I can’t tell you how tired we all were this morning. I just about got up thanks to the wake up calls I arranged every morning. It would be another busy day for all of us. It would be filled with a lot of new sites and smells as we would be visiting markets and then the desert.
Thank God a good breakfast every morning was a big help. I know I go on and on about the Breakfast buffet at the hotel but it really is that good! The Bistro at the Marriott Courtyard World Trade Center was wonderful every morning and the selection of food each day was slightly different and always fresh. The displays of breakfast items was always colorful and well maintained. Everything always looked so appealing that you wanted to try it all.
The bread and pastries at the buffet
The Bistro at the Marriott Courtyard World Trade Center Hotel
The quality of the food and the visual display of it was excellent. I liked the diversity of dishes for the entrees which included stews, spreads and rice dishes. There were even Spring Rolls at breakfast time.
The dinner entrees at the buffet
I swear I never needed lunch after eating breakfast at the Bistro. Everything every morning was delicious and so well prepared. It would be hard not to find something you liked on this buffet.
The best way to start the day.
We always had such nice conversations during breakfast. They were basically a wrap up of the day before and what the plans were for that morning. After breakfast was over, we boarded the bus to Nimesh’s greeting. I have no clue where he got his energy from since he ran around with us. We all fell asleep on the bus as we made our way back for the two hour trip to Dubai to meet with the Dubai Tourism office.
Visiting the Dubai Tourism office was one of the best experiences I have experienced in the three Global Field Intensity classes I have taken. Their Tourism Board is one of the most creative, forward thinking and resourceful Teams I have seen. It was so detailed down to the hotels and entertainments being planned for the city. It was so well organized and detailed.
Their ideas of how to generate excitement, know how to engage tourists and creative ideas in events has garnered a reputation all over the world. The PowerPoint presentation was so detailed and inventive I could see the reason why Dubai has an advantage over Abu Dhabi. It was in the way they saw their city and how both history and the future both play a role in welcoming visitors.
What impressed me the most was how they answered the questions about over- tourism, sustainability and pollution. How can you do all this building in the desert when you need food, water and energy to run all these things and you don’t have the local resources such as farms and water to supply them? This when money and creativity take hold.
Us in our meeting in the Dubai Tourism Office engaged in the presentation.
It was a very nice experience at the tourism office, and we learned a lot about why Dubai is such a success in tourism. This is why their growth is so good year after year. The understand what their visitors are looking for and what is important to them. This is especially true for the tourists from the colder climates in Europe who flock here for the beaches and shopping.
Our group picture with members of the Dubai Tourism office.
After our visit to the tourism office, we were supposed to visit the Spice and Gold Souks and tour the Old City of Dubai. The problem was that we were all starved and asked if we could have lunch early (eating breakfast at 6:30am does have its disadvantages).
So off we went to the restaurant at noontime for an early lunch. What an amazing experience that was for a meal. We arrived at the Al Bain Al Qadeem Restaurant and Cafe Al Ras Al Ras Road by noontime and the restaurant was really quiet at that time.
Al Bain Al Qadeem Restaurant & Cafe in Dubai
It was an interesting dining experience from the beginning. We all sat down as a group on the carpet with pillows all around us and we served course by course. It was a very relaxing and casual way to eat our lunch. I liked the informality of it all.
Lunch was really amazing feast. The dishes came out family style and we ate course by course starting with hummus with homemade warm pita bread and a salad with a light dressing. Then came out the fresh salads and more bread. Our side of the table managed to eat everything including the salads left over by the other side of the table.
Starting our wonderful meal.
We then moved onto the main meal of grilled beef, lamb and chicken with two types of rice, plain and saffron and a side of grilled vegetables.
The wonderful entree for lunch.
The food was excellent and so well spiced. I really enjoyed the lunch.
The flavorful rice sides.
After we finished our lunch, we had a long conversation with an Arabic culturalist, who talked with us on the stereotypes and cultural differences between Americans and their thoughts of people from the Middle East. He had a lot to say about what he learned about Americans when he lived in the States.
We are so trained by Hollywood and the movies about what the Middle East is like and the people that live there that we really do come in with preconceived ideas. This is why the talk was so interesting.
Eating our lunch.
It was an interesting conversation.
The owner of the restaurant talking about cultural in the Middle East.
After lunch was over, we started our tour of Old Dubai of the Al Sabkha neighborhood. We started at the original wall that surrounded the city and then walked around the historical parts of Old Dubai. This is the part of the tour that was so intriguing about the City. You got to see the heart of the City and its foundations. This was its heritage and what makes it so special.
The original wall of the city.
The history of the Wall of Old Dubai
The sign of the original wall.
The map of the Al Fabio Historical neighborhood with the original wall of Old Dubai.
The map of the historical section of Old Dubai.
This is when the class split up for the afternoon. Some of us wanted to visit the museum and the others wanted to shop at the Souqs.
Our tour of the Old City of Dubai.
Walking through the streets of Old Dubai is a step back in time to the 1960’s and 70’s before the discovery of oil changed the city of Dubai. While the rest of the group went to visit the Souqs to go shopping, a small group of us wanted to visit the museum so we split up into two groups at the entrance of the Gold Souq. The ladies went shopping and the guys headed to the museum.
The entrance to the Gold Souk.
We would visit the Gold Souq when we returned from the museum. We wanted to have enough time to visit the museum, so we made our way to the next water taxi.
Heading to the water taxi.
Getting on board the next water taxi. The trip to the other side did not take that long.
Looking at the City and at another taxi.
The views of the city were amazing as we crossed the river.
Video of the water taxi ride across the Dubai River:
We crossed the river again and got to the Al Shindagha Museum for our tour. Our guide was a little surprised to see so few people. We had to explain that there was a change in plans but these were the students. Who were interested. The water taxi ride was a lot of fun and you really got to see a lot of the City from here. You could see the contrast from old to new Dubai.
The Al Shindagha Museum in Old Dubai
The museum was small but had interesting artifacts and art work from the Old City of Dhabi.
Artifacts from the old city
The diagram from the old city.
Diagram of the Old Dubai
We were able to tour the museum for about a half hour, admiring the exhibitions and seeing the displays. We got to see the second half of the orientation film before. We had to leave. It was a quick tour but you do not need more than an hour to see the whole museum.
We than headed back to the river to take the water taxi back to the other side of the city where. The Souks were located. Talk about getting great views of the city on top of a wonderful breeze.
Brazil, Yamato and myself at the end with our tour guide, Nimesh on the water taxi.
I was able to take about a five minute tour of the front of the Souk before we had to leave for our desert tour. We were now running a bit late and people were still shopping. The Souks were rather long and there was a lot to see.
The entrance to Old Baladiya Street from the water taxi.
I got to see some of the spice vendors and then realized that I would have to drag more stuff on the plane and I was not sure if Customs would know that these were spices. It was just easier to buy the spices at home.
I tried to see as much of the Souk as I could see in ten minutes.
The spices of the Souk in Dubai.
We did not have the time we all wanted as we had to leave to get to our next experience, the Desert Dinner Tour and Star Gazing later that evening. What a great time we had that night!
Us joining the group at sunset watching the falcon demonstration and enjoying some juices.
Me rediscovering my Arabic roots when holding the falcon at the end of the demonstration.
We got to the camp site where we would be eating dinner. The first thing we did before we sat down to eat was take a camel ride around the site. I had a camel ride when I was visiting Egypt so I was used to this. I could not wait to get back on the camel. I have to say that he was very friendly and you could tell was used to humans riding him.
My classmate Rizal on the camel
My classmate Yarneth on the camel
Our NYU class shot with all the camels. They were really cooperative.
After our Falcon demonstration and the camel rides, it was time for dinner. I was starved again and dinner would be a mixture of soups, salads and grilled meats. The one thing about these tours they feed you really well and the quality of the food is excellent. We started off with a bean soup to start the meal.
The thick bean soup was filling to start the meal
We then moved onto breads, salads and then more grilled meats. We ate a lot of kebabs on this trip which I love.
For some reason and I never knew why, we went out in the desert to look for animals instead of just relaxing and finishing our dinner. We never got to have dessert that evening as we went into the dunes in search of animals. I have to say we had an ambitious jeep. We found all sorts of deer, lizards and other things that live in the desert. It was an fascinating trip into the desert at night.
Us searching the desert for things that creeped and crawled around dunes.
We found a colorful little gecko lizard in the desert. How my classmate found him I do not know. He just glowed in the dark.
We got back from the desert ride late so we went immediately into the star gazing part of our tour. We looked up at the clear sky and the tour guide explained all the constellations to us and what was currently in the winter sky. Frankly I was so tired at this point that I started to fall asleep. Later I found out that we missed the dessert the chef prepared for us. We were bummed by that. We had really toured late in the evening and everyone was exhausted when we were taking the jeeps back to the bus. We all fell asleep on the bus back to Abu Dhabi which was about two hours long back to the hotel. We did not arrive back until about 2:00am. Then we had be back on the bus again first things in the morning.
It was another great day in Dubai and I have to say that I learned a lot about the city and about myself.
It was an early morning for us on the way to a day of touring, site visits and meetings. After the tire blowing the night before and us getting back late, we were all a little worn out when we got to breakfast.
Marriott opened the restaurant early for us and that was very nice of them. The food is excellent and they do a nice job with the buffet. I had just discovered that you could order an omelet and that was a nice alternative to the runny scrambled eggs that the Europeans love so much.
The Marriott restaurant
The breakfast buffet at the Bistro at the Marriott Courtyard World Trade Center.
The Omelet was cooked to order each morning and it was delicious.
On our way to our first stop we took a quick bathroom break and the rest stop was so amazing. It had a food truck theme and a look of Route 66 theme. Very American and very clever. I wish our rest stops could look like this. I wish our rest stops in New Jersey in the States along the NJ Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway were like this.
The bathroom
The Rest Stop on the way to Dubai.
The Food Trucks at the stop. Interesting concept.
Our first stop when we got to Dubai was the Dubai Mall and a tour of the world’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa and the observatory on the 124th and the 125th floors. Talk about a view! It was impressive just from the ground.
Dubai Mall and Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building.
While the Burj Khalifa does not have the same views as its New York or Chicago counterparts it was no less impressive. You could see old Dubai rising from across the highway from new Dubai and the difference in the progress of the city and its extremes. You can see where the city will be developed in what is now desert. The next ten years will bring a lot of changes to the area.
On our way up to the Skydeck from the mall.
You entered the building from the Dubai Mall, which is an impressive upscale mall that seems to go on for miles. Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill architects, this mixed-used development atop Dubai Mall is inspired by the Great Mosque of Samarra in Iraq. This record-breaking skyscraper in downtown Dubai is the tallest structure in the world. Burj Khalifa has several open-air viewing decks and swanky lounges which offer splendid views of the UAE and the Persian Gulf (TripAdvisor.com).
I then started to take pictures of the people on the 124th floor. I swear that humans look awfully small in this picture. This picture of me was taken on the 125th floor of the building. All my fireman instincts came into play and I was always looking for the exits.
The people on the 124th floor.
Our NYU group shot on the 125th Floor.
Just in case you were wondering about the world’s tallest building.
After the tour was over, our Professor treated us to some of the most delicious baklava from one of the oldest bakeries in the business. The Hafiz Mustafa Bakery is located at 1864 Dubai Mall and the beauty of the store matches display of their baked products. Like small jewels in the cases. They were excellent.
Our Professor treating us to this delicious baklava.
It was wonderful. Rich and sweet from the honey, but not overly sweet like in the States.
The baklava chosen
I love baklava when it is made right. It was sweet and flaky and not overly drowned in honey like its American counterparts are when I have eaten it. This was excellent quality and was delicious.
Yum!
I loved the few pieces I got to sample. I did not know if we had this in the States.
The logo of the Mustafa company.
We did have some time to walk through the mall which was very impressive. Still, I felt that I was walking through another version of the Garden State Plaza in Paramus, NJ. I did like that there was a branch of “Bloomies” here. I just wondered how a New York department store like this translates in a foreign country.
Our next stop was the ‘Museum of the Future’, which is a new museum in the city. It was impressive from the outside with its unusual architecture. The unfortunate part was it was like visiting a version of Epcot at Disney World in Florida. Its outside design looked very futuristic but as a museum I was disappointed. There was not much to it.
The outside sculpture on top of the Museum of the Future.
The Museum builds on the visionary culture that has transformed the UAE into one of the world’s most advanced nations in less than 50 years. We are a showcase for the spirit of courage, optimism and innovation that propels Dubai forward. Like our home city, the Museum is a place of tolerance, inviting varied cultural, philosophical, social and spiritual outlooks. Our imagined futures are rooted in the values of the UAE and the Arab world (Museum website).
The inside of the museum in the lobby.
We spent so much time in line that we did not get to see much of the museum. The lines were huge to get in and it took almost 45 minutes to get inside the museum. They need to get people in and out of the lines and into touring the museum much faster. We only had about an hour and half and waiting in line is not part of the experience. Lines at the Met in New York are never like this. They need to work on this.
While the museum would be better suited for families with small children who like interactive displays, there were a few displays that I enjoyed. To me though, this isn’t the future just some form of glorified future in someone’s mind.
The display of the future.
I participated on some of the interactive active display run by a fellow NYU student who went to college in the Abu Dhabi branch. I thought it was a little to Disneyfied for me. I really didn’t care to know what I wanted to be on the planet Mars. Would we ever get there?
Me as a “Space Ambassador” at the Museum of the Future in Dubai.
The best part that I liked about the museum outside the ‘Meditation Room’ was the restaurant on the seventh floor of the museum. It had been highly recommended by one of my classmates who was from Dubai. She said it was excellent and the best part of the museum. She was right.
Public Pizzeria at the Museum of the Future
The Public Pizzeria in the Museum of the Future was lovely and breezy to sit in. It is a very relaxing restaurant after all the craziness of the lines and crowds of the museum. Even though it was on the Seventh Floor of the museum, it was like eating in a private garden.
Most of my classmates chose to forgo the museum and had lunch. After standing in those lines and dealing with the crowds, it was not worth it to tour around. I did not blame them as the restaurant was gorgeous with the most amazing breezes, a nice garden setting and excellent wood-fired pizza.
I sat down for a moment after rushing through the museum and ordered a SweetPeppe, a pepperoni/honey pizza. Just as I started to relax after walking through crowds of families, I was told we had to leave. I ate one slice before it was boxed up and paid for with me racing to make the bus. I just enjoyed at my seat on the bus. Not the garden setting but the pizza was excellent and made it worth the trip to the museum.
The menu of Public Pizzeria at the Museum of the Future
The pizza is worth the trip. While I was indulging on the bus to our next stop making everyone jealous with the delicious smells, you could really taste the honey they swirled on the pizza. The savory taste of the pepperoni and the sweetness of the honey matched perfectly.
The Honey. pepperoni is a winner.
The pizza was a real treat on the bus ride. The taste of the honey pepperoni pizza was amazing!
After the museum visit and lunch, we had a series of meetings with the travel offices of Mastercard and Google. Mastercard is mastering the use of the Metaverse. I have to say I am not the biggest fan of the Metaverse. Those goggles are a pain, it kills your eyesight and it still needs some work in the comfort department. Mastercard explained how they are using it in their travel area for its customers. The company is creating some interesting programs with its use. After the demonstration with the goggles, we took a tour of the Mastercard Headquarters. It was very impressive.
Our group being dazzled by the advancement of the Metaverse at Mastercard Dubai
Touring the Mastercard headquarters in Dubai.
Our NYU group shot with our hosts at Mastercard in Dubai.
After our tour of the Mastercard Headquarters and our interesting talk it was then off to the Google Dubai headquarters. This was the first time I had been in a Google office. I pass the one in Chelsea all the time in Manhattan but had never been inside.
Our tour of the headquarters of Google Dubai.
We started the afternoon first with a tour of the office by one of the employees who gave us the ’embellished’ day in the life of Google employee starting with his breakfast, morning break, work out in the gym, then lunch, afternoon break, time in the relaxation pod and then starting work around 3:00pm. We have an expression for this in New York City and its “And the cow jumped over the moon.” I know how hard Google employees work and the 16 hour days some of them put in. I know he was kidding us around by the end of the tour. Still it was fun to hear what people ‘think’ is a day at Google.
We then sat in one of the lecture rooms and an alumni of NYU gave us a talk on the developments going on at Google and the advancement that the company wants to make in travel and tourism. With Google Travel, Google Reviews and Google Maps helping now I can imagine what direction that the company will want to make in the future. What they are doing now is leading the industry.
Our meeting at Google.
Our NYU group shot at Google Headquarters.
It really was an interesting office visit. It is a company I would love to work for and coming from the ‘Macy Machine’ and Hyatt, the hours would not bother me. I think working with other people who have the same ideas of innovation and creativity would make a person better at what they do and foster more engagement in the industry. There is too much stifling in corporate and there needs to be more a free flow of ideas.
Our last stop of the evening was at the Global Village, a Disneyland themed type of park that represented all the countries of the world. I have to say that it was an elaborate complex. The layout was huge and I was only able to visit a few countries and still have dinner.
Arriving at the Global Village at 38C5+F57 in Dubai that late afternoon. The view from the parking lot in the early evening.
At Global Village, their motto is ‘they celebrate diversity and creativity that makes the world so wonderful! This is why every season they invite the most incredible artists, performers, and creators from all over to join us in Dubai and share their talent with our guests all day every day’ (Global Village website).
The Global Village is huge and I mean HUGE! The complex would take about a week to really explore and enjoy it. With the countries that I visited, it was almost a glorified Epcot Center in Florida’s Disney World. They must have wanted to try to be authentic in the beginning but got caught up in the ‘Fantasied’ view of what a country should be. Almost a watered down version of someone’s life. To be honest it was not ‘authentic’.
Inside the main entrance to the Global Village at twilight.
A little bit of home.
The Main Street of the Global Village at night was impressive with its lively stores and entertainment. More impressive than Main Street USA and a bit more depth.
The complex is huge and over-whelming and you can visit multiple days. It needs some hotels inside the complex like Disney to bring a ‘real’ factor to it.
We only had about two and half hours to explore the complex and even that is not enough time to experience the whole thing. You would need a week and multiple days to explore the entire complex thoroughly. What might make this work better is that each pavilion have a consultant from that country come in and look at the shops and crafts and food options and give a more authentic viewpoint to it. What also would work is multiple hotel concepts so that people could spend more time in the Global Village and explore it without having to rush. It just too big!
I was able to visit quickly the United Arab Emirates Pavilion because I wanted to see how they portrayed their own country, then Egypt, Saudi, then China, Japan and Vietnam. I visited them so quickly I forgot what was what. The stores inside the complexes were underwhelming and poorly merchandised. It was piles of clothes and trinkets on top of each other. You could not stop to enjoy the entertainment because then you could not get to the next pavilion.
I took a breather in the Chinese Pavilion to look at the artwork and have some dinner. Have the last few nights of barbecued meats and rice dishes, I needed some Chinese food. Unfortunately the menu at Chin Chin in the Chinese Pavilion was a lot of deep fried foods with heavy sauces. The food was good but was more Chinese-American suburban mall type of food. It was still good.
Spending time in the Chinese Pavilion at the Global Village.
This is how I got to know our tour guide, Nimesh, who was eating by himself at the restaurant. I invited him to join me and we talked about our lives and careers and our hopes of what we want to do in the future. He was a terrific tour guide with a wonderful personality but I could not understand why he wasn’t doing this work in his home of Sri Lanka. With the economy and wars I could understand this plight.
Over dinner at Chin Chin, we laughed about the experiences that we had traveling and talked about where we wanted to be in the future. It is amazing how you can open up to a complete stranger who is going through the same transitional experience in life that you are having.
Dinner was more deep fried foods. People out here really love the deep fried stuff and it can be a bit overdone especially since this stuff is so good to eat and so bad for you at the same time. Still every once in a while you have to treat yourself and we did at Chin Chin, the signature restaurant in the Chinese Pavilion.
Chin Chin at the Chinese Pavilion at the Global Village.
The Fried Shredded Beef at Chin Chin for an appetizer could have been the whole meal.
The Chicken in a Sweet and Tangy sauce with Fried Rice made up for the fried stuff.
After a nice dinner and great conversation, Nimesh had to head back to the bus to await everyone returning in about an hour and I quickly finished my tour of the Asian Pavilions as I made my way back to the entrance but not before I saw the Light Show by the main fountain in the middle of the complex. Now that was impressive.
I made my way back to the bus just in time but everyone else had not made it back yet so I got to relax with some peace and quiet. Everyone was asleep on the way back to the hotel. We were all exhausted by this long but productive day in Dubai. I have to say that I am very impressed with how the City of Dubai has developed and it would be fun to explore the old part of it in the coming day. It had been a long day of driving and touring.
I just fell fast asleep and never heard my roommate until the wakeup call woke us up the next morning.
My journeys with NYU did not end with Paris and Prague as I started the last of my electives for New York University and prepare for graduation in May. It has gone by fast. That is because I have taken nine credits in three weeks between the three trips. My Professor for the Prague class was starting to work on this trip when we were still in Prague so he had been talking about it for awhile and it peaked my interest.
I had not been to this part of the world since my trip to Egypt back in 1993. I had an interest in going back to the Middle East and felt this was the perfect opportunity to visit a much developed and fastly growing part of the world. Even with a four hour layover in Cairo, Egypt on the way there, I could see that Cairo has changed tremendously in thirty years.
Spending two days traveling from Newark to Cairo and then from Cairo to Abu Dhabi was a lot on me. It was a three hour layover in Cairo with not that many good restaurants to choose from at the airport. That and dealing with jet lag was not fun. I got into Abu Dhabi with no problems. It was only a ten minute cab ride to the downtown area where the hotel was located. There was no room at the dorms for us so we stayed at the Marriott Courtyard World Trade Center. It was a nice hotel in the middle of everything in the City.
The Marriott Courtyard in Aby Dhabi at Hamdan Bin Mohammed Street – 5th St – Abu Dhabi.
We had time to settle in and relax at the hotel. I unpacked, took a long hot shower and then fell asleep for three and a half hours. I felt so much more refreshed after that nap. I really needed it. Then the fun began. I got the phone call.
I had to switch rooms because the hotel put me in a room with no roommate(we had to share rooms in Abu Dhabi), so I had to pack and move. My roommate and I kidded about this. Then I needed more time to relax. While he went off with some of our classmates, I just wanted to stay in and explore the hotel.
Instead of running around my first evening, I went for a swim and dinner up by the pool. That was the perfect way to relax. The pool on the 12th Floor of the Marriott had the most amazing views of the City and it was nice to take a swim, have some dinner and just rest. Doing nothing is highly underrated. After a trip half way around the world, it is the best thing to do.
The views from the pool were amazing.
What I liked about the pool is that they had a really nice bar and restaurant right next to the pool called Up & Below and I ordered dinner. I just had some sliders and fries for dinner and I have to say that I was craving a good burger that night. The food at the pool bar was excellent as was the service. It was nice to relax, have dinner and enjoy the view.
The Beef sliders and fries with a Pepsi for dinner Up & Below
All I know is that when I hit the pillow, I went out like a light. I did not even hear my roommate leave the room to change rooms. I slept for six hours straight in a deep sleep and woke up while it was still dark out. That’s jet lag for you. You get out of it and you do not know where you are. it took me a moment to gather my thoughts and realize I was in Abu Dhabi. I went back to bed when the Wake Up call came in and got ready for our first day of touring the city.
I was very refreshed but still worn out the next morning. The breakfast buffet made up for being worn out and it was a great way to start the morning tour. Talk about selections!
The breakfast buffet at the Courtyard hotel.
The food at Bistro by Marriott was really good! This was the hot line of entrees.
I was really hungry that morning and the Bistro, the restaurant on the second floor of the Marriott is where our group would be eating for the next six days more than made up for being so tired after a long trip. A good breakfast always wakes me up and gets me ready for the day. Especially with all the choices for breakfast on this buffet.
The meats and Spring rolls
The buffet breakfast sausages, bacon and Spring Rolls.
The baked goods
The buffet baked goods and pastries.
The juices
The buffet fresh juice selection.
The restaurant
The seating in the restaurant that looked over the World Trade Center driveway.
There was so much to choose from and everything was delicious. After a wonderful breakfast, it was off for our first day of touring for our tourism class.
Our first stop on the tour of Abu Dhabi was the NYU campus located in the city. What a beautiful campus. It is modern and open air, nothing like the New York campus. It is so breezy and nice to walk around with the futuristic buildings and colorful gardens. We talked with members of the staff and faculty there and then got a great tour of campus. The weather was so nice to walk around as it was not quite 80 degrees that morning.
The entrance of the NYU campus.
The tour of campus and the views from the main building.
The tour of campus and the views of the ocean from the main building.
After a welcome and refreshments in the meeting room, the members of the NYU Abu Dhabi campus took us on a tour of the campus and what a tour it was! The buildings are all so new and state of the art. Touring all the arts buildings and libraries were so different from New York City. It made me want to come here for a semester.
The library
The tour of campus in the Library.
The Theater
The tour of campus in the new Performing Arts Theater.
Our class looking over the campus complex.
The tour of campus with a diagram of campus.
Our group shot in the courtyard of the NYU campus.
After our hour tour on campus and meeting our counterparts, we took our group shot by the college’s sign in the courtyard. I still could not believe that I was in Abu Dhabi. I never thought I would ever come here. What made it even better is that we heard that the major snow storm that we all missed was blanketing the New York/New Jersey area. Talk about the expression ‘dogging the storm’. We then we left on our tour of historical sites in the city. We toured several historic palaces that showcased the city’s past against the backdrop of the glittering new city.
Our first stop was the Qasr Hosn Palace. It is one of the oldest city structures in Abu Dhabi and shows the contrast between the old city and the new. The beauty of the structure is the location in the business district of Abu Dhabi and the backdrop of the the progress that the City has made.
The Qasr Hosn Palace at Sheikh Rashid Bin Saeed Al Maktoum St(2nd St) – Al Hisn – W3
The tour was interesting as we walked down the hallways and through the corridors of the palace.
The old and the new in Abu Dhabi.
The palace courtyard with the new business district in the background.
This is Abu Dhabi’s oldest structure in the city and you really do see a contrast of the old and the new. Qasr Al Hosn was built in the 1790’s and was once home to the ruling family of the country. The building also housed the National Consultative Council, founded by the late Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the of the UAE. It was renovated and turned into a museum in 2018.
Inside of the courtyard of the palace.
The elegance of the architecture of the past.
The Courtyard of the palace.
Our class group shot when we finished our tour.
After our tour of the palace, we went back to the World Trade Center Mall and toured the mall and had lunch. The complex was really busy that afternoon as all the office workers and expats were on their lunch break too.
The amazing thing about mall food courts all over the world I have noticed is the nothing changes. They are overloaded with fast food restaurants and junk food. I needed my McDonalds fix and was lucky there was a large one located in the middle of the food court. I swear I felt like I was right back in Paramus, NJ.
The one thing I did like about this McDonalds was the regional specials that they featured. I had the McArabia chicken sandwich meal for lunch, which was two chicken patties, lettuce, tomatoes, onions and a white sauce tucked in a flavored pita. I thought that this sandwich would work in the US. It was delicious.
The McArabia Chicken sandwich.
Talk about cross cultural at a McDonalds.
It always boggles my mind how McDonalds translates all over the world. I ate with our tour guide, Nimesh, who I would to know over several meals on the trip. He would give me good insights about the places we would visit for the rest of the trip.
After lunch and our tour of the World Trade Center was over, then it was off to our next historical site, the palace Qasr Al Watan. This is a working palace and I have to say one of the most beautiful and detailed buildings that I have ever seen. The palace was magnificent.
Qasr Al Watan Palace
If you ever have a dream of what a palace is, Qasr Al Watan is it.
Entering this Palace is breathtaking and I was impressed by the detailing to the building. There was no details left out and every part of the inside of this building was designed so tastefully. It was more than impressed. I was blown away by its beauty.
The entrance to the palace.
The center of the palace in all of its glory.
With a diameter of 37 meters and soaring to 60 meters, the central dome of The Great Hall is one of Abu Dhabi’s most imposing sights. he Great Hall incorporates Qasr Al Watan’s three signature colors: Blue, white and yellow. The blue represents the waters of the Arabian Gulf, the white stands for purity, while the yellow is inspired by the color of the desert sands. Together, they give the space a distinctive appearance that is filled with deep significance. (Palace website 2024)
The center of the palace in its glory.
The elegant and beautiful chandelier.
Geometric shapes play a prominent role in the architecture of The Great Hall at Qasr Al Watan. Mirrored cubes, curved glass panels, Arabesque patterns and symmetric marble panels all add up to create a visual feast that is both intricate and harmonious. You can even step into a cube and look out into the big, timeless space of the hall for a unique perspective. From the Palace’s Great Hall visitors can wander into any of the other zones to view and learn more about the Nation’s past, present and future (Palace website 2024).
The escalators in the back of the palace.
The Banquet Room
As we toured the first floor of the palace, the band came out and played for all the visitors.
The Royal Band playing “The Marines Hymn” in the main court followed by “Thriller”. I thought that was very clever.
As the band left, we walked past one of the golden sculptures, “The Power of Words”, of the palace that my Professor claimed was made of solid gold. I would have imagined more guards around this but so many people were taking their picture by it I asked one of the guards about it. He laughed and said that is was gold leafed but not solid gold. Hence two guards by it.
“The Power of Words” Sculpture
Designed and crafted by the renowned Emirati artist, Mattar Bin Lahej, the Power of Words installations represent part of the legacy laid down by the UAE’s late founding father. Each sculpture features an interlaced inscription from an Arabic quote attributed to the late Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan (Gulf Today 2024).
Mr. Bin Lahej is an artist from is an Emirati painter, photographer and sculptor from Dubai. He founded Marsam Mattar, the first art gallery in the United Arab Emirates to be managed by an artist (Wiki).
The original Power of Words sculpture located inside the Palace features the following quote: “Wealth is not money or oil; wealth lies in people and it is worthless if not dedicated to serving the people.” (Gulf Today 2024).
The palace was extremely beautiful and tastefully decorated. The last thing we visited was the Presidential Room filled with gifts from other nations. Some of these items were impressive works of art that caught my attention.
The horse sculpture
The sign for the horse sculpture in the Gift Room.
After the afternoon band entertainment and tour of the palace it was on to the next part of the tour. Not before our group shot in front of this magnificent palace.
Our group shot of NYU students in front of the palace when we left.
The view outside the palace.
We were all exhausted after a long day of touring but next we were off to the AJC (American Jewish Committee) of Abu Dhabi: The Sidney Lerner Center for Arab-Jewish Understanding at the Al Khatem Tower. Our group was going to talk with the program director on current Arab-Jewish relations and how the group is fostering an understanding of these relations. With what was going on in the region with the War, I thought this was a really good step in trying to build a relationship. It is nice to see this happening.
Our group shot at the AJC Office in Abu Dhabi with our hosts and Professor.
We all got back to the hotel in the early evening and everyone was exhausted. Most of us were still dealing with jet lag and some people were hungry and left to get something to eat before they went to bed. We had another long day of touring in front of us early and it would be another long day on the bus.
While my roommate went off with everyone else in search of dinner, I went back to the room for a quick nap. Then it was off to look for a snack. This is what I love about cities and the nooks and crannies they have to explore. Right around the corner from the hotel was a small Philippine bakery, Manila Pinoy Bakery, that sold all sorts of sweet and savory snacks.
This little hole in the wall catered to the workers of the local hotels and the people who worked in the mall. I was the only tourist in the place and the only one that walked in that night. I could tell be the looks that I was getting.
The food is fantastic. I had a Chicken Bun filled with chopped chicken breast cooked with soy sauce, a baked Chicken Roll and a Lumpia that will filled with fresh bananas that had been rolled in cinnamon and then the outside wrapper was covered with honey. God, I enjoyed the meal and it was so cheap. I think it was about ten AED and I could live with that. I ate it in the restaurant and I could see the owner of the shop liked the fact that I enjoyed my meal so much.
It was nice too that I could walk back to my room in about five minutes which is what I did. I swear I was not in the room for more than twenty minutes before I went out like a light. My roommate was so funny in that he said you could not wake me up for anything.
I slept sounding waiting for the next adventure the next day.
Places to Stay:
Courtyard by Marriott World Trade Center, Abu Dhabi
I did not know how I pulled it off but I did. Teaching three classes while taking three classes and serving on four Executive Boards plus all my volunteer work. I never sat still from Thanksgiving to New Year’s and I am still at it.
Christmas never starts in December for me. It starts just after Halloween ends. One holiday just seems to blend into another as the holiday season has moved from Thanksgiving weekend to Halloween weekend to start the holiday season. I swear, we sit at the Halloween Parade talking about Sinterklaas four weeks later and then there is it is. Literally four weeks later.
My Christmas started on Thanksgiving Weekend. I joined my family for the Thanksgiving Buffet Dinner at the Lambertville Inn again this year. I almost did not go as I had a major paper in my Digital Marketing class at NYU plus another paper due in my Hotel Sales & Marketing class. That on top of the fact that I was so busy working at Bergen Community College that I would have never had a good time knowing there was so much work to do. A couple of very late nights later, there I was at the brunch again with my family.
The Thanksgiving Brunch at the Lambertville Inn dining room.
The marvelous selection at the Lambertville Inn for Thanksgiving.
Enjoying the Pasta Bar at the Lambertville Inn.
There was such a great selection of entrees, soups, salads, sides and desserts it took some time to just take a taste of everything. On top of a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, you could have roasted chicken, ham and Prime Rib plus a complete Pasta and Salad Bars.
Enjoying my Thanksgiving Dinner with my family.
For dessert, they had an Ice Cream Bar and fresh miniature pastries to choose from.
The Dessert and Ice Cream bar at the buffet.
It was really nice and we had a wonderful time. The food and the service are excellent and no one has to clean up. That is the best part with everyone running around working so much. I felt like I did not have time to breath let alone to take time out for myself. I actually felt guilty if I was not working on a paper for school or grading something. I am glad that my family convinced me to come out and enjoy myself.
The weekend didn’t end with Thanksgiving Dinner. The next day was Christmas Tree drop off for the Men’s Association as the Annual Christmas tree sale started on Friday morning. We got a text at 7:30am that the driver had just pulled up and needed everyone to show up early. Most of the guys did not show until around 8:45am-9:00am when we were originally were supposed to arrive. Still, we got the truck emptied in 45 minutes and sold our tree of the day at 9:30am. That is a new record for us. We also sold our first tree at 9:30am which was a record for us. We sold three trees by 12:00pm which we never do (We sold out in three weeks and two days).
Christmas tree drop off for the Hasbrouck Heights Men’s Association took about 45 minutes this year due to all the high school volunteers that we had that morning.
I had stayed that morning and afternoon until 3:00pm when I had to go home to work on both my Digital Marketing and my Customer Service papers for class at NYU. Before I left, we sold 37 trees and three stands. Not bad for the first day of sales and was the sale would be for the next two weeks. I have never seen trees fly off a lot so fast. We were not just getting customers from Hasbrouck Heights, we were getting them from the surrounding towns of Lodi, Hackensack and Wood Ridge but they were coming as far away as Wyckoff, Franklin Lakes and even from Hoboken and Brooklyn. Talk about word of mouth.
That evening I attended the annual Holiday Parade in Downtown Hasbrouck Heights and it was well attended but I still thought it would have had more people. The bands were a bit off key but it is still a fun parade. It got really cold later that evening. The temperature must have dropped twenty degrees from the time that the trees were dropped off to the start of the parade. Still it was a nice way to start the holidays.
The Hasbrouck High School Marching Band opened the parade downtown.
The floats in the parade.
The Santa Float was at the end of the parade.
The Tree Lighting ceremony ends the parade every year. It was really cold that night.
The week in between Thanksgiving and the first week of December was tough for me as I had three papers to work on and it was the week before my students at Bergen Community College presented their final projects to me. It was stressful as we had the last of our Board Meetings to discuss the final touches to the projects.
Then came Sinterklaas weekend and the Bergen County Firemen’s Home Association Christmas weekend where I had already committed months earlier to help volunteer for both events. Talk about being stretched thin that weekend. The year before I was bringing my computer up for my Business Analysis class on my Rockaways History in Tourism project and this year it was Digital Marketing project on New York City Tourism+Conventions and Customer Relationship Management on Luna Park (which I had to write the paper all by myself and contribute to the PowerPoint). Trust me, it was a weekend of long days and nights.
That weekend started at the Kingston, NY Snowflake Festival, followed by the Sinterklaas festival and parade the next day and then the Bergen County Firemen’s Home Christmas Party after that. I never stopped running around.
It was a rather gloomy Friday and before I headed up to the Hudson River Valley for the Snowflake Festival and Sinterklaas (and everything else), I stopped by the Ringwood Manor to tour the house and see all the Christmas decorations and visit my friend, Leah, who I had worked with when I was still working for the County. She was helping at the Ringwood Manor as a volunteer.
The house was so beautifully decorated for the holidays, and I was impressed by what the volunteers from the Woman’s Club had created in decorating the house for Christmas.
The Ringwood Manor at 1304 Sloatsburg Road in Ringwood, NJ decorated on the outside.
The formal Dining Room decorated for the holidays at Ringwood Manor.
The Ryerson section of the Manor decorated for the holidays.
I was able to spend the early part of the morning touring the house before I left for my trip. The house was magnificent and so tastefully decorated for holidays. Every room including the Carriage House and the Barn were decorated with some type of theme (see my review TripAdvisor). I was able to take about an hour and a half out of my schedule to really enjoy the self-guided tour.
After the tour, I headed up to the Hudson River Valley. Though the weather was on the warm side, it was drizzling when I got there at 6:00pm. I had been touring the Ringwood Manor earlier in the day and it was cloudy and miserable when I left.
I stopped at Auntie El’s Farm for a quick lunch and it was wonderful. I just had snack of an Jamican Beef Pattie and a Black and White cookie and that was all I needed to keep me going for the afternoon.
Auntie El’s at 171 Route 17 South at Christmas time is a pretty spectacular place.
I finally got to Rhinebeck and checked into my hotel, The Hampton Inn Poughkeepsie and then made my way across the river to the Snowflake Festival. It was just getting in full swing when it started a light rain. I walked around for a bit watching the fire eaters and admiring the decorations before I decided to head back to Dutch Reformed Church to relax inside and hear the entertainment. That’s when it started to rain.
The “Snowflake Festival” on Friday, December 1st in Kingston, NY.
My blog on the Snowflake Festival and Sinterklaas:
In 2023, the weather had been gloomy all day and misty so it was not the best conditions for an outdoor festival. It was to my surprise that when I got there at 6:00pm it was really busy. They may have been a light drizzle but that did not keep people away.
The crowds on that misty Friday night in downtown Kingston, NY were very large.
I walked all of Front Street in Downtown Kingston Stockade section admiring all the Christmas windows of the merchants and the snowflake decorations all around the downtown.
Downtown Kingston in the rain the night of the 2023 Snowflake Festival
The snowflakes that adorned the downtown.
As I walked through town, I passed crowds of people walking through the drizzle and watching a fire eater perform. So many people did not have umbrellas and the drizzle started to get worse. I figured I wanted to go someplace warm and headed over to the Dutch Reformed Church. I did not have the agenda yet but I wanted to go someplace that was inside.
When I got to the church it was once again beautifully decorated with garland and lights and the stage was rocking with violinists who were performing in sync. The concert was awash with lights and holograms dancing overhead.
The Strawberry Fiddlers performed that evening in the Dutch Reformed Church
The Strawberry Hill Fiddlers performing that night.
I stayed for four songs and it was really nice to just relax and enjoy the music. I really enjoyed the concert and I found it really engaging and entertaining. After this, I wanted to see more of the festival and hoped that the rain had stopped. No such luck as the rain continued and got worse as I left the church. I was able to sneak some Dutch cookies and cider before I left and the sugar gave me more energy.
The irony of it all was as I left the church and the rain continued, over the loud speaker near the picture taking booth, Gene Kelly singing “Singing in the Rain” from the iconic film “Singing in the Rain” came on and it synced perfectly with the rain and I had to take a video of it as it matched perfectly with the rain coming down but people still having a good time.
The video of the rainstorm during the festival when “Singing in the Rain” was played on the loudspeaker. Just as the song started it started to really pour and the song syncs to the downpour. Talk about irony:
I walked around the church and was back at the Kingston Volunteer Firefighting Museum and I stopped in as the rain started to stop. I wanted to dry off again. I had toured the museum the last two years and I just took a short tour of the museum. Christmas lights adorned the museum and the antique fire truck outside the museum that the kids were able to climb.
The nicely decorated firetruck outside the museum that evening at the Kingston Volunteer Firefighters Museum.
As I passed the museum, I could not believed that people were taking horse drawn rides in the rain but they did and they looked like they were having a good time. I walked down Fair Street where the Senate House was nicely decorated for the holidays to see Santa. That line was the longest as the mist continued. I bypassed even seeing him but I could see him entertaining the families waiting in line to see him.
Even in the rain the lines to see Santa were long and people waited patiently to see him.
I walked around the downtown watching the musicians and entertainers as the rain started to subside later that evening and they had a group of Victorian carolers performing by the bank on Wall Street right by the most beautiful wreath I have seen this holiday season on the historical building. The effect was quite nice.
The Victorian Carolers performing by the old bank building.
The wreath on the bank building was quite spectacular against the stonework.
It was getting colder that evening as I was walking around and the rain stopped and I knew from last year where to get some hot chocolate. So I went over to the Ulster Savings Bank Lobby and had a cup with some cookies that the bank every generously sponsors each year for the event.
While I was there I was listening to Mrs. Claus tell stories to the kids and this woman really looked like Mrs. Claus. While she was telling stories, the Coach Street Players choir was singing Christmas carols. It was a nice way to spend the end of the evening. I was getting hungry after a long trip and even longer day of classes and I wanted to relax.
Mrs. Claus was just finishing to a crowd of children for storytime.
The Coach House Players at the Ulster Savings Bank lobby performing.
By 7:30pm, things were starting the wrap up and the weather was clearing. Most of the bars and restaurants were packed that night or closing for the evening. Wing Shi, the Chinese restaurant I love in Kingston, still does not have any seating inside and there was no place to sit outside so I went to Opa Gyros Greek Restaurant at 333 Wall Street in downtown Kingston. I have wanted to eat here last year watching them serve gyro meat last year on platters but by the time I walked in at the end of the festival last year, they closed at 8:00pm. I went in at 7:30pm for dinner this time and had a wonderful meal.
The sandwich was delicious and I really enjoyed the food and service.
After dinner was over, it was about 8:15pm and the festival wrapped up really quickly. By the time I turned the corner, most of the businesses had closed and the people were gone. All the activities were over and even Santa had left by that point. There were some people milling around but by 8:30pm, the town was quiet. I was able to walk around the downtown one more time and then I left for my hotel as I had to be in Rhinebeck early the next morning to help with the Sinterklaas parade. I slept very soundly at the Hampton Inn in Poughkeepsie.
Christmas windows in Kingston, NY in 2023.
Christmas windows in Downtown Kingston in 2023.
When I got to the Starr Library the next day, I was ready to go. There was a threat of rain too but by noon time the sun started to peek out from the clouds and it cleared for the rest of the day. The weather became a balmy 53 degrees which is unusual for this time of the year and we had a nice day for the event. I got to the Starr Library at 10:00am on the dot to start set up for the parade and it was a nice morning. We had plenty of people and we got the job done in about an hour. Set up was easy when you have the same people to help every year.
We started to unload the puppets at 10:00am.
Unloading the puppets took about 45 minutes.
The Owls are like old friends to me
The Four Seasons standing guard
The Sweepers were new puppets this year.
Setting up the serpent was my first job that morning.
I have been setting up the stars since my first year in 2014 helping out with the parade.
We were done setting up for the parade by 11:30pm and we had to meet back at the library by 3:00pm for the parade staging and get the volunteers to their puppets. That’s when the fun begins with that. I walked downtown to go to the Opening Ceremony which had started at noon and was able to watch the last 45 minutes of the Opening Ceremony at the Beekman Arms Ballroom. That is always interesting.
The Opening Ceremony in 2023 with the Anteater and his court.
The Opening Ceremony at the Beekman Arms with Coordinator Jeanne Fleming.
The Opening Ceremony at the Beekman Arms
The Anteater on the prowl at the Opening Ceremony.
After the Opening Ceremony was over, I stayed to hear story teller, Jonathan Kurk, tell the story of Sinterklaas and the story of the miracle of Christmas.
Storyteller Jonathan Kurk entertains at the Opening Ceremony
After the Opening Ceremony completed, I decided to explore the town. I walked around downtown Rhinebeck which is always amazing at Christmas time. It is a wonderland of lights and sounds and delicious smells as all the charities and local organizations try to sell baked goods and hot dogs all over Main Street to raise money of their organizations.
The musicians on stilts are always a favorite at Sinterklaas.
The musicians are out in full force playing on stilts and walking around the town engaging the crowds of people. Since it was a nice day this year, the downtown was getting packed earlier than it had in previous years. After listening the musicians on stilts, I figured I should go visit the Ant Queen before it got too busy. I visited her just in time as after I left the line, it got even longer behind me.
The Ant Queen on her hill in the Courtyard.
The Courtyard got really busy when I was finished visiting the Ant Queen.
The Ant Queen in the Courtyard with the crowds growing that afternoon.
After I left the Courtyard, I walked around for a bit and then realized that I had to get checked into my other hotel that night so I walked back to the library, got my car and left to go to Quality Inn in Hyde Park where I was staying that evening. After I checked in, got my room and settled in I headed back up to Rhinebeck. The crowds grew even larger in the hour that I left and all the parking spots by the library were now gone as well as most spots in the downtown. I had to park six blocks into town near the exit to the fairgrounds. That would be fun when the parade was over walking back to that.
As I entered the downtown, the Grumpuses started their dance.
The Grumpuses dancing down the Main Street.
The Grumpus dance
The Grumpus Dance
The Grumpus Dance
After I saw the Grumpus dance in the downtown, I was able to walk around for a bit before getting back to the library. I saw some of the roaming musicians, the Dancing Bear and the Pocket Lady roaming around the Downtown. Between checking into my hotel, looking for parking and just walking back to the Main Street, I did not have much time to enjoy the entertainment this time around.
After I got back from the hotel and parked some nine blocks away. I walked through the town again looking at the all the performers and bands going in and out of the now closed Main Street. The crowds had really grown once the clouds cleared and it was sunny again. As the last of the sunshine disappeared by 5:00pm, the lights came on and that is when Rhinebeck truly shines. This started with the town Christmas tree which lit brightly by the main parking lot.
The Christmas tree was brightly lit when I left the downtown area for the library.
I made my way back to the Starr Library and that is where the real magic starts. Getting ready for the parade. Every year, I come back to the library at 3:30pm and help get everyone to their puppet. The parade line up starts at 6:30pm and then the parade heads down the hill. It is the most magnificent site.
The Geese and Bee puppets as we enter Downtown Rhinebeck, NY.
The parade in full swing in Downtown Rhinebeck, NY.
The crowds were huge the night of the parade.
The whole town comes out for the Sinterklaas Parade.
As we entered the parking lot to end the parade, the crowds arrived to the main stage where the Closing Ceremony takes place. I could not believe that another parade had ended. I will blink my eye and it will be here again. It is so funny how fast it all goes.
The backdrop of the stage after the Closing Ceremony was over.
All the puppets walked by the main stage and we dropped them off with Alex and Sophia. I then watched the rest of the ceremony and then the closing remarks. Another parade was over. The fire throwers came on and did their routine and that ended the parade. I said my goodbyes until next year and then proceeded to Village Pizza for a slice before I went back to the hotel.
The owner I could tell was exhausted. He waited at the door of his restaurant and asked people what they wanted to order. I thought that was rude but figured he was protecting his bathrooms. The restaurant was still busy almost 45 minutes after the parade was over and remained busy throughout the time I enjoyed my pizza. They limited the slice menu to just plain and pepperoni so it made it an easy choice. I was exhausted by the time I got back to my hotel, took a quick shower and had the best night’s sleep in weeks. I was tired!
After breakfast the next day, it was off to Boonton, NJ to the New Jersey Firemen’s Home to volunteer for the Bergen County Firemen’s Home Christmas Party. It was the first time in three years we had had the full party with entertainment and dropping off presents. The members had time before the party to socialize with each other and I even got better acquainted with the Firemen’s Home resident dog, Wells.
We no longer had to wear masks up at the home and that made for a more engaging environment. It had been a long evening the night before with the end of Sinterklaas and that very busy parade. I slept so soundly at the hotel that I felt refreshed and ready to go. I can highly recommend the Quality Inn in Hyde Park, NY. It might look a little dated but the beds give you the most relaxing slumber and will totally relax you.
After having my waffle breakfast, which is my tradition every year, it was off to the NJ Firemen’s Home again. It was a really gloomy day and I had to spend my morning wondering why the WIFI was not working. Thank God, I had finished most of my writing before I left the Hampton Inn the day before.
The waffle breakfast at the Quality Inn in Hyde Park, NY is something I look forward to each time I stay at the hotel.
When I got to the home, it really got dark outside and rainy. Talk about no fun being outside. Inside though, the NJ Firemen’s Home was decked out beautifully for the holidays. Talk about festive and jolly, with several Christmas trees all over the home and garland everywhere.
One of the many Christmas trees at the NJ State Firemen’s Home.
My blog on the Bergen County Firemen’s Home Party:
We enjoyed Sweet Rolls and Crumb cake for a late Continental Breakfast before the entertainment and had a nice time just catching up with one another before the craziness of the holidays started. Everyone was running around at parties and get togethers.
Signs of the season were everywhere as the home was decorated to the hilt for the holiday season. This was our last event of the season as the Bergen County Firemen’s Home Association held its Annual December Meeting and Entertainment afternoon at the NJ State Firemen’s Home in Boonton, NJ.
Even the fire hydrant display was decorated.
The sign welcoming people to the party.
We had our annual Christmas Party at the NJ State Firemen’s Home and it was nice to be back. Masks were a thing of the past and we were able to see everyone again. It made for a more engaging afternoon.
The home’s Christmas tree with our gifts to the residents, a embordered jacket.
We started our day with a get together of the members before the entertainment began. It was nice to just sit back and talk to the other members before the entertainment began. Our President brought us the most delicious crumb cake and glazed raison buns and these devoured very quickly by the members.
We even got a chance to bond again with the resident dog of the NJ State Firemen’s Home, Wells, who was a former seeing eye dog that has now found a home here keeping our retired firefighters comforted and engaged. He walks around having everyone spoil him with petting and treats. Even he has to watch his weight at the holidays. All I know is that he loves being loved by everyone and likes to spread that love.
NJ Firemen’s Home resident, Wells with BCFHA Vice-President Justin Watrel.
Our entertainment for the afternoon was Dana and Daddy O, a singing duo who sang Christmas songs and told jokes. They were were good.
Dana and Daddy O performed that day for the residents and us.
Member Jerry Naylis asked his daughter and grandchildren perform again this year (Jerry was away on a conference). Daughter Stephanie Naylis-Quirk and her daughters, Regan and Riley Quirk , played the piano and sang to the residents of the home. The children sang lively Christmas songs and led the room in a sing a long with favorites “Jingle Bells” and Regan’s solo, “Silent Night” and Riley’s solo, “I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus”.
Stephanie Nayles-Quirk with daughter Riley and Regan, who sang so nicely that afternoon.
After the ladies took their bows, it was time to hand out the Christmas presents from the Bergen County Firemen’s Home to the residents. This year the gift to the residents of the home was a beautiful ‘firemen’ blue jacket that had each resident’s name on it. It was a very personal and touching gift to our fellow retired firemen who we wanted to remember at the holidays. They were very touched by this.
BCFHA Vice-President Justin Watrel with NJ State Firemen’s Association President and BCFHA member Bob Ordway handing out gifts at the Christmas Party.
While members were handing out gifts, other members were serving desserts and other refreshments to the residents. Everyone had a delicious treat that afternoon after they had their lunch. The home provided delectable cupcakes both regular and sugar free to satisfy everyone’s sweet tooth.
BCFHA members Peter Devries and Glenn Corbet serving desserts to the residents.
After the day of entertainment was over, the members got together and took our annual member group shot. It was a fun afternoon for everyone involved. We have managed to provide the residents with all sorts of entertainment, barbecues and special events while never losing the spirit of helping our fellow fire fighters.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of our firefighters, retired and still active from the Bergen County Firemen’s Home Association.
It was a fun weekend but when I got home it was all homework and projects. It was a long evening but I got everything done. It would be a long week of presentations both at NYU and at BCC.
The week started out with my presentation of my project for the New York City Tourism+Conventions for my Digital Marketing class, which went by very well (I got an “A” on this) and then my presentation for my Customer Retention Class on Luna Park (I got another “A”). With those two big presentations for Graduate school done, I then had to concentrate on my students at Bergen Community College’s three final presentations on Wednesday and Thursday. It would be a stressful five days.
Still it was beginning to look like Christmas in the Village. After classes were over, there was time to walk around and admire all the decorations that people had put up and admire the Christmas tree in Washington Square Park.
The Christmas tree at Washington Square Park is always picturesque.
The diner on Greenwich Avenue decorated for the holidays.
Christmas decorations on the side streets in the Village.
Single tree in the window of a Greenwich Avenue window in the Village.
Before I got to my students presentations, I had been looking online at the Carnegie Hall website at the upcoming concert with New York Pops that I was still considering when I saw that singer Amy Grant was going to bring her Christmas concert to Carnegie Hall. There was NO WAY I was going to miss this. I had been dying to see her in concert for years at the holidays and I never saw her come to New York City before. So I arranged the tickets and after my presentation it was off to Carnegie Hall for dinner first and then the concert.
The Front of Carnegie Hall the night of the Amy Grant concert.
The inside of Carnegie Hall the night of the concert.
The concert hall was packed that night.
Amy Grant on stage at Carnegie Hall after singing “Love will find a Way”, her huge hit from the 1980’s.
Amy Grant singing this in concert forty years earlier in 1983 and sounded exactly the sound!
She sang this in the Christmas concert in DC a couple of days before she came to Carnegie Hall.
I am not going to even get into too many details of how excellent this concert was and how she engaged the audience that night with a mix of classic and religious Christmas songs from her playlist and add many more religious and inspirational songs in the second half of the concert. Her and her guest artists that night gave a superb concert that really put me in the holiday spirit after an extremely long semester and cheered me back up. The only problem was that she never sang “Sleigh Ride” which she sings beautifully and my favorite Christmas song she performs. For another concert but it gives me an excuse to see her again.
Amy Grant singing my favorite version of the Christmas song “Sleigh Ride”.
I swear myself and everyone who attended the concert that night were still humming as we left Carnegie Hall. After such a wonderful concert, I had to have some dinner and I was dying for some pasta. Patsy’s which is around the corner I was trying to go in but they were fully booked for everything for the rest of the night so I went to Amore Pizza Cafe at 370 West 58th Street for dinner after the concert. This restaurant never disappoints me.
I ordered the Clams and Spaghetti that I remembered ordering last year this time so I had to have it again. It was just as good as I remembered and worth the trip to the restaurant. Everything here is delicious.
My Clams and Spaghetti dinner
The Clams and Spaghetti here is excellent.
After the concert and dinner were over, I felt much better about myself. It had been really rough up until this point and I still had to face the rest of the week. I swear I hummed “Find a Way” for the rest of the evening. That had been the highlight of my night.
I walked around the Central Park South and admired all the decorations on the buildings. Then I went to see the tree at Rockefeller Center and the crowds had lessened this late in the evening. It was so much nicer to admire the tree.
The Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center was spectacular this year.
Skating at Rockefeller Center is always popular.
I then walked around Midtown to look at all the decorations that Manhattan is known for. This is Corporate Christmas at its best. The streets of Fifth and Sixth Avenue compete every year to see who does it best. There are wreaths, trees and decorations that celebrate the holidays in an elaborate way. It really represents Manhattan and its traditions during the holidays.
Corporate Christmas on Sixth Avenue during the holidays.
The decorations on West 57th Street during the holidays.
The Snowflake on Fifth Avenue and 57th Street.
West 55th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenue.
West 55th Street by Eighth Avenue is always decorated with lights.
I was nice to just walk the streets of Manhattan in the late evening and have time for myself to reflect, all while I was humming “Find a Way” the whole time. I had forgotten how beautiful New York was during the holidays and could not believe has fast things happened after Halloween. It was like Christmas was on overdrive and then it was there.
I really needed that night because it would be full steam ahead for the rest of the week as my students presented their projects and PowerPoints to me back to back on Wednesday and Thursday. Plus I had the extra pressure of having guests from Glen Rock Town Council and the Museum at the Station coming to the Glen Rock project and members of the Executive Board of the Bergen County Historical Society coming Thursday night to that presentation. With the exception of a few hiccups, all went by well with all three presentations.
Wednesday was the most grueling with “I’m Glad I’m in Glen Rock: Be a Tourist in your own Town” and “Go Bulldogs Go-Open House 2024” back to back that day. It was going to be a lot of note taking and making sure that the students were ready for the presentations with grooming and dress code standards to attend to that day. Some of these kids had never dressed like this before.
The “I’m Glad I’m in Glen Rock” Team did a really good job on their presentation but there were some problems in the Marketing Team that needed to be addressed. They had put way too much explanation on what Marketing is and less of a presentation on the subject matter.
The Paramus ‘Glen Rock’ Team
My Executive Team from Paramus for the “I’m Glad I’m in Glen Rock, NJ-Be a Tourist in your own Town” project.
This got revamped when we got an invitation from Glen Rock City Hall to present the project to the Mayor of Glen Rock and the Council on December 19th, the week before Christmas in City Hall. That put pressure on that class to get it done on time. We would end up revamping the entire Marketing part of the project.
My blog on “I’m Glad I’m in Glen Rock, NJ-Be a Tourist in your own Town”:
My class who worked on the “Go Bulldogs Go”, the Spring 2024 Open House did a great job presenting their project that night as well. I was just upset that no one from the college bothered to show up. The ideas the kids came up with were excellent and would have been good had they been done in real life.
The Open House Team the night of their presentation.
My Executive Team in Paramus for the “Go Bulldogs Go Open House 2024”:
I did not have much time to relax as I had my third presentation the next night for the Team marketing the Bergen County Historical Society. That had been an experience as I heard so late back from the Society to help us that the students had only four weeks to pull it all together. Again, this is where the students always impress me.
The BC Historical Society Team.
My Executive Team in Lyndhurst for “Tourism for the Bergen County Historical Society”
My Blog on “Tourism at the Bergen County Historical Society”:
This team I had also taken out into the field, and we went to the Bergen County Historical Society the night of one of their Board Meetings and we were able to tour all three historical houses and the displays in the Steuben House. They were able to see the grounds and see the outside property. Many would revisit that weekend to take pictures and film the Washington’s Crossing event that weekend. After I took them out into the field, I took them out for a pizza dinner. They deserved it!
I was able to handle all three of these projects, my five Graduate papers and three classes, the Sinterklaas Parade, Christmas tree drop off and sales, the Bergen County Firemen’s Home Party and keeping up with all my Christmas blogs and updating all the historical houses that I was visiting for my blog. I have to say that I was in the car, on the bus and walking a lot but somehow, I pulled the first week of December off without losing my mind. There were still three more weeks to Christmas and a whole lot more to do.
After the last Team project was done for the Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. concept, I had to hand in my Term paper on the “The Chalfonte Hotel” in Cape May for my Hotel Sales and Marketing class the next morning. Thank God, I had finished it a week in advance and had handed in it in early. It made that Friday morning class easy, and my Professor at NYU seemed relieved that he did not have to chase after us.
The evening I went to the Open House Christmas tour of the Merchant House in Manhattan. I had been on the haunted tour a few weeks earlier and wanted to see the Christmas decorations. I was lucky that I was able to get on one of the last tours of the evening.
The Merchant House at 29 East 4th Street for Christmas.
The Merchant House dining room decorated for a Christmas party.
The Parlor decorated for Christmas.
The tour was the perfect way to decompress after a long week and that was the hardest week of the holidays behind me. There were other papers to write and things to do so it was nice to just walk around the home and enjoy the decorations.
The second weekend was just as busy as the first one. We lucked out and it was a very mild Saturday afternoon. I made another trip to the Hudson River Valley to visit more decorated houses for my blog, VisitingaMusuem.com.
Many of these homes are rarely open during the year, let alone for the holidays and you have to plan at the right time to visit them. My first home was the Madame Brett Homestead in Beacon, NY, which is only open the second Saturday of the month and then after that I visited Boscobel, which is in Cold Springs, NY. In between those two, I was able to visit the Putnum County Historical Society, which was still open before my trip to Boscobel. It was a lot of running around up and down Route 9.
Beacon, NY is such a great town to visit. The stores and restaurants are really nice, and the town was so nicely decorated for the holidays. I was able to walk around the downtown before my tour at 1:00pm and it gave me some time to revisit some of the stores I had not seen in a while.
The downtown was nicely decorated for the holidays. While it does not have the same charm as Rhinebeck or Red Hook being a bigger downtown, there is a more artsy, hipster look to it with the street artwork and store displays.
Downtown Beacon during Christmas.
I walked around the town admiring the gift shops and the clothing stores and looking at what they were carrying for the holidays.
This was the difference in Beacon versus towns like Red Hook and Millerton. The stores there cater to the locals and there is a charm to the everyday merchandise that people need as opposed to rows of gift shops that cater to visitors. It begins to look like a version of a mall and less like a community. Still there are many stores here that have a personality and some very playful displays. Finding an evil snowman in one store was a play on the holidays.
One of the merchants was very clever with their holiday display.
The Madame Brett Homestead at 50 Van Nydeck Avenue in Beacon was not as decorated as I thought it would. The tour guide that I had in the summer said how the Garden Club decorated it so beautifully.
The Madame Brett Homestead at Christmas time.
The Madame Brett Homestead at 50 Van Nydeck Avenue in Beacon was not as decorated as I thought it would. The tour guide that I had in the summer said how the Garden Club decorated it so beautifully.
The beautiful Dining Room at the Made Brett Homestead during the holidays.
After the wonderful and informative tour of the homestead and a full walk around the downtown area, which was really beautiful during the holidays I had to find a place for lunch.
Santa’s reindeer?
I stopped in BJ’s Soul Food for lunch to regroup for the afternoon of walking and touring. Talk about the most delicious Cheeseburger that you will sink your teeth into. God, that hit the spot. Their menu was extensive and I will have to remember this the next time I visit.
It was then I realized that I had not been to Boscobel, the historic mansion in Cold Springs Village down Route 9 since before the pandemic and wondered if it was decorated and open for touring like the other homes. It had not been on the Hudson River Valley listing of decorated mansions because not every home was open in the winter.
As I was reading the local newspaper, there was a private touring night that evening and I called and got the last reservation at 6:00pm. Talk about luck! After I finished eating, I left Beacon and headed down to Cold Springs. I never realized how close they were together because I got down Route 9 in record time and it was only 4:30pm.
I had passed the always closed Putnam Country Historical Society and this time around they were open so I visited there first before returning to Boscobel. Talk about a very underrated little museum. The Society museum was packed with information on the history of the town and the country plus a display on the Native American history of the area. They also had an interesting display of the former foundry’s for iron producing that I never knew were in this area.
The Putnam History Museum at 62 Chesnut Street in Cold Springs, NY.
This is a great little museum displaying some of the most interesting Native American art that I have seen in a long time. It was very detailed in the displays and had a lot of Lenape artifacts that were displayed. For such a small museum, they mounted two interesting shows.
The sign of the museum.
The museum was having a major exhibition from their collection of Lenape art from the local area including a canoe that had just been authenticated as a reproduction but still historically accurate. The exhibition was very detailed on the life of the local tribes in the Cold Springs area.
The back section of the displayed the foundries that used to dominate the towns surround Downtown Cold Springs. A surprising change from the sleepy historical town it is now.
The recreation of the canoe that was thought to be real but still authentic in its style and make.
The Foundry display and articles made in the area.
I was only at the museum the last 45 minutes it was open but was able to enjoy all the exhibits. After this weekend, they were closing until the Spring so I was happy I was finally able to get inside.
I then left for Boscobel, the home of the Dyckman family that had been moved to this spot in the 1960’s. The interesting part about Boscobel is that it was brought to its current location piece by piece and rebuilt here. I had not been here since 2018 and was lucky that they could fit me in for the tour. It was an amazing evening and the mansion was so beautifully decorated for the holidays.
Boscobel when I arrived for the Christmas tour of the mansion. It was not quite twilight at that point.
Boscobel all lit up after the night fell. It was a fairyland of lights.
The Grand Staircase at Boscobel
The decorations of the Grand Staircase at Christmas time.
The Dining Room set for a Christmas feast.
The Back Drawing Room with the ‘Christmas Table Tree’
The Gardens that night.
The fountains that night.
The Gift Shop and the Meeting Room where the reception after the tour was held.
When I finished the tour of the mansion I joined all the other people who were on the tour with me for refreshments in the gift shop. It was really nice.
They had hot cider and chocolate along with cookies, candies and fruit for us. I thought this was a nice touch after the tour. They also had contemporary Christmas music playing while we all talked amongst ourselves.
After the tour was over, I stopped in downtown Cold Springs to tour the business district. It is hard to believe that this sleepy little hamlet filled with upscale stores and restaurants was once the center of the boundaries.
The downtown is now filled with upscale stores and restaurants that cater to both locals and tourists. Being on the train to Manhattan has also changed the town. More people from the City have moved up here seeking the slower and ‘quaint’ lifestyle of the Hudson River Valley.
Cold Spring, NY is such a beautiful little town both during the holidays and in the summer when I have visited. It always has something going on. In the summer, I have been to concerts here and walked though their downtown admiring the stores and looking at restaurant menus. The parks here are really nice as well. Both the Gazebo and the Band Stand were beautifully decorated for the holidays.
The Gazebo in downtown Cold Springs near the train station.
The Band Stand in Downtown Cold Spring, NY decorated for the holidays.
I got home rather late that night and then had to be up the next morning early to be in the City again from the ‘Holiday Brass’ concert at Lincoln Center. I had been waiting to see this concert for years. When I had chance to get tickets, I jumped at the chance to see this concert.
Everyone taking a bow.
The band playing for the holidays is such a special treat.
The Holiday Brass taking a bow that afternoon.
It was such a wonderful afternoon of Christmas music done by the Brass section of the New York Philharmonic. I had been dying to see this concert for years and it was very much worth the hype. The men and women of the band were excellent. It was a great way to spend the afternoon. I stopped for lunch at Amore Pizza Kitchen up on 58th Street and had their pats Bolognese. Their food is just amazing.
The Linguine Bolognese.
I went home and worked on my research papers for the rest of the afternoon. My Digital Marketing paper was due that Monday on New York City Tourism+Conventions and my Customer Service paper on Luna Park was due on Tuesday. I had finished both before this weekend started but had to put the final touches on them. I got ‘A-‘ on them both and pulled off straight ‘A’s again both Fall semester and for my ‘J’ Term class in Abu Dhabi. I had never worked this hard before in such a short period of time.
I also had to give my classes their Christmas Quiz Four on planning the Corporate Christmas party and these students never cease to amaze me what they can do in such a short period of time. The menus and well wishes were so creative. I would have to spend the rest of the week preparing their finals. I kept saying to myself one more week.
The weekend before finals at Bergen Community College began, I snuck up to the Hudson River Valley to see one more set of decorated houses.
I had visited the Clermont mansion up in Germantown, NY earlier in October for the Halloween tour and it had been since pre-COVID since I had seen the house decorated for the Christmas holidays. I attended their Open House as well during the day and checked the schedule and Staatsburgh, the other Livingston mansion was having their Open House that evening with entertainment similar to the evening in Boscobel. It was the perfect way to get my mind off finals week.
As I toured the homes along the Hudson River, I stopped at some of the small towns that line the east side of the Hudson River. They are usually so beautifully decorated for the holidays and trust me they did not disappoint. I started in downtown Germantown right near Clermont. I had visited the town for Halloween and the town was nicely devoted for the fall. It Christmas time that these towns start to shine.
With a combination of historical buildings and some garland, decorated trees and wreathes all one these historical buildings give these towns a festive look and they look like something out of a Currier and Ives woodcut.
Downtown Germantown, NY at Christmas
Downtown Germantown, NY at Christmas
Germantown has its charms and it seemed the whole town was covered in garland.
The Reformed Church of Germantown at 20 Church Avenue at Christmas time.
The entrance hallway of the front door from the top of stairs.
The Library at Christmas time.
The decorated tree in the Library.
The Dining Room at Christmas time.
The Living Room decorated for Christmas
What was nice about the Open House is what a beautiful day it was to not just walk around the inside of the house but the grounds as well. I got some wonderful pictures of the Hudson River and of the grounds. It will be nice to come back up in the Spring and see the gardens again
After the tour, I stopped by the front of the house where they had a fire pit where we could roast marshmallows by an open fire. That was fun as I had not done that in a long time. The marshmallows got caramelized on the outside and gooey on the inside. That was so good.
When I got back to the Visitors Center, they had an array of holiday treats for us there as well. They had Hot Chocolate and Apple Cider, Christmas cookies, candies and other snacks to enjoy while we looked over the displays. I did enjoy that.
I did not have to be at Staatsburgh until later that evening for their Open House so I decided to visit the other small towns around the area to see how they were decorated and getting ready for the holidays. I swear I love the Hudson River Valley during Christmas time. One town is nicer than the other and they do a lot to make their downtowns look so festive. I decided to stop in Tivoli first, a small hamlet just south of the mansion.
Downtown Tivoli is a small quaint little town right on the Hudson River. When you drive through the downtown it is the last stop.
The downtown was busy when I got there as the Tivoli Fire Department was doing their “Santa Around Town” like we do and the kids were all waiting for Santa to come back to the firehouse.
The old Historic Firehouse decorated for the holidays.
The firehouse plaque. The building has had many uses.
The park right by the firehouse where Santa would be dropped off later that afternoon.
The merchant flower boxes decorated for the holidays.
The Christmas tree right near one of the businesses.
I never did get to see Santa that day but was able to walk around the town and enjoy the weather. It was so nice outside that you really did not need a coat. It was crisp but not cold and was perfect for touring the downtown. I left all the kids as they kept telling their parents they could hear the trucks coming back. I headed to Red Hook to check out how nicely downtown there was decorated. There is something special about Red Hook, NY during all the holidays. They just know how to decorate their downtown.
Downtown Red Hook decked out with garland and bows at the building where the Corner Counter Gourmet Shop is located.
The inside of the Corner Counter had all sorts of holiday treats to choose from.
Annabelle’s Village Bake Shop is always so nicely decorated.
I love Red Hook’s Christmas tree every year. It is so nicely decorated.
When I think of a town that is a step into the past, I always think of Red Hook. It has more of a localized feel than Rhinebeck to the south, which is place that people come up from the City for the weekend for dinner and an overnight of shopping and touring the local mansions. Red Hook has that family feel to it. Even the stores and restaurants are where locals come to eat and shop. Slowly though over the last few years I have noticed that is beginning to change. The stores have been getting gifty and more expensive. Still it is one of the nicest downtowns to visit just before Christmas.
After my tour of Red Hook, it was off to the other Open House that night at Staatsburgh, the home of the Mills Mansion. That is always a treat to visit when it is decorated for Christmas.
Staatsburgh-The Mills Mansion and home of the Mills-Livingston family at Christmas.
Staatsburgh, the home of the Ruth and Ogden Mills, is one of the most beautiful decorated houses in the Hudson River Valley and I have visited almost all of them. The house is a wonderland of decorations all done around a theme. Last year was Masks and their relation to the balls that used to happen during the Winter Season in New York. This year the celebration of the seasons decorated the rooms.
The main staircase up to the first floor rooms. This once lead from the kitchen and the servants quarters in the basement.
The Library Christmas Tree on the first floor is the most elegant room in the house. It feels like someone is home for the holidays.
The Christmas tree leading to the main hallway and the front door. This is where the Mills family portraits are located.
The portrait of Ruth’s mother in the main hallway leading to the Dining Room.
The Dining Room decorated for Christmas Dinner.
The Hyde Park Quartet performed the night of the Open House in the Dining Room.
The Butler’s Pantry with all the food prepared for the Mills Holiday Dinner.
It was nice to take my time visiting both mansions and seeing the opulence of the holidays and how dedicated the volunteers were in decorating them. There was so much care and detail to each of the houses I saw that evening. Also, the entertainment and food was a nice touch on both events that made them enjoyable and affordable to so many people who have an interest in these homes.
After the tour of Staatsburgh, I headed back up to Red Hook for some dinner before I left for home. I had the final quizzes to prepare when I got home and final holiday preparations before the last week of work before the holidays. Still I did not want the night to end. I drove to Red Hook for some dinner but toured around Staatsburgh after dark. It can be a magical place too at the holidays.
The outside of the Mills Mansion on the evening of the Open House.
The Staatsburgh Fire Department decorated for the holidays.
I went to my traditional place for dinner when I am up for the holidays at Village Pizza III in downtown Red Hook and the food and the service are always wonderful. The prices are so fair, the owner is not gouging everyone after COVID like every other restaurant is doing and the food is excellent.
Downtown Red Hook at night with all the lights on.
The Christmas tree in Downtown Red Hook with Petals & Moss Flower shop next door.
Annabelle’s Village Bake Shop and Little Pickles in Downtown Red Hook decorated for the holidays.
The bank building right across the street from Village Pizza III is always nicely decorated.
It was nice to walk around on a quiet night and admire the decorations. It is beginning to rival Rhinebeck in beauty. Dinner was amazing as usual.
Village Pizza III at 7514 North Broadway in Red Hook earlier in the day.
Dinner was excellent as I ordered Spaghetti & Meatballs with a salad. The perfect way to end the day. Their red sauce is fantastic and the meatballs are homemade and have the perfect blend of cheese and garlic.
The perfect start to the meal, a crisp salad and fresh warm Italian bread. You can go through a basket of it very easily.
The Spaghetti and Meatballs at Village Pizza III are delicious.
After dinner and another quick walk around the downtown to admire the lights, it was time to head home. Before I left, it was still pretty early. I decided to cross the river and visit Woodstock, NY before I headed home. I knew I would not have time to travel back up and wanted to see what their Christmas tree downtown looked like. It is always so unique to say the least.
Woodstock, NY has a lot of meaning to me during the holidays. It is where I went to decompress after my father passed away and I just got lost in myself. The mountains and the woods are so beautiful that drive around and forget everything else.
I forgot how beautiful Woodstock is during the holidays. I just parked the car and walked around the downtown for about a hour. Just admiring the lights and decorations can put you in the holiday spirit.
The Woodstock Christmas tree
The Woodstock Christmas tree was beautiful this year.
I forgot how picturesque the town was at night and this year especially they really did a nice job on the tree. The tree as usual had an unusual shape to it but the decorations were just dazzling on it. I walked around the downtown square remembering all those years of parades and the way Santa came into town. On this quiet night, it brought back many fond memories. I just could not believe how quiet it was that evening. The stores were all closed and the restaurants were all so quiet.
The restaurant I used to eat at every Christmas Eve with their disaster of entrees has not closed and replaced by a new owner.
Downtown Woodstock preparing for the holidays.
After the tour of Woodstock, it was time to go home. Talk about a trip down memory lane and touring all these wonderful towns at Christmas time really shows the beauty and traditions of the Hudson River Valley and why I love visiting there so much.
The week before Christmas was preparing for the holidays and getting Final exams done. NYU was finally done of the semester and those straight “A’s” made me happy and in the festive spirit. All of my students got their “A’s” on their projects as well. Their final exams would be on Wednesday and Thursday so there was work to do for them as well.
On Thursday morning, I had made a call and drove down to Pennsville, NJ to visit the Pennsville Historical Society and their Christmas decorations all over the house and the surrounding buildings. I knew I could never get down on the weekends prior to Christmas and I really wanted to see them after missing them for the last two holiday seasons. So I made an appointment with the President of their Society and off I went the Thursday before Christmas for the three hour trip down to the end of the Turnpike to Pennsville, NJ.
My blog on visiting the Historical Sites of Southern New Jersey:
It was well worth the trip on a glorious December afternoon. I met the ladies for the appointment at 1:00pm and it was well worth the trip. The house and the small outer buildings were beautifully decorated for the holidays.
The Pennsville Historical Society at Christmas time.
The decorations in the outer buildings on the estate grounds were just as spectacular as the main house.
The whole tour was one surprise after another with each beautifully decorated room after another. Just when one room looked the best you saw another one that topped it. Even the outside buildings that have all the themed collections such as the above amusement park were just as creative. It is one of the nicest decorated homes that I saw this Christmas. Both this and Staatsburgh were pretty amazing.
Since I had time after the tour was over instead of driving immediately back up the turnpike, I stopped in both Salem and Mullica Hill on the way home to see how they were decorated for the holidays.
The homes in the historic district of downtown really decorated for the holidays.
The historic district of North Market Street was decked with garland, bows and trees.
I had about 45 minutes to stop at the Salem Historical Society in downtown Salem to take some pictures of the Keeping Room Christmas tree. That is what attracted me in becoming a member of the museum.
The Salem Historical Society at 83 Market Street at Christmas time.
The Keeping Room is the oldest section of the Salem Historical Society and the most interesting part of the old house.
Instead of the traditional tree in the Keeping Room, the Society opted for a Victorian tree in the middle of the museum. I was a nice alternative.
I had just enough time to see the new exhibition “Toys of the Past and Present” which featured all sorts of wonderful antique dolls, games and playthings.
The quick half hour tour of the museum took longer as I got caught up in the exquisite antique toys which I have such a fascination in since my days at FAO Schwarz. The museum’s collection was quite extensive and the tour guide explained a lot of how they developed as playthings. I scurred and got out as I would have taken all day in this wonderful museum.
I then headed up to Woodstown to see how they decorated their downtown and it was just as nice. Woodstown is a nicer little town with less problems than Salem. It is more of a vibrant business district with small independent businesses.
The homes in their historic district were decked out for the holidays as well.
My last stop on my way home was downtown Mullica Hill, which is such a great little town for nice shopping and great restaurants. Of the three towns this is the most vibrant but it is also closer to Rowan University so the business and traffic of the college town is felt up this way. Its historical downtown was decked out for the holidays as well.
The Downtown Mullica Hill business district decorated for the Christmas holidays.
Downtown Mullica Hill homes that surrounded the downtown added to the beauty of the holidays.
All the stores and restaurants looked like they were vying for ‘Best Decorated Business’ with all the embellishments all over the buildings. I am sure it looked just as nice at night. There was not much time to spend in any of these towns because I had a final for my Business 101 class and I had to be back by 6:30pm. I just made the class with a half hour to spare. I gave my last exam that night and then scrambled all night and the next morning to finish my grades by 5:00pm. I handed them in by 3:00pm on Friday, December 22nd and drove back from the college content. I just put the Fall semester behind me.
I could not believe it. I pulled straight “A’s” in Grad school, ran three very successful and creative projects with my students, one being presented in front of the Mayor of Glen Rock and some of the Council members and all of my Executive Board commitments from running the Halloween Decorating Contest the last week of Halloween, to assisting in parties, get togethers and holiday events benefiting charity. Do not ask me how I ran around this much. I still ask that of myself.
Christmas Eve and Day
I finally caught my breath for a day when classes finally ended at BOTH colleges. NYU classes had ended the end of the second week of December and Bergen Community went all the way up to December 22nd. My last class was Thursday night the 21st when I had to give my final examination to my Introduction to Business students and then the grades for all three classes had to be submitted on Friday by 5:00pm on December 22nd. I felt like I was playing beat the clock the whole month of December. It just would not stop.
I had two days to get the house ready for my brother and sister in law to visit so I cleaned the house from top to bottom. Did six loads of laundry washing all the sheets and comforters, did all the grocery shopping and prepped pancake batter, baked cookies and brownies and made a lasagna with homemade meatballs for dinner I was going to make for my family to have everyone meet my new sister-in-law. When I dragged myself up on Christmas Eve day to visit the cemeteries, I was already burnt out and tired. Talk about a long three weeks.
After visiting family and saying prayers and dropping off flowers at the grave sites, it was the four hour drive down to my mother’s for Christmas Eve. It may seem like a long time but I always enjoy the drive. It gives me time to think and reflect back on the semester. Don’t ask me how I pulled everything off from Halloween to Christmas but I was able to get it all done, meet all my commitments, pull off straight “A’s” and have the students produce excellent projects that they should be very proud of for the rest of college. It was an amazing four months with so much accomplished. Now it was time to relax and enjoy the ride.
I just relaxed as I drove down the New Jersey Turnpike and just passed cars on their way to their holiday celebrations. Thank God the highway was not busy. I got down to my mom’s in less than four hours this time. Along the way down to her home, I got to see farmhouses all decorated for the Christmas holidays and that is always interesting.
Confucius Chinese Restaurant is where we spend our Christmas Eve dinner and I could not believe how packed the place was at 7:00pm. We saw so many of my mother’s friends and neighbors that it looks like everyone else has gotten the same idea that we have on what a pain it is to cook for both days. Going out on Christmas Eve has been our tradition for years.
Confucius Chinese Restaurant at 57 Wilmington Avenue in Rehoboth Beach, DE.
The owners are always so nice to us and very welcoming. Even after the busy dinner rush was over and we were one of the last parties to leave they both took the time to come to our table to wish us a Merry Christmas.
The food is always delicious and somehow we end up ordering a lot of the same dishes. We went through three orders of dumplings, two orders of Soft Shell crabs, an order of Spring Rolls, Moo Shu Pork, General Tso’s Chicken, Hunan Beef Noodles, Tai Lake Chicken and Garlic Shrimp with two big sides of white rice. For dessert, I ordered the Vanilla Ice Cream which was a throw back to the days of the Cantonese dinners we ate with my family as kids.
The Moo Shu Pork is one of my favorite dishes.
One of everyone’s favorites at dinner is the General Tso’s Chicken. The chef makes so good.
The General Tso’s Chicken is amazing.
As a family we go through so much rice you would think this was a special dish.
We eat this like it’s going out of style.
What is the best way to end a wonderful Chinese meal is a bowl of vanilla ice cream.
Finishing a meal with Vanilla Ice Cream is such a tradition.
After dinner was over, we walked around Downtown Rehoboth Beach (it was such a warm night) and got to enjoy the beautiful decorations. The downtown Christmas tree was really nice that night. The town is very festive during the holidays and my mother said that you can not even drive into town for the tree lighting ceremony unless you were already downtown that day. I could believe it. It was busy on Christmas Eve night.
The Christmas tree in downtown Rehoboth Beach, DE was dazzling.
The decorations by the Gazebo.
More decorations by the Gazebo.
My brothers and I by the Christmas tree.
Us in front of the Rehoboth Beach Christmas tree.
Christmas Eve was a time we just kick back and relax before the real works begins the next day for Christmas. We all pitch in now with the cooking, serving and cleaning up. It is a lot more fun that way and give my mother a helping hand.
My mother’s Santa Collection at Christmas.
Mom’s decorations at Christmas.
Mom’s Christmas tree in the Living Room.
Her handmade Santa collection is the highlight of the holidays and her decorations.
I was exhausted by the time that we got home from dinner. My siblings had been done at my mom’s for a couple of days so they were all relaxed. Between classes and all the driving I was worn out. While everyone else stayed up to talk, I got ready to go to bed. I went to bed and slept for over nine hours. I could not believe what a deep sleep I went into. Five weeks of running around took its toll on me. I got up late on Christmas Day morning. Still I was up first and got to admire my mother’s house decorated for the holidays.
The table set for dinner
The table was set for Christmas Day a few days in advance so I got to see it that night.
The Dining Room decorations.
After breakfast, we had some time to relax and open presents. This is not the extravagancy that we had as kids but we got to laugh and talk while we opened our gifts to one another.
My brother thought it would be funny to give each of us this tee-shirt as a joke to my mother and her wooden spoon when we were growing up.
One of the small gifts to my mom, a handmade Santa that I found with a artist in Beach Haven.
After the gift giving, breakfast and getting ready it now time to cook. When you have a houseful of guests on their way you have to be prepared. My older brother and I got into our ritual of helping my mother in the kitchen.
My brother and I helping prepare dinner.
My brother and I help my mother in the kitchen as it takes time to cook and greet guests. I think this is what makes the holiday more fun when we are all in the kitchen working together.
My mother also likes the fact that we are helping with the clean up and serving. She passing that part of the holidays on to us. We helped her with all the preparations that morning and the dinner looked picture perfect. We have a ball helping cook and plan our Christmas meal.
Me making my homemade potato croquettes.
I was cooking that morning and afternoon. I was making my homemade Potato Croquettes. These are are really popular at Christmas dinner.
Our dinner starts with appetizers with Shrimp Cocktail, cheeses and dips. When you have a lot of guests it is a nice way to start the meal. These were traditions that my aunt started years ago when we used to spend the holidays growing up.
The Appetizers
The appetizers
Putting the final preparations for dinner.
The final dinner set out for guests.
Our Christmas dinner
The team work for our holiday dinner was the result of a lot of hard work.
My mother’s beautiful holiday roast.
My mother’s Prime Rib roast came out like perfection.
My brother’s Broccoli Puff was excellent.
My mother and our new sister in law at her first family Christmas.
My mother and my sister in law.
Finally sitting down for dinner and relaxing after a long holiday season. Our family had a nice time at Christmas
Dinner at Christmas time. The result of team work and a lot of preplanning. My mother’s delicious Prime Rib, which was cooked perfectly, the potato croquettes and the sauteed string beans. The perfect holiday meal.
My dinner at Christmas at Mom’s.
Our desserts at the end of dinner.
For dessert, my mother ordered a specialty twelve layer cake and my sister in law made a special Russian cake from her family’s tradition. My brother and I made Christmas cookies so there was more than enough for the twelve people having dessert.
Mom’s Twelve Layer cake for dessert.
It was a really nice Christmas dinner and we had such a nice relaxing time. It was a wonderful afternoon and evening with family.
Our family at the holidays. It was so nice to see everyone at Christmas.
It was a relaxing evening once everything was cleaned up and the other guests left later that night. We just sat around and laughed and talked about Christmas’s past.
The next morning, everyone was on their way and my brother and sister in law stayed with me. While they were doing their thing in the city, I visited a lot of the sites around the City for the post Christmas week. New York City is always packed the week before Christmas and New Year and you have to elbow everyone by the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. That’s why I try to avoid that section of the City.
I went uptown to the Cloisters to take a tour of the decorations and hear about the history of the decorations used for the Medieval holidays. I forgot they Three Kings Day was coming up and they changed the tour. So a large group of us walked with our tour guide in not such great weather (it was misty and gloomy out), and looked for the symbolism of the Three Kings.
The tour took us all over the museum in search of the images of the Three Kings. The story had morphed over the years from three ‘wise men’ to the ‘Three Kings” and the interpretation of the story.
The ‘Three Kings” in stained glass.
The ‘Three Kings’ in tapestry.
The beautiful plants at the Met Cloisters during Christmas.
The Cloisters at Christmas in 2023.
After touring the museum, I went outside and toured the neighborhood. My next stop was the Dyckman Farmhouse up the road. For some reason, they had already taken down their Christmas (and when I asked the person in charge that day gave me attitude). I can see from the outside of the house it needs a lot of work. The plantings in the summer hide most of this.
The inside of the house is decorated for a family that owns a prosperous farm in Upper Manhattan. The kitchen was set for a late afternoon lunch and the bedrooms were designed for the family and their guests.
It was really cold and gloomy outside when I left the Dyckman Farmhouse. Still there was a hint of Christmas in the air when I walked down to 207th Street and at the William Tighe Park just off it. There were still Christmas trees up and the neighborhood decorated for the holidays.
The unique tree at William Tighe Park at Dyckman and Seaman Streets
The neighborhood was still decked for the holidays and people looked like they were stretching the holiday to the full 12 days of Christmas.
I got hungry walking around the neighborhood and I headed to G’s Coffee Shop around the corner for some lunch. I love this little neighborhood hangout. It is a place that every neighborhood should have, friendly service and wonderful food.
On this cool afternoon, I was starved and was in the mood for a Cheeseburger and fries and G’s always does such a nice job with their burgers. It did not disappoint me this time either.
The Cheeseburger platter and fries at G’s Coffee Shop is not only delicious but reasonable as well. The service is excellent.
After a wonderful lunch, I walked around the neighborhood and looked at the other decorations and walked in and out of stores to see what was new. Inwood and Washington Heights is changing before my eyes like other neighborhoods in Manhattan. It seems when they rezoned the City during the Bloomberg administration. The whole neighborhood is getting new buildings and parks that don’t look like they are catering to the local population. Already I can see this area changing.
Since my schedule was open for the rest of the afternoon, I decided to walk down to 181st Street to Esmeralda’s Bakery for a snack. I also wanted to see how they decorated the shopping area for Christmas. Washington Heights main shopping district is always nicely decorated for the holidays.
The 181st Street Shopping District
The stars on the 181st Street that decorate the shopping the district.
The core of the Washington Heights shopping district during Christmas.
I stopped at Esmeraldo Bakery at 538 West 181 Street for a snack and the place was pretty busy for a late afternoon.
I had to have one of their sugar doughnuts and they are the best when they are freshly made. It was the perfect sugar high for a gloomy afternoon. Esmeraldo’s Bakery is one of the few quality bakeries left that I can find that does not overcharge for a doughnut, roll or cookie. Her prices are very fair and the selection is always fresh and everything is delicious. It was the perfect pick me up while I was walking around the Washington Heights shopping district. There was still a little Christmas feel around
The selection at Esmeraldo Bakery collection.
The amazing sugar doughnuts at Esmeraldo Bakery are worth the trip uptown.
I walked around the business district and around the 181st Street shopping district realizing how much had changed since the summer and how many small businesses had closed. New businesses have opened up but I was surprised how many places had closed since I toured in August. The rents must be going up here as well.
I went back to the subway stop and admired the Christmas trees one more time as darkness fell. There was a real Christmas spirit up town as well.
The Christmas tree at 207th Street lit for the evening.
The Christmas tree in William Tighe Park.
I really enjoyed seeing the decorations uptown that I have never seen before and realized that there were traditions all over the city. Washington Heights does their own unique job decorating their neighborhood.
On the night before they left for the New Year’s celebrations, my brother and sister in law wanted to take me to dinner at a ‘typical New York” restaurant. I told them of a wonderful restaurant in Times Square at the Marriott Marquis called the “Broadway Lounge” that I had been to many times with the most spectacular views so we went there. The food and service did not disappoint us and the views were spectacular.
The Marriott Marquis in Times Square at 1535 Broadway.
The Broadway Lounge never disappoints me because as the food is pricey it is also very good and the quality I have found to be excellent. The view is the reason why everyone comes here and my sister in law made the reservation so that we could sit next to the window and that was dazzling.
The view of Times Square from our table. It is just dazzling.
The food lived up to the view this evening. I had the Three Cheese Grilled Cheese sandwich with fries with a Coke and for dessert we shared a White Cake with Fresh fruit. Very simple comfort food on a cold and somewhat gloomy night. Still the food and the service were wonderful and gave us a chance to catch up before they left and to how beautiful Manhattan is in the evening.
The delicious Three Cheese Grilled Cheese sandwich with fries and a Coke.
The White Vanilla Cake with fresh fruit that we shared for dessert.
I was a nice meal and a perfect way to ring in the New Year together early.
On New Years Eve morning, they left to celebrate the holiday in the City and I stayed at home to spend a quiet New Year at home. I run in the New Year by watching the last minute of NBC and then went to bed. Not the most exciting New Years Eve but I just wanted to stay in and relax. It had been a long month. This is how I welcomed in 2024.
Now you know why I am so exhausted! My feet never touched the ground since Halloween night.
I wanted to share these pictures around Manhattan during the holidays:
The dazzling West 55th Street at Christmas time.
Christmas on West 55th Street closer to Fifth Avenue,
Christmas lights on West 45th Street
The Christmas lights on West 55th Street.
A Christmas tree on Eighth Avenue.
Corporate Christmas tree at West 58th Street.
The Dior sign for the light show at Saks Fifth Avenue.
1251 Sixth Avenue-A corporate Christmas.
The Star on Fifth Avenue.
1221 Sixth Avenue-A corporate Christmas.
West 57th Street at Christmas.
The skaters in Rockefeller Center by the Christmas tree.
The tree at Rockefeller Center.
The Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center the Sunday after the Epiphany.
The true beauty of New York City and especially Manhattan is in the details of it. It just amazes you! I do not know how I did it all and still got straight “A’s”.
In my live classes, I open my consulting company, “Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc.”, for business and the whole class bands together and we have one big project. In the era of post-COVID and online learning, I was lucky that I was able to teach one of the live classes on the Bergen Community College, Paramus Campus. It was such a pleasure welcoming students back to campus with live lectures and conversing with them.
The Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. corporate logo of the six trees
In the past, I have created these projects under the Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. banner, the main consulting company, the Orion Malls banner, a Mall design company and the Buscomonzefi.com banner, my Tech Division. Each business does its best to be creative, forward thinking and have a thought producing presentations. I also challenge the students to top on another in their presentations and build on what they have seen others do in the past.
Professor Justin Watrel, CEO & Co-Founder of Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc.
Recently our college was talking about recruitment to the school and the outreach to the high schools. I had seen the recent “Open House’ flyers and emails on campus and sent to my email and I thought the event could have a bit more pizzaz to it. You were trying to recruit students to come to the college and I thought there could be more to it. Working from our Homecoming, Welcome Week and Ambassadors programs that we had done in the past, I thought of “Go Bulldogs Go!-Open House Spring 2024”, a reinvented Open House with dinners, events, concerts and fun activities for the high school students, their parents and current students to enjoy.
“Go Bulldogs Go-Open House 2024 at Bergen Community College Project:
From here I picked my Executive Team and the various Divisional Teams to complete the project. We had the Talent Team, which pays for everything and get the Benefits package together along with the creating the Holiday Party at the end of the project. The Entertainment Team, who would provide all the musicians and musical performances to all the events that we had planned, the Food Service Team, which created all the menus, meals and ideas for serving food and snacks at all the functions. The most important Team was the Marketing Team, who had to promote the whole program to the high schools, Administration, Students and Parents, to all the events and to the Alumni. It was a big job and we only had seven weeks to put the whole thing together.
Being a CEO does have its headaches though. When you have a class of thirty people working on a project, there is a lot going on and there are those who try to ‘piggyback’ off other students and some just disappear. I had both of those. There were a lot of students I had to work with going forward on this project and a lot of leading I had to do. Having three projects going simultaneously was a lot of work for myself and my Executive Teams but I knew all of them could do it.
This was a project that I really wanted to come to life. I think we can do more for our student recruiting and wanted the programs to really shine to show the best of the college and all its attributes. The first day of the project, I broke the class up into Teams and discussed the project.
The Open House that we were creating was a three day event where we engaged both high school students and their parents, the current student body of Bergen Community College and Alumni.
I challenged the students to put a Pep Rally together for the sports teams on campus, a active concert and games, a nice International dinner and a breakfast brunch with music and an active tour of campus while promoting the campus for students to attend. The tours were created to show the best attributes of campus such as the music labs, the AI labs, the Ciccone Theater, the Bergen Room, Gallery Bergen and all our sporting facilities. There is so much at our campus that people do not see on these tours. I also do not like the idea that we burden students with financial aid issues not instead of when they accept coming so I put less emphasis on that. I want them to know all the great cultural things they can enjoy when they do decide to come to Bergen Community College.
As part of the class, I had an in class field trip around campus. I could not believe that most of these students didn’t know that all these things existed on campus. I should have learned from previous classes. This is how this all got inspired. When I asked all the students what their experience was like on campus, most of them just said that they came to class and went home. They never ventured around the campus. A few ate in the cafeteria and one or two had been to the Ciccone Theater and a few more had heard of Gallery Bergen.
The in class trip included Gallery Bergen, with its new contemporary art exhibition, the Bergen Room (in its old location) and the Ciccone Theater, where Professor Baumgartner was doing dress rehearsals but always has time to talk about the Theater Department. That really helps. Then we went outside to the new outdoor courtyard to show the students the logistics of where the concerts and some of the cultural events would take place. Then it back to the classroom to start getting the groups to work on the project. The majority of the students finally got what I was talking about and got to work. Then we started our weekly board meetings.
After seven weeks, the Teams were preparing for our Presentation on December 6th, 2023. I have to say that I was going through a lot in my personal life. Sinterklaas weekend had been the weekend before and all I had done is run around the Hudson River Valley with the Snowflake and Sinterklaas festivities in both Kingston and Rhinebeck, NY. There was a lot of running around the two towns plus running to Ringwood Manor before I left to take pictures of the mansion’s decorations for Christmas. I was not too sure how much time I would have after Christmas (I found that I had none) and was on a picture taking tour.
Then I had my own class presentations in Digital Marketing and Customer Relations class with much stress to get them right (I got ‘A’s on them both) and then had two days of my own students presentations to be followed by another presentation I had to make in Bloomingdales President Marvin Traub with his book “Like No other Store in the World” for my Hotel Sales & Marketing Class (another ‘A’) and then lead to another weekend of picture taking upstate of historical homes and towns. I never sat still and got very little sleep.
In the morning, I had presented my “I’m Glad I’m in Glen Rock, NJ” project with my Marketing class and that went off perfectly so I had high expectations of this class. My President and Senior Vice-President of Operations did not let me down. We had a few hiccups with the presentation but overall it was excellent and I was very impressed by the work and effort the students.
The project results were wonderful and it really showcased the campus with wonderful events to engage the students and their parents over a three day period. I know if the campus really put this whole event on, we would recruit a lot more students with no problems.
What was nice that evening was talking with the parents after the presentation. They were not only impressed by their sons and daughters presentation but impressed by the whole class. That all keep wondering how I get them all to dress up and especially shave. I always reply the same thing, I grade them. I really think though it is the pride that the students have in doing a good job and wanting the look the part of being an executive representing the company. This project prepares them for a future that is unknown to them but now a lot less scary.
This contains all the commercials, artwork, the PowerPoint and headquarters plans.
The Holiday Party Project:
In lieu of the traditional quiz, I have the students get back in their groups and create ideas for a Corporate Christmas Party for the New Brunswick headquarters. It always amazes me what the Teams can do in an hour. The funny part by this point is that they are so used to working with one another it becomes second nature to them. This quiz is a nice way to end the semester and maybe create some new friendships amongst the students.
In my live classes, I open my consulting company, “Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc.”, for business and the whole class bands together and we have one big project. In the era of post-COVID and online learning, I was lucky that I was able to teach one of the live classes on the Bergen Community College, Paramus Campus. It was such a pleasure welcoming students back to campus with live lectures and conversing with them.
The Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. corporate logo of the six trees
In the past, I have created these projects under the Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. banner, the main consulting company, the Orion Malls banner, a Mall design company and the Buscomonzefi.com banner, my Tech Division. Each business does its best to be creative, forward thinking and have a thought producing presentations. I also challenge the students to top on another in their presentations and build on what they have seen others do in the past.
Professor Justin Watrel, CEO & Co-Founder of Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc.
I had recently been at a series of special events at the Bergen County Historical Society both for Christmas in 2022 and for more recent events as the Harvest Festival and a walking tour of the property in 2023. Although the events were interesting and the Christmas event with the period live music and the Pub set up in the Christie House, the attendance seemed rather low.
When I Googled the Historical Society, their social media and digital marketing were not as prominent as they should be either in describing their events or with a series of current pictures or videos. Their digital footprint needed some work. Also, their events never changed year after year. They had the exact same events with the same theme for each season.
This I could see was a problem as people want to have different experiences when they visit a place. These sites do not have to alter the events but do need to update and ‘freshen up’ their offerings with a different twist to keep people coming. Others wise, it it the same thing year after year. Also, they were not marketing the site for people outside of Bergen County let alone for foreign tourism. This is where the idea for “Tourism for the Bergen County Historical Society” project for Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. came into creation.
The Project “Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. presents “Tourism at the Bergen County Historical Society”:
As a member of the Bergen County Historical Society for about five years I had to say the Society does have a tendency to run the same events over and over again and the attendance, especially when it came time for the weather, could really damper the attendance since most events were held outdoors. Plus they attracted the same crowd of older patrons and needed a new clientele to attend to give a fresh perspective to these events.
This is where I wanted to challenge both the students to look at the site from the idea of what would bring them to the Bergen County Historical Society and how the Society could look at making updates to bring that younger, family friendly crowd who was interested in the history of Bergen County but still wanted to have a good time and be engaged by the event. That can be a delicate balancing act in the age of social media and cellphone distraction.
It took some convincing from both sides to get this project off the ground. The Society kept thinking we were a real consulting firm and were hesitant to do the project. The none of my students had ever been to the Bergen County Historical Society let alone want to go there. The schools in Bergen County no longer even studied American history the way we did when I was in junior high or high school nor did they take the field trips to Trenton or Washington DC that we did back in the 1970’s. This is when I knew this would be a learning experience for both parties.
The goal was to bring more tourists both domestic and international to the Bergen County Historical Society with a series of new events for both Halloween and Spring/Easter that were both inclusive and family friendly that had a contemporary but historical twist to them. I asked the students to look at the history of both holidays and what the meaning of the Fall festivals and Spring Festivals meant to people through the ages. The third event the students had to create was a fundraiser for the Society that would raise $25,000 to raise money for the new museum on the Society’s property. I saw some shocked looks on the students faces but I knew they could do it.
There were some major challenges logistics wise for the project as well. I had to arrange a visit to the site because the students would never go out on their own to see it, plus the site was not open on a Thursday night so that would take some coordination. Also, being the Fall semester we always worried about the problem with the weather and the night of the tour it threatened to rain (it didn’t Thank God). Lastly, I only had four weeks to put this project together and get it presented to the Historical Society before I had to give the final exam and post grades by the end of the semester. This on top of all the projects and papers I myself had to do for Graduate school gave me many stressful nights. Somehow, we pulled it all off to a huge success.
The week after I presented the project to the students with a few groans, we were off the next Thursday night to a mandatory (and I mean mandatory!) field trip to the Bergen County Historical Society in River Edge, NJ to see all the buildings and learn about the history of the site and the importance of it during the Revolutionary War. The time change after Halloween meant we would be having the tour in the dark with not a lot of light to shine the way.
Parking at the site needed to worked on as well as their parking lot was hard to maneuver if you did not know the area and had some sharp turns to get to when parking your car. Still I got all the students there and basically on time (except one) and we got the tour underway with the former and current Presidents of the Society. I could not believe how well it worked out for everyone.
First I had to make sure that everyone was there the night of the tour which was difficult because people were coming from work and the traffic being what is was at 6:30pm at night but again everyone was ready to go. We started at the Campbell-Christie House, which was used as the pub for the Christmas event I had been at the year earlier. It had also been used as the gathering place for the tree lighting ceremony when COVID hit in Christmas 2020.
Starting our class tour of the Bergen County Historical Society at the Campbell-Christi House
Starting the tour at twilight. It was really dark on the Bergen County Historical Society site.
Entering the Campbell-Christie House for the tour.
The Campbell-Christie House during the day.
We toured the house and talked about its history and how it was moved to this location to save it from demolishment. Also the uses of the house in different programs.
We then moved onto the Demarest House which is the next house over. The home is much smaller but its significance in Bergen County history is the same as the Campbell-Christie. This type of Dutch style architecture is unique to this part the country where the Dutch had to adapt to weather conditions and building materials that could be found.
The Demarest House during the day.
Its ownership to one of the most prominent families gave it even more importance. We were able to see the loft space and how the family lived on a daily basis in the two rooms.
Our class touring the Steuben House toward the end of the tour.
Then it was on to the Steuben House which was the home of the Zabriskie family but given to General Steuben by the patriots for his assistance during the Revolutionary War. This is the main house that most activities take place in including lectures and musical performances. In each of the homes,.
Ex-President of the Society Deborah Powell lead the students on a very engaging tour of the Steuben House. It has an interesting and intriguing past.
The two Presidents of the Society who joined us told me later how impressed they were that the students were so engaged in the conversation and wanted to learn so much about the site. For all of my students this was the first time any of them had been to the Bergen County Historical Society, so it was a treat for them as well. I could see that they all learned so much from ‘being in the field’.
My student consultants from Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. with former President Deborah Powell in our group shot at the main room at the Steuben House. It was at the end of the tour.
The Steuben House during the day.
After the tour was over and the questions were answered, our group left for dinner. I can always tell the success of these projects when we all have dinner together. I chose a pizzeria around the corner from the Historical Society that I had never been to before but plan on returning to, Napolimania at 450 Hackensack Avenue in the Home Depot mall. It had the perfect amount of space for our group of 30 students, who were both hungry and cold. Both the pizza and the pizzeria were wonderful and we had such a good time.
The Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. student consultants enjoying dinner.
Dinner at Napolimania Pizzeria for dinner after the tour.
Napolimania at 450 Hackensack Avenue in Hackensack, NJ TripAdvisor review:
I think one of the most important aspects about this project is that the Team “breaks bread” with each other (have a business meal). It is one of the biggest parts of Team Building and a way for strangers to get to know one another. I have seen more friendships formed over these meals and a transition of how the students treat this project. Most of them start taking it more seriously and then the work begins. By the way, the pizza was excellent that night and I highly recommend the restaurant for the food and service.
The next week, I started to give more time in the classroom for the students to work on their project as it was crunch time and they only had three weeks to complete it and present it to me. This is when the stress levels of the Teams start because then you see the people who will really work and the ones that put in the minimum and trust me, they make their feelings known. I had my share of headaches before this presentation but for the other 95% of the class, I saw some major transformations in the students, their attitudes towards the project and a lot of creativity.
We had the presentation in the fifth floor conference room at the Lyndhurst campus of Bergen Community College and this is only the second time I have used this room but it is the best one to present the project in.
The Presentation welcome:
CEO Watrel’s welcome
President Beqo welcome:
President Sorak Beqo opening the program for “Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. presents “Tourism at the Bergen County Historical Society” on the night of December 7th, 2023.
The Executive welcome and headquarters plan.
Our honored guests that night were the President of the Bergen County Historical Society, the former President of the Society and one of the Board members. I would have hoped we would have had a better turn out from the Society but I understood that it was the holiday season and everyone had so many commitments plus it was later in the evening and down in Lyndhurst. Still, it was nice to have the ladies attend for feedback on the Presentation.
Each group gave their Presentation along with creating two commercials, one promoting their events on the Society grounds and then one promoting the Society for tourism.
Team One Presentation:
Team One presenting their ideas for events and fundraising at the Bergen County Historical Society.
Team One presenting their ideas to raise money for the new museum.
Team One’s Presentation on YouTube.
Team Two Presentation:
Team Two pitching their ideas for the Bergen County Historical Society.
The ideas for fundraising for the new Museum at the Bergen County Historical Society.
The extra credit project that Team Two created was one of the reasons they won the contest.
Team Two Presentation on YouTube.
Team Three Presentation:
Team Three making their pitch for new events at the Bergen County Historical Society. They gave one of the most professional presentations that I had seen in a long time.
Team Three making their pitch on their ideas for fundraising for the new Museum.
Team Three Presentation on YouTube
Closing Remarks on YouTube:
Being only given four weeks to pull this project off, the student consultants did an excellent job on this project. The projects were creative, inventive and showed that they had studied and visited the historical site more than once. They used all the buildings on the property for different events coming up with new ideas on old events and creating new ones.
I liked the ideas of the Easter Egg hunts and Bunny visits as well as how to approach Easter as a secular event taking its Pagan roots and putting a new twist on it. For Halloween, the students incorporated old ideas such as apple bobbing and hayrides around the property with utilizing the historic homes as haunted houses. The winning group even used a haunted maze and a petting zoo to the mix.
For the museum fundraiser, the student consultants had some creative ideas to raise money for the museum. One group used a food truck event, another used a full day event and for their extra credit event was a “Revolutionary Dance” that I thought was really interesting. It always amazes me the way that students give such a fresh perspective to a project. I could tell that the Board members of the Society were blown away by the ideas that the students came up with to bring more people to the site.
After the Q & A for the project, we took our Corporate shot for Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. headquarters. I was impressed with what a sharp group we made.
The Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. Corporate shot-Lyndhurst “Tourism at Bergen County Historical Society” Team December 2023.
All three Teams were given the task by one of the founding members of Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. to create ideas for the Corporate Christmas Party. The students were tasked with creating a menu with one appetizer, a main dish and a dessert with a signature drink and then had to create a corporate message in both English and Spanish. It is always fun to see the results on this:
In my live classes, I open my consulting company, “Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc.”, for business and the whole class bands together and we have one big project. In the era of post-COVID and online learning, I was lucky that I was able to teach one of the live classes on the Bergen Community College, Paramus Campus. It was such a pleasure welcoming students back to campus with live lectures and conversing with them.
The Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. corporate logo of the six trees
In the past, I have created these projects under the Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. banner, the main consulting company, the Orion Malls banner, a Mall design company and the Buscomonzefi.com banner, my Tech Division. Each business does its best to be creative, forward thinking and have a thought producing presentations. I also challenge the students to top on another in their presentations and build on what they have seen others do in the past.
Professor Justin Watrel, CEO & Co-Founder of Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc.
To continue the tradition of marketing small Bergen County towns for foreign and domestic tourism, I had been eyeing Glen Rock, NJ as the next town to promote. A small upper middle class town in the northern part of Bergen County, Glen Rock is rich in history. Known for the famous “Rock” just off the southern part of the downtown that the town is named for and a small but vibrant downtown and a small historical museum that was in need of some social media attention, I thought this was the best town to choose this time around.
I spent a couple of days exploring the downtown to get some inspiration and ate lunch in a local pizzeria that I was not thrilled with. I made some adjustments to the project when I looked at the town’s Facebook page to see what types of activities that they hold. I saw that they needed more detailed events at all the holidays, a stronger downtown presence and a new town logo. This is when these projects become fun. You want to show a town its potential for tourism in the future both domestic and foreign. There was so much to show off in the town of Glen Rock, NJ.
The Project “I’m Glad I’m in Glen Rock, NJ: Be a Tourist in your own Town”:
These projects take about six to seven weeks to pull together. I had seen my class roster several weeks earlier and I knew most of the students who were in my class had taken my Introduction to Business class so I knew where to plug in most of this semester’s executives of the company.
The “I’m Glad I’m in Glen Rock” Team on our tour of the Town of Glen Rock, NJ for our project with the Honorable Councilwoman Jill Orlich.
Glen Rock does not the historic downtown that Paterson, Rutherford or Westwood have but they do have a wonderful museum with the “Museum at the Station”, their small historical society at the Glen Rock Train Station and of course “The Rock”, a famous Lenape tribe marker located south of the downtown. There was a lot of history in the town and many places that tourists would like to visit.
I built on some of the ideas that I had used in the Rutherford and Westwood projects, creating new Christmas, Halloween and Summer events based on what we did for the other towns. I knew there were some problems with the Tree Lighting ceremony in town so we created the “Snowflake Festival” with Mr. and Mrs. Snowflake as the ‘grand marshals’ of the event as opposed to Santa Claus.
For Halloween, we created the “Pumpkin Festival” with the theme around the movie “The Nightmare Before Christmas”, which was a series of tents with all sorts of activities from face painting, pumpkin decorating and watching the film that evening.
For the Summer, I saw that Glen Rock does a lot for their Senior residents. This is not the “Big Band” era group but the “Disco Era” group of seniors so I wanted to create something special for them as well. So I created a “Seniors and the 70’s” event where bands that played 1970’s music would be featured for a full month in their bandstand in Veteran’s Park.
For our Historical Team, they were tasked with creating a Lenape tribe event in honor of the long history with the town’s origins, a historical tour of the town starting in the downtown area and creating an ad campaign and commercial to promote the “Museum at the Station”. It is such a great museum so why weren’t people visiting it? Plus the group’s each had to come up with a series of new logos for the town.
The new Lenape Indian logo by the Historical Team
It was an ambitious group of events.
I knew the students were up for the challenge. Still it was a challenge for me to get some of the students to buy into the concept. Every semester it is the same thing. Eighty percent of the students buy into the group project and then there are the few who do nothing. I could see that this semester as well.
The Lenape Event created by The Historical Team
We started the project myself introducing the project to the students four weeks into the course and explaining the project and how I wanted to approach it. Since a third of the class had taken my course in Introduction to Business, they had all worked on similar projects in the past and understood what was expected of them.
Our fifth week into class, I took the students on a walking tour and lunch in Glen Rock, NJ’s downtown and parks so that they would know what the town was all about and its attributes. On a sunny but really cold day, we met at “The Rock” to start the tour of downtown. We started with the history of “The Rock” and the part it played in Lenape life. We were joined on the tour by the Honorable Councilwoman Jill Orlich.
Myself with my student consultants in Veteran’s Park in Glen Rock, NJ where most of the proposed special events would take place.
We then moved on to the Museum at the Station which was closed for the day. I had taken the students here Halloween weekend on the only Sunday afternoon that they were open and gave them extra credit for coming. We filled the museum to capacity for the entire afternoon and the students were able to see what the history of the town was about. We just took pictures and noted parking for the events that would be planned here.
The Museum by the Station-The Glen Rock Historical Society at
We then did a loop of the Downtown, stopping in stores and visiting parks and the train stations to see how people from the community commute to jobs in Newark, Jersey City and New York City. This is also how outside tourism can be attained and people can commute into the town to attend anyone of the festivities.
We ended the tour with a Team lunch at Francesca’s Brick Oven Pizza and Pasta at 234 Rock Road in Downtown Glen Rock. The food and the service were excellent. It gave the student consultants as chance to ‘break bread’ and get to know one another better. This is a good Team building exercise plus a chance to experience their first business lunch with a company.
The Marketing Team Dining with each other at Francesca’s.
The Talent Team dining together at Francesca’s.
By our last Board Meeting, I thought we were ready and on December 6th, we made the formal presentation to the ladies at the Museum by the Station and a few invited guests. Being an afternoon class, I could not force people to change their schedule’s but it would have been nice to see more people at the Presentation.
The Presentation went by well and it was handled very professionally but we had some problems in the Marketing Division on what should have been included and what should not. They gave a whole presentation on the attributes of Marketing and that was not what was asked of them. I later found out they were doing project at the last minute and that did not thrill me. I could see this in the slides, menus and concepts. Still they created some memorable commercials promoting the town and the new Town Song. The logos they created for Glen Rock were excellent. All of this was changed and reorganized when we went to present the project to the Mayor and Council at Glen Rock City Hall on December 19th.
The newly created town logo for Glen Rock, NJ.
The Marketing Team proposals:
The Marketing Commercial:
The Glen Rock Town Song:
Welcome to Glen Rock commercial (the old commercial):
The Presentation of “I’m Glad I’m in Glen Rock, NJ-Be a Tourist in your own Town” in the classroom on December 6th, 2023. The Presentation went by very well and I was really impressed with the way the students handled themselves:
The PowerPoint presentation of “I’m Glad I’m in Glen Rock, NJ:
After the Presentation was over, I hosted a light reception for the students, our invited guests and family members. The ladies from the Museum by the Station/Glen Rock Historical Society had a lot of nice praise for the project and some interesting questions.
On December 19th, 2023 at the request of the Mayor, we presented a revamped version of the project with new ideas from the Marketing Team along with the selection of bands that would be used for the “Seniors and the 70’s” series of concerts. By the end of the Presentation, I could see that the Mayor and Councilwoman who showed up for the evening. They had a lot of intriguing questions from the stance of budgeting and attainment of volunteers and how to run the events.
The Presentation in Glen Rock City Hall in Glen Rock, NJ:
Part One:
Part Two:
Part Three:
This was filmed at Glen Rock City Hall in Glen Rock, NJ.
I treated the project as a real proposal and informed the Mayor and Council that Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. would try to obtain things like Corporate sponsorship for the big events and that we could work with the local colleges and the high school for volunteerism to help out to help defer costs.
We were also joined that evening by many parents of the student consultants who could not attend the first Presentation due to work commitments. It was a nice evening out for everyone and productive in giving the town some fresh ideas with an international prospective (at no cost to them) to tourists visiting the town.
Trust me, I was just as blown away by the project as the Mayor and Council were that evening, I would not have believed a group of students put all of this together but they did.
I really was “Glad I was in Glen Rock, NJ”.
The Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc.-Glen Rock Team Corporate picture on December 6th, 2023.
The website for the Glen Rock Team of Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc.:
As part of Quiz Four for the class, I have the students create a Corporate Holiday Party for the Glen Rock Division for Corporate New Brunswick. Here are their ideas:
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