Misquamicut, RI is the anti-Newport.
Before we hit the road for Labor Day weekend, we leave you with a list of things to do before calling it quits on your summer.
Loving summer doesn’t make one all that unusual. But over here, we love summer for slightly different reasons; one, it is the time of year when NYP Travel for the large part hangs up its wings and sticks close to home.
It began as a reaction to overcrowded airports and planes (and for that matter, overcrowded destinations, whether it was London or Orlando) and turned into an annual celebration of Things That Are Next Door.
In other words, we were like, totally ahead of this whole “staycation” thing. We just weren’t using a ridiculous word to describe what we were doing.
After a few years of tooling around the various rivers, lakes, mountains, forests, small towns and beach destinations of the Northeast, a pattern has formed, and this year has no exception. In our opinion, here are the five things summer isn’t summer without. It’s not too late to strike them off your own list. After all, most of this stuff is just up the road. It’s not like you have to buy a plane ticket or anything.
1) Hit the beach – in Rhode Island. We gave the Cape another try this year, and again were reminded that we were wasting our time. We have so many beaches so close to New York that are really special; if one wants to go to New England, one should really make sure they’ve exhausted the appeal of the littlest state ever before continuing further north and east. Start at Watch Hill and make your way to Newport (ugh, but needs must, one supposes), then continue over to Little Compton. Make sure to stop in wee Point Judith for clamcakes at Iggy’s.
2) Take the ferry to Fire Island. A no-brainer for many, many New Yorkers; an unknown to millions more. Which to us, is a total mystery. Just pick a village, any village (Saltaire, Fair Harbor and Fire Island Pines are our picks for day trips – there’s food and other conveniences that make it easy to do) and cruise on over. It doesn’t take long, the beaches are amazing, it is a million miles from Manhattan in spirit and there are no cars (and in some cases, no bicycles, either.) Also, it is not The Hamptons. (Yay.)
3) An evening drive down the lower Delaware. Ye olde villages and Roebling bridges, occasional showers that produce the trademark rainforest-green landscape and a relatively peaceful road make the stretch of the river road from Easton to Yardley one of the best drives in the Northeast you’ve never done. Dip into New Jersey to see how the other half lives – and for chocolate malts and tomato pie at It’s Nutts, north of Trenton. But there’s no argument, really – in this contest, Pennsylvania wins. Truly everything you want from a lightning-quick getaway.
4) The last of the summer wine. We’re slowly coming around on the whole Finger Lakes thing after repeated visits, but we will probably never stop seeing it as a mere stopover on the way to the big time: Canada’s popular Niagara Peninsula, a veritable Northeastern Napa, just beyond the kitsch of the falls. Smart roses, dry rieslings, solid sparklings, theater (sorry, theatre) at Niagara-on-the-Lake‘s acclaimed Shaw Festival, nice little places to stay…a definite must for any New Yorker at least once, but very rarely is it just the once. The Niagara region is a habit that can be hard to quit, even if it requires a long commute on the Thruway.
5) Commune with the Hudson. It doesn’t really matter how. It can be as simple as taking Metro-North as far as it goes and turning around and coming back. Stop in Tarrytown for a coffee, or tour one of the many historic homes in Westchester. Snoop around Nyack (easily accessible by bus) or hike Bear Mountain, or one of the trails near the village of Cold Spring. Whatever. Just get up there. It’s marvelous, it’s right next door and too many people forget that.
Have a great Labor Day – and guess which of the above list we are conquering this weekend. (Answer: None of the above – we’ve done them all already and are tired. Your turn now.)