My wife, Karen, and I were planning to go to New York City over the Thanksgiving weekend, but a number of factors conspired to change our plans. The result was a really enjoyable immersion in the culture of the Capital Region, something we never seem to have time to do because we always go somewhere else when we have more than one day free.

Originally, after sharing Turkey Day with the usual host of families, we were going to drive down on Friday morning, early enough to try to catch the Morandi show at the Metropolitan Museum before dinner. Instead, after making a pact to do no work of any kind all day, we stayed home for the morning (bizarre enough) and then drove up to Glens Falls to see the California Impressionism show at The Hyde Collection (www.hydecollection.org).

I’ve got to say, this is a terrific show, with a whole lot of the best paintings you’ve never seen by artists you’ve never heard of before. A traveling exhibit from the Irvine Museum, it is beautifully installed at the Hyde with lush colors on the walls that set off the art, and labels that match the walls, which I always like. It’s hard to imagine now, but 100 years or so ago, Los Angeles was pretty much of a wilderness, and these mostly European-trained painters who went to establish themselves there were true American pioneers who paid a price for their adventurous ways — namely, that now we have not heard of them, even though they were first-rate. Check it out if you have a chance and you like colorful landscape paintings.

By the way, like the Met, the Hyde has a recommended admission but is free if you want. You didn’t know that about the Met? There, they make it look as though the price of admission is a flat $20, but in fact they’ll accept any price at all. I think this is a way to fleece tourists, who will only ever go there once, while letting “real” New Yorkers (wink, wink) save a bunch while going there frequently throughout the year. We usually give the Met 5 bucks each; I should be ashamed to admit I don’t fork over anything to the Hyde (which was always advertised as having free admission), but I have often promoted their shows — so I guess we’re even.

After a quick beverage at the Ridge Street Coffee Co. (www.1ridge.com), a fresh, hip local business in a great downtown location, we departed Glens Falls quite happy, and headed back down the Northway for the monthly Troy Night Out. It’s among the most walkable of the local art nights, and we caught a couple of shows there before scuttling off to eat dinner at Ali Baba (www.alibabarestaurants.com): Ken Ragsdale at the PhotoCenter (www.photocentertroy.org), a cool collection of surprisingly lifelike color images derived from a big, white folded-paper construction (also on view) and Robert Gullie’s whacked out photo collage-paintings at Clement Art Gallery (http://clementart.com).

The evening continued at the Spectrum (www.spectrum8.com), where we saw the French film “A Christmas Tale.” Now, before you get the wrong idea from that title, let me tell you it is a fairly harsh and thought-provoking movie about a dysfunctional family, which is lucky enough to be headed up by Catherine Deneuve, though she’s rather a cold Mom. Far from any commercial treacle, it’s a pretty good film, quite funny at times, and just as interesting as anything we would have found in NYC, for significantly less hassle.

The next day, we allowed ourselves to work, exercise, and have a normal, quiet Saturday, but on Sunday, the fun continued when we took our friend William (who had stopped over for the night on the way home to Brooklyn from Buffalo) to see the Rockwell Kent show at the New York State Museum (www.nysm.nysed.gov). Again, admission was free, and the show was a true knockout. Being the latest in the Great Art Series that the State Museum has been putting on for more than a decade, and which almost always draws from major New York City museum collections, it is worth noting that this one comes from the collection of the SUNY College at Plattsburgh. Our Brooklyn friend was duly impressed. Let’s hear it for upstate!

Morandi, Calder, Eggleston and the other glories of the Big Apple will just have to wait.