Cold Spring Archives - Weary Wanderer

Ah friends, welcome to summer! Or at least, it’s summer for us! The school year ended the week before Memorial Day, so we decided to head on out! For as often as we visit New York state, we had yet to actually stay for multiple days in the city itself.

So we decided to change that.

Through the incredible generosity of a good friend of mine from college, we were able to stay in an awesome Brooklyn apartment for free, and spend our money on all. the. activities. And we did activities, friends. Boy, did we do activities 😉

I’ll break down our days into a couple of different posts so as to not overwhelm, but here are a few overarching highlights:

We miss our friends and family in New York like crazy. Trips like this are beyond memorable, especially now that the girls are getting old enough to remember them.
Taking the subway with three littles is … interesting. Hah. One day is was just me and a double stroller and three children. When Carla joined it was five children. We got onto the subway at one station and the (heavenly) woman who gave up her seat for the kids turned to me and Carla and said, “You’re doing amazing” and I could have kissed her right then and there. Or cried. Or probably both.
Both older girls really loved their time in the city (so did Em, but you know, she can’t talk a lot yet, soooo …), but I foresee a future where G goes to school there, or lives there after school … basically makes the city a bigger part of her life story.
On our last full day Grace must have walked over a mile from the High Line to the Color Factory, while she played a game of “veterinarian” with Lotte, who was in one of the double stroller seats. Em was napping in the other. It was an amazing moment I’ll never forget, and damn was I proud of her!

Without further adieu, here was our Saturday and Sunday, Manhattan Style!

Saturday

Because of multiple snafoos that I won’t get into, we didn’t end up arriving in Brooklyn until around 3 on Saturday morning. As such, I didn’t have the highest of hopes for our Saturday plans … but as is usually the case when it comes to my kids, I was proved wrong! These girls slept a cool four hours and woke up ready to explore! My friend Faye and her two kiddos met up with us. On the agenda were:

Seaglass Carousel at The Battery ($5.50/ride or $50 for a 10-pack)
The Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty! (FREE!)

There is also a fun playground in this area, too, if you’re looking to spend more time there.

First subway ride! The girls started out fascinated. Then they took it upon themselves to chat with anyone who would chat. Then they decided to use the poles as swings. And finally, by the 5th or 6th ride, they were content to actually sit and ride. The evolution of a subway ride, courtesy of a 6- and 5-year-old 😉

This carousel is expensive, but it’s a MUST if you’re here! It’s beyond gorgeous, and so fun to watch.

After the playground and carousel it was onto the ferry! The kids were more excited about snacking on a ferry ride than they were to take in the views of Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty, but that’s okay. It’s all part of the fun!

Ah, the joys of forcing your kids to take memorable photos 😉

At least G was very taken with the water!

We missed the first ferry back to the city and had to wait 30 minutes to catch the next one, but that was okay because it gave us time to do more fun things, like get ice cream …

Back in Manhattan my friend ordered up some pizza and we ate it on her rooftop. It was the perfect ending to the perfect first day in the city.

Sunday

We had plans on Sunday to catch the train from Grand Central into Cold Spring to meet up with our family for lunch at the Cold Spring Depot. That also meant that Chris got a chance to give the girls his world-famous Grand Central tour when we arrived back 😉

No matter how many times I’ve ridden in and out of Grand Central (hundreds), she never ceases to amaze me.

In Cold Spring we met up with these loves of our lives, and it was a delight.

The waterfront was a big hit too, naturally.

All four of these faces were asleep about 20 minutes into our ride home.

Back in Grand Central, Chris’ tour was a hit!

And those were our first two days in a nutshell, friends! They also included Grace discovering that she does, in fact, like cheese on pizza (duh), and only a handful of tantrums and slight frustrations 😉

Next up … a packed Memorial Day! Until then … bis bald, friends!

Breakneck Ridge, Cold Spring — Oh hey, Hudson River on a gorgeous, sunny day!

Hey friends!

So someone (ahem, me) just had a birthday, and it was a big one. That’s right, the big 3-0! So in honor of getting older, I decided to do something to make me feel younger–go on a 3-mile long, rock-climbing hike.

The place we picked was Breakneck Ridge in the Cold Spring area. It’s about 2.8 miles in total, and let me tell you — it is strenuous!

I have some amazing friends who agreed to go on this hike with me!

Thanks for going along with my crazy idea, gang!

We all packed some food (and my husband packed a 3 liter bag of boxed wine to carry the entire way … what a husband!) and drinks and sunscreen and took off for the day. I would say it took us about 4 1/2 hours to hike it, but that included about an hour stop for a picnic at the top.

A tasty assortment of goodies, including homemade baked cookies by a good friend from college and Trader Joe's brownies with a birthday candle from a former co-worker. — A tasty assortment of goodies, including homemade baked cookies by a good friend from college and Trader Joe’s brownies with a birthday candle from a former co-worker.

The 3-liter bag of wine that Chris took out of the box of wine he purchased, which he carried the entire duration of the hike. That's my man. — The 3-liter bag of wine that Chris took out of the box of wine he purchased, which he carried the entire duration of the hike. That’s my man.

There were many points of the hike that provided awesome and amazing overlooks of the Hudson, and it was the perfect day to hike—sunny and in the low 50s. Here’s a little bit of what we saw:

_DSC0211 — We envisioned this point being somewhere near the end. It was not.

And so, we all made it through, all the way to the end, and I was so proud of everyone…

After the hike, before catching the train back to the city, we stopped at the Cold Spring Depot (which is walking distance to the train stop) for beers:

And so that’s about it, my friends. I had such an amazing time. It felt nice to be outside, we had an amazing group with us and I’d recommend this hike for anyone who’s game for some awesome, strenuous rock climbing.

One other word of note: If you’re planning on catching the train from New York City to Breakneck Ridge, I’m told you can alert the conductor to the fact that you want to get off at Breakneck, and that sometimes they’ll stop there for you (otherwise there are only two stops directly at Breakneck a day). We thought we’d get off at Cold Spring and walk to the trail, but it turns out that’s about a 4+ mile walk. We were not game to do that before even starting the hike, so we had parts of our gang who were driving pick us up. Just something to think about.

Bis bald, friends! Off to London week after next! My lovely in-laws have purchased Les Miserables tickets for us for Friday night when we get there. I love London theater, and I’ve never seen Les Mis, so I’m really looking forward to this!