 Lately, I've been falling back in love with New York City. Even on days and nights when all I want to do is stay in bed and do nothing, I've been forcing myself to get up and go explore. As great as the city is, sometimes you need an escape from Manhattan. That's where Sourced Adventures comes in.  I was lucky enough to win a trip to go snow tubing at Mountain Creek, and to check out a local brewery upstate. I was really weary of the whole thing, mostly because I had never even heard of snow tubing until I entered the contest, and I had certainly never heard of Sourced Adventures. I was sure it was a scam, since I've never heard of a tour group like this (welcome to living a sheltered existence). But, I figured I'd give it a shot, and my friend Kris was up for an adventure. The snow tubing trip includes:
 The day started at the Adventure Cafe, a little cafe located on the Lower East Side. We did the typical check-in/waiver signing and waited on the bus to show up.  Sourced Adventures does trips all year long, and their motto is "Escape the City." During the summer, there's trips out to the Hamptons and upstate for things like wine tours and water tubing. For the winter, you have your choice between snow tubing, skiing, and weekends in Vermont. I'm looking forward to doing a few events this summer!  The trip up to Mountain Creek took about 2 hours. We met our tour guides (Chris and Nikki), and got a quick rundown on the day's events. The bus was comfy, and it came complete with everything I needed - an outlet to charge my phone with (priorities).  Before we knew it, we were there. Chris and Nikki gave us our lift ticket, which got us two hours to spend tubing on the slopes.  Mountain Creek still had plenty of snow, which was nice to see given the fact that it was 55(!!!) degrees out. There was also a fire set up in the little hangout area, plus a food truck and heated bathrooms.  We were all set to go! But first, a selfie.  Mountain Creek had a few different tubes to choose from. Chris and Nikki told us there was one that let you go slower down the slopes, which was perfect for beginners. I wanted that one, but couldn't find it. Kris told me to stop being a wuss...  To get to the top of the slopes, we had to ride this little people mover ramp. It was slow. Super slow. I think if Mountain Creek had to change anything about the snow tubing experience, it would be to speed this ramp up, or maybe add additional ones. One of the coolest parts of the trip was just how beautiful it was up at Mountain Creek. The views were incredible, and I couldn't stop taking pictures of the sunset.  Confession time: I am deathly afraid of heights, to the point where if I'm on a roller coaster, I may have a panic attack. I only just started getting comfortable with the idea of flying, but even on planes a small amount of turbulence has me shaking. So it should be no surprise that when I got up to the top of the tubing slopes and got in the tube...I didn't want to move. I may or may not have sat there for a minute or two trying to psych myself up for it. The results of that are over on Facebook, as the world needs more videos of me screaming awkwardly. If you couldn't tell by my face, this was basically the best time ever. Once I went down the mountain once, all I wanted to do was keep going!  Unfortunately, it got to be 7:00 way too soon. Fortunately, it was time for food and drinks over at Glenmere Brewing Company in Florida, New York. As part of the Sourced package, you got your first beer for free! Glenmere is a newer brewery that has already won awards for its brown ale. I'm really picky about my beer, so I stuck with the Wicked Witch - a black raspberry stout. As part of the Sourced package, we also got a really delicious dinner of pasta, eggplant parm, salad, and rolls. We got a brief tour and learned the history of the brewery, as well as some of the beer inspirations. The Wicked Witch was delicious, and everyone around us loved their beers as well. Like I told the brewery owner, the cool thing about the tap room is that there were games to play that didn't include life-sized Jenga. We hung out with some of the other people in our group, playing games and drinking beers until it was time to leave at 9:30.  I'm so happy that I heard about Sourced Adventures, and even happier that I got the opportunity to go on one of their trips. I'm looking forward to going on a few adventures this summer, and I absolutely recommend that you take some as well!
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