Community Magazine July 2021

32 COMMUNITY MAGAZINE Hey, it’s Frieda. Hope you caught my last article about matchmaking! A fewmatchmakers reached out to me with positive comments. I hope my article makes an impact. If you missed it you can check it out on communitym.org in the May 2021 archives. Last month’s column was rather serious. But now we are in summer mode, so I decided to write a lighter article that offers easier reading about vacations during those lazy days of summer. When summer approaches, many of our community members pack up big time. They plan on a full summer away from home, at the Jersey Shore. It is truly a privilege to be able to leave city life in the hottest months of the year and to check out different scenery, where the pace of life is slower. This comes with a walloping price tag, which must include summer rentals, summer camp, and all the little things in between. I have been thinking: What could a family do with all that money if they didn’t do the typical Brooklyn to Deal trip and instead thought outside the box? I askedaroundandwas pleasantly surprised to hear that many people do plan alternative trips during summer! Before I tell you about them, let me just say I understand travel during this season is not possible for everyone. Working as a photographer, summer is my busiest season and it is also the most exciting. It wouldn’t make sense for my family to leave Jersey (our permanent residence) and go somewhere else in the summer. I’m sure that’s true for many of you, too. But I was still curious about what’s out there, so I interviewed some community members about their summer adventures. Let’s hear what they had to say. FRIEDA SCHWEKY Novel Summer Adventure Getaways Lea Mann – Short Summer Trips “Since we got married we’ve been taking small summer trips. Our first one was to Lake George. My husband was familiar with it because his yeshiva used to take the boys there every summer. It was a fun trip. We rented a cute and cozy cabin on the lake. It had a little fire pit outside. We used it to cook things such as corn wrapped in foil. We also went boating, kayaking, and mini golfed. For whatever reason, in that area there’s a miniature golf place on every block!” “One summer we took a trip to Newport, Rhode Island where we took tours of old historical mansions. The mansions are massive, each one taking about an hour to tour because of its size. We listened to recorded tours with headsets and heard descriptions of each amazing stately home. These mansions were the private homes of wealthy business tycoons over a hundred years ago. It was a very fun trip. We stayed for three days and really enjoyed this mini vacation. However, I would not recommend bringing young children along for this one.” “CapeMay was another awesome summer trip, and we did bring the kids along. It was so nice to see another beach town so different from ours. They had a boardwalk with activities like Point Pleasant. The kids loved it! We spent our days by the ocean, brought along our barbeque, and enjoyed dinner on the beach." “Lastly, I’ll tell you about one of our favorite mini vacations - the Catskills. When you hear Ashkenazi Jews say they’re going ‘to the country’ this is what they mean. It’s upstate New York. We rented an Airbnb by the bungalow colonies. We were very much at one with nature. We fed wild ducks and the kids were able to jump right into a lake. There were lots of kosher options as far as restaurants and supermarkets. It was by far our favorite experience - we want to go back!” As a person who loves adventure but lacks executive planning skills, I was very inspired by Lea’s trips. When my kids were growing up I was a bit overwhelmed. So I asked, is it really considered a vacation if you schlep the kids? Lea responded: “Parents may think that since kids are generally not easy to bring out and around, it’s hard to travel with kids. I find that is actually not the case. When you take them on adventures they’re in better moods, they get along better, and new environments bring lots of distractions. They just enjoy it so much. I love seeing them so happy. They talk about our trips up to months after. I’m always glad I brought them along!” Lake George