Our Weekend Getaway: Mohonk Mountain House

I am finally getting around to posting about our getaway the weekend before last. We headed up to the Mohonk Mountain House located in the town of New Paltz, NY in the Shawangunk Mountains. The property, spanning hundreds of acres with numerous trails, gardens, cliffs, and a lake, is rich with history and beauty. The 7-story, 19th century enchanted castle, once a small inn and tavern, boasts 500 rooms and is simply breathtaking on approach. We visited before the gardens were in full bloom, and it was still quite a spectacle.

The typical reservation includes a four course dinner, breakfast, lunch, and afternoon tea and cookies each day; the food is fabulous! For dinner, I started with a gravalox (salmon marinated in dill) appetizer, followed by mixed greens with goat cheese and candied pecans, and next a rack of lamb, perfectly seared medium-rare. Mike had duck confit, a cheese plate (camembert) and the rack of lamb as well (neither of us can resist rack of lamb on a menu!!). We sipped a fabulous Pomerol from the well-priced and quite extensive wine list. The following Sunday morning, brunch was served rather than breakfast and lunch, and it was an impressive buffet of carved meats, hot entrees such as sole fillet stuffed with lump crab, an omelet station, homemade waffles with all the fixings, a salad station, a dessert station and even a chocolate fondue waterfall. Total decadence and pure gluttony.

What we were not prepared for was how "family friendly" the hotel is and that it definitely has a "resort", high volume feel to it. It's the pristine vacation spot of you have children, and there are so many activities to chose from - including a children's activity center - as well as many other families and children with whom to mingle. But if you are dreaming of a romantic, secluded escape it's just not that. Additionally there were two weddings each day so the grounds were overly crowded.

I did manage to make it to the yoga class in the morning, which was a great class, and well needed to burn off a few of the calories from the night before! We didn't have a chance to capitalize on any of the other activities, in part due to the lack of time, but also due to the uncooperative weather (booo!). Overall, I think we will be back, but it will most likely be at another stage in our lives :)