The Adirondacks and Environs, including Thousand Islands, New York State by Frommer's ShortCuts

Author:Frommer's ShortCuts
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2011-11-29T00:00:00+00:00

The best One-of-a-Kind Experiences

• Walking the Brooklyn Bridge: One of the great New York activities of all time. The skyline view heading toward Manhattan from Brooklyn is unparalleled. The walk takes 20 to 40 minutes, depending on your pace, and every minute on this 19th-century architectural marvel is exhilarating.

• Sleeping in a Historic Lighthouse: Several hotels tout their proximity to the Hudson River, but in the Upper Hudson Valley, you can sleep at the 1869 Saugerties Lighthouse ( 845/247-0656), which functions as a B&B and is perched at water’s edge. The only way to get to it is by walking a mile-long trail through woods and wetlands.

• Reliving America’s Glory Days: Vintage “base ball,” a nostalgic sport played by old-school traditionalists partial to the 19th-century rules and uniforms of America’s classic sport, is played in several parts of New York. In Roxbury, in the northwest Catskill region, locals take it especially seriously. The best time to see a game is on Labor Day, when the Roxbury Nine hosts a home game and the town celebrates “Turn of the Century Day.” Locals turn out in period costume, and the opposing team arrives by vintage train.

• Attending a Baseball Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony: Every July, a new generation of players is transformed from mortal to legendary as inductees take their place alongside Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and the other greats in Cooperstown’s Baseball Hall of Fame.

• Gorging on Grape Pie in Naples, Finger Lakes Region: There’s a reason grape pie hasn’t earned a spot alongside apple, cherry, and peach in the pie pantheon: Peeling grapes is just too laborious. But every year, on the last weekend in September, the attractive little village of Naples near Keuka Lake becomes the grape-pie capital of the world; nearly everyone seems to be selling, buying, and eating them. Grape fanatics and pie pilgrims come from all over to attend the Naples Grape Festival and stuff themselves silly with grape pie.

• Soaring the Friendly Skies: The Finger Lakes are gorgeous from any angle, but a bird’s-eye perspective—in a vintage warplane or a silent glider plane—is one of the most unique experiences to be had in New York State. At the National Warplane Museum, near Elmira, you can take to the sky in a PT-17 or even a B-17 bomber. And at the nearby National Soaring Museum, visitors can climb aboard sailplanes for peaceful, quiet rides that soar above the valleys around Corning.

• Ice-Skating on the Olympic Rink, Lake Placid: Slip on your silver skates and take to the same rink where Eric Heiden won his gold medals in the 1980 Olympics. It’s a public rink, so there’s no pressure to race, just glide at your leisure while taking in the majesty of the surrounding Adirondacks. See for more information.

• Eating Beef on Weck in Buffalo: We like wings well enough, but you can get decent wings anywhere—including at Buffalo’s Anchor Bar, where they were invented. But Beef on Weck—sliced roast beef on kummelweck, a German kaiser roll sprinkled with pretzel salt and caraway seeds—is a whole other story.

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