MY FAVORITE PLACES: COLD SPRING, NY // AUGUST 2017

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Summer goes by so fast, and before it ended Adam and I wanted to take some time to explore outside of the city. We researched a few places that were quick and easy to get to from Brooklyn (without a car) and decided one of our trips would be to Cold Spring, NY. 

We woke up early on an August Saturday morning, rode the subway to Grand Central and then hopped on a MetroNorth train. We spent the day walking the town, enjoying the Hudson River Valley views, sampling the local food, and venturing out on one out-of-town excursion. We ended up having a memorable, relaxing day, meeting interesting people and seeing unique sights. Check out what we did below! 

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The Journey There & Back

To get to Cold Spring, Adam and I took the Poughkeepsie line of a MetroNorth train. Tickets were about $30 each roundtrip and the ride from Grand Central to our destination only took a little over an hour. The views from the train are beautiful - it goes right along the Hudson River! On the way there we saw beautiful blue herons and groups of kayakers, and on the way home we saw the most amazing, cotton-candy colored sunset. Adam was able to get some reading done on the train, and apart from a few drunken college students on their way to party in the "big city" who shared the train car with us on the way home, the ride was peaceful and comfortable. 

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As we rode along on the train, it was beautiful to feel surrounded by nature, with the lush mountains and marshes of the valley on one side and the Hudson River on the other. When the train arrived in Cold Spring, we stepped off onto the platform and were greeted with peace and quiet and fresh, breezy air. There are signs at the end of the platform that will direct you where to walk - if you head to the left you'll get to a beautiful pathway along the river and if you head to the right you'll be greeted by public restrooms, a cute train depot restaurant and then the town's Main Street. 

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Main Street Shopping

The Main Street in Cold Spring is quaint and relatively quiet, lined with family-run antique shops, small restaurants and cafes, and a few boutiques and galleries. We didn't spend much time in the shops because we're not big antique people, but we did go into two stores that were pretty cute! The first, and my personal favorite, was Pink Olive, a small stationery and gift shop full of colorful cards, notebooks, jewelry and home goods (they also had a section of super cute baby gifts in the back). The shop was light, bright and cutely decorated, and the woman who was running the register was so nice and friendly. I ended up purchasing the Cold Spring postcard you can see in the beginning of this post and a few greeting cards for my family. 

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The second shop we visited was the Cold Spring General Store. The decor was rustic and cozy, and the store was full of unique things like woven blankets, cocktail-making supplies, beeswax candles, handmade bars of soap and other locally made items. They also have a little grocery section in the back if you need to stock up on snacks for the train ride home. We didn't purchase anything from this shop, but it definitely had some nice items and a cute, country vibe.

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Storm King Art Center

If you're not into antiquing or extreme hiking (the mountains in Cold Spring are apparently pretty difficult) there's not much to do right in downtown Cold Spring for more than two hours or so. To fill the rest of our day after we finished exploring the shops, we decided to take a little trip outside of Cold Spring to the Storm King Art Center (an outdoor art space with over 500 acres of hills, woods, and fields full of sculptures from various artists). You might recognize this place from the Netflix show Master of None (Season 2, Episode 9) - they filmed there in the fall and it looked gorgeous, but it was just as pretty during the summer. We had a lot of fun exploring!

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To get to Storm King Art Center from downtown Cold Spring without our own car, we took a Lyft. There weren't many drivers available in the Cold Spring area, so we had to wait about 20 minutes for each ride. Once we did get in the Lyft, it took about 35 minutes to get between Cold Spring and Storm King. The ride was really scenic with beautiful views of the valley and a fun trip over a bridge. Each ride (with tip) cost about $40, and both of our drivers were super friendly and talkative, which made the drive more fun. 

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The Art Center itself was huge! We spent over two hours walking around and exploring the different sculptures - it was a great hike through hills and fields and even forest areas. You could also rent bikes to ride through the trails or take a ride on a trolley with a tour guide pointing out artwork along the way. There were groups of other people there, but because of the size of the park it never felt crowded. There are also convenient stops throughout the park where you can grab a cold drink, a snack or use the restroom. One of our favorite sculptures we saw was the Three-Legged Buddha. It was huge! The Art Center was a really cool experience and I'm glad we made the trip out to see it!

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Food & Drink

We packed our breakfast and lunch for the trip to save money, but when we got back to Cold Spring after the Art Center, we treated ourselves to dinner, drinks and ice cream! 

Main Street in Cold Spring has a few different restaurant options - we ended up at Doug's Pretty Good Pub. It doesn't look like much from the outside, but once we went in we found a cozy, small-town bar with awesome stamped-tin ceilings and a nice assortment of draught beers. I had the Pretty Damn Good Burger and it was pretty damn good! It was served on a buttered english muffin, which I was skeptical about at first but actually ended up liking! We both ate up our burgers and had a couple beers before we took a walk by the water.
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Right by the water's edge, there's a little ice cream shop called Moo Moo's Creamery. We ended up here after dinner to get some dessert to eat by the water. I had the Cookie Butter ice cream and it was soo delicious!! They serve big scoops here - so the small is definitely big enough. I couldn't even finish it. Adam had his favorite - vanilla ice cream with gummy bears on top! It was a great way to finish the trip before we caught the train back home. 

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Cold Spring was definitely a great day trip option from the city. It was quiet, peaceful, relaxing and beautiful. If you plan your own trip to Cold Spring, I'd love to hear how it goes! Check out a few more photos from the day below: