Worth the trip: Go outdoors and come indoors

By WANDA WAYFARER

Our riverbanks are lined with great trees, lush greenery and colorful flowers, and traversed by an unimaginable variety of animals that come down to the river to quench their thirst. Being outdoors allows us to capture some unforgettable glimpses of nature that become some of our most treasured memories.

Wonderful Manhattan-quality music and performances can also be experienced while immersed in this natural beauty. We are in the country, but not in the sticks when it comes to performance venues and artistic talent.

Do something memorable this weekend by spending some time in the great outdoors, and then spending some time in the company of local and world-renowned musical talent.

The Pocono Environmental Education Center (PEEC) located in Dingman’s Ferry, PA, will host a Family Nature Weekend from Friday through Sunday (570/828-2319). This weekend will allow you to experience the outdoors guided by an expert hand. You and your family can stay at cabins in the facility for only $175, including lodging and three meals a day.

PEEC, located in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, is a wonderful place to bring the family. Besides hiking, swimming and canoeing, PEEC provides education about our local natural environment, with a wide variety of informational tours throughout the outdoor facility. They have bird walks, botanical guides, photography adventures, an educational center (where you can learn about everything that you are going to see) and more. You don’t have to stay for the weekend to visit PEEC, but doing so gives you the full outdoor experience and time to explore all that is offered.

I suggest hiking this Friday night on some of PEEC’s 13 miles of trails. My favorite is the Fossil Trail, which leads hikers along an outcropping of bedrock containing fossils of marine organisms that lived here when the area was covered by ocean. You can actually pick up these fossils and study what was living in our back yards two million years ago up close. However, you are not allowed to take them home.

On another walk, hikers are blinded and led by a rope along a quarter-mile stretch of trail. Four other trails take you through forests, over rushing streams and waterfalls and through wetlands.

On Saturday you can continue your outdoor exploration at the Lacawac Sanctuary in Lake Wallenpaupack, PA, for its Butterflies and Flower Talk (570/698-9494). The cost is $5 per person and free for children under 12 years of age, and it runs from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. The Lacawac Sanctuary, like PEEC, is an outdoor education facility that is dedicated to preserving wildlife and educating the public.

The tour will take place in Lacawac’s Leering Garden. Remember to bring comfortable shoes because you will be walking through the gardens.

If all this outdoor excitement doesn’t tire you out, you must head up to Shandelee, NY for the Shandelee Music Festival and its 2007 Sunset Concert Series for an Evening of Chamber Music (845/439-3277). The evening features Susanne Stanzeleit on the violin and Cullan Bryant on the piano. The concert starts at 8:00 p.m. in the Sunset Concert Pavilion, overlooking the Catskill Mountains.

The cost for admission is $25 for adults and $23 for students and seniors. Advance reservations to the performances are strongly recommended.

On Sunday night, head over to the amazing Bradstan Country Hotel for the live performance of Anne Runolfsson (845/583-4114). The Bradstan, located in across the street from White Lake, is an enormous 19th century boardinghouse that features fantastic live cabaret for only $35 per person. The cost includes your first beverage.

Runolfsson, who will be performing cabaret at 7:00 and 9:30 pm, is most famed for her work as Carlotta in Broadway’s “Phantom of the Opera.” She was also Liza Minelli’s stand-in for “Victor, Victoria.”

The Inn Cabaret takes place every Sunday evening. The hotel is handsome, the shows are lively and fun,and the music is direct from Broadway.

With this heady mixture of outdoor amenities and musical talent, we live in an area that is not only scenically gorgeous but also culturally sophisticated. With the summer moving towards its conclusion, don’t neglect to sample these offerings before they are gone.