Storm King

Sometimes the world in and around New York City feels so big, you realize you have hardly explored what's just beyond its borders. And so it was with Storm King, a sculpture park located about an hour away near Cornwall, NY, which kept beckoning me but somehow never seemed like the right day trip. Until this week. Finally, it felt like spring was in the air and we might enjoy the drive up the Palisades Parkway, past Bear Mountain, to the park for a little walking about all that crazy big art. Pulling into the parking lot, I was a little surprised to find out that you can't drive much around the sprawling acreage, but fortunately there were trams coming by every 10 minutes or so to take you on the tour and allow you to hop on and off. The sun was bright, but the winds cool, so the tram ride was perfect for our introduction.

About 15 minutes into the tour, we decided to hop off to let Elisa stretch her legs and also get a closer view of the Three-Legged Buddha statue. It's a beautiful, if slightly freaky, piece which Elisa was none too fond of. I had explained to her earlier that we couldn't touch the sculptures, so I think part of it was that she didn't know how close to get. But it also became clear that she didn't like the exaggerated features of the Buddha and imposing size. Oh well. I thought it was great.

Walking back towards the little lake and the amazing stone work of Andy Goldsworthy's Storm King Stone Wall, we had views of the incredible scenery. The colors were just greening up a bit here and there which makes me want to come back and see the park in all its glory this summer and maybe fall. As the guide explain, each season has its own benefits for the park.

After a couple of hours exploring the grounds and stopping by the Visitors Center, we were ready to head out. The good thing is that the park is really not that far away and on a weekday without too much traffic, we enjoyed the drive. So it didn't feel like we'd invested all day in this little outing. Of course, the bonus was that I'd recently read about an interesting burger joint in Cornwall called Woody's All Natural, which was a perfect finish to our afternoon. The burgers could have been a bit juicier, but the concept was good and Elisa devoured her gourmet hot dog. The onion hay (little fried strings of red onion) were good and salty and the mocha shake was delicious. We weren't in the car more than 3 or 4 minutes before Elisa's head was tipped precariously over and she was dreaming away. The fact that she slept all the way back until we parked was a nice way to cap off the excursion. Art, exercise and good food. What more could you want?