Team Skaggs: Rip Van Winkle

A month or so ago I asked Ella how she wanted to celebrate her birthday this year. If I was going to book a venue for a party or buy Broadway tickets, I'd need some advance notice. She chose camping. That's my girl. Granted, this was on the heels of our awesome trip up to Woodstock for Labor Day weekend. But let's just say I was pretty proud of her.

She brought her buddy Maeve with her and the five of us set off in a thunderstorm on Friday night, out of the city, up the east side of the Hudson, back up to Woodstock.

Camping in October on the East Coast isn't like camping in October on the West Coast. It was very chilly, especially at night. But we bundled up and made a lot of campfires and drank a lot of hot cocoa.

We enjoyed a beautiful fall hike on Saturday in the Esopus Bend Nature Preserve. We hiked for about three hours and never ran into another person. One deer, but no people. We had the entire, gorgeous preserve all to ourselves.

We tried a new place, Rip Van Winkle Campground, and so of course Kevin had to bring his copy of Washington Irving's short story set in the Catskills, Rip Van Winkle, and read it by the camp fire.

On our way back down to the city on Sunday we had to stop at what I still think is the most photogenic place on Earth, and easily one of my favorite places in New York, Storm King Art Center, the 500-acre sculpture park with over 100 installations by such renowned artists as Isamu Noguchi, Richard Serra, Mark Di Suvero, Alexander Calder, Andy Goldsworthy, and even Roy Lichtenstein. Unfortunately, I hadn't brought my nice camera and my iPhone was almost out of memory, so my photos aren't excellent. But you can see some better photos on my post from two years ago when we first visited. We also happened upon a tour for children that we joined and had the most amazing and animated docent for an hour and a half.