Mohonk Mountain House - Part II

At Mohonk, day guests can walk around the lake, have lunch, and do the Labyrinth or other hikes. As overnight guests, we did some things that only overnight guests can do. First we went on a horseback ride. Due to tougher liability laws, we couldn’t trot or canter – we had in the past – but it was still a nice trail walk, around to a side of the property that you can’t see from Skytop. We stopped by the Barn Museum and spent quite a bit of time in an old-fashioned swing, just rocking and talking – that’s the beauty of the two-night stay. We then played some shuffleboard – at one point, I became one with the game and was able to thingie my whatzit (I suppose if I am to have any future in shuffleboard I should learn the names of the equipment) exactly where I wanted it to go!



We then rented a canoe and paddled across the lake and back a few times. The blues, greens, whites and grays of the sky, the water, the house and the rocks were just beautiful. And then we went down to the swimming beach! The water can be chilly, but not if you’ve spent a lot of time in Lake Michigan. New since the last time we were there is that a couple of times a day, there are lake swims. Lifeguards keep the boats away and you can swim across from the beach to the other side. To someone always tempted to go beyond the ropes, this was irresistible. And then – something else added since the last time I stayed there – the spa! They did a very nice job of adding a full-service spa and doing it in a Mohonk way, including single-sex lounging porches for relaxation before and after treatments.



Then it was on to an old favorite of Martha’s and mine – the game room. We played some ping-pong and then pinball – good, old-fashioned pinball. There are also several small public spaces – lounges, corners, rooms – and as we walked to and from our appointments and meals we sat and talked, or just sat, in many of these. I think the indoor spaces are also part of what makes it special. We rocked on the porch and on our balcony; we’d sprung for the lake view.


At Mohonk there are paths and roads. The paths are for walking and hiking only and the roads can be used by horses and/or carriages but not cars. The roads are gentle and wide. The paths can be narrow and steep, and some of them are rough scrambles. The Labyrinth is the only rough path that we’d ever done as day guests. Over the years we’ve done pretty much every rough path on the map, with Giant’s Workshop another favorite. At first we (or at least I) thought we might do one of these on our last morning, but instead we ended up doing a walk on one of the roads. Called Eagle Cliff Road, it was a walk we had never done before, and it had great views of Sky Top and of the lake. We sat in a couple of the overlooks (the overlooks are another special thing about Mohonk) and, well, all in all it lived up to the anticipation that had built up in the planning – but of course it would; it’s Mohonk!




The way back was stressful – I’ll make a long story short by using key phrases – Saw Mill vs. Deegan…had looked at a map beforehand but when it comes right down to it, I’ve never done a lot of driving in the New York area…crosstown through Harlem…Obama traffic…missed train…rushed car return…late for appointment. It’s a pity it ended on a rushed note, but I’ll remember the fun and relaxation of our days there; the tense afternoon has more or less already faded. There’s always another train…. While we were there, we had things going on in the outside world – family drama for her and job interview/decisions for me; none of those disappeared while we were away but we didn’t let them cloud the trip, either. Paradise found!