Out of Manhattan

Wave Hill, the Bronx

718-549-3200

www.wavehill.org

To pick just one Bronx summer destination is an exercise in frustration. Van Cortlandt Park, with its trails and running track is tough to resist. The hills of Riverdale, the humid streets of Mott Haven in the morning, the sand at Orchard Beach, the secrets of Claremont Park, the quiet graves of Woodlawn Cemetery. Edgar Allen Poe cottage! Kingsbridge, where the friendly ghost of C.J. Sullivan likely wanders, ready to share a story and lend a helping hand. Whether one prefers pernil or pastrami, salsa or “O Sole Mio,” the Bronx has it or had it recently enough that palimpsests remain. Check out the street names of Co-op City some: Dreiser Loop—what? (“Sister Carrie” says yes!) Over at Wave Hill, which overlooks the Hudon River, is perhaps the single best Bronx summer bet if you’re only placing only one. It’s called Sunset Wednesdays, it’s free, and its first rate programming spans a number of genres. It opens July 8 with Bronx native jazz singer Jennifer Jade Ledesna. Chilean-born tenor-saxophonist Melissa Aldana follows on July 15 as do Black string band performer Jake Blount on July 22; Great American Songbook vocalist Stella Cole on July 29; and the Djékady Trio’s Malian-based folk music on August 5.

Coney Island, Brooklyn

It’s the eternal question of the summer in the city set: Coney Island or Brighton Beach? The best answer, of course, is both and since they’re contiguous, it’s not just easy but a great pleasure to stroll on the beach or boardwalk from one to another. Brighton especially excels in food, with a rich cultural stew of post-Soviet emigres, Pakistanis, Mexicans and others atop a strong Easter European Jewish foundation. Coney Island has the amusement parks, more traditional seaside food, a minor league baseball team, and history so densely complex it can almost seem like fiction, even when certain names have been reused, like Luna Park. There’s also the Coney Island hardly anyone knows over at Kaiser Park, on Coney Island Creek, a tidual estuary that’s home to santeria ritual, fishing and sand dunes. Note to roller coaster loving kids: you have to be 54 inches tall to ride the Cyclone.

Fort Wadsworth / South Beach, Staten Island

www.nps.gov/gate/learn/historyculture/fort-wadsworth.htm

Look, over there across the harbor! That’s Staten Island! Mordant locals sometimes call it “the Forgotten Borough” but they didn’t reckon with the Mnemosyne of Summer Guide: we never forget, especially the glories of Fort Wadsworth, which is part of the National Park Service’s sprawling Gateway National Recreational Area. Sits atop the borough’s northeast corner, getting here isn’t super easy without a car (though the Verrazano Bridge takes you right there) but it’s well worth the effort. Especially popular with local bicyclists and runners, Fort Wadsworth is also haven for hikers, birders, military buffs and families with young kids thanks to a small but delightful playground. Bonus: the lovely Arthur Van Briesen Park is adjacent up top on Bay Street and interior roads lead one down to the sand and sea of South Beach, the Verrazano towers looming in one direction, the Franklin D. Roosevelt Boardwalk the other.

Rockaway Beach, Queens

You can hitch a ride to Rockaway Beach but truthfully, taking the A train or driving is easier, as long as you’re mindful of Belt Parkway traffic patterns. One also can take the ferry— it drops you off on the Jamaica Bay side of the peninsula, near Beach 108th Street. A devoted band of sand lovers ride their bicycles to Rockaway, pedaling through Brooklyn until they ascend the Marine Parkway Bridge over Jamaica Bay, from which crest come shouts like those of the ecstatic soldiers from Xenophon’s “Anabasis,” “Thálassa! Thálassa!”—The sea! The sea! While many bicyclists enjoy the nearby seclusion of Fort Tilden, Summer Guide prefers the stretch from Beach 67th to Beach 116th Streets—especially the sweaty, body surfing, jetty-filled, surfer beach blocks in the 80s, 90s and 100s. Some might call this nostalgia (see Woody Allen’s 1987 masterpiece, “Radio Days” for more, including cameos by the since redeveloped Playland amusement park and Larry David as “Communist Neighbor”) but the ongoing dynamism of successive waves of Rockaway rediscovery suggests otherwise. Should you wish to ride those waves, check out Surf’s Up NY surfing school, which offers classes for kids 8 and up.

Princeton, New Jersey

There’s a tendency among visitors to idealize Princeton, which—let’s be honest—is not something that often happens in New Jersey. Yes, “The Sopranos” lifted the Garden State from the muck of popular derision but owing to the show’s brilliant complexities, it didn’t ever transcend it. (Heck, after what Sil did to poor Adriana, it’s a miracle people can still cheer Bruce Springsteen.) Another example: back in 1947 or so, two young men began college at Princeton University, Harry Mathews and Jonathan Williams. Both dropped out because the school was so snooty. Mathews went to Harvard, studied composition and became a world renowned writer. Williams went to Black Mountain College, and became a revered poet, photographer and the publisher of Jargon Society books. So you see, Princeton isn’t perfect! Which makes a summer trip to soak up it’s best parts that much more alluring. Why summer? ‘Tis the season for orange dappled box turtles sun themselves on logs along the Delaware & Raritan Canal path (where you can also go walk, run, bicyle and, in the water, kayak); the season when the university campus is most open for exploration, including an art museum and gorgeous running track; and it’s the season when the world-famous Princeton Record Exchange (PREX) air conditioners are at their most cranking. (More cranking than T. Rex? Maybe.) Crawl around the carpet for a jillion budget bargains, including, in the classical section, the music of Czech genius Bohuslav Martinů, who taught at the University from 1948-1951. Pick Hit from the PREX rock bins: Van Morrison “Moodance,” which includes Tony Blundetto’s farewell song, “Glad Tidings.”