Selden, NY Indoor Activities

Inside the Douglaston School of Music and Art, certified yoga instructor, Daniela Crocchiola, uses her years of experience and extensive training to guide students through hot vinyasa yoga and ballet bar classes. Brought to her mother's yoga classes as a young cobra, Crocchiola learned the benefits of regular stretch sessions at an early age and credits the practice for helping her grow physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. While working in Manhattan in fashion and cosmetic marketing, Crocchiola studied a variety of yoga styles, such as Bikram, ashtanga, and kundalini, and obtained 200 hour yoga teaching certifications recognized by the Yoga Alliance and by loyal downward facing dogs everywhere. In addition to being a certified yoga instructor, Crocchiola's skills equip her to lead Pilates and ballet bar workouts.

The Pilates Loft's owner, Beth Elkins, is not only a Core Dynamics–certified instructor, but also the creator of her own version of Pilates dubbed the Elkins Method Pilates technique. Between the exposed brick walls of her boutique studio, Beth and her two instructors teach her core-strengthening method to students of all levels during mat and tower equipment classes. By keeping each class in a private, two-person, or small group format, instructors can give one-on-one attention to each student to ensure every stomach curl, leg lift, and arm detachment exercise is performed safely.

The instructors at Yoga Souls progressively put guests in touch with their individual limits, guiding them through Vinyasa and hot yoga classes that accommodate all experience levels. As they help students hone flexibility, their supportive attitudes encourage personal development and help guests avoid getting into yoga mat slap-fights.

Maggie Salomon’s lifelong passion for dance came crashing to a premature halt after a severe car accident. Her years as a professional dancer seemed all but lost before she discovered the restorative power of hot yoga. The gentle movements, coupled with the loosening heat, helped Salomon rebuild her strength and range of motion until she was fit enough to dance again and continue her wide range of physical hobbies. After this experience, she decided to become a yoga instructor and share this beneficial practice with others.

Today, Salomon teaches groups of yogis how to unfurl knotted tendons during 60- to 90-minute yoga classes within her heated studio. She also whips bodies into shape with nonyoga offerings, including Pilates, tai chi, Zumba dance fitness, and belly dance.

After the birth of his third son, Jerry Petrini opened his own family fun center. Within 20 years, the space expanded into what My Three Sons Family Fun Center is today: a 22,000-square-foot family entertainment center that now employs his three sons and daughter. There, local youngsters descend from the two-level soft-play gym for a ride on the real working train below, fire 16 pedestal-mounted air cannons at targets in the black-lit balladium arena, and pursue opponents through the laser-tag arena flooded with fog imported from London. The mining expedition's thousands of balls in a wall-length trough conceal bounty that grants guests entry into the cave treasure room, where kids open chests growing on trees to obtain the redemption tickets inside. More than 100 games and video simulators dispense additional tickets for prizes, and the center's in-house pizzeria revitalizes visitors with slices of its old family recipe made from scratch.

At Movie World Cinemas, a recently added café draws in early arrivers with sandwiches and fresh cappuccinos. Patrons can linger there before heading to one of seven handsome screening chambers with projection capacity for traditional film and 3-D movies. Newly installed digital projectors show crystal-clear images while digital surround-sound speakers shake seats with the screeches of onscreen car chases and the weeping of James Bond’s dry cleaner. In the large main lobby, the digital burble of a small arcade stirs air scented heavily by sunshine-hued popcorn. The staff has spent the past few years working on a series of updates and improvements, and the movie palace regularly hosts special events and children’s parties.