BEFORE THERE WERE the 1969 festival-of-love hippies for which Woodstock is famous, there were lesser known turn-of-the-century bohemians, actors, dancers, and painters, "queers" of their time who flocked to the area and created art-making institutions like the Maverick Colony and tested utopian ways of living at Byrdcliffe. Now mostly a summer music venue, the Maverick Colony and the quiet arts colony of Byrdcliffe, just north of town, represent a long-standing tradition of the community's respect for liberal-minded thinkers and society's "others". Rather than fly rainbow flags from their shop windows, Woodstock is an implicitly progressive place in which artists, dreamers, slackers, and former city

slickers tired of the grind have created a cultural climate that's decidedly queer friendly. Just west of the Hudson River in the foothills of the Catskill Mountains, Woodstock is truly a serene retreat, and can be explored in day or over a weekend. Since it's just a little over two hours north of New York by car, the town bustles with weekenders and second-home owners who clog the town's tiny thoroughfare, cutely called Tinker Street. Why they come is the same reason you and your lady should go-the mountain air smells markedly different, there's little in the way of that interpersonal attitude we deal with on the subway or street, and the absence of car alarms going off is truly transportative.

I think I am not alone when I say that B&Bs can be terribly disconcerting for a lesbian. There's the moment at the breakfast table when your sexuality becomes clear or writ large, not to mention the typical decor, most often synonymous with Victorian antiques and frills. Several well-known gay-friendly lodgings take care to make you feel comfortable. The classy Wild Rose Inn (66 Rock City B d., 845-679-8783, thewildroseinn.com ' $175-$275), on a quiet stretch off Tinker Street, throws caution to the wind and whole-heartedly participates in the tradition of Victoriana. Brocaded upholstery adorns the loveseats, doilies rest under gold-leaf lamps, and beds are formally regaled with thick, cascading draperies. Do not enter unless you enjoy or can fetishize the level of flounce.