Lehigh Valley Urban Style
The closest cities to Stone Cottage Woods are Easton and Bethlehem, and both offer a fabulous variety of dining, entertainment and community options. Lehigh Valley International Airport (ABE) is just 25 minutes away, and with no lines, easy and inexpensive parking, and frequent flights, it offers a stress-free way to reach your destination by air. Transbridge and Bieber bus lines offer easy access to New York’s Port Authority Bus Terminal and JFK Airport, and Route 78 takes you to Newark International Airport in just under an hour.
Things to do in Easton
Easton is a city with grit and character. There’s a lively restaurant revival that’s developed in and around the center square, featuring such notable foodie venues as Third & Ferry Fish Market, River Grill and Maxim 22. Tiny breakfast and lunch spots with an urban boho vibe are tucked away, like the Quadrant Bookstore and Coffee House, where you can pick up a book from a shelf behind your seating to enjoy with your meal, to Blue Sky at the State, with a range of vegetarian options as diverse as the clientele. Easton’s square is the home to weekly farmers markets and evening band concerts, while the Lehigh River front is the site of frequent arts festivals.
While in Easton, enjoy an afternoon learning about environmental issues at “Science on the Sphere,” a multimedia program of the Nurture Nature Center, where the staff uses a blend of science, art and dialogue programs to get the community talking and thinking critically about the local environment. Younger children travel from afar to visit the Crayola Factory, and take a mule-drawn canal boat ride along the Lehigh River canal. History buffs enjoy perusing the Northampton County archives and pre-European settler artifacts at the Sigal Museum.
One of the best parts about Easton is how it is a city that is in the process of rediscovering itself and defining its modern character. New events – poetry readings, lectures, performances spring up informally like wildflowers taking root in soil that is fertile and ready for new growth.
Things to do in Bethlehem
Bethlehem, home of Lehigh University and the former Bethlehem Steel, has fully recovered from the closing of the steel mill and has become a mecca for arts, fine dining and entertainment. Wander through the historic streets and alleyways, by quaint shops like the famous Moravian Book Shop established in 1745, and venerable establishments like the Hotel Bethlehem, once the stomping grounds of moneyed industrialists and steel magnates. Take a Bethlehem horse-drawn carriage ride past historic churches, noteworthy sites and elegant homes and dine at one of the many fine dining spots throughout the city.
Artsquest offers art classes, gallery events, major music festivals, a German Christmas market (Bethlehem is known as the Christmas city), an art house movie theater and a jam-packed weekly performance schedule. Art and music is very much a part of the character of this venerable city founded by Moravian settlers in 1741. Just contrast Godfrey Daniels, an old-time folk music coffee house attracting independent artists, with Musikfest, a week-long summer takeover of the city by top name and smaller bands and performers, and the Sands Casino Resort, a venue for nationally touring bands, and you get a sense of the depth and breadth of the Lehigh Valley music scene.