A Conversation about What’s a Family to Do?

By Jean Thomas

It’s the dreaded holiday time. Families are cooped up together for abnormal amounts of hours. Parents attempt to make memories with their children. Great stress often ensues, because multiple generations have multiple ideas about what to do with spare time. Some prefer strolling about in nice toasty museums, preferably with gift shops and cafes, while others want to be romping around outdoors participating in vigorous sports. Rare is the family that happily goes on a group adventure without at least one or two whining about how much they hate their life. Feel free to insert family names as you continue to read. Grandma loves to gaze at paintings and other assorted art. Mom enjoys touring historic homes and comparing them to the sets of her favorite historical television sagas. Grandpa and Dad are happy just standing around with a coffee, admiring the scenery and gabbing. The kids, depending on age, just want to romp around outside for a while and then sink back into their usual electronic cocoons. How can a family manage to build some fun holiday memories without ugly drama? Well, we in the Catskills are blessed with places to go that can satisfy whole tribes of mismatched folks. In the town of Catskill, for example, there is the Thomas Cole House. The site is part of a smorgasbord of indoor and outdoor adventures where the clan can split up, go have different adventures, and rejoin to share their stories.

The Cole House is a National Historic Site and consists of a six acre campus, with the historic home Cedar Grove the highlight. The tours inside the house are by appointment this time of year, so check the website before going. The adventurous in your group have the option of taking the Skywalk over the Hudson River, which leads to the New York State Historical Site of Olana, home of Frederick Church. Both Church and Cole were world famous artists in their day, and both historic homes are open to the public (always check on line for details before you head out). The hardy nature lovers can take hiking trails on the 250 acres of Olana’s landscaped and naturalized grounds. The vistas from Olana are beautiful, and worth a trip. The grounds of both sites are free to visit, and house tours usually have a small fee.

Another feature of a visit to the Cole House is the opportunity to visit the Mawignack Preserve. This is a treat for hikers (or snowshoers in season) along the Catskill Creek where Cole found inspiration for most of his most famous works. The area is a short drive from the Cole Site, and is a 144 acre preserve with a beautiful one-mile hiking loop and interpretive panels describing the history and ecological importance of this place, whose name translates to “the place where two streams come together.”

If the Catskill/Hudson River trek is too long a trip in the winter, the New York State area is rich in history and, therefore, historical sites. Your assorted clan members can find similar mixtures of indoor/cultural and outdoor/natural places in many of our local counties. Schoharie County has the Lansing Manor, adjacent to the Blenheim-Gilboa Visitor’s Center and Power Authority, connected to the Mine Kill State Park. Again, the history buff can toddle around inside and the energetic have hundreds of acres to hike and explore. Every county in our area has at least one treasure spot, many either New York or National Park associated. Check websites for details and assign the organizing to whoever is the family trip planner ( we all have one!) Happy holidays.