Road Trip, NY Edition

Took a long weekend last weekend to visit some friends who live about 30 miles north of New York City. It was a weekend full of friends, food, and exploring.

Saturday got off to a relaxing start with cinnamon bread french toast.  The plan was to head into the city to meet up with some friends, and we decided the train would take too long and limit our options, so we undertook the adventure of driving into the city.  There were no problems and we found a parking space in the Lower East Side conveniently located near Katz's Deli, where we were going to have lunch with friends.  We had some time to kill, so we got a blueberry and cheese knish at Yonah Shimmel's Knish Bakery before taking a cab to Union Square and explored ABC Carpet & Home and the Greenmarket, where we met our friends and headed to Katz's.  Parting company after a wonderful lunch, we drove toward the Brooklyn bridge.  We thought about walking across, but it was very hot, so we drove over and first explored a few shops in the DUMBO area, which, for those of you who don't know, is an acronym for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass.  Wending our way toward Park Slope, we happened to pass the Downtown Atlantic Bakery, which had an array of cupcakes beckoning from the window (and a review claiming they were the best cupcakes in NYC), so we had to try the chocolate cupcake with Callebaut icing.  Yum!  From there we parked in Park Slope and explored lots of wonderful little shops before having dinner at Press 195.  We started with the grilled asparagus appetizer, which comes with tomato and fresh Mozzarella in maple syrup basil pesto.  As a fan of maple syrup, I'll definitely be using some the next time I make pesto.  They also make knish sandwiches, using grilled potato knishes instead of bread.  The pastrami knish sandwich was delish!

It took a while getting out of the city.  There was massive gridlock crossing Delancy, and even once I got to the intersection I had to wait a couple light cycles before I had the opportunity to make my move.  I managed to convince a taxi to give me the right of way (after all, I did have a green light and he was just trying to block the intersection) and miraculously a path opened up all the way through.  Traffic was fine heading north, but I took the wrong direction once we got to the thruway, and the next exit wasn't for 20 miles.  On top of that, I had to pay a toll twice to get off and on at the same exit!  Oops.

The plan for Sunday was to head up to the Storm King Art Center with our hosts.  It's a museum and sculpture park on 500 acres of lawns, fields, and woodlands.  I'd been there several years ago when they had an exhibition of Andy Goldsworthy's work (including the stone wall he designed that is part of the permanent collection).  It was wonderful seeing the wall again.  It's such a beautiful work as it winds its way through the forest and into the pond.  Nearby is the 1995 America's Cup yacht with graphics created by Roy Lichtenstein.  The current exhibit at the museum features works by Louise Bourgeois (whose work is also currently on display at the ICA in Boston), so I got to see another one of her Spiders.  I hope they don't think I'm a groupie, since I've now seen them on display at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, the ICA, and now Storm King.  We ended the afternoon wandering through the open fields and exploring some of the artwork before heading back to where we were staying (no wrong turns this time).