This park sits halfway between my apartment and my studio. I spend a a lot of time hear sketching and making phone calls. The trees are beautiful during spring and fall.

This is a pro tip, but also a summer tip, take the ferry from Lower Manhattan to Rockaway and spent the day. The beach is great and the area is impossible to gasp that it's 30 min from Manhattan (without traffic) - Eat as many tacos you can, cause it's the best in the state of New York!

Nestled in the Adirondack Mountains, Saranac Lake is a small town that thrives on the tourism of nature. Drawing in visitors from all around the world this high peaks jewel is a quiet, beautiful threshold to New York's untouched wilderness. The view is best enjoyed from a boat.

I LOVE going to the movies, so the concept of a dinner-movie theater is pretty darn dreamy. Nitehawk screens the best in independent film, both past and present. This includes a brunch film series; a “Lil Hawks” series (for smaller cinephiles); a “Midnite Movies” series, and more... What a thrill it is to see film classics up on the big screen that you may have missed on their first run. We’ve watched Woody Allen’s 1973 “Sleeper” while eating waffles and seen Buster Keaton’s silent film “The General” with a live band! In addition to their main menu and freshly popped-popcorn (but, of course!), Nitehawk’s staff always offers up a cocktail, main dish, and desert inspired by the flicks currently showing. Sadly their fish tacos, have disappeared from their main offerings, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed that they may read this and (please!!) bring them back.

Within an couple hours' drive of NYC, you can find lots of sleepy seaside towns. Not only can you get your soft ice cream and salt water taffy on, but you can still spot cool, hand-lettered signs and other relics of a past generation's amusements.