Everyone has a place that they love to escape to. A place where they go to, “get away from it all”. For some, that place is a tropical paradise with palm trees and crystal clear blue oceans. For others, the perfect place to escape is a city far away from their own. For me, there is only one place that I go when I wish to leave the world behind. And to me – it’s the most beautiful place in the world – it’s Monte’s.

Monte’s is a 27-acre estate that is tucked away deep in the Catskill Mountains in the town of Lexington, New York. It may be only 151 miles from my front door – but to me – its millions of miles away from everyone and everything. Here, as I look out from the front porch I sit on as I type these words, all I see before me is green grass, blue sky – and the mountains that look back at me.

The first time I came here was in 1989 when my sister Laura got married. She had her wedding up here, for obvious reasons. From the moment I stepped out of the car for the first time, I fell in love with this secret hideaway. I have only been back here a handful of times in the last eleven years – but each time I come back – I fall in love all over again.

Being “city folk”, if you will, the constant hustle and bustle of the “big City” can get to you after a while. On any given day in NYC, your ears are pounded with the sounds of sirens, shouting, trains, and the normal pulse of eight million people going about their daily lives. Here, the only sounds you hear are the winds blowing, the crickets that sing their songs – and the sounds of your lungs filling with the fresh mountain air you breathe.

When I come here, I become a completely different person. When I am home, I am constantly looking at my watch because I have so much to do and so little time – but time has no meaning here. Here, I wake up and let the day take me where it will. Believe me, to be able to spend even one day not looking at my watch is truly getting away from it all.

Although we are in the middle of nowhere with the nearest store at least ten miles away, there are plenty of things to do when you want to do nothing. You can head into Prattsville for some great antique shops. If you’re hungry, you can go the opposite way to Hunter for some great Mexican food at Tequilla’s. There’s swimming in the Esopus Creek, which stretches for five hundred miles throughout upstate New York. At night however, there is only one activity that I do – and it is what I look forward to the most when I come up here – building a campfire. Believe me, the sound of a crackling fire and the feeling of the heat tickling your face while you sit under a sky containing more stars then you have ever seen in your life is the most relaxing and soothing feeling in the world.

I have to leave to go home today. I wish I could spend more time up here, but life awaits. So I will take home with me the memories, experiences, and treasures that I have acquired over the last two days – and wait with baited breath until I come here again.