Arrive Magazine - May/June, 2010

ignorant we are of American history and Grace loved running around to sit on as many cannons as she could find.

I’ve also visited most of the more traditional museums that dot the city. The National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, across the street from the track, at 191 Union Ave., is a terrific interactive museum that showcases horse racing’s vital role in British and American culture. The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery, on the Skidmore College campus, features contemporary art in a building that is itself a work of contemporary art. A personal favorite is the Saratoga Springs History Museum in the Canfield Casino in beautiful Congress Park. Small but fun, it presents 19th-century Saratoga Springs, when it was a pre-Vegas Vegas where the likes of Diamond Jim Brady, Lillian Russell and various Vanderbilts and Astors came to gamble and party like it was 1899.

Springs Flings

It’s called Saratoga Springs for a reason.
Before there was horse racing or casinos,
even before the Revolutionary War, Sara-
toga was well known for the oily, odor-
iferous mineral water that bubbles up
from the underground limestone. Native
Americans thought the spring water had
healing powers, and by the mid-19th cen-
tury people were coming from around
the globe to “take the waters.”
And although you should take a sip
from one of the many spring taps that
dot the city, just to say you did (and to
tell your friends how awful it tastes),
the best way to take the waters is with
a mineral bath at the Roosevelt Baths
& Spa in Saratoga Spa State Park. The
park’s buildings, including the bath-
house, are National Historic Landmarks;
the Roosevelt’s grand lobby, bedecked
with soaring decorative columns, tiled
floors and floor-to-ceiling windows,
speaks of another time. In your private
bathroom, an attendant draws your
97-degree, naturally carbonated bath
water so you can slip into the oversized
tub and forget about the money you lost
at the track. Follow it with a massage or
manicure and discover why Saratoga
Springs is also called Spa City.

LOWER EXPENSES, NOT EXPECTATIONS.

Complement your next business trip to New York with a stay at The Roosevelt
Hotel. Our rooms and suites provide all the amenities you need to make your stay
as productive as possible. From our flatscreen TVs and in-room wireless to our
new upgraded beds. Enjoy excellence, enjoy The Roosevelt.