You don’t have to travel far to see a Ming-era garden. This oasis is on Staten Island. Emir Ibrahimof for The New York Times

Can you believe it’s the last week of Summer? This week, we’re hitting a spot that’s majestic in August but also open for return trips throughout the year.

Before we leave you, let’s recall all the season’s adventures: We’ve been to baseball games, upstate museums and outdoor plays. We’ve discoed on wheels and jazzed late into the night. We’ve reveled in green at Wave Hill, Green-Wood Cemetery and Queens Farm; explored an island; learned to surf and sail; camped; biked; and ridden horses on the beach. And we’ve eaten well all the while and mapped each of our locations for your future reference.

Now we want to hear from you about what we missed. Melody Lanes in Sunset Park? Ruby’s on Coney Island? Mister Sunday in Ridgewood? You tell us. Write in with “our omissions” — no offense taken; we’re working with limited words here! — to summer@nytimes.com, and we may include your response in a bonus issue.

Thank you so much for Summering with us.

Margot and Max

P.S. Sign up for our New York Today and Culture Calendar newsletters to keep up with New York news and discover more fun things to do in the city year-round.

The Noble Maritime Collection has, unsurprisingly, quite the collection. Emir Ibrahimof for The New York Times

The Game Plan

What to do

On the northeastern edge of Staten Island, an iron fence encloses a campus of grand columned buildings, Victorian-style cottages and classical temples. At first glance, the grounds look like a remnant of the past, but if the flourishing gardens tell you anything, this place is very much full of life.

Sailors’ Snug Harbor was a community for retired seamen from the 19th to mid-20th centuries, but after falling into disuse and disrepair, the complex was acquired by New York City in the 1970s. Now, after decades of restoration (and with much more development to come), the Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden cultivates nature and the arts on Staten Island while keeping history alive. And with 28 buildings and 14 gardens open to visitors, a visit makes for a seriously full day.

The Noble Maritime Collection is the appropriate place to start. Just inside the north entrance, a grandly restored dormitory is filled with relics of sailors’ lives at Snug Harbor: tobacco tins, photos, letters and admission documents live in glass cases, accompanied by portraits of Navy men and details about their health and how they got along with their peers. Other exhibits focus on works by the local maritime artist John A. Noble, for whom the collection is named, and the Robbins Reef Lighthouse (visible from the Staten Island Ferry), which the museum is working to restore.

Next door, the campus’s oldest building houses one of the Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art’s five small galleries. With a soaring, sky-lit ceiling, antique woodwork and stained glass, it’s a striking backdrop for minimalist, metaphoric works made of mugs and greeting cards.

Then it’s time to head outdoors. Snug Harbor’s grounds are like a botanical Epcot, with gardens inspired by various global regions. A butterfly garden captures a rainbow of comically large blooms; a beaming perennial bed guards a glass house of rare plants; and a tunnel of hornbeam trees serves as a leafy walkway (or “allée,” as it’s called) from one plot to another.

Choose the path that's flanked by tall bamboo trees. Emir Ibrahimof for The New York Times

Fortunately for your Instagram feed, this won’t be your only opportunity to stroll through a passageway of plants. Bamboo lines the path to the New York Chinese Scholar’s Garden, a Ming-style retreat fabricated in Suzhou and installed here in 1999. The placid, jasmine-scented space is outfitted with tiled nooks and pavilions for private contemplation, with carefully constructed sightlines through koi ponds and lush vegetation.

Back to the borough at hand, the Staten Island Museum was revamped and moved to Snug Harbor in 2015. Its eclectic collection tells the history of the borough largely through community contributions: 19th-century botanical specimens collected by naturalists; a hodgepodge of donated global artifacts; and artwork depicting local landscapes through the ages. Don’t miss the mastodon molar or the oil painting of Hylan Plaza (really).

This is admittedly a lot, and there’s even more, but you don’t have to pack it all into one day. Snug Harbor offers rich programming year-round, including "after dark" events at Newhouse, Performing Arts Salon Saturdays and fall foliage walks. So, go ahead. Carry a little Summer with you throughout the year.

Pro tip: Snug Harbor’s main campus is free to visit, but the Staten Island Museum, a partner organization that’s managed separately, charges $8 for adults; the Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art and New York Chinese Scholar’s Garden each charge $5 for adults; and the Noble Collection, another independent organization, accepts admission donations.

Get directions to Snug Harbor.

Let's taco 'bout this ... Emir Ibrahimof for The New York Times

Where to eat

Taqueria El Gallo Azteca on Victory Boulevard isn’t exactly on your way to Snug Harbor, but good options closer by are rare, and this no-frills taco spot doesn’t disappoint. The hard sear on its juicy chorizo and carne asada tacos translates to a deep, satisfying caramelized meatiness. Flaky, generously filled quesadillas are also a strong move.

SI Fish & More nearby is the soul food spot to ready your body for fall. Fried fish and shrimp sport crackly breading and fresh-tasting interiors, and to your great joy you’ll find you can get both with a dish of grits. Or opt for the renowned oxtail stew, luxuriant mac and cheese, and well seasoned greens. Just be sure to take note of its hours; SI Fish & More is closed on Sundays.

See the restaurants on our Google Map.

How many glasses are in a pitcher again? Quick, somebody do the math. Emir Ibrahimof for The New York Times

Where to drink

Beso is a tapas bar right by the ferry terminal and a handy place to idle while waiting for your boat to dock. Keep it simple here with red sangria, loaded up with enough tequila, brandy and liqueur to turn your sea legs to jelly. Then settle in for some prime people-watching. Very Staten Island. Very fun.

Steiny’s, also by the ferry terminal, doesn’t have the dive-bar patina of the century-old Liedy’s near Snug Harbor, but it’s still a fine neighborhood joint with chatty bartenders who pull a good pint. If you’re peckish, go for the dishes with gobs of gooey melted cheese, such as the Alpine burger or — believe — some French onion soup.

See the bars on our Google Map.

3 Quick Things

Something free or cheap

Get on the water with the Inwood Canoe Club, no experience necessary. During its free Sunday Open Houses, the public is welcome for 20-minute guided canoe and kayak paddles, community cleanups and riverside fun. The only restriction: You must be able to swim. Spots are limited, so aim for the morning, this Sunday morning; it’s the last Open House of the season.

Something for the weeknight

Rooftop Reds is a gift of a roof bar, where hammocks perched between potted grapevines offer supine views of Downtown Brooklyn. And while a “wine-and-recline” already feels like an indulgent weeknight activity, the venue turns up the fun on Wednesdays with tastings and tours of its vineyard planted atop the Brooklyn Navy Yard. For $25, you’ll take a 30-minute walk around the plot, learn about rooftop terroir (in short, it’s what you make it), and enjoy four wine and cheese pairings. Rooftop Reds’ tastings and tours run through October, but some Wednesdays are already sold out, so buy your tickets soon.

Something from a reader

Go on a four-hour whale watching and dolphin adventure cruise from Riis Landing, in Queens, with American Princess Cruises and Gotham Whale. About four or five cruises are held each week, and tickets for adults cost $52. Patrick S., a Summer reader from the Upper West Side, writes that he saw “at least two different humpback whales and a pod of dolphins” this past weekend. If you, like Patrick, will be journeying from uptown, he recommends bookending your aquatic adventure — and breaking up your travel time — with brunch at Rucola in Boerum Hill, dinner at Il Brigante, and dessert at Van Leeuwen at South Street Seaport.

Happening This Week (and Beyond)

Tonight: Celebrate the Jazzmobile’s birthday at Grant’s Tomb in Riverside Park with King Solomon Hicks and other jazzy guests.

Thursday: Catch the last of the free yoga classes at Bryant Park. (There will be capoeira, too!)

Thursday: Read others’ or share your own anonymous stories at The Strangers Project reception at the Fountain House Gallery.

Thursday: Get your laughs in at Emily Duke’s Canal Yards Project comedy show in Industry City.

Saturday: Hop on a Citi Bike, and join a free community bike ride around Brooklyn.

Sunday: Take out a free kayak or canoe from Hallets Cove at Socrates Sculpture Park.

Tuesday: Hit the rotunda at Columbia University’s Low Memorial Library for a free screening of “Olivia,” a 1951 film about jealousy in a French finishing school, directed by Jacqueline Audry.

Through Sept. 8: See a live version of Disney’s “Hercules” for free, outdoors at the Delacorte Theater. Soundtrack included, that’s “The Gospel Truth.”

Sept. 13: What does it mean to be an 18-year-old girl across oceans and cultures? Find out at the The New York Times’s #ThisIs18 talk and exhibition at Photoville.

Through mid-November: Keep your eyes peeled for “from sun to sun,” pop-up photo installations in N.Y.C. bus shelters by a local photographer, Elle Pérez.