Dawn at Oquaga Lake... Life is hard.

Fall returns!  I don’t know about you folks, but I am feeling an urgent need to live it up, as I fear that this may be the last of it that we get.  Last week’s sojourn in late November was in no way enjoyable.  If any of you haven’t made it out of the city for a little fall color yet, here’s a little vicarious foliage for you with the second half of my trip to the Catskills.

After our trip to Storm King, we drove west to Deposit, New York, to stay at the Chestnut Inn at Oquaga Lake.  If you’re looking for a weekend getaway with your honey, I can’t say enough nice things about the Chestnut Inn.  It was, quite frankly, so romantic that the boy and I started speculating on the things that would have to happen next if it was a movie.  You know, tragic misunderstanding — one of us diagnosed with terminal illness — we catch Legionnaire’s Disease from the two-person jacuzzi tub.  (On second thought, that last would be more of a slapstick comedy.)  Deposit’s a bit out of the way (it was about two hours from Storm King), but well worth the trip.

The inn itself sits right on the lake and has a big porch with wicker rocking chairs and a romantically lit dock with deck chairs.  Inside, its own restaurant, a big fireplace (sadly not lit the night we were there), and our room with its jacuzzi tub.  ‘Nough said.  The night we were there the foliage around the lake was just about at peak, and the cold air was so clear that we actually saw the Milky Way and a shooting star, and got a good look at Saturn.  One of the saddest things about being a New Yorker is that you forget there are that many stars.  The fall foliage on the lake is probably done for this year by now, but I’m willing to bet that it would make a gorgeous winter weekend, featuring some light hiking, the fireplace, and some hot cocoa.

On the way back, we drove through the Catskill Park, which is an enormous semi-preserve containing a whole slew of cute little towns and a surprising amount of the New York City water supply.  There are plenty of guides, but frankly, it’s fun to just wander.  We hit, oh, three or four farm stands (hey, I like produce), a hotel with the world’s largest kaleidoscope (seriously!), and a whole bunch of gorgeous vistas.

The Ashokan Reservoir: who knew our drinking water was so purty?

On the way home, we stopped into the Beekman Arms in Rhinebeck for lunch.  The Beekman Arms is purportedly America’s oldest continuously operating inn, first opened in 1766.  I had sort of wondered whether it would be worth the trip before we arrived, but if you have ever been on that elementary school field trip, there is no mistaking the age of this building, with its low ceilings and exposed beams. Eating in the “Colonial Tap Room” is an entertaining improvement on the educational visits you always got as a kid.  We had some delicious butternut squash soup and plumed ourselves on how much taller we both were than people in colonial days.  (I, of course, was in no danger of hitting my head on anything, but men much over 6′ will have to move carefully.)  The boy enjoyed strutting his firearms expertise by explaining the muskets mounted on the beams to me.

I’m guessing the Catskills will be past peak by this weekend, but if you can, grab the good weather and get out of town this weekend.  If you’re looking for a manageable outing, try Terhune Orchards in Princeton for some of the best cider doughnuts around.

Tags: Beekman Arms, Catskills, Chestnut Inn at Oquaga Lake, Fall Foliage, New York State

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 at 8:45 pm and is filed under Location, Location, Location. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.