, one relies on repetition and muscle memory to lay the groundwork as it’s been learned by rote all these years. Confident it will all get done, you build and it will come. Sort of like faith.…

  • The Gold Coast

    If you put your forefinger and thumb on a map of New York and gently squishWestchester County towards Long Island, pushing the waters of the Sound east into theocean, Rye would connect to the north shore right around Bayville. With a little luckEdith Read Wildlife Sanctuary could slide right through Oyster Bay and into Cold…

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@mysuburbanescapes
Get a load of these monsters at Oak Alley in Vacherie, Louisiana. Hello, moon A lil overnight on Greenwood Lake, NJ, or in Warwick, NY, to get off the summer. Like camp for big kids. Hiking on the AT, kayaking the reservoirs, drive-in movies and grownup “milkshakes”. Welcome to BAPS Swaminarayan Akshardam, the largest Hindu temple in the Western Hemisphere and the second largest in the world. And its right here in New Jersey. Construction began in 2014 and it opened to the public in October 2024. Sandstone, limestone and marble, granite mined in Turkey, Greece and Italy was shipped to India for carving then to NJ for the assembly by 12,500 VOLUNTEERS. It is magical. Dine on “Indian street vendor” onsite. Delish. An amazing daytrip. Well hellooooo May. So good to see ya. Time to bloom. “I think that i shall never see a poem lovely as a tree…” Storm King Highway from West Point to Cornwall-on-Hudson has finally re-opened: gateway to gorgeous. Eight mile hike at Sam’s Point in Minnewaska Preserve up a frigid creek bed in the rain to Veerkeerder Kill Falls on top of the world. Worth it. A lovely drive and hike in the Palisades before the next big snow dump tomorrow

About Jana Seitz

Originally from Monroe, Louisiana, Jana spent her youth horseback riding in the woods, skiing on the bayou and generally raisin’ hell. She graduated from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, where she studied English and Public Relations, and then moved to New York City to study acting. 

She stayed in NYC for nine years, during which time she helped found a theatre company (Seraphim), managed the Greenwich Street Theatre, wrote a screenplay (The Ambassador of 20th Street), held various temp jobs (including horse and buggy driver and bike messenger) and acted when she could. 

She moved to Austin, where she had great opportunities as an actress in theatre, film, and commercials and worked with the Austin Film Festival. She also helped run the Texas River School, taking elementary school children from at-risk communities on full-day canoe trips on Lady Bird Lake in the heart of downtown. 

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