1,000 Places to See in the U.S.A. & Canada Before You Die (36 page)

The Mohonk Mountain House is the perfect base for enjoying the great outdoors.

Some of the 19th-century traditions remain: Meals served in the stunning 1905 dining room are included in the price; there are no TVs in the rooms; and air-conditioning is a fairly recent innovation. Evening lectures and special themed programs draw guests interested in gardening, cooking, ballroom dancing, and almost everything else under the sun. The emphasis is still focused on slowing down, and the rocking chairs lining the great porch with its mesmerizing views of the lake are prized as are afternoon tea and homemade cookies.

Less than a half-mile long and 534 feet wide, compact Lake Mohonk makes up in beauty what it lacks in size, with undeveloped shores that are dotted with enormous boulders
or “erratics,” dropped in place when the glaciers melted 12,000 years ago. Rustic Adirondack-style gazebos are perched at all the best vantage points around the lake and throughout the expansive grounds.

Now there’s another way to relax—a lavish new 30,000-square-foot spa wing blends seamlessly with the Mountain House’s 19th-century look and though built for Mohonk’s loyal clientele, who requested an indoor pool, it has attracted a whole new crowd that zips up on the bus from New York City to soothe body, mind, and spirit.

W
HERE
: 90 miles north of New York City; 1000 Mountain Rd. Tel 800-772-6646 or 845-255-1000;
www.mohonk.com
.
Cost:
from $415, includes all meals.
B
EST TIMES
: 1st half of Oct for peak foliage; winter for the open stone-and-wood skating pavilion with 39-foot fireplace.

An Urban Miracle and Manhattan’s Backyard

New York, New York

Laid out between 1859 and 1870 on a design by the great landscape architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, Central Park is an urban miracle, an 843-acre oasis of green surrounded on all sides
by high-rise buildings. Fields follow meadows, streams feed into lakes, and cool woods cover hillsides all the way from 59th Street to 110th, stretching more than half a mile wide from Fifth Avenue to Central Park West in the very heart of Manhattan. The park is almost entirely artificial, its landscape created where formerly an expanse of swamp and rock once existed. All told, some 10 million cartloads of soil, trees, plants, and other materials went into the plan. Lakes were carved for boating, horse trails for riding, and various entertainments placed all around to give Gothamites their day in the sun and their evenings of fun.

The Sheep Meadow offers one of New York City’s greatest skyline views.

The highlights are many. In the southeast corner sits the Central Park Zoo, where real polar bears, sea lions, reptiles, and other animals live in the shadow of the famed Delacorte Musical Clock, whose mechanical animals dance on the hour. To the west, the 1908 Central Park Carousel is one of the largest, with 58 hand-carved horses and chariots, and to the north is the Mall, a grand, 40-foot-wide promenade flanked by towering American elms, statuary, and a band shell. At the Mall’s northern end, the Bethesda Terrace is probably the park’s most recognizable space, its two stone staircases leading from a roadway down to the great Bethesda Fountain and its Angel of Waters centerpiece and a 22-acre lake (you can rent rowboats at the Loeb Boathouse). It’s also home to the popular Boathouse Restaurant, with contemporary American cuisine served indoors or (in season) on the lakeside deck, in view of the ducks, turtles, rowboats, and a real Venetian gondola.

North of here is the Ramble, a 36-acre maze of woods and winding paths, one of the many places in the park where you can really forget that the city is around you. Still farther north, Belvedere Castle is a Victorian folly set at the second-highest natural elevation in the park, providing a great view of the park. From here it’s not far to the Great Lawn, venue of Simon and Garfunkel’s 1981 reunion show and appearances by world-famous names like the Dalai Lama and Pope John Paul II.

Every season has its wonders. In summer, there are free performances by the Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic on the Great Lawn; the Public Theater’s “Shakespeare in the Park” series at the Delacorte Theater; or performances of popular and world music and dance at Summerstage, just behind the Mall. In fall, Central Park foliage is near New England’s in quality, enhanced by the city’s special light. In early November, the 35,000 runners who complete the prestigious New York Marathon end up here, after traversing all five of the city’s boroughs. The finish line is on the west side of the park in front of Tavern on the Green, where you can dine in an Oz-like setting of fantasy topiary hedges and eternal Christmas lights. In winter, you can go ice skating at the Wollman Rink, and in spring, the 6-acre Conservatory Garden is a gem, a riot of blooms, from indigenous flowers to cultivated heirloom roses. Buds start peeping out in March, just when the gray winter seems like it will never end, and New Yorkers fall in love with Central Park all over again.

W
HERE:
between 59th and 110th Sts., and Fifth Ave. and Central Park West. Tel 212-310-6600;
www.centralparknyc.org
.
B
OATHOUSE
R
ESTAURANT
: Tel 212-517-2233;
www.thecentralparkboathouse.com
.
Cost:
dinner $50.
O
PERA AND
S
YMPHONY:
www.centralparknyc.org/activities/music
.
When:
June–Sept.
S
HAKESPEARE IN THE
P
ARK:
Tel 212-260-2400;
www.publictheater.org/shakespeare
.
When:
June–Sept.
S
UMMERSTAGE:
Tel 212-360-2756;
www.summerstage.org
.
When:
June–Aug.
T
AVERN ON THE
G
REEN:
Tel 212-873-3200;
www.tavernonthegreen.com
.
Cost:
dinner $55.
B
EST TIMES
: any warm weekend for musicians and lots of activity; late Sept–early Oct for foliage; after a snowfall for a magic winter moment.

A Miracle—and Not Just on 34th Street

New York, New York

For all its hard-bitten reputation, New York is crazy for Christmas. It’s a time when the city is at its most beautiful, strung with lights, bundled for winter, and brimming with the warmth of human kindness—as long as you
steer clear of the last-minute Christmas shopping mania.

At the heart of it all is Rockefeller Center. Built in the 1930s by John D. Rockefeller, the complex of office buildings is a masterpiece of art deco architecture. The center looks its best at Christmas, when a towering light-strewn Norway spruce is displayed above the small but incredibly romantic ice-skating rink in the lower promenade plaza off Fifth Avenue between 49th and 50th streets. Take a spin, or grab a meal at the elegant Sea Grill right next door, its windows offering an eye-level skater view. On the other side of the rink, the Rock Center Café is a larger, brighter spot serving high-end comfort food. For a different
perspective, the Top of the Rock observation deck offers stunning 360-degree city views from the 70th floor of 30 Rockefeller Center. In the evening, head to Radio City Music Hall for the annual Christmas Spectacular, a grand stage show starring the legendary Rockettes, who have been high-kicking their way across this stage since 1932.

North and south of Rockefeller Center, mostly along Fifth Avenue, the city’s high-end department stores mount elaborate holiday window displays that draw locals and tourists by the thousands. Start at Bloomingdale’s and Barneys, then head down Fifth Avenue past Bergdorf Goodman, St. Patrick’s Cathedral (not a retail stop, granted, but a vital Christmas stop nonetheless), Saks Fifth Avenue, Lord & Taylor, then cut west on 34th to see the extravagantly decorated windows at Macy’s, billed as the world’s largest store and the most historic of them all. Stop in and see Santa while you’re there.

The Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center has been a New York City tradition since 1937.

Head back uptown to Bryant Park, behind the New York Public Library (see p. 186), where an ice-skating rink and some 100 stalls selling gifts and crafts keep the air festive. Farther uptown, the Metropolitan Museum of Art (see p. 184) sets up a Christmas tree in its Medieval Sculpture Hall, surrounded by an exquisite baroque nativity crèche. At Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall, the National Chorale performs its annual Messiah Sing-In, in which 3,000 audience members are invited to sing along with the choir. The Cathedral of St. John the Divine (see p. 178) hosts the annual winter solstice performance by the Paul Winter Consort, with a big dash of world flair that has always set the cathedral apart.

R
OCKEFELLER
C
ENTER
: Tel 212-632-3975;
www.rockefellercenter.com
.
Skating info:
Tel 212-332-7654;
www.rapatina.com/iceRink
.
When:
tree-lighting ceremony, week after Thanksgiving; skating Oct–Apr.
S
EA
G
RILL
: Tel 212-332-7610;
www.rapatina.com/seagrill
.
Cost:
dinner $60.
R
OCK
C
ENTER
C
AFÉ
: Tel 212-332-7620;
www.rapatina.com/rockcentercafe
.
Cost:
dinner $45.
T
OP OF THE
R
OCK
: Tel 212-698-2000;
www.topoftherocknyc.com
.
R
ADIO
C
ITY
C
HRISTMAS
S
PECTACULAR:
Tel 212-247-4777;
www.radiocity.com
.
Cost:
from $55.
When:
mid-Nov–Dec.
B
RYANT
P
ARK
:
www.bryantpark.org
.
When:
skating rink late Oct–mid-Jan.
L
INCOLN
C
ENTER
M
ESSIAH
S
ING-IN:
Avery Fisher Hall. Tel 212-875-5030;
www.lincolncenter.org
.
When:
mid-Dec.
S
T
. J
OHN THE
D
IVINE:
Tel 212-316-7490;
www.stjohndivine.org
.

Above It All and Backward in Time

New York, New York

Near the northernmost tip of Manhattan, atop a riverside cliff within beautiful, flower-decked Fort Tryon Park, sits a complex of buildings where modern New York life holds no place whatsoever. It’s called
the Cloisters, and that’s exactly what it is: a complex of five medieval French cloisters. Their halls are filled with period art and arched walkways surround gardens planted according to descriptions in medieval poetry. To the New Yorkers lounging on the grass, listening to the burble of fountains, it’s the Manhattan equivalent of a silent retreat.

The museum had its start in the early years of the 20th century, when American sculptor George Grey Barnard brought a large collection of medieval sculptures and architectural artifacts from France and opened a churchlike gallery in upper Manhattan. A decade later, using funds provided by John D. Rockefeller, the collection was acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and in 1927 plans were laid to move it to its larger present location. It was the kind of grand public gesture still fashionable at the time: Not only did Rockefeller provide funds to convert nearly 67 acres into what is now Fort Tryon Park, but he also donated 700 acres of forest and cliff in New Jersey so the view across the Hudson would remain unsullied.