offManhattan

PRINCETON, NJ—Faced with a spring weekend and an urge to get out of town, Princeton may not immediately come to mind as a possible destination. What could a university town in New Jersey offer someone (possibly even a student looking to escape books and teachers) in the way of good food, relaxation, fresh air and culture? More than you might expect.

Roughly an hour’s trip from Penn Station, the Princeton train depot is conveniently located in the heart of its university campus. Princeton University, founded in 1746 as the College for New Jersey, boasts a bevy of charming architecture styles and a great deal of pleasure can be taken in simply strolling the grounds. One notable stop on campus is McCormick Hall, part of the Princeton University Art Museum. This venue houses an impressive permanent collection (68,000 works exhibited on a rotating basis) including ancient antiquities, and Renaissance, Impressionist, and modern works by the likes of Warhol, Picasso, Monet and Toulouse-Lautrec. You’d expect to pay a reasonable sum for a ticket, but admission is free. Should you be looking for evening entertainment, the McCarter Theatre regularly hosts concerts, ballet, orchestra, and ground-breaking theatrical productions including a recent run of Mary Zimmerman’s “Argonautika.”

It’s one of the most accessible cities from the island. Take a break from the Manhattan music scene, pop onto the PATH train for 15 minutes across the river, and listen to live bands in some of the hippest bars in Hoboken. Here’s a roundup of some of the best.

SCOTLAND YARD
72 Hudson St. | 201.222.9273 | scotlandyardbar.com

How can you resist a place—with a Hoboken address—that proclaims to be the best blues bar in New York? You can’t. Scotland Yard has the appeal of a popular neighborhood hangout, where some of its patrons are just a generation shy of being wooed by Frank Sinatra.

Every Saturday afternoon from 4-7 p.m., locals gather to listen to blues guitarist Joe Taino play with guest musicians. The arrangement is simple: Joe starts off the jam with his own set, then other groups of musicians alternate on stage. On any given weekend, you may find Joe keeping his cool, sipping from an orange drink while alternating through two different sets as a vocalist, guitarist and drummer.

In spite of the strong individual performances by many musicians, the real protagonists of the afternoon are usually the patrons. Their enthusiasm for blues, exhibited by spontaneous dancing or clapping, fills the space with an energy that won’t burst at the beams. At one point the place got so crowded that they ran out of clean glasses and had to serve beer in plastic cups.

While the Blues Jam is free of charge, tips are collected for the musicians. Another Blues Jam is hosted on Mondays from 9:30 pm-12:30 am by Big Ed Sullivan.

Named after the coveted Olympic athlete, the town of Jim Thorpe or “America’s Little Switzerland” as it is known, was a location considered famous for many things at the turn of the last century: the site of the country’s first roller coaster and railroad, the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. One of history’s hidden gems, the scenic mountainside town of Jim Thorpe has kept its antiquated charm and country comforts. Pair this guide with our recent Poconos Winter Mini Guide for the perfect weekend ski getaway.

Zooming north on the train after work, I feel like a kid again, giddy with nose-pressed-to-window anticipation. I am traveling towards the Rago family’s country bungalow on Lake Naomi, away from the chaos of Manhattan. This is how it always was, my mother, my sister and I—my father would arrive on weekends—escaping to our winter paradise in the Poconos.

These days, as I turn ages I’d rather not celebrate, with trips becoming slightly less frequent, childhood memories continue to exist profoundly in the mountains of Pennsylvania. Every January was filled with skiing, snowboarding, snowtubing, and ice skating. Why any New Yorker would pay to fly to a ski community baffled me; everything you wanted in an active and picturesque winter wonderland was at your fingertips. And it still is.

Where to Get Active: The Slopes & Stables

Blue Mountain Ski Area
1660 Blue Mountain Drive, Palmerton, PA | 610.826.7700 | skibluemt.com
Blue Mountain offers 130 skiable acres, 30 trails (12 beginner, 6 intermediate, and 12 advanced), with 3 trails over a mile long, 3 terrain parks, a snowcross, a 400 foot half-pipe, and a 14-slide tubing park that is over 1,000 feet long. Blue Mountain also has the highest vertical drop in the Pocono Mountains at 1,082 feet.

The goal of oM has always been to provide our readers with a greener way to get out of Manhattan, which typically means that driving a car is not an option. Consequently, a by-product of our green mission is that oM has also been a useful resource for people living in or visiting the city without access to a car. There is an unlimited supply of off Manhattan adventures that can start with a subway, train, or bus ride. Still, we all know that some of the best places to visit are those less traveled, and sometimes the most practical way to reach them is by car.

So, let’s compromise. Below you will find a list of several car rental companies in Manhattan that offer hybrid solutions. The prices are generally higher than regular cars, but remember that you will also be saving on gas (and saving the world at the same time). Bonus points if you carpool!

Let’s face it. Winters in Manhattan can be a miserably frigid experience. Why not take advantage of the only redeeming quality of winter (snow) and enjoy a weekend of skiing or snowboarding? Fortunately for us, there are many winter resorts nearby, which we have featured below. And in traditional oM style, all of these mountains are accessible to you without a car. Next time you take a reluctant step into the cold and rainy streets, remember that it could be snowing at your favorite local mountain. Get out there and hit the slopes!

A Brooklyn friend of mine once spoke of hiring an old Italian contractor to work on his house. The man asked where he lived and when my friend replied, “Carroll Gardens” the contractor laughed dismissively and corrected him, “It’s all South Brooklyn.”

What was once known as South Brooklyn is actually in the northwest portion of the borough. The name comes from its location south of Atlantic Avenue. This is all ancient history for a relative newcomer like me. By the time I arrived and took a sublet in Carroll Gardens, Smith Street was several years into its transformation as Restaurant Row, hip enough to be mentioned in Jonathan Franzen’s “The Corrections” and attracting emerging Manhattan chefs left and right. Even as a newcomer, I sensed something decidedly un-Brooklyn about the street’s new incarnation and – perhaps because of a subconscious desire to be closer to my California roots – I found myself wandering a short distance west to Court Street.

Several years, moves, and sublets later, I’ve taken a place in Cobble Hill (with apologies to the old contractor) and continue to explore Court’s varied charms.

There’s an ongoing joke in my favorite Woody Allen film Manhattan: Diane Keaton playing Mary Wilkes, a hyper-intellectual feminist adulterer, feigns innocence in the middle of an argument by proclaiming, “I mean really, I’m just from Philadelphia: I mean we believe in God.” Woody Allen, the consummate New Yorker, stands befuddled by the implication.

That was way back in 1979. Such delineation between NYC and its cousin down the turnpike have evaporated, if you are to believe the now infamous 2005 New York Times Travel article that decreed Philadelphia the “sixth borough” of New York. Of course that same article quoted a Philadelphia one-bedroom as being $800 a month including gas and electric, which doesn’t sound like any borough I’ve ever been to. Search on Craigslist for a Brooklyn 1BR, price range $800 a month, and you’ll be meeting brokers on the road median of the BQE. But I digress…

Less than a two-minute walk from the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens (see recent oM review: From Grinding Intensity to Green Tranquility) is the Brooklyn Museum, (link), one of the oldest and largest art museums in the country. Its permanent collections are housed in more than a half million square feet and include world-famous objects of ancient Egyptian art; significant American and European paintings and sculpture; an outstanding collection of drawings, prints, and photographs; contemporary art; decorative arts, including twenty-six period rooms; art from China, Korean, Japan, and South and Southeast Asia; Islamic art; indigenous arts of North, Central, and South America; objects from the Pacific Islands; and one of the finest collections of African art in the United States. The Museum also houses the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art as well as the Luce Center for American Art.