Girls Just Want to Have Fun

Some of the best times The Three Tomatoes ever have are were with --The Three Tomatoes. Yes, there actually are three tomatoes. And no, we will not reveal our identities. And no you won’t find our pictures in the post office. Our reference here is to a broader sense of The Three Tomatoes, which is our group of best pals. A few years ago we came up with the concept of The Granny Farm, way before any of us actually were grannies. The idea is that when we’re old (which now we are, so maybe we should say when we’re even “older”) we would have outlived or dumped those grumpy old men and would pool our resources for “The Granny Farm” -- a wonderful place (or maybe two), located some place like “Big Sur”, or on an exotic Caribbean Island that would be staffed with hunky young guys catering to our every whim. So over the course of the past few years, we’ve been “practicing” with Granny Farm (aka girlfriend) getaways.

We’ve found that there are four keys to a successful girls’ getaway:

1) A group of great pals (preferably tomatoes)

2) Availability of “spa and pamper us” services

3) Alcohol (hey it’s a getaway, not a retreat)

4) Clear understanding of the destination

We added #4 after a getaway that was less than a “crowd pleaser. Here’s the story.

A favorite near-by getaway place of The Three Tomatoes is Mohonk Mountain House, located in New Palz, New York about 90 minutes from Manhattan. Built on the deep-blue waters of Lake Mohonk in 1869, this grand 261-room Victorian castle is one of America's oldest family-owned resorts, with thousands of acres of pristine forest and winding trails. We discovered its joys in a wonderfully affordable package called “mid-winter rejuvenation” which at the time included beautiful Victoria rooms with fireplaces overlooking the lake, spa services, and three meals (the food is great). We haven’t been there in about three years, and they have really gone upscale, with a real spa, and a bar! Which is quite amazing since the owners are Quakers, and for years there was NO BAR, but they did serve wine at dinner. However, as you may have guessed, The Three Tomatoes are always prepared for any such emergency with martini pitchers, vodka, bloody Mary mix, etc., to host our own in-room cocktail party. The big attractions of Mohonk in the winter are the hiking trails, ice-skating rink, cross-country skiing and snowshoeing. That said, on one of our trips it was so cold that all the trails were frozen over and you couldn’t do anything outside! (Martini time!) On another occasion it was so warm, you could only hike the trails (more Martini time.)

Now most of our Granny Farm group loves this experience. But this is definitely not the spot for the “we hate winter activities types of tomatoes” as we found out. A smaller group of Granny Farm tomatoes had experienced Mohonk for two years in a row and loved it so much we invited a couple of more tomatoes. So picture this. Our seasoned Mohonk group was sitting in Mohonk’s huge lobby by one of the roaring fireplaces, dressed in our blue jeans, flannel shirts and hiking boots, hot chocolate in hand (spiked with a little brandy when the Quakers weren’t looking), when in walked our two “Mohonk newbie” pals. We knew we had a misunderstanding of our destination the second we saw their attire -- full-length mink coats, spiked heel boots and Prada bags -- and the first thing they asked was why we weren’t at the bar. That was followed by the next little (oops) misunderstanding when they checked into their rooms and discovered there is no TV. Our efforts to console them with the fact that they had their own fire place, view of the lake, and nightly movie shown in the library (the original Sabrina with Humphrey Bogart no less) did not appease them. By the next morning they both suddenly had important meetings and hired a town car to get them back to the Big Apple. So Mohonk is definitely not for all girlfriend getaways, but for the “winter, long walks, read yourself to sleep, illegal in-room cocktail party” kind of tomatoes it’s a super place. (Forget the rest of the year because it’s way too crowded and over priced.)

Now don’t get us wrong, The Three Tomatoes definitely love other granny farm winter getaways to places where the temperature is 80, and you drink pina coladas by the pool while ogling the cute cabana boys. See why we need lots of Granny Farm practice?