Day Trips

Subway-ing Around Town

This post was written during my school's October break (I wrote it a couple weeks ago and am adding pictures today-- we just went on Zoe's first snow walk so I can't believe the clothes we were in just a couple weeks ago!).   I worked the middle part of the week but was able to take two 3 day weekends-- I'm pretty sure that the three day work week would be the answer to all problems, but I'm not so sure how to market it for the extended day, extended year charter school.

We took a series of day trips, two outside the city thanks to the use of my friend Tracy's car, and one just via subway to Manhattan.  I love living in New York where there is always something new to see, but getting outside of the city has undeniable perks, so this week was the best of both worlds.

Family Portrait

Dia Beacon:
We started with a trip to Dia Beacon, which is a huge contemporary art museum in Beacon, New York, less than two hours outside of the city.  The space was fantastic, as was most of the art.  It was almost all large scale works, and the space itself was huge and open.  I'm not sure what it says about me that walking through the museum all I could think was that the space itself would be the most amazing place to throw a party.  Something about living in New York for so long makes you respond to large, open spaces in a new way-- I think we liked the museum itself as much as the art.

Most of the pieces were fantastic- my favorites were Richard Serra and Sol Lewitt.  I'm actually not sure how to define the art on display-- contemporary is supposed to be since WWII, and modern ended in the 70's (according to wikipedia- I just looked that up), and this art is all post-1960.  But it was large scale and interesting and displayed really well-- all in all, worth the drive.

 

Galleries in Chelsea:

Our weekday subway trip was Friday, where Zoe and I joined Aaron and his friends for gallery browsing in Chelsea (and a trip for crepes and cookies at Chelsea Market!).  This doesn't really count as a trip, since they do this weekly, and it was only to Manhattan, but it felt leisurely and vacation-ish to me on my day off.  Zoe perked up for some of the exhibits- she is going to have to end up with either an extreme love of art or an aversion to it altogether, I imagine.

I love this picture!

Winery- Upstate New York:

And Sunday we spent my birthday at Warwick Winery, one of my favorite ways to spend a day outside of the city.  This was Zoe's second trip to the winery-- art and wine, she's a lucky baby.  The fall is the best time to go, however-- there is apple picking and seeing the start of the leaves changing upstate is really beautiful.

All in all, three lovely day trips and a pretty nice week.  Where's your favorite place to spend a day on your own or with your family?