Adventure at Pyramid Hill

My apologies for not having photos to accompany this post. Blogspot is having issues uploading. I will post them as soon as they fix the problem. Click on the link at the end of the story for some beautiful photos.

My husband Frank has been known to say, “It’s always an adventure with you.” He usually says it when things go a little sideways – we’re lost, I can’t find my purse, things like that. He always says it with a smile on his face though, so I know that he prefers a mixed up adventure with me than run-of-the-mill with someone else.

I think I’d like to have my kids look back on their childhood that way too. I can almost picture them as adults, telling stories about me, shaking their heads and saying, “It was always an adventure with Mommy…”

Take our little trip to Pyramid Hill recently. Pyramid Hill is a sculpture park and museum about an hour south of here in Hamilton, Ohio. It’s 265 acres of rolling hills, lakes, and gardens with amazing pieces of art rising from the landscape.

The first surprise on our outing was Hamilton itself. After driving past a whole lot of, well…nothing, we came upon an intersection in Hamilton with large buildings and fountains. It looked like something big was started but then stopped a quarter of a mile later. It was as if someone visited a real city and said, “We’ll take two blocks worth of this!” and then plopped it down in south western Ohio.

Our second surprise was waiting for us as Pyramid Hill. They are many different ways to see the park. You can drive your car from area to area, park your car and then walk the many paths and hiking trails. You can hike the whole thing. Or, you can rent an “Art Cart” – a brightly painted golf cart – and tool around the park and drive up on to the grass and right up to the sculptures.

Frankie and Lindsey gave me a hopeful and excited look. They really wanted to rent a cart. I didn’t need any convincing – I think I gave them the same look back – it is obviously the best way to see the park.

Although with me driving, it may not have been the safest….

Frankie kept calling me Evel Knievel as we raced across meadows and took a few bumps. Don’t ask me how he knows about a Daredevil Stunt guy from 30 years ago. He must be watching VH1's "I Love the 70’s” when I’m not looking.

There were a few times when a hill was steeper than it appeared and we found ourselves on a slant with me and the cart not really sure how to maneuver. “OK kids, get out and stand by that tree over there while Mommy straightens out the cart.” (There goes my nomination for Mother of the Year.)

The park was great. The setting was beautiful. Whether you think you like monumental pieces of modern art such as this or not, it is worth doing. We drove right up to the sculptures and the kids got out and climbed and touched and look at the art from different angles. At one point, Lindsey (my 5 year old) touched one of the pieces and said, “Hmm…that’s surprising. I thought this would be hot because it is made of metal and the sun has been shining on it all day.”

My heart jumped right out of my chest, took a little walk around the lake and jumped back in my body.

Frankie commented on how a particular sculpture looked as if it had a fountain springing from the center of it, but as we got closer we saw that the fountain was in a lake behind the piece. “They must have designed it that way," he said.

Moments like these are the reason to think outside of the box when it comes to children. Moments like these challenge me to expose them to new things. Moments like these make me feel like a great Mom.

Then there are moments like this…

We drove around the park following the map and making sure we didn’t miss anything, checking the map along the way. I remembered seeing a glass pyramid on the website – it is Pyramid Hill after all – and I was determined to find it.

We head to the back of the park and see the pyramid coming out of the ground looking much like a miniature of IM Pei’s entrance to the Lourve. The car in front of us seems to be taking forever to turn onto the paved pathway. But heck, we don’t have to wait for them, we have an Art Cart.

I make a sharp right and go right up on to the grass like I’d been doing all day. The pyramid seems to be sitting on top of a building that is appears to be underground. The entrance to the building is down a slope adjacent to the pyramid. There are also two cylindrical greenhouse looking windows on either side of the pyramid. Frankie looks into one and we realize that they all look into down into the building below.

“Mom! There’s all kinds of sculptures down there!” Frankie says.

I assume it’s a gallery and suggest we head down there and take a look.

Suddenly I notice the man in the car that was in front of us stop on the brick driveway. He has his window rolled down and is speaking to us.

“I understand the appeal,” he says with a smile, “But this is my house.”

You see? It’s always an adventure with me.

At this point I am mortified, but the man is very gracious. He is Harry T. Wilks, the man who donated the land and some initial sculptures for the park in 1995. “The park gets the house when I die,” he jokes with me, “But I still need a place to live right now.”

“We don’t need it. You stick around.” I tell him. I get the history of the place from the man himself.

His house is one of the most famous and unusual houses in the country. He designed the 7000 square foot house and improved the 40 or so acres around it. When he realized that developers wanted to buy the land near his home and build subdivisions with one-acre lots, he knew he could not allow it. He did what anyone would do. He bought up the surrounding 220+ acres and gave it to all of us.

What a happy accident that the kids and I got to meet this wonderful man. What a great story we had to tell.

Harry T. Wilks. He can protect himself from urban sprawl, but not from me and my Art Cart.

Visit Pyramid Hill's website http://www.pyramidhill.org