Orange County is a Winter Wonderland, So Sayeth the NYT

  |  February 12, 2015
west point cemetery

West Point Cemetery

 

I apologize, Orange County, for forgetting how great you can be. Thanks to this piece in the NYT’s Frugal Traveler, I got a nice little reminder about the first county I lived in when I moved to New York. Like the piece’s author, Remy Scalza, I spent a lot of time exploring Bear Mountain State Park, the various views of the Hudson River, and all the cute little villages dotting the valley when I moved here, in particular, the little artsy town of Sugar Loaf, which I imagined must be what Woodstock (the village, not the festival) looked like since I’d never been there before. The NYT piece also pinpoints Warwick and the DIA: Beacon right across the river from Newburgh in Dutchess County. Scalza pretty much nails it with this paragraph:

“…as I discovered on a recent trip back to my Hudson Valley roots, times have changed. What haven’t, by and large, are the prices. Despite its proximity to New York, this historic swath of the lower Hudson Valley is still a bargain, especially in the winter low season. A local food movement, atmospheric inns dating back hundreds of years and a formidable expanse of state parks and ski mountains make for a frugal paradise within easy reach of one of the country’s most expensive cities.”

Now we’re considering our own day trip back to Orange County to explore Cornwall-on-Hudson, the village where I lived in 2000, the cool architecture in Newburgh, and perhaps a poke around West Point. Who’s coming with?

About Kandy Harris

Kandy is a writer and musician/music teacher living in Saugerties, NY.

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