Brooklyn Getaway

A couple of weeks ago my husband Matt took Clara to the beach at Fort Tilden while I was at work. I was so disappointed I couldn't go, but they promised to meet up with me for dinner, at a clam bar near the beach. I took the 5 train to the end of the line, they picked me up, and then we drove to this place called Jordan's Lobster Dock. It's completely not fancy, but it was delicious, and for a moment, I felt like I was on vacation. We met some regulars who gave us this tip: if you order from the take-out and get there before 7pm, you can eat your lobster sitting outside, for about half of what it would cost if you order inside. Since then, Matt has been back in the area, and tells me there's an even better place out there. Will keep you posted.

Easy Weekend Getaway

Last winter I drove to Vermont, and passed by this cute property, the Sylvanus Lodge . It's in Hillsdale, NY, but it's pretty much in the Berkshires area. I didn't go inside, but from looking at the pictures, and seeing how reasonable it is ($80-$125 in peak season), I think it's worth giving it a try. The studio apartment is really the only option for families, and it can sleep up to five.

Fort Ticonderoga

I just can't believe this place is so close to NYC, yet nobody I know has ever heard of it, much less gone there.  It's an amazingly well maintained fort (and garden), established by the French, on the border of NY and Vermont, overlooking Lake Champlain. We spent an hour there on our way from the Adirondacks to Woodstock (VT), and it's a place that I would recommend to any family that is anywhere in Vermont or Northern NY. The restaurant there uses food from their organic gardens, and the gift shop has lots of clever wooden toys (including rifles and shotguns, if you swing that way).

Time Travel

I'm really not a history buff, although I definitely wish I knew more than I do. My husband heard about this WW II weekend, near Reading, PA, and thought we should all make the trip. It was so amazing, I think any parent in the Northeast should consider going next year. It happens the first weekend in June, and it's a trip that your kids will love you for, and you'll probably really enjoy too. Air show with old military planes, reenactments, walking around the reenactment camps and seeing all the old military jeeps and motorcycles, seeing all these people in period dress, and getting your own dog tag to bring home...it doesn't get much better than that. Plus, if your kid gets a blister, like our friend Sam did, you can just haul them into the Pre-Op tent, and get a free bandage (and cool story). If you wanted to make a weekend out of it, you could also visit Lancaster (see my pos t about that town), or also swing down to Gettysburg (I'll do a post about that later this week), or just stop at the Crayola Factory in Easton (which you drive right through if you're coming from NYC), or spend some time in Bucks County. Oh then there's also the whole Brandywine area (which I'm also writing about this week), and Philadelphia is also in proximity.

Prettiest Farmstand in Sullivan County

We try to get up to our house in Sullivan County every weekend, and we're lucky enough to have some really great farmers markets up there, and a couple of farmstands, that make it so we don't have to bring up food from the city. Probably five years ago this was not the case--we would have had to bring up bread, cheese, wine, meats...now we have a two great local bakeries, Beach Lake Bread out of Pennsylvania, Flour Power Bakery out of Livingston Manor, NY. We have a great wine and cheese shop in Callicoon, run by a great guy named Robin, who moved up from the city with his wife and daughter a couple of years ago. There's the Catskill Harvest Market, in between Liberty and Youngsville, that has a great selection of everything you'd need to cook for a weekend, and then some (just bear in mind all their meats are frozen, so you can't show up on a Friday at 5pm and think you're buying burgers there to make that night). And the Pecks Market in Callicoon has excellent product (the one in Jeffersonville however does not), like naturally raised local chickens, local cheeses and milk from the local Tonjes Dairy and Calkins Creamery. As for farmers markets, there's one on Fridays from 3-6pm in Liberty, and one on Sunday in Callicoon from 11am-2pm. However, what if you don't get up there til late on Friday night? Well, there's Alice's River Brook Farm. It's open from 10am to 2pm every Saturday and Sunday, and two Fridays during the summer (the one before the 4th of July, and the one before Labor Day weekend). It's an organic farm, and she has probably the best produce I've seen since I've been to the precious San Francisco farmers market. It's just that good. She has things I've never even heard of--Vitamin Greens? She makes her own salad mix, that really feels like it was put together with love. I know that sounds corny, but it's true. Most salad mixes can taste too aggressive or grassy--hers is perfect. And the setting is too. She's got everything in a beautiful barn, which sits next to a stream, and a bridge, and on the other side are her gardens, her chickens, goats, sheep, ducks, and her new donkey Hannah. She also sells Beach Lake breads and pies, local cheeses, homemade quiches, and organic meats (frozen). It's a fun field trip for Clara, because she gets to run around with the animals while we shop.