Last Saturday, my husband and I completed our yearly ritual of taking our daughter, Sarah, back to FIT in Manhattan. We rented a minivan the night before and filled it all up with Sarah’s precious belongings. There’s no lot to park in, and security will only allow about twenty vehicles at one time to squeeze onto this narrow street to quickly unload everything (Yay). So the plan was to get up early and get on the road as soon as possible to hopefully beat out the usual long line of cars.

All of us have our own favorite way of driving to the Big Apple. Because Sarah’s dorm is located in the lower thirties on the west side of the city, we prefer taking Exit 15 on the Thruway, traveling on through New Jersey a bit, and then driving back to New York through the Lincoln Tunnel.

How do you drive there?

As early as we’d arrived, I felt like I’d won the lottery when I saw what seemed to be the last spot available.  We settled Sarah into her new dorm room and, after hugging her goodbye, Robert and I made our way back to upstate New York.

But rather than simply heading straight home this time, we decided to make a few fun stops along the way:

The Met Cloisters

The first was a short trip to the Cloisters in upper Manhattan at Fort Tyron Park. I had wanted to visit this famous branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art a couple of other times while traveling home, but we’d found it tough to get a parking spot during the weekend.  We lucked out this time, and I enjoyed its wonderful collection of medieval art including tapestries, religious works, and illuminated manuscripts. Click HERE to learn more about the museum’s location, hours and admission costs.

Tarrytown

Then it was on further north to Tarrytown, New York. Here we parked around the area’s downtown business district to take a look inside many of its cute stores and restaurants. This included Mint Premium Foods which had a nice selection of olives and cheeses.

New Paltz

Our final stop before home was in New Paltz, New York. We’ve always liked walking around this relatively small college town, but we also knew that this would a perfect time of year to view the area’s spectacular  meadow of sunflowers. We drove through Main Street to a very sort distance past the town. And there on the left hand side of the road, we were greeted by a dazzling display of these beautiful flowers.

Nice time!