Memorial Day Weekend: From NYC area

Parent Cafe
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<p>I hestitate to recommend this, because the Catskills are not neatly packaged for upscale tourists, not “clean as a bean” the way some New Yorkers experience Great Barrington, Lenox, etc.</p>

<p>But check these 2 sites and if they appeal, read on</p>

<p>1)<a href=“http://www.wurtsboro.org/[/url]”>http://www.wurtsboro.org/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>2)google: Bethel Woods Center For The Arts </p>

<p>We lived in the Catskills so visited the whole county as day-trips. The landscape outside of Monticello and Liberty (the two old resort towns) is as beautiful as ever, but their Main Streets are boarded up and ugly. </p>

<p>Within the county, however, in all the small towns are many diamonds-in-the-rough. It’s a lot of driving, poking around, antiquing and then maybe hit one event daily as advertised.</p>

<p>IF your family can look at things with an original eye, you might consider
driving 2 hours from Manhattan into Sullivan County, the gateway to the Catskill Mountains, and just explore the small towns of Sullivan County. YOU’d like it but I’m less sure about your kids in the car…</p>

<p>There are opportunities for rafting on the Delaware River, 30 minutes to the south, that teens would enjoy, I’m guessing. </p>

<p>A feature that might intrigue your kids is the Bethel Woods Center for the Performing Arts, newly built. It’s on the original l969 Woodstock Concert site.
Their performing schedule doesn’t start 'til summer and the museum about Woodstock isn’t yet open. But it’s kind of an archaeological experience to walk the actual grounds, anyway. That’s in BETHEL near WhiteLake NY, not in the town of Woodstock, NY 50 miles away! (The Town of Woodstock is also sweet, but I’m not sending you in that direction.) </p>

<p>Liberty and Monticello Main Streets, problematic: very beaten up, to the public eye, but there are some events of interest. For example, the entire Town of Liberty is one big garage sale on Mem day weekend.</p>

<p>What’s beautiful are the drives between all the small towns, and then just poke around in each town. You can do several in a day.</p>

<p>IF it were me, I’d stay in Wurtsboro, visit Bethel and Liberty as one day-trip,
spend another day going further west in Sullivan County (to Roscoe, Narrowsburg or wherever else catches your fancy). Roscoe has a trout fishing museum; ask if they have the program where seniors teach your kids to tie fly-casting knots. My fishing grammar is garbled,I know. </p>

<p>As you probably know, Sullivan County is also a favorite vacation spot for Chasidim. People tell me this, as if it were some kinds of deterrant to visiting. I never understood that.</p>

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<p>Re my last post ^^^, here’s a site about all the towns in Sullivan County:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.scva.net/[/url]”>http://www.scva.net/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Soozievt: Weenie was just trying to preserve your neighborhood.</p>

<p>But actually Saratoga Springs, along with Cape May, is getting some iniital interest here.</p>

<p>What’s good there?</p>

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<p>fundingfather: didn’t realize it was that weekend, though family has vetoed anyway. Hope you have already made dinner plans, or you are in trouble.
Please do something I wish I’d be doing there; like take a walk in Taughannock Falls State Park, or one of the others.</p>

<p>BTW, love your “handle”. Some CC people confuse mine as similar, but actually MONY was not intended as “money”.</p>

<p>paying3tuitions has made a viable suggestion that many should consider. Though in my particular case, some of our immediate family actually lives in Sullivan County and we go up there frequently.</p>

<p>The Chasidim can in fact be a minor annoyance to residents in that they frequently push/ cut ahead on store lines as it gets late on Friday because they have to get get home for shabbos. As if that should be anybody else’s problem besides theirs. Though they make it these other people’s problem. Some people find them to be rude and presumptive in their interactions with “outsiders”. That, plus it is alleged they do not pay property taxes to Sullivan County for all their bungalow colonies, etc, claiming religious exemption, yet clearly they use public services. And occupy facilities that would otherwise be occupied by taxpayers. So in effect area residents are subsidizing their occupancy. These are the particular grievances that have been reported to me by (non-Chassidic but Jewish) area residents. FWIW.</p>

<p>I actually saw CSNY quite recently at the Bethel Performing Arts Center. The concert and venue were great, but it took us about 2 hours to get home (about 10 miles) due to massive traffic congestion from the Center; they need to work on that.</p>

<p>The fall of the great Catskills resorts is a real tragedy. Something like that might be perfect in this situatation, for many. I wonder why nobody has been able to engineer a resurrection.</p>

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<p>My memory of Sullivan County (gateway to the Catskills) is everyone griping about everyone else, very cantankerous, masking some marvelous individuals. My understanding of the resort downfall is that the grandparents who founded them provided a brilliant answer to antiSemitism by creating kosher resorts with built-in entertainment for adults (Buddy Hackett, Red Buttons), jobs for teens (Jerry Lewis), programs for kids, 3 meals a day with portions that didn’t quit. Club Med learned it from them. However, the grandchildren don’t live in the region to reinvest or upgrade the programs to outdoor eco-tourism away from the resort hotel or healthy food approaches that might have appealed to subsequent generations. They don’t make nostalgia like they used to, and the boomers didn’t want to sit like that inside of hotels with dated furnishings. </p>

<p>Casino gambling has been discussed for more than 20 years, with lawsuits, Indian tribal issues, and other battles. </p>

<p>Chasidim at least know how to come and enjoy the scenery, but don’t consume at the public restaurants or attend movies as did the secular Jewish tourists of the l950’s and 1960’s. So the Chasidim are seen at the grocery stores or pumping gas into rented cars from Manhattan (so yes they’re terrible drivers), before settling in very self-sufficiently in the bungalow colonies for the week. This irritates Jewish county residents who remember tourists with more economic multipliers along Main Street, creating an over-focus on “rudeness” of Chasidim (hey, they’re from Brooklyn, whadddaya expect?) which I found more than counterbalanced with their good qualities. The tax issue is real because each time a secular camp is sold to a religious group, the entire property (not just the synagogue or talmud torah) is tax-exempt (separation of church and state). I found it outrageous that every blade of grass was considered religious, because many acres were involved and the surrounding county has no tax base right now except tourism, still the prime industry. HOWEVER, before you entertain complaints about taxes, check out how many secular second-home owners in that county have Florida license plates, living 51% of the year in Florida in order to avoid New York State and local taxes. They use public services, too, and as a teacher in poor public schools in that county, I had to question<br>
those living in second homes for not supporting the schools in those hill towns. They were bought as “second homes” awhile back, but then became “first homes” after retirrments, yet got taxed as second homes…it’s a problem, too. So remember, when you point a fiinger at someone else, three point at yourself. My standard answer was that the Chasidim with all their nuisancey behaviors still were better tourists than those I knew as a year-round resident of Cape Cod, where I got tired of loud public drinking by tourists. The only time Chasidim are really loud is at prayer.<br>
I agree most strongly that the political will to unify the cantankerous Sullivan County factions into a visionary future for those beautiful hills and valleys is not yet in place. In that light, I’m delighted to hear your report about the Bethel Woods concert with CSNY! Two hours of traffic has to be addressed; I could put up with an hour around Tanglewood but that’s max for me.</p>

<p>ANYWAYS, I appreciate your Sull County update very much, and find it encouraging. I’m glad you visit it and hope your relatives see positive change speedily.</p>

<p>Meanwhile, ENJOY that well-deserved vacation! I’ll be packing the trunk with our D’s Stuff, as it’s a graduation for us this time. ENJOY!!!</p>

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<p>One fun place is the Maritime Museum in New Bedford, Mass.Moby Dick writer, Herman Melville has his name engraved above the pew he used in the seaman’s church there. The church was used as his model in the book and there are old plaques of all those seamen lost on the walls. The seafood is super fresh and delicious!</p>

<p>Plymouth Plantation in Mass. is really interesting. They have a recreated 17th century village as it was when the Pligrims arrived and there are actors who take the parts and remain in character.If you go the Pilgrim Sands motel has a beautiful unobstructed view of the ocean although the water is cold. The old city, where the oldest homes are in Plymouth, is facinating if you enjoy old architecture. The seafood is great and super fresh. And there are plenty of tacky little t-shirt and teapot shops right along the water where Plymouth Rock is located and you can tour the Mayflower 2. We had a great time with our 15 and 16 yr old sons.This town is popular with the working class Bostonites and it’s fun to hear their accent!</p>

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<p>Dirty Dancing anyone?</p>

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<p>In case anyone’ wondering, and as another idea for future reference:</p>

<p>The “winner” was Bennington Vermont.</p>

<p>On Memorial Day weekend, the state of Vermont sponsors a a formal “open studio weekend” event across the state, where many of its artisans open up their shops for public visitation.</p>

<p>Additionally, on Saturday The Town of Bennington held a “Mayfest” crafts and arts festival.</p>

<p>following this, a trip to the outlet malls in Manchester on Sunday.</p>

<p>I actually didn’t go, but the other half of the family did & had a nice time.</p>

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<p>For what it’s worth we took one of my suggestions and spent Friday night in Frenchtown, NJ. Nice dinner, nice run along the DE river in the morning. No traffic on the GW bridge at 5:30 pm on Friday. (!!!) In fact the whole trip only took 15 minutes longer than mapquest suggested which included stopping for gas (50 cents cheaper per gallon than NY).</p>