Woodstock

As usual, the need to leave the city for the weekend arose. I had been up to Woodstock, NY a few times in the past few years with friends. The first time I went up there was after I just moved to the city and I was amazed that only 1.5 hours away, I could be in a cute little town surrounded by forest, mountains and streams. I had always gone up there with friends who have houses there and I never really enquired about accommodations. Finally, I decided to overcome my fear of driving on the right side of the road and go up there on my own terms.

I chose Tinker Village Getaway as our lodging. Our cute little cabin was nestled in the forest with a stream running past the kitchen window. Ten feet away from our porch were waterfalls and the whole area was a privately run secluded compound off the main street of Woodstock. Even people that had been going up to Woodstock for years didn’t know it existed. We wanted to stay somewhere that didn’t remind us of a resort or bread and breakfast, but rather a pseudo holiday house that felt like family or friends could own it. The friendly owners, who live in the compound, come in and clean up and do the regular tidy up, however, the feeling was more like renting a private home. Tinker Village consists of a cute garden, a strange store selling an assortment of rustic and rickety antiques and Getaway on The Falls (the name of the cottages and cabins).

Just a walk up the private driveway to the main street, gave us the luxury of cute cafes and basic supplies. Next to the entrance we stumbled over The Tinker Street Café, which is The Center for Photography at Woodstock. The building was previously the home of Cafe Esspresso, which was frequented so much by Bob Dylan that the owners gave him his own room on the second floor where he composed much of his first two albums.

Woodstock lived up to its image with its gift stores. There were stores selling wooden carvings of Bears to huge candle sculptures of wizards and warlocks. After shuffling through the handful of stores selling crystal balls, Indian wraps and New Age paraphernalia, we were quite content on hanging in our private oasis located less than a few hundred yards away. My favorite part of the cabin was our private waterfall with an adjoining swimming hole that let us cool down. We also found some great swimming spots where the locals would park by the streams and swim in naturally formed pools.

Though we enjoyed cooking at the house, we also ventured to a great little restaurant called the Bear Café, which was located less than two miles away from Tinker Village. The Bear Café was created in 1971 by Albert Grossman, the former music mogul and manager of Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin and Peter, Paul & Mary. The restaurant had great food, and is known for its mish mash of celebrities mingling with the local pottery dealers and yoga instructors. In the spirit of Manhattan, the patrons are too cool and composed to be distracted by actors and rock stars. Nobody seemed to flinch when Robert Dinero brushed past their table, though I’m not sure what kind of small talk I would have come up with at the men’s urinals.

As usual, our weekend seemed to slip by too fast. We will be back.