Cutting Loose get active
Where the Sky’s the Limit
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At Hyde Park, visitors can stroll the grounds of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s 1,500-acre estate.
Cooperstown, rolling by hilly pastures and dairy farms, then plunges southeast through the Catskills and beyond to Kingston and the Hudson River Valley.
•ROADSIDE ATTRACTIONS For the bookish, Butternuts Brewery (www.butternuts beerandale.com) in Garrattsville might call to mind butterbeer, the Harry Potter hooch that warms patrons of the Hog’s Head Inn. Moo Thunder—a milk stout you drink at just cooler than room temperature—has a similar effect. Owner Chuck Williamson adds lactose sugar for
Grand Cayman’s steady wind conditions make kiteboarding a great year-round sport.
jennifer swiatlowski (upper), stephen broadbelt (lower), international mapping
52 N a t i on a l G e o g ra p h i c T ra v e l e r
body and mouth feel. “Moo” references the brewery’s former life as a dairy farm here in the Butternut Valley. From Butternuts Brewery, head into Cooperstown (north on Rte. 51, continue on County Road 16, east on Rte. 80). The Baseball Hall of Fame (www.baseballhall offame.org) is one of many prim redbrick buildings lining its Main Street. Baseball may be the most beer–friendly American sport, and shops sell porcelain mugs with the insignia of each major league team. You’ll need a mug at Brewery Ommegang (www.ommegang.com), a white farmhouse in a former hops field five miles south on County Hwy. 33. Here, rich Belgian ales come corked in 750 ml. bottles. Ommegang, owned by Belgian company Duvel, is one of the biggest breweries on this tour. Named for an annual Brussels festival, the brewery hosts its own celebrations in summer and autumn. Ommegang ’s quadruple ale, farmhouse saison, and abbey ales are suitable for aging. The extra time enhances the chocolate and cherry notes, for example, in the quadruple ale, Three Philosophers. From Ommegang, drive south on twolane Hwy. 33 until it dead-ends at Rte. 166. Half a mile west, on the left side of the street just before the train tracks, is Cooperstown Brewing (www.coopers townbrewing.com). For $3, a bartender will pour samples of each of the baseballthemed beers—the Benchwarmer Porter (Continued on page 54)
fter years of being on the fringe of water sports, kiteboarding—a sort of kite-powered surfing—is catching wind. Its appeal is understandable: It uses a skill set akin to that of snowboarding or surfing, has a faster learning curve than windsurfing, and the gear is only getting more sophisticated and easier to use. “Any kid who’s held a kite in the wind dreams about flying,” says David Dorn, the co-founder of the U.S. Kiteboarding Association and owner of Action Sports Maui, a school on Maui’s Kite Beach. “It’s a rapidly growing sport,” he says, “and it’s becoming more accessible to older and younger people—smaller kites are being designed for greater control. We no longer call kiteboarding an extreme sport—we call it an exciting sport.” Call it what you will, just be sure to hold on tight. •WHERE: Compass Point, Grand Cayman Island (www.compasspoint.ky). •How to: Long renowned for its superior diving, Grand Cayman is quickly becoming a destination for kiteboarders. Compass Point owner Steve Broadbelt created the kite program in the spring of 2008. He now has two full-time instructors and two boats offering classes several times a day. Sessions can last a few hours and launch from either the beach or the shallow, three-foot sandbar farther offshore. •Highlights: Grand Cayman has a large lagoon on the island’s isolated East End that’s protected by a barrier reef. This creates a contained environment that’s great for learning and doing day trips; yet there are enough gaps in the reef to create superior surf for experienced kiteboarders. •Others: Maui, HI, www.actionsportsmaui .com; Cozumel, Mexico, www.casaviento.net; Perth, Australia, www.kiteboardingschool .com.au; Cabarete, Dominican Republic, www.kiteclubcabarete.com. —Janelle Nanos