John and daughter, Ella
What I thought would be another roller coaster ride with frayed nerves, turned out to be the most relaxing weekend I have had since I started this visit to America, maybe even in a year. This is because John was now staying with his wife, Kathy, and baby girl, Ella, in a suburb in New Jersey. Looking at all the beautiful spring flowers and green trees, the car license plates saying New Jersey, the garden state, made perfect sense.
View from Anthony's nose, Cold Spring, New Jersey
On Saturday, John and Kathy took me hiking with their friends Chris and Jen at Cold Spring. John backpacked his daugther Ella and Kathy was pregnant with their second baby. When I had said yes to this hike, I thought how difficult could it be with a pregnant mum and baby girl in tow. And I have been walking to and from work regularly for 2 months. Still, the first incline up the side of a hill really winded me. John has always been a health freak and a type A person. Carrying Ella, lunch and water, he hardly broke sweat! I think that I have to exercise more when I return to Singapore.
Anyway, the initial struggle up the side of the hill was completely worth it. The place that we went to is called Anthony's nose and it had a great view of the Hudson river. Fortunately, Chris and Jen opted to walk back to the car along a flat road instead of over the hill again. It turned out to be fine.
Storm King Arts Centre
We finished the hike pretty early and parted ways with Chris and Jen about 2pm. Then we went to a fantastic sculpture park called The Storm King Arts Centre. I had never heard of this park before but was delighted by it. It had some really great sculptures in a beautiful space. Some of the sculptures included Momo Taro by Isamu Noguchi, Reclining connected forms by Henry Moore and Storm King Wall by Andy Goldsworthy.
Ella, Storm King Arts Centre
Most of the work in the privately owned park is abstract. It was inspiring to see such challenging work in a private collection open to the public like this. There were smaller sculptures but many of them were 2 stories high at least. It took great vision by the artists as well as the owner of the Storm King Art Centre.
And Sundays was a lazy day. The weather was sunny but cool. I spent most of the day in John's backyard sleeping. It was strange, I was in a totally new place, but I really felt safe and comfortable. I think that part of it was due to the fact that I had forgotten my own worries, but the setting was really calm. It was a neighbourhood of families bringing up young children, and I felt safe like I used to in the back seat of my parent's car.
Sarah, a neighbour's daughter on a plane swing
3 comments:
Ahh! Spring!
Dan
And Hay Fever. :)
SPRING... I love the month of May!
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