A summer place  

Bob Handelman

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Bob Handelman

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By the shores of Powers Lake in East Lyme, Connecticut, Yale’s Outdoor Education Center (OEC) offers 1,800 acres that are “among the most pristine in Connecticut,” says OEC director Tom Migdalski. Just 42 miles from the center of campus, “it’s like visiting a secluded lake in Vermont, Maine, or New Hampshire with no houses around—just wilderness.” The site, once used by Yale’s civil engineering program, was transformed into a recreational facility by its first director (and father of the current director), Edward C. Migdalski, in the mid-1960s. Available to local residents and Yale community members during the summer (for a fee): everything from kayaks, standup paddleboards, canoes, and rowboats to picnic groves, charcoal grills, and outdoor lawn games. And crowds aren’t an issue. Migdalski says the OEC has never reached “closing capacity,” even on busy weekends. “There’s always parking and picnic tables available.”