Panasonic FV-05VF2 WhisperFit 50 CFM Low Profile Ceiling Mounted Fan

• Designed to fit 2- by 6-Inch joists or larger
• Blower wheel is designed to draw air in both sides allowing more area for air to enter the wheel
• Panasonic fans are quiet enough that you might not even know they’re on
• An optional 3-Inch duct adaptor is included for areas where a smaller duct is necessary
• Rated 50 cubic feet per minute

Panasonic WhisperFit Ceiling Fan fv05vf2 1040

List Price: $ 172.00

Price: $ 172.00

Thanksgiving at Mohonk, Nov 2010 – 38


Image by Ed Yourdon
The main dining room at Mohonk…

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Mohonk Mountain House is one of those places that typically evoke one of two distinct reactions when you mention it to someone: (a) they’ve never heard of it, and wonder what civilized place could have such a strange name, or (b) they squeal with delight that someone else knows about this special place, and proceed to tell you how many generations of their family members have been visiting it since … well, since long, long ago.

Assuming that you fall into the first category, here are the basics: Mohonk is a sprawling, century-old hotel/resort located near New Paltz, NY — about 90 miles north of New York City, just west of the Hudson River. It was opened in 1870 by Quaker twin brothers Albert and Alfred Smiley, and the main buildings — some wooden, some stone — were built over the period of 1879 through 1910. As a Wikipedia points out, it sits on the edge of a small lake (Lake Mohonk, what else?) that’s a mere half-mile long, and 60 feet deep; but it’s big enough to support a modest amount of fishing, swimming, boating, and (in days past) ice-skating. Visitors can also hike, climb nearby mountains, play tennis, ride horses, and various other activities.

Or … you can just relax. There are quiet corners everywhere, dozens (maybe hundreds) of rocking chairs, lots of warm, toasty fireplaces, and dozens of little wooden cupolas scattered around the lake where you can read a book, chat with a friend, or just stare off into space and think about nothing at all. There’s no noise from nearby traffic — it’s at the top of a smallish mountain, on 2,200 acres that adjoin another 6,400 acres of the Mohonk Preserve. There’s no loud music, there are no televisions in the guest rooms, no cars or motorboats or jet-skis or sources of noise.

Various notables have visited Mohonk over the years, including industrialist John D. Rockefeller, naturalist John Burroughs, industrialist Andrew Carnegie, and American presidents Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Rutherford B. Hayes, and Chester A. Arthur. While I was there this past weekend, the actor Alan Alda was wandering around the main lounge, undisturbed by any of the other guests. It’s probably worth mentioning that Mohonk was also the setting of a 1994 feature film, The Road to Wellville, starring Anthony Hopkins and Matthew Broderick.

As for the thousands of other undistinguished guests and visitors: it’s amazing how long many of us have been coming here, and it’s intriguing to see how many multi-generational families come here for holidays (Easter, Memorial Day, Memorial Day, and Thanksgiving are the main ones, I think) as well as family reunions and other special events. My wife first discovered Mohonk in the mid-1970s on a visit with her mother, while I was away somewhere working ’round-the-clock on some ill-fated computer project. We first brought our children here in 1983, and have typically returned once or twice a year since then … and after nearly 30 years, it’s amazing to see how little has changed.

But there have been a few changes. Notwithstanding the Quaker heritage of the original Smiley brothers, who decreed that there would be no drinking or card-playing when they first opened their establishment, there is now a small cocktail lounge tucked away in a corner room. Meals used to be a somewhat mediocre event, served in a huge dining room that was built somewhere around 1902; now the cuisine has improved considerably, and it’s also possible to order room service meals. And, wonder of wonders, there is now free WiFi service throughout the hotel … but there are still no televisions in the guest rooms.

It’s hard to capture all of this in a series of photographs, even though I have a Flickr collection with roughly half a dozen different sets of family-related photos that I’ve taken here since the mid-1980s. But this time, I tried to capture as many different scenes as possible — and I was lucky enough to get one brief period of afternoon sunshine, which allowed me to take some HDR images of the scenery.

If the photos look sufficiently intriguing, take a look at the Wikipedia article, or visit the Mohonk website. Who knows — maybe we’ll see you there on our next visit…

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