Where's the there there??

This is the post I meant to write today. I was talking to folks at lunch who were leaving their two week Catskill vacation two days early. I asked why and they said they got bored. There wasn't enough for the kids to do. It made me think. What is it that we like to do here in the beautiful Catskill Mountains?? Is there a there here in the Catskills?

The answer is sort of, well, not really. What do we do when we come here? We come here to relax. Read a book. Garden. Go for a little hike. Make a nice meal and enjoy it just ourselves or with a few friends. Drive to the state lake for a dip with the dogs. Go to the farmers market or for a snowshoe hike. Go to a music event or performance. We drove to see the son of one of my all time favorite musicians Ali Farka Toure - and his band Vieux Farka Toure at the West Kortright Center. Well worth the drive by the way - but more people should have been dancing in the aisles.

Catskill vacations are sometimes called Do It Yourself vacations. Your expectations should be mellow. You should be adventurous and ready to do a little homework. Bring your own stuff to do - and don't be afraid to ask your lodging hosts for recommendations. Talk to people at the table next to you. Ask friends back home if they've been to the Catskills and what they did and enjoyed. Try and learn something new like flyfishing or skiing. Don't just look at the county tourism website. Go a little further. Try the NYState DEC website for Catskill hiking maps. The NYC DEP website for guided walks or fishing permits. The Catskill Mountain Club for organized hikes or Frost Valley YMCA for workshops - as well as the Catskill Center for Conservation and Development.

What is there here? Golf, horseback riding, kayaking, hiking, farmers markets, art galleries, quirky stores to shop in, antiquing, workshops on medicinal herbs or mushroom picking, main street festivals, harvest festivals, skiing, small town theatre performances, niche musicians performing and big names as well, swimming in the lakes in the state parks, camping, star watching, bird watching, hunting, hang gliding, mountain biking, fundraising 5k races, county fairs, Irish and German festivals, and a whole lot of hanging out on a porch on a rocking chair catching up with your family and friends.

It's kind of like a neighborhood bar. You have to go there a few times, but after you do, it becomes familiar. Soon everyone will know your name. Rent a private house or cabin where you can spread out and make it feel like it's your own private weekend getaway home. Come with friends so you can split up and do different things and regroup in the late afternoon for a great dinner. I wanted to tell the people I met - please come back again. Get to know the laid back pace of life and find the things that are cool for you to do and then do them some more. It could very well become your favorite get-away vacation destination.

Don't Close the Door

I received a few emails about my post about the pending resort at Belleayre. So I asked a few new acquaintances what they thought about it. Sheepishly, they told me that now that they found their little piece of paradise they want to close the door and not have anything change.

So I asked a few business owners what their real mix of customers is like and what they would like to see more of. The weekend homeowners and tourists are the revenue that keeps businesses open more days of the week or months of the year, keeps them able to hire staff, add a new service like wireless internet, or putting on a new coat of paint. Business owners know that the year-round population cannot support their increased cost of doing business. They need the weekenders but they can't always count on them. Most importantly, they said they really need more tourists.

Being just two to three hours from one of the wealthiest areas of the country means we have a great opportunity to be a destination for that money. It's just like a mall. You have your big draw stores and either end and one in the middle surrounded by lots of smaller niche businesses. We have the Emerson Resort on the east end, hopefully soon the Resort at Belleayre, and later the Aman Resort to the west. In between we have the Roxbury Motel, the Meadowood Inn, Kate's Lazy Acres. We have the Woodstock Film Festival, the Belleayre Conservatory, the West Kortright Center, the Catskill Mountain Foundation. We have the Bear Cafe, the Peekamoose Restaurant, Heaven on Main Street and Slow Down Food Co. We have cool bluegrass musicians and hip Brooklyn transplants performing under the radar in local restaurants. We have internationally known writers, painters and photographers showing their work in our mountains. We have filmmakers and theatrical directors producing vibrant pieces with local talent. We have incredible craftspeople designing furniture and decorative arts using local materials. And hardly anyone knows about it.

Being in the NYC watershed AND with the Catskill Forest Preserve means we have the opportunity to be an environmental and sustainable tourism destination. We have a highly protected natural landscape that is being explored by practically no one. We need more small lodges and resorts, river and mountain guide services, more small farms open to the public, more sporting equipment rental companies, more cafes, more music venues and other small cultural establishments. We have an amazing opportunity BECAUSE we will never have industrial parks and tract townhouse developments.

While change is scary to some, the last decade that I have been here I've found the change all positive and enjoyable. The Catskills can be what the Hamptons failed to be. Protected from sprawl, while embraced by conscientious development.