I started walking the streets of East Harlem after a long day in the Soup Kitchen. They keep me very busy there and I had to work the busy bread station. It can very harried if there are any sweets such as pastries and doughnuts to give out. I was worn out but still carried on.
I took the number six subway uptown to 110th Street and started my day with lunch at the Blue Sky Deli (Haiji’s) at 2135 First Avenue again for another chopped cheese sandwich. I am beginning to love these things. For five dollars and my budget on the project, it just makes sense. Plus, it is nice to sit in Jefferson Park and just relax and watch the kids play soccer while I am eating. I don’t know if it was the sandwich or all the walking but I had stomach cramps for the rest of the day. It was a long day of walking.
Blue Sky Deli is now known as Chopped Cheese Delicious Deli at 2135 First Avenue (this is what is looks like now
There is nothing like one of their Chopped Cheese’s and I try to visit every time I am in the area.
The Chopped Cheese with a Welsh’s Grape Soda makes the best meal
Yum!
I started the day by retracing my steps on 110th and looking over all the housing projects that line this part of First Avenue. I looked along the long line that is First Avenue and made sure to walk this part of the street as quick as possible. It does not start to get sketchy until about 105th Street but still you want to get through as fast as possible. Walking eight blocks across and back is impossible to do in one day even walking fast so I broke it up into two and a half separate days.
Along most of these blocks I was retracing what I saw along the Avenues and there is a lot of new construction and renovating along the way. A lot of buildings are being sandblasted to their original beauty and along the way there are little surprises along the way to discover. I just wanted to let readers know that since I had already walked First Avenue and the side streets on both sides, when I reached First Avenue when walking the streets, I did not cross the street and stayed on the west side of the avenue.
Most of the side streets I had walked already in some form along the way of walking the Avenues and took time out revisit many of the parks and restaurants that I had traveled previously. There are still many gems in this neighborhood that you should take time to visit. In some parts of the neighborhood, I would suggest going during the day when many other people are around. Even as safe as Manhattan has gotten over the years, I still look over my shoulder all the time and watch everyone no matter what neighborhood I am in.
I made several walks through the housing projects all over the neighborhood. You can really understand the complexity of the projects by walking through them as many as times as I did. It really is a different life. Sometimes I get the impression that being piled up in one complex is not good for anyone. The yards are not properly taken care of and playgrounds that are not kept in great shape.
Yet there are signs that residents have made it their own though. I walked through the Dewitt Clinton, Franklin, Lehman and Washington Carver Housing complexes and here and there are raised beds for fruits, vegetables and flowers. Some residents have taken it upon themselves to clean up the garbage in the playgrounds and paint the equipment and benches. Some make their own repairs in the play areas and then stand guard, watching what the kids are doing. I discovered this as I walked through the Washington Houses three times to complete 108th, 107th and 106th by crisscrossing the open-air park in between the complex. People kept looking at me walking through park.
Along the way, I discovered many small community gardens tucked between buildings such as the Neighbors of Vega Baja Garden at 109th between First and Second Avenues and the Humaniano Community Garden at 108th between First and Second Avenues. These small patches of green make the block. Hidden behind fences, I can see that the neighborhood puts a lot of pride into landscaping them and planting them. Sometimes they are open to the public but I just walk by because no one is there.
Street art along a wooden fence at East 109th Street just off Second Avenue. I thought this was brilliant and very original. There is a real message in this.
Street art on the fence of East 109th Street just off Second Avenue
The sun up close
The writing on the wall
I was back at Make & Bake Pizza at 1976 Third Avenue at 108th Street (now 109 Pizza as of March 2025 for lunch again (See my review on TripAdvisor and DiningonaShoeStringinNYC@Wordpress.com). For a dollar this is great pizza, and they give you a nice size slice. The restaurants in this are around the three local schools offer menus with reasonable prices catering to the kids and their families so take time to explore them. Mr. Moe’s is right down the road, and I can still taste that chopped cheese sandwich.
Now the pizzeria is called 109th Pizzeria and offers the same great prices as before
Make & Bake Pizza at 1976 Third Avenue (now 109th Street Pizzeria in 2025)
I also saw some of my favorite ‘street art’ murals on these blocks. Between 109th and 107th there are several that I saw. This ‘Spiritual Art’ work has almost an Aztec/Mayan look to it and its use of color and motion are so detailed. Take time to look at these works of art.
Some are ‘tags’ while others the artist was trying to tell a story. Look to the side of the buildings and the sides of schools. You might see some on the sliding doors of businesses. There is a lot of talent here. If there was only a gallery for these kids.
Street Art at 162 East 104th Street
The doorway of the building at the entrance of 162 East 104th Street
There was some new street art along East 104th Street between Lexington and Third Avenues. I had never noticed it before it might be brand new but I thought it was brilliant.
The work on East 104th Street
The painting on the opposite side of the doorway
A mosaic on the side a wall near Lexington Avenue
As you travel to the corner of Lexington and 107th, the neighborhood starts to change again once you pass the Franklin Housing Project. The buildings around this area are being fixed up and sandblasted back to their original beauty and new restaurants and shops are opening bringing a little life back to the area. By Hope Community Inc., there are interesting portraits of Latino Cultural leaders. The detailed portrait of Pedro Pietri by James de la Vega is interesting and take time to admire the work.
Pedro Pietri by Artist James de la Vega (now hidden by an outdoor restaurant)
Mr. De La Vega is an American artist of Puerto Rican decent who lives in New York City. He is known for his street and muralist art. He is a graduate of Cornell University with a BFA in Fine Arts.
My first day walking the streets, I made it to the corner of 105th and First Avenue by the beginning of nightfall and decided to stop there. I was passing the East River Houses again and there were some shady characters walking around so I decided to finish 105th and rounded 104th Street for my next stop in the neighborhood and relaxed in the Central Park Conservatory at 1233 Fifth on the corner of East 104th and Fifth Avenue for the rest of the evening. My feet were killing me at that point.
Central Park Conservatory gates at 1233 Fifth Avenue
My next trip up to the neighborhood was June 21st, the third Anniversary of ‘MywalkinManhattan.com’. I can’t believe it has been three years since I started walking the island of Manhattan.
The Central Park Conservatory in the Summer of 2025
I still remember my first day walking in Marble Hill on Father’s Day 2015. I honestly thought I would finish in one summer and here I am at 96th Street on the East Side with the rest of the island ahead of me.
The French Garden Fountain at the Central Park Conservatory Garden
The newly renovated French Gardens at the Central Park Conservatory Gardens
Street art along East 105th Street that really impressed me between Lexington and Madison Avenues. This had not been there on my last trip. These works were touching and very creative. The artist presented work that comes from the heart.
On the wall along East 105th Street
Painting along East 105th Street
I started at 96th Street and walked the length of it again from the park to the river. It was sad that the tulips along the river had died by the time I got back. They had been a colorful display by the path entering the river. Even the flowers at the Park Avenue Mall at Park and 97th Street started to change. Spring was giving way to the summer months and you could see the difference in the plants and trees. Between the plantings on the streets and second stage of flowers in Central Park, June was here.
Park Avenue around East 100th Street
You begin to notice distinctions in the grid pattern of the neighborhood block by block. By East 97th Street, you will see a real change. The Metropolitan Hospital, the Department of Sanitation and the Washington Housing projects set almost a border between the Upper East Side and Spanish Harlem once you pass Third Avenue.
Along the border of 97th Street on the grounds of the projects, the residents have set up a series of vegetable and fruit gardens and have done some landscaping that have some character to the lawns of the housing complex. I give the residents credit for their creativity, and I will have to revisit the site over the summer months to see how it turns out. Also along the street is the St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Catholic Church, which is the only one of its kind in NYC. Stop and look at the detail of the church.
By 99th Street, the Washington Carver Houses start to dominate the middle of the neighborhood and Mt. Sinai cuts the neighborhood between the Upper East Side from Spanish Harlem to the east to Park Avenue. I tried once again to visit the Martha Stewart Garden in the Washington Carver complex at Madison Avenue and East 99th Street but again the gate was locked. At this point, it looked like it could have used a gardener to touch it up.
Martha Stewart Garden at Madison Avenue and East 99th Street
I continued the zigzag through the streets having crisscrossed again through the projects that I had walked a couple of times before. Between Park and Lexington Avenues as you round 101st Street, you can find some beautifully maintained brownstones and landscaped stairs with potted plants. It looks like something you would see in the village downtown.
The Park Avenue Mall at East 96th Street at night
This small break in the grid pattern shows what the neighborhood once was before the city leveled it for public housing. People are really moving back in this pocket of the neighborhood and fixing up the buildings. Here is where you will find the street art on the walls and fences. I saw a lot of the yarn art I saw uptown but am not sure if this was the same artist.
I had a funny incident with a young police officer at the 23rd Precinct on the corner of 102nd and Third Avenue. He was making a phone call and had just finished and really must have wondered what I was doing in the neighborhood. He took the time to yell a ‘hello’ to me and I just looked at him for a minute and said ‘hello’ back and waited for him to say something.
I guess my progressive glasses must have given me a professional look and he did not say anything else. He watched me walk through the Washington complex and strangely enough waited for me to come back and then watched me walk back up 102nd on my way back up to Fifth Avenue. I saw him staring at me again and I just nodded and smiled and kept walking. I didn’t know that me walking around was so interesting.
Between Park Avenue and Third Avenue up to where the projects start again by 109th Avenue and Madison and Fifth Avenue is where you are seeing where the neighborhood is starting to gentrify and people are starting to fix up the buildings and the new restaurants and shops are starting to pop up. There is a pizzeria on Lexington Avenue, Lexington Pizza, that I have on my bucket list (that closed in 2025).
Thank God I did not have to venture past 105th Street as it was getting darker. Between Second Avenue and First Avenue after 101st Street, I always felt that the people in the housing complexes were watching me. More like staring at me yet I could not catch them actually doing it. I guess I really stood out.
The street mural at West 104th Street by the Museum of the City of New York just popped up and I could not see the artist. I think it was created by Mount Sinai hospital around the corner
As I rounded 104th onto 105th Streets on First Avenue, I must have made quite the impression walking down the street. A group of guys, I swear to God, looked like they jumped when they saw me round the corner. When I had to walk back up the opposite side of the southern part of 105th Street and First Avenue to complete this part of the neighborhood, they completely disappeared. I swear I thought that they were going to gang up on me and jump me. They also gave me the strangest looks. It reminded me of walking on 155th Street by the river and what I saw up by the Dyckman Houses. I just don’t blend in.
I walked past the parks along 103rd and 105th Streets and brought a quick snack into the White Playground on 105th Street and relaxed for a bit just watching the parents watch the kids playing on the park equipment. I really like this park. They keep it in good shape and the parents in the neighborhood really seem to enjoy coming here.
When I was passing the subway station near 103rd Street right by the Washington Carver Houses, I had not noticed a street art portrait of Celia Cruz. The artist did a good job.
The Celia Cruz painting on 103rd Street
The work was done by artist James De La Vega in 2003
I walked past Maggie’s Garden at 1576 Lexington Avenue again on 101st Street and Lexington Avenue but the gate was locked on this day.
I ended the afternoon walking through Central Park and walking around the length of the reservoir and watch the joggers pass me by. If they only knew how much I had already walked that afternoon.
This sun was outside Maggie’s Garden the last time I visited.
It really made me think, looking at the crowd of joggers in the park and the people walking around the Central Park Conservatory that early part of the evening, how many of the people I passed that day venture past their part of neighborhood. These blocks have really been an eye-opener in urban planning gone wrong and how a neighborhood can be affected by the wrong decisions in building efforts. I saw a lot of people in the neighborhood trying to improve things on their own terms and take matters in their own hands.
The Harlem Meer at twilight in the Summer of 2025
I just don’t think that this part of Manhattan has to worry about getting too ‘hipster’ or ‘Yuppie’ unless the city sells off the projects and knocks them down. Even if they did, the neighborhood has its own character and I credit the people living there for making it that way.
The Harlem Meer in the Fall of 2024
There is no real way to explain it without you, the reader walking these streets yourself and soaking up the culture that is East Spanish Harlem. Do yourself a favor though, don’t dress like me
Happy Third Anniversary and a very Happy Father’s Day to my Dad!
Halloween 2024 on the Harlem Meer:
I had never seen the Harlem Meer so crowded before especially with lots of little kids. Families were enjoying the Halloween activities of pumpkin carving and painting, games and little treats that the kids got (I never saw anything as it was gone quickly). The festivities were just ending as I raced from class to get into the City before the Pumpkin Flotilla started at dusk. It was still light outside so I got to enjoy the exhibition inside the Dana Discovery Center, “The Gates”, on the history of the various gates people use to enter Central Park.
The Gates Exhibition at the Dana Exploratory Center
Then the fun began when the sun went down and the Halloween music started to play on the load speaker. Then two people canoeing started to paddle around the Harlem Meer Pond with lit Jack O’Lanterns following them. They started at dusk but when the sun finally went down, the real magic began.
For the next hour, one gentleman started paddling around the Meer then followed by another and they circled the pond for about an hour. Everyone was jockeying for space as we all tried to take the perfect pictures.
I stayed in the park taking pictures as the guys finished paddling around. The park had a almost spooky and mysterious look to it at sunset. I just wanted to get out of Central Park when it got dark. Too many bad memories of things happening. I headed over to the East Side
Please read my other blogs on walking East Harlem:
For checking out the street art and the community gardens in the neighborhood please walk the area. Things are changing so fast that you never know when something can disappear. The Community Gardens have their own hours depending on the season.
I decided to take the long weekend from finishing East Harlem (that took about two weeks to finish on various days through some spooky territory) and head up to Ithaca, NY for our summer Alumni Reunion for Cornell University, Class of 2004 and 2010 PDP. In the Fall of 2024, I retraced my steps back up to Narrowsburg, NY and stayed the night to eat at the Heron Restaurant.
I decided before I left that I was going to take the long route and explore New York State. There were a few towns along the way I wanted to explore and a few restaurants that I wanted to try that I had read about in travel magazines. Who knew it would take four hours to get to my eventually destination of Bovina Center, where I would be spending my first night?
I unfortunately started the day late by cutting the lawn and helping a friend with a problem she was having and did not get on the road until 3:00pm. Even though it was a long trip up to Narrowsburg, it was a beautiful one that almost competed with the trip to Hana when I was on Maui years ago. It was a beautiful sunny day when I started the first part of this trip to Narrowsburg, NY to visit the Heron Restaurant and The Nest Hotel, two places that had been recommended on a tour guide of the area.
The first destination was to explore Downtown Narrowsburg, NY
The first part of my day was exploring Sussex County, NJ and driving up Route 23, a highway I had not traveled since the 70’s when I went to visit Sterling Forest with my parents. Route 23 take you though towns that time forgot. These small little towns that have a unique character to them, with their home town stores and buildings from the turn of the last century. I was not able to spend much time in these towns but it will be fun to explore in the future.
Downtown Sussex, NJ is being gentrified and the sidewalks are being bricked up
The town of Sussex had a beautiful downtown with large grand hotel in its downtown that I want to revisit. It is such a elaborate building and impressive brunch menu. Plus I want to look around the downtown more. There were some interesting businesses and beautiful architecture to admire.
The Hotel Sussex in Downtown Sussex, NJ
Leaving the town of Sussex, I traveled to the corner of the state to the highest peak in the State of New Jersey in the mountains of Stokes Forest, where the peak sits at 1803 feet above sea level and quite a view from the top. The roads twist and turn once you leave Colesville, NJ and make sure you buy gas before you leave Sussex because the gas gets more expensive once you get to the New York border.
Downtown Sussex, NJ is being renovated with new brick sidewalks in 2024
I crossed Route 84 into New York State and the City of Port Jervis where there is not much to see and then started my trip up Route 97 to my first stop, Narrowsburg. I have taken many scenic trips before but this is an amazing and breathtaking view of both the Delaware River and the surrounding mountains.
The historic sign in Downtown Sussex, NJ
Route 97 foliage in the mountains
Route 97 in this part of New York State hugs the Delaware River as it winds up the border of the state. For most of the trip up, I tried to take my time with an occasional car honking at me to get going. It is a road that you want to take your time to enjoy and look at the mountains as they pass by and the river below. On the way up you are on the mountain side of the road and the view down can be scary. Almost like the trip to Hana on the island of Maui, where you hug the mountain on the way there and then panic and drive slow with the guard rail next to you on the way back. Still it is a spectacular view on the way up.
Route 97 that hugs the Delaware River
The Delaware River in the Fall of 2024
Rolling hills, high mountains covered forest in full form and deep valleys where you can look down and see the river below. It was the beginning of the summer and everything was in full bloom. With the sun washed against it, it is the backdrop for a postcard. I was able to slow down and admire the river below. If you are traveling up Route 97, take your time but plan accordingly because it takes a lot longer than the map will lead you to believe. It took two and a half hours to get to Narrowsburg.
The Delaware River in the Fall of 2024
Narrowsburg, NY has become a refuge for people escaping the high costs of Brooklyn and other parts of the NYC. How residents of Brooklyn found this tiny town tucked up in the mountains on the banks of the Delaware River, I have no clue but it is becoming a trend in small towns along the Hudson River from Beacon to Hudson. These small towns are attracting artists, chefs, boutique owners, movie makers and bed & breakfast owners who are fixing up old homes and reclaiming downtown’s upstate with new businesses catering to people in the city.
Narrowsburg was starting the evolve again but had businesses that still catered to locals with small drug stores, shops and a very nice post office. Here and there the town was starting to change. I had read online that little sleepy town was at the narrowest and deepest part of the Delaware River thus the name Narrowsburg created in 1840.
Downtown Narrowsburg, NY in the Fall of 2024
The town was a sleepy hamlet where lumber and the local stone quarry were the main industries and in later years an escape to small room houses and bungalows for people from New York City escaping the heat. In its location on the river, it must have been a transport hub for New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania being so close to the crossroads for all three states.
The Bridge between New York State and Pennsylvania
The view of the “Big Eddy” in the Delaware River in Downtown Narrowsburg, NY
By the time I got there at 5:30pm, most of the stores had closed for the night. The town has its usual drug stores and small restaurants but look closer and you will see the traces of Brooklyn that I kept reading about. You can walk the downtown in about a half hour but really look at the views. In the middle of the downtown, there is a gap between the store fronts and you have a little park that looks over the river and it is picturesque. What a beautiful view of the river valley below and the mountains in the background. I can see what inspires the artists to move up here. It reminded me of Woodstock with its boutique shops and small art galleries.
Two businesses that I had wanted to visit were the Nest Hotel (now closed), a small boutique hotel I want to visit and the Heron Restaurant, which was getting rave reviews online on all the review sites. Both of the them are what I was expecting. The Heron, a farm to table concept with local purveyors, has a simple and interesting menu. The brunch menu was being featured when I visited and the small dining room is well designed. Because of time and a reservation in Bovina Center, I skipped this and kept walking. I visited the Nest, a small local hotel and got to see the small store attached (both now closed). It is supposed to be well-appointed and service excellent. For another time.
The inside of the Heron Restaurant in Fall of 2024
I got to pass most of the small boutiques and art galleries and then walked around the corner to see a very busy Chinese restaurant in full swing and a local theater closing for the evening. The area was surrounded by beautiful woods and streams. You can visit the whole town in about an hour but this is a place to relax and reflect and the 45 minutes I spent here just wasn’t enough.
I passed the Narrowsburg sign as I was leaving the town
I left Narrowsburg and continued on my journey up Route 97 to the connection to Route 17, which I had traveled up years earlier to my interview in Ithaca for graduate school. I traveled up Route 17, a sleepy highway that was once the main through fare for this part of the state until Route 81 was built. Then I got off at local Route 30, which is a winding road through the mountains.
Having a 7:30pm reservation, I did not have much time to really look as I drove past small towns and through wooded areas. I had passed most of these towns during the holidays on my trip to Woodstock when I explored the area.
Driving down Route 30 by the reservoir
Even the highway was beautiful
The beauty of Route 30 is the winding road through the small towns with views of the mountains and through the valley gaps. Passing the Pepacton Reservoir is a gorgeous site, with its small islands full of trees, wooded hills and the bridge you have to cross and the views of the lake.
The views in the summer of 2025
With the sun being in the perfect position, the a spectacular gleam on the lake and if you have time, stop at one of the rest stops along the way and really look at it. Its quite a view.
Somehow I got lost in the turnoff on Route 28 on the way to Andes, a small growing artist town on the way to Bovina Center.
With these views you do not mind getting lost
I had to double back up Route 28, remembering most of these farms six months earlier when driving through on Christmas Day.
The views of driving up the highway by Andes, NY
Bovina Center is located on sleepy Country Route 6, on a turnoff that is easy to miss. I got to the Brushland Eating House 1927 Country Road 6, Bovina Center, NY, (See TripAdvisor reviews) my destination at 7:30pm on the dot.
Turning off on Route 6 in Bovina Center
The Brushland Eating House had opened the same time as my first trip to Woodstock , NY at Christmas of 2014 and had been on my ‘bucket list’ since to visit after reading an article on it in Hudson River magazine.
Downtown Bovina Center in the summer of 2025
The accommodations were supposed to be wonderful and the food in the restaurants rated excellent by all reviews I had read online. The overnight stay exceeded my expectations. I have never decompressed like this before. I felt this way both in 2017 and again in 2025. I was so relaxed on my stay.
The Brushland Eating House at 1927 Country Highway 6
I arrived in Bovina Center three and half hours later than I expected and one of my hosts, Sara, could not have been more gracious. She could tell I was tired and asked if I wanted to check in first and then come down for dinner in the restaurant. I took her up on that. I just wanted to settled in a bit. Thank God that the restaurant was rather quiet that night.
The front of the restaurant in 2025
I can not say enough good things about the Brushland Eating House. My ‘room’ was a two floor loft that was decorated with local art work and vintage décor like a record player, board games and locally made art and furniture.
The main floor of my bedroom
It looked like a loft in a major city in some trendy neighborhood. The room could have entertained 6 people sleeping there and no one would have gotten in each others way.
The Living Room
The first floor had a large living room/dining room, a nice size kitchen over looking the yard and a bedroom overlooking the hills, valleys and a farm behind downtown Bovina Center.
The kitchen area which you will never use
The first floor bedroom
The second floor sitting room
The second floor bedroom
Looking down from the second floor
The second floor had another bathroom, a second bedroom with the same but larger view of the surrounding community and a large dressing area.
The views from the bedrooms
The stairway to my room
The view of downtown from my deck
The view across the street
The beds had brand new mattresses with a soft comforter. I just sank in for a bit and then unpacked. I went to dinner around 8:00pm. That was a treat.
The Sitting Room decor
The Brushland Eating House Restaurant is on the ground level of the building and had gotten excellent review both online and in local magazines.
The crowds waiting to go in in 2025
The restaurant’s décor used the plan of the old post office, which this one served the community as in the past and local artisans built the bar and added to the shelving. The restaurant is painted in deep colors and has a rustic feel to it.
The menu items are locally sourced ingredients from the surrounding farms and it shows in the limited menu that Chef Sohail prepares each night. I liked their use of New York State wines on the menu and enjoyed them with the meal.
Starting the meal with an a Mixed Greens Salas from the owners gardens
The meal was incredible (See TripAdvisor & Airbnb). Not being to stop for any lunch because of the time it took to go to Narrowsburg, I ate a full meal.
In 2017, I started with the mixed greens salad that had a light dressing, the pork schnitzel and the olive oil cake that was covered with a powered sugar icing. In 2025, I could still taste that wonderful meal and had to do the repeat less the Olive oil Cake, which was not on the menu. So I had the Rice Pudding with Poached Peaches.
The Mixed Green Salad from lettuce from their garden
Everything was excellent. The greens were so fresh I swear that they were just picked.
The Pork Schnitzel with homemade Sauce Tomate
The lightly breaded Pork Schnitzel with Capers
The pork schnitzel was pounded thin and fried to perfection and the meat had so much flavor.
The olive oil cake was a real treat. I had never had it before. It had a savory/sweetness to it with the thick icing and studded with fresh blackberries.
It was not on the menu in 2025, so I had the Rice Pudding with Poached Pears. The pudding was so rich and creamy. The peaches were in season and were poached in what tasted like liqueur and cinnamon. The perfect summer dessert.
The Rice Pudding
The meal was mind blowing both nights and With a couple of glasses of wine, I had never relaxed so much.
Brushland Eating House Bovina Center, NY
The New York State wines really were good. They had a nice body and flavor and worked well with the meal. The service was flawless. The waiter and I got along famously and she told me her stories about commuting into the city. We laughed at each others stories. It was also such a nicely paced meal as the restaurant was half full for a Thursday night.
In 2017, after the meal, I talked with my hosts Sohail and Sara for a bit before they started to clean up. If there was ever an ideal business that I would want to own and operate, this would be the one. In 2025, Sara greeted me warmly when I arrived for dinner at 8:15pm. I got to see Sohail the next day at check out and we talked for a bit.
In 2017, I can tell by the outside that the place still needs a lot of work but they really know what they are doing and could not have been more gracious hosts. When I came again in 2025, the outside renovation was complete and it looked so elegant.
Sara and Sohail, the owners of the Brushland Eating House
The building after the restoration was complete
The welcoming stairs
The attention to detail in the gardens near the entrance
The Vegetable and Flower gardens in the back that supply the restaurant
The backyard area
The mural on the house
After dinner, I walked around the small downtown that is Bovina Center. It is literally in the middle of nowhere and that’s what I liked about it. You could see the stars and since there was not much in the way of street lights, you could hear the babbling brook in the darkness.
The outside of the restaurant at night
Walking around Bovina at night
The room was so quiet and relaxing that I wished I could have stayed longer. I slept like a log and it was fun in the morning to just sleep in and relax. There was no TV in the room and I just read and wrote in my journals and books that whole morning. I was inspired by all the quiet. It was also nice to just look out the window on a misty morning and look at the rolling hills and farms that lay before me. It is such a rural environment but I found out later on as I walked down the street to Russell’s General Store, a lot of people here are transplants from other places.
The front of Russell’s General Store at 1962 Country Road 6 in Bovina Center
Russell’s General Store, 1962 Country Road 6, Bovina Center, is a step back in time to when the pace was slower and everyone knows everyone. I met with Bea, the owner, who ironically is from Los Angeles near where my brother lives, and she could not have been nicer. She greeted me so warmly I thought she was a long lost friend. She knew everyone who walked in the door, greeted them by name and even let them go around the counter to get coffee. It was fun watching her deal with her vendors. The bread guy walked in with his daily order and put it onto a old fashioned scale.
Russell’s General Store at 2009 Country Highway 6 in Bovina Center, NY
I had read online about her breakfast sandwich, and it is mind blowing (See review on TripAdvisor). She cooks either homemade bacon or pork sausage out, cracks two organic fresh eggs and fries them out and puts fresh homemade cheddar on a freshly baked Chibana roll.
My breakfast that morning
The pork sausage is freshly made too and perfectly spiced. When you bite into it, all the flavors combine and it is a gooey and delicious mess. I had not had a breakfast sandwich this good since I ate at Miss Lucy’s Restaurant in Saugerties, NY three years earlier.
The Sausage, Egg and Cheese on a Chibana roll
Yum!
Not only was the breakfast sandwich excellent but for dessert (yes, dessert) I had a piece of locally baked apple pie with fresh whipped cream. The combination of fresh apples with fresh farm honey in it will take you away Bea explained that she had a woman locally who owns a farm that she makes the pies on the side. Do not miss this! I never thought anyone could compete with my mom in pie baking but this woman is neck and neck.
When I returned in 2025, there was no pie anymore but I did have one of their homemade Blueberry muffins which were excellent. A hint of honey with the fresh blueberries.
The Blueberry muffins are wonderful
The whole meal was enjoyable. It was fun to look at all the knick-knacks along the shelves and the penny candy and other items from stands I used to visit in the 70’s.
The inside of Russell’s General Store
The inside of the store
The grocery section
The Penny Candy (actually. Nickel) candy section
I walked back to the loft and just collapsed for the next three hours until I had to check out and then said my goodbyes to Sohail. He was walking with his dog in the back of the building in a garden he had planted. I told him how lucky he was to have nice business like his that he and Sara could build on so close to the city but far enough away to enjoy a good quality of life. He looked happy.
I left Bovina Center and drove down Route 28 to Andes to check out the town and work off breakfast and lunch. I ended up staying for over three and a half hours and having lunch here. Andes, like Bovina Center, Narrowsburg and many small towns in this part of upstate New York are being settled by people from NYC and they are waking up these sleepy towns with new businesses, art galleries, cottage food businesses, antique shops and fixing up Victorian homes and added life to towns that even ten years ago were dying out.
Just before I got to Andes in 2025, a woman named Jane was selling her homemade pies outside her home for $30.00.
Jane’s whole pies are too much for one person but look so good
I did not want a whole pie nor did I want to bring one on my trip. So when she came outside, she said she sold them to the Andes Diner and I could get a slice there. Off I went to the Andes Diner at 85 Main Street.
I walked along the main street a couple of times, wandering through shops and galleries, talking to all the owners and looking at their wares. No wonder why so many of them come to the farmers markets in the city. There is so much wonderful pottery items and food stuffs that people would love to buy in the city.
Downtown Andes in the summer of 2025
There was a pottery store where the dishes were reasonable and very nicely made. I loved the small parks and the stream that ran through the town. I liked the slow pace of the town and the beautiful views of the woods and old houses. The place is out of a postcard.
The business and activities signs in Andes
I had a quick lunch as I knew it would take about three hours to get to Cortland, where I would be staying for the night. In 2017, I had lunch at Two Old Tarts, 22 Lee Lane, Andes, NY (Closed March 2021). The food and service are excellent. It’s a beautiful, airy restaurant that was once upon a time the restaurant that now is the Brushland Eating House, so that was a good sign.
I ordered a grilled cheese, which was cooked with fresh cheddar, green apples, tomato on a sour dough bread. The flavors combined well and the sandwich just worked. Their mac salad is one of the best I have ever eaten at a restaurant and everything was a nice sized portion. The couple who run it are really nice and the service is friendly.
Two Old Tarts Restaurant Andes, NY (Closed March 2021)
Andes is a nice little town to just walk around and relax and enjoy the experience of a small artsy town. It is a nice day trip when you are in the area. It kind of reminds me of Phoenicia outside of Woodstock, just a nice town for a afternoon trip.
This unique little farm had an interesting farm stand with local food stuffs and crafts all on the honor system with a box to leave your money.
The fresh foods available at the farm stand
The goat protecting the food store
The logo on the barn
This friendly little goat wanted to bond with me
The grounds of the farm were nicely landscaped
I was impressed by this farm being so productive in such a small space. The funny part was I only saw animals and not people.
After I left Andes, it was off to Cortland for the Alumni reunion. I always stay in Cortland because its fifteen miles from Ithaca and the fact that Ithaca charges double for their hotels for alumni events. The trip up there was anything but fun.
Do you ever think to yourself when you travel, ‘but it looked so much closer on the map’. That’s what I experienced when I traveled from Andes to Cortland. It just looked so much closer on the map. That and there was a major accident on Route 17 North.
The highways and back roads upstate are so beautiful
I could not believe how beautiful Route 10 is in the summer
Half way up Route 17, we hit a major traffic jam and we backed up for almost a half an hour. Most of the cars were rerouted up the local Route 7 to Interstate 88, which would take us to Binghamton. I followed up the longer Route 8 and passed a series of farms on the way up.
One of the farm stands along Route 8
In 2017, I stopped at Penguin Ice Cream, a small local dairy stand for a cone. I had the most unusual tasting Peach Ice Cream and it was soft serve which is unusual for this flavor. Its a nice stop with friendly service but not the greatest ice cream I have ever tasted. In 2025, I could see why. The store looked long abandoned.
In 2025, the store was long closed
It must have moved across the street to this store but had closed years ago
It took about another 45 minutes to Interstate 88 and then reaching Interstate 81 another 45 minutes to get to the exit for the Route 81 turnoff. Once on that, up I went to Cortland.
In Cortland, New York I have written about in the past, I have stayed here a lot in the last few years. First for my uncle’s memorial service, then the Homecoming game last year against Yale. It just makes it easier. I checked into the Cortland Quality Inn, at 188 Clinton Avenue (I do not recommend it) and then headed over to the cemetery to pay my respects to my uncle and my cousin who are interned there. It is a very pretty cemetery and they are buried in an area that overlooks the campus of SUNY Cortland, where my uncle worked years earlier.
Visiting my uncle and cousin’s graves in Cortland
It was a quiet afternoon and I was able to spend some time there and pay my respects. That has been hard but the purpose of this project is to pay my respects to my dad as well. That had been a rough summer for all of us losing my uncle, my father’s older brother, six months after my dad passed away.
My uncle wanted to be buried next to his daughter after she passed
The rest of the evening I spent walking around the downtown and the surrounding neighborhoods. You could tell by the many Victorian homes off the downtown this must have once been a very wealthy area. It really is a pretty city when you walk around.
The downtown has some good restaurants and the older buildings in any other town closer to the city would be lofts and artist studios. There is so much more that can be done in this city. I was still so stuffed from lunch that I went back to the hotel to relax.
The beautiful historic buildings in Downtown Cortland, NY
The one thing about Downtown Cortland is that the City has put a lot of money into the Downtown area and renovated all those old buildings. They are all now new loft apartments and you can tell by all the new windows that they building have all been made new. Even the sidewalks downtown are all new and the whole area looks vibrant and rejuvenated. There will be a real future here in shopping and dining.
The historic buildings in the end of downtown
When I visited again in 2025, I stopped into a local college spot for a quick lunch, A Pizza & More at 104 Main Street for a late lunch. Since the cemetery closed at 4:00pm, I wanted to pay my respects first.
I had a slice of cheese pizza and a Meatball Hero and the food was really good. Their red sauce which was the base for both the sandwich and pizza was so well spiced.
The delicious Cheese pizza
The wonderful Meatball Hero
The next day it was off to Ithaca for the Alumni Reunion. The breakfast at the hotel could have used some work. The eggs tasted like plastic. It did not make much of a difference as we would be having brunch at the hotel school later that morning.
It is a quick trip to Ithaca from Cortland and a very scenic one as well as you pass all the farms and mountains covered with forest on the way between the two cities. Along the way down Route 13 you pass many depressed towns and villages reminding you that the economy is not so great up here. You can see it in downtown Cortland where if it were not for the college, the town would be in serious trouble.
All of this does not matter once you get to Ithaca and reach the Cornell University campus. Cornell has one of the most beautiful campuses in the country rivaling the Michigan State University campus by the Red Cedar River. Both are just so beautifully laid out but what makes Cornell so beautiful is all the gorges, lakes and rivers that flow through campus. Driving into the southern part of the campus, old campus, is breath taking especially when you look over the bluff into the city where you have a view below of Ithaca and Lake Cayuga. In the summer when everything is in bloom, there is no view like it. It is one of the most popular places on campus to take family pictures.
First off, the campus was loaded with Alumni for Alumni Weekend. Most of the students had gone home for the summer and the Summer Programs had not started yet so the campus was pretty much ours. When I got to Statler Hall, the home of the School Of Hotel Management, where I am an Alumni, the place was mobbed.
The Statler Hotel
The crazy part was that all the schools that ended in year seven were celebrating their reunions and I sat with a group of women from the Class of ’87. It really dawned on me that if I had gone there as an undergraduate instead of going to Michigan State University, these would have been my classmates. As a matter of fact, the two tables that surrounded us were Class of ’87. It really made me think of fate and what we choose in life (me, Class of ’04 and ’10).
Our breakfast was amazing but then anything the Hotel School does with food is amazing. We had a beautiful spread outside the main ballroom of the Statler Hotel and this was a breakfast that made the Quality Inn look like Burger King. We had from soup to nuts with pancakes, stuffed blintzes, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes, fresh fruit and pastries all so nicely displayed.
The topic our dean is always talking about is the merger with two other schools to form the new Johnson Business School which everyone of the Alumni are against. Everyone feels it will only benefit the other schools and weaken ours as we have most of the support and money coming in. Plus we have the strongest Alumni on and off campus. Everyone just grinned and bared through it. At least breakfast was nice.
Touring the hotel where we had breakfast when in The PDP program
We then took a tour of the building which had been renovated even since I went there and I left in 2010. It makes me feel proud of all the money that is poured into the college and how modern it all is and up to date. It reminds me of all the money being invested in the Culinary Institute of America when I go up there (also Alumni Class of ’98).
Statler Hall and Hotel
All the lecture halls and the library have all been renovated and update with all the latest equipment and the lucky part now is that Cornell has an agreement with the Culinary Institute that you can finish a two year at CIA and then finish with a BS at Cornell. That would have been nice when I was attending both schools. I could have saved some money. Even so our cooking labs are still impressive.
The school was meeting up with the other business colleges later that afternoon for a cocktail party, so it gave me a chance to walk the campus and surrounding areas. Even though the campus was busy, I thought it would be busier but I figured the other colleges would have their own events.
The Student Bookstore was mobbed with Alumni buying everything was not nailed down. I have not seen anything so busy since I went to MSU’s Bookstore after a game. You would never know that we were in the middle of a recession with the way people were buying. I have so much stuff from Homecoming Weekend that I did not need more.
Our college bookstore
I went off to explore the campus. College Town is always a place of extremes. A lot of the restaurants that I remembered when I was there have now closed. Collegetown Bagels is always mobbed and was mobbed that afternoon. You could not get a seat if you wanted to and Rulloff’s, which has now reopened was busy as well.
Collegetown has totally changed in 2025
The rest of Collegetown is either being rebuilt (Again) or the businesses have closed. I saw so many empty storefronts or they are going the revolving door of Asian restaurants that keep popping up. There are a few holdovers on the main drag but outside that, Collegetown looks so depressed. No wonder its being rebuilt again.
On my trip through Collegetown, I did not recognize it. The whole place including the old College Town Bagels (moved across the street) and been torn down and rebuilt. I did not recognize anything. All the old restaurants and bars were gone. It was all gleaming and new.
I walked down the hill from Collegetown to see the downtown Ithaca and the new ‘Commons’ that has since been rebuilt. All I have to say is that it looks so much better. The downtown was looking a little run down the last time I attended school there and the downtown was a revolving door of restaurants and shops. The Commons was totally rebuilt with new bricks and planters and new street furniture is all over the place.
The Commons was an 80’s concept to bring back people to downtown’s by bricking up sidewalks and adding planters. The key though is parking and good stores and restaurants and little crime. That is what didn’t work for most downtown’s in the 80’s. No one wanted to go because of those reasons. Somehow Ithaca is making it work.
Downtown Ithaca had not changed too much since my last visit
They have really spruced up the buildings and added better signage. I would have thought the area would have been more crowded with people but I don’t think anyone got the idea to get a shuttle bus from campus to the Commons for Alumni weekend. Plus most of us had meals with our colleges and I was not even hungry considering we had a cocktail party at 3:00pm.
The Commons in the summer
The entrance of the Commons in 2025
I walked around Common’s looking at the new buildings that have gone up, new hotels and restaurants that have opened while looking at old favorites and trying to figure out which ones I went to each of the summers that I attended school here. Simeon’s reopened since the fire there and their food was always great. Taste of Thai is one of the best Thai restaurants I have ever eaten at and the waffle place is still there as well.
I walked around the square in downtown off the Commons and the houses that surround it still need some work. They were falling apart then and they still are now. This is the sad part of Cortland as well. All these beautiful and graceful Victorian and early American homes just neglected or falling apart. Unlike Andes, Ithaca and Cortland are farther from the city and that form of reverse gentrification has not hit these cities yet.
There is one large Victorian home that faces the square and the church that I have admired for years and its still depressing to look at. If only the time and money. On 2025, the artists and hipsters have reached Ithaca and the homes have really been renovated and brought back to life.
The number of artists moving to Ithaca is becoming greater in numbers. There are several businesses that deal with local artists like Handicraft Cooperative (the Commons) and Made in Ithaca (Mooseville Mall) where you can find the unique. Take your time at the Made in Ithaca store as there is many creative items for sale at very reasonable prices and the sales people are great.
I was debating walking to the Farmers Market by the lake but then I was running out of time and would not be able to walk back to campus in time. So I took a deep breath and walked back up the hill. If any Cornell Alumni are reading this, you know what I am talking about when walking from the Commons back to campus through Collegetown. Just walking around Cornell’s campus is a workout.
When I returned in 2025, I braved the crowds and traffic and went to the Farmers Market. While it was fun to walk around, the place was mobbed and the parking was next to impossible so I parked outside the market.
The Ithaca Farmers Market at Steamboat Landing at 545 Third Street
I swear that the food there had gotten so overpriced and the lines were so long. It was not as much fun as when I went as a student. It was so much smaller.
The Farmers Market was packed on Saturday
Our cocktail party for the new Business School was very nice. Passed appetizers and small desserts along with drinks was the focus of the event while the various deans of the three colleges being merged were trying to assure annoyed alumni that their school identity was not being taken away. I thought the get-together would be busier but figured that people were on their way home by 3:00pm. It was more of the same speeches with the deans trying to convince us everything was great with the merger. there was a lot of eye-rolling that afternoon.
The entrance to Cornell from Collegetown
I just walked around campus and looked at the new Residence Halls that were being built when I was there and finally finished now. The school really put a lot of money in student living. Walking though the gorges and gardens all over campus brought back so many good memories of the seven summers I spent there and of dad’s visits to me on campus and the adventures we would have before our long trip home.
The Gorges by Collegetown
I finally decided on a Chinese restaurant for lunch that I had eaten in years ago, Hai Hong, 602 West State Street, Ithaca, NY in Collegetown (See TripAdvisor review). The Dim Sum there is good but not great and stick with the steamed items and stay away from the fried ones. Their soup dumplings are delicious.
I wanted a change from that when I returned in 2025 and ate at Gorgers at 116 West State Street. The unique sandwich shop bakes its own bread for the sandwiches and makes their own homemade lemonade and iced tea.
Gorgers at 116 West State Street in the Commons area
They had a great listing of sandwiches and I settled on the Shrimp Po Boy which was excellent. They bake all their bread for the rolls snd all their vegetable are locally sourced. You could taste it in every bite.(
The Shrimp Po Boy
A great decision
The trip home took about four hours and I reached the New Jersey border as it started to get dark. Thank God for Daylight Savings time.
The Commons during the summer of 2025
Going to Ithaca brings back so many great memories and special times in my life and the side trip to Bovina Center made it fun to visit and explore this part of New York State. Take time out to visit these small towns in upstate New York. You will never know what you can find.
Still going to Ithaca reminds me how I got there in the first place and I always thank my dad for that. His support and encourage meant a lot to me when I was there as a student.
I finished walking East Harlem and it was an interesting experience. It took two weeks to crisscross the whole neighborhood and I was lucky that I double-backed on several streets, so I got a more detailed experience. There was a lot of interesting architecture and some wonderful restaurants, bodegas and bakeries along the way to experience. I got to walk the parks at different times of the day, and I finished the walk when the schools were closed for Spring Break, so I got to see the neighborhood come to life with families out and about.
My first day of the walk, I could not have asked for beautiful weather. It was clear, sunny and in the 60’s. It was perfect outside weather. After a busy morning at the Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen (they had me working the hurried bread station and you would think that the homeless were at Starbucks with all of their requests), I took the number 6 subway to 110th Street to start the walk of East Harlem, now known as ‘Upper Spanish Harlem’. I have never seen so much renovation and building going on in one area which is changing the face of the neighborhood.
I started my walk up the Avenues and traveled on the north to south part of the neighborhood the first afternoon. I walked 3rd Avenue, 2nd Avenue and 1st Avenue and revisited Pleasant Avenue and the surrounding streets. It’s an interesting mix of commercial and housing space that houses a diversity of businesses.
Before the area was known as ‘El Barrio’, a Spanish neighborhood of Puerto Ricans, Mexicans and Dominicans, it had the city’s first ‘Little Italy’ from the turn of the last century to about the late 1950’s to early 60’s when people moved out to the suburbs. There are still traces of the neighborhood left with some churches, businesses like Rao’s and Patsy’s still going strong and the streets named after famous Italians.
Pleasant Avenue off 120th Street in East Harlem
The area around Pleasant Avenue is going through a tremendous renovation as all the brownstones look like they are getting snatched up and being updated and a much younger crowd is beginning to move in. The biggest change that I saw that was attracting this crowd is the new Target Mall that was refitted into an old factory space between 118th-116th Streets. This mall has attracted everyone from the housing projects to the college students from the other side of the island. On a late Friday afternoon, the place was mobbed.
In 2019, the area gained designation as a National Historic Landmark district. The new district is centered between East 114th and East 120th Streets near First and Pleasant Avenues, covers roughly two dozen blocks. The area contains some of the oldest buildings in the district includes churches such as Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel on East 115th Street. This district has some of the most important designs of tenement housing in New York City.
The area is concerned with the coming of the extension of the Q subway line to 125th Street of losing these sights. This area has seen its share of immigration from being an Italian to a Puerto Rican community and wanted to preserve this culture. This area has been designed as the “East Harlem Historic District and is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places (The Spirit Westsider 2019).
The Historic district of East Harlem
I started the afternoon at the Blue Sky Deli (See review on TripAdvisor and DiningonaShoeStringinNYC@Wordpress.com) on the corner of 1st Avenue and 110th Street (2135 1st Avenue), home of the now cult-like ‘Chopped Cheese Sandwich’, which has become the rave of the internet as the hipsters enter Harlem. I have never seen such a debate over a sandwich, so I saved my appetite from my morning at the Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen (another busy day) and dove into the experience.
Blue Sky Deli (Haijj’s) at 110th Street and First Avenue; ‘Home of the Chopped Cheese’ is now called “Chopped Cheese Delicious” Deli.
The ‘Chopped Cheese Sandwich’ is basically a double cheeseburger that is chopped up. It is two hamburger patties cooked on a flat grill with two slices of American cheese on top, cooked with onions and peppers and topped with chopped lettuce and tomato.
The delicious Chopped Cheese Sandwich
Yum!
My video on this delicious sandwich
It is then tucked into a hoagie roll and then pressed. With ketchup and mayo to finish the sandwich, it is heaven on earth. I took my sandwich and a Coke into Jefferson Park on 111th Street and watched the neighborhood kids play soccer and do track.
The sandwich is a great blend of flavors and for $7.50 is a great deal. I know that comment gets a debate and rebuttal on the internet but when you are on a budget it is well worth it. Blue Sky Deli, also known in the neighborhood as ‘Hajji’s’, is known as the ‘home of the chopped cheese sandwich’ and is well worth the trip to this part of Harlem.
The mural outside of “Chopped Cheese Delicious” (not sure of artist)
The very touching mural outside the restaurant was dedicated to a long time resident of the area who has since passed.
On the first day in the neighborhood, kids were just getting out of school and the streets were mobbed with children and parents or grandparents picking up their kids. After a relaxing lunch, I walked through the commercial district of 1st Avenue ending up back at the Wagner Houses at the edge of the neighborhood between 120th and 124th Streets.
The one thing I can tell you about walking around the Wagner Houses is that there are police there all the time. In the courtyards, by the schools and in the commercial district. I don’t know who was watching me more, the guys that looked like gangbangers or the police trying to figure me out. Between them and the bodega owners with the wondering looks on their faces, it seemed to me that people were just trying to ‘figure me out’. I just keep quiet and smile a lot.
Talking about commercial real estate, I have discovered that developers will build anywhere to make money. One developer is in the middle of construction of a luxury building on the corner of 1st Avenue and 120th Street right on the edge of Wagner House complex. It’s almost as if they are mocking the residents that live in the projects. That and who would want to buy these things. As I walked by the construction site, one senior resident said to me “They are not even that well-built.” I commented that living in the Wagner Complex was safer than these homes that are put up quickly and that it will last longer. She just smiled and gave me a funny look.
I even went back to visit the Pleasant Finest Deli (closed in 2022-now Al Bassam Deli Corp. in 2025) at the corner of Pleasant Avenue and 120th Street (see review on TripAdvisor) as the kids were getting out from school again across the street. I guess the tinted glasses through them off as they gave me strange looks as well like ‘what was I doing back?”. They were polite but in a formal way as I was buying a bag of chips. Maybe I was just picking up on it.
Walking on 1st Avenue has its advantages as you start to pass the last of the Italian businesses in the neighborhood. Pasty’s Pizzeria at 2287 First Avenue (See Review on TripAdvisor) being the most famous. This is worth the stop. The pizza is excellent and at $1.75 a slice is a great deal. I haven’t tasted that fresh of a tomato sauce in a long time. There is a sit-down place but stop in for a slice and just walk with it. On sunny day there is nothing better. Everyone else must have thought the same thing as I saw slices walking down the street.
I took a break and relaxed again in Thomas Jefferson Park on 114th Street and watched the soccer teams play. This is a nice park that I misjudged the first time I walked through it.
Thomas Jefferson Park at 2180 First Avenue in East Harlem
Yes, the park does need some work, but it is used by the whole neighborhood. From the hoopsters to the hipsters, I saw all types in the park playing sports, working with team competitions and parents of all sorts just relaxing with their kids. Over the three-day period that I walked the neighborhood, residents just spread out, brought their lunches and snacks and relaxed.
The “El Arbol De Esperanza” sculpture in Jefferson Park
The plaque for “El Arbol De Esperanza” by artist Brower Hatcher
Brower Hatcher is an American born artist. He attended Vanderbilt University School of Engineering in Nashville, TN and received his degree in Industrial Design from Pratt Institute in New York. He then studied sculpture at St. Martins School of Art in London, U.K. with Sir Anthony Caro and William Tucker. The artist is known for his life sized contemporary works (Artist bio).
Before I left Thomas Jefferson Park, I came across another piece of art that I had not noticed on my many visits to the park. The sculpture located in the middle of the park is entitled “Tomorrow’s Wind” by artist Melvin Edwards. The sculpture is made of welded steel and is tilted so that it reflects the sun. The piece was placed in the park in 1995 (NYCParks.org).
Mr. Edwards is an American born artist from Texas. He is known for his known for his abstract steel sculptures. He graduated with a BFA from University of Southern California and studied at the Los Angeles Art Institute.
To save some time and the fact that the kids were out, I walked the length of 1st Avenue down to 96th Street to the new Q subway line and doubled back and walked 102nd, 105th, 106th and 110th again to the Harlem River. This is scary stuff and a word of advice to readers, please avoid this section of the city. All along 1st Avenue in this section by the river are all housing projects especially the very dangerous East River Projects.
Avoid walking around the East River Houses on First Avenue
As I walked down both 105th and 106th Streets (the side streets on either side), I did notice that City bike was located on both sides as well as luxury condos were across the street and next door to the projects. That’s well and good but when you glance into the parking lots at 106th, you see what is happening and I swear that I may have stopped a drive-by shooting from a guy who was watching the basketball players a little too closely.
Either during the day or night, avoid these two side streets as they are considered two of the most dangerous blocks in the city (along with Lexington Avenue from 123rd to 124th Streets). Please stay away!
As I walked back up First Avenue, I noticed that surrounding these projects are many luxury condos and new stores. It is a strange mix in the same neighborhood as you can see that the neighborhood is transitioning. Still, it is not the safest part of the city.
Needing to walk off a sandwich, a slice of pizza and two bags of chips, I crossed 110th on the way to 2nd Avenue. As you walk up 2nd Avenue, you pass the rows of brownstones and prewar housing that in some cases is falling apart mixed in with sliver luxury homes and new restaurants. The lower part of 2nd Avenue is quirky until you hit 112th Street and then you are back in the Jefferson projects. To cover 113th Street, which is two small cul-de-sacs, you have to walk through the projects.
This is when I really discovered how short-changed people in the housing projects are by living here. Talk about being treated like caged animals. All the lawns are fenced in, the parks are sterile with little life due to the equipment in them, garbage that is piling up in dumpsters or in the grassy area flying around in the wind and sitting areas that are damaged.
The Martin Luther King Houses at 1 West 112th Street
Because 114th Street stops at Lenox Avenue by the Martin Luther King Houses and does not start again until you exit from the Thomas Jefferson Houses by the Jefferson Park, you have to walk through the heart of the housing projects, and you begin to see a lot. Maybe it is home to a large portion of the population up here but by the designs, they are almost warehousing people in this section of the city.
There is some light to this with pocket parks off to the side of 112th Street and the Robert Wagner Playground at 120th Street. There was some life from the kids in the community as well as you see it in droves in Thomas Jefferson Park. There was some sunshine in that when you walk through the housing projects in that some residents have set up raised vegetable gardens and have planted flowers along the borders of some of the playgrounds. Kudos to these residents for bringing a personal touch to a sterile environment.
Walking both 2nd and 3rd Avenues you may have to really look but community pride does exist in these small gardens and in the community gardens on the side streets all over the area.
Between 2nd and 3rd Avenues, as you walk to the 120’s, this area is also in a state of transition with a branch of the SUNY campus and housing, most of East 125th Street being knocked down and eco-friendly housing between 124th and 125th Streets across from the Wagner Houses. As you get closer to 125th Street, the whole area is being knocked down and rebuilt as is the whole shopping corridor of 125th Street. If it has not already been knocked down or renovated, it is about to be or planned to be. In about five years the whole block will look like Times Square.
The biggest renovation that I saw was the Taino Towers at 221 East 122nd Street. The whole place is being ripped apartment and renovated. It is considered Section 8 housing but after the renovation I can see it will go mixed-use and change the neighborhood again. It is a nice complex and will interesting to see one they renovate the theaters and add a health club.
I noticed interesting artwork on the side of the Taino Towers at 221 East 122nd Street. The towers had been going through a major renovation the last time I had visited the neighborhood and parts of the complex were still under scaffolding.
Artist Don Rimx painted a mural of Nuyorocan poet Jesus ‘Tato’ Laviera. The painting had been unveiled in 2017 (long after my visit to the neighborhood) and 123rd Street was renamed after the poet (Street Art NYC).
The mural of Jesus ‘Tato’ Laviera at Taito Towers at 122nd Street and Second Avenue
Mr. Rimx was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico and in 2009 moved to Brooklyn and then in 2014 to Florida. He graduated from Central High School of Visual Arts and Escuela Des Arts Plasticas. He is known for his use of styles in art and culture and known for his murals (Artist Bio).
Like most of this section of the neighborhood above 120th Street, the area is mostly commercial and from previous walks in the neighborhood above 125th Street is where the bus stations are, dealerships are located, and more City buildings are rising.
My second and third day in the neighborhood, I walked the side streets. Since I had already covered 125th, 124th, 120th,116th, 114th and 110th at length, I walked the rest of the blocks in one afternoon. Who knew it was take six hours and all the interesting things I saw along the way? I started the afternoon rounding 110th Street and stopping once again at the El Chevere Cuchifrito at 2000 3rd Avenue this time visiting the bakery (See review on TripAdvisor).
Unlike some of their counterparts around the neighborhood, El Cheveres bakery is really good and very reasonable. I had a glazed filled doughnut for $1.00 and it really hit the spot. The glaze was so thick you could cut it with a knife and there was a large selection of baked goods. A definite spot to stop when visiting the neighborhood just for the pastilitos alone. The food here is really good and cheap. Just come knowing a little Spanish. They appreciate it even if its bad.
The bakery and savory assortment
I walked the side streets this afternoon to finish the neighborhood. There are a lot of interesting sites along the way in East Harlem. I started on 115th Street and I seemed to hit every bakery in the area. My first stop on the journey was the market under the Park Avenue underpass, La Marqueta, at Park Avenue and 115th Street to try Hot Bread Kitchen Bakery (See review on TripAdvisor-Now Closed for Business), which had been written up many times but was never open when I visited the market.
The La Marqueta Building at 1590 Park Avenue and 115th Street
I tried two of their Mexican Chonco’s, which is a buttery-brioche type of muffin with either a vanilla or chocolate topping. Needing my carbs for the long walk I brought one of each ($2.00 each). Well worth it. The best part is your helping the bakery train people for a new profession and they do an excellent job.
I left the market to explore the rest of 115th Street and there are some interesting sites along the way. You have the Rodale Pleasant Community Garden at 437 114th Street that stretches to 115th by the church is an active community garden with flowers and vegetable beds. I could only see it from a distance at a distance as the gate was locked but great care I could tell went into maintaining it.
The Rodale Pleasant Park Community Garden in the Summer of 2023.
In the summer of 2023, the gates were open and I could explore it. Filled with flowering plants and trees, the garden was quite the site in the middle of August for the “Dancing of the Giglio”. People were walking in and out to relax and get away from the noise of the festival.
The Rodale Pleasant Community Garden at 437 114th Street in the Summer months
The gardens were a quiet oasis from all the noise of the festival
The unique tile designs in the gardens.
The beautiful sunflowers grace the garden in the middle of the summer.
Across the street, the famous Italian church, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel is located. This church is noted for the famous dance each August when the Giglio Society does their famous “Dancing Giglio” dance carrying a giant statue of the Virgin Mary on their shoulders (along with a band). That is enough for another trip up to the neighborhood in the summer.
Dancing of the “Giglio” in East Harlem every August
The video of the lift in 2025
Read my blog on watching the Dance of the Giglio: Day Eighty-Four-The Feast of My Lady of Carmel and the Dancing of the Giglio:
I had also wanted to visit the National Museum for Catholic Art History which was on 115th Street in part of the church complex but it had closed a few years earlier for lack of attendance and funding. So I crisscrossed back to Park Avenue making various stops to look at churches and note menu’s on restaurants I wanted to try in the future.
The Dancing of the Giglio in 2025
The video of the Giglio:
It is really interesting to watch
The street fair in the summer of 2025
I revisited 116th Street to look over restaurants I had seen on previous days. The street is the main shopping and restaurant drag for this part of SoHA and runs pretty much the whole length of the island. It has an interesting place to eat so if you have the time take the time to walk around.
I spent most of the afternoon snacking around the neighborhood wanting to try many of the bakeries and small restaurants I came across. There are loads of reasonable places to eat for under $10.00 and if you are visiting remember to have about $10-$20.00 in ones as most of these places do not take credit cards.
One of my stops lead me to Bermudez Bakery at 1875 Lexington Avenue right off 116th Street (See review on TripAdvisor). I don’t know what I do that freaks people out so much but one of the guys who was inside called his friend from around the counter who was speaking jovial Spanish to everyone else took one look at me and spoke in more formal English. He could not have been nicer but when I turned around, all the other men inside had left the bakery. I thought that was weird.
The baked goods are excellent though. I had a flaky pastry with a mango jelly, but the best was their apple turnovers. They are so good, and they melt in your mouth. This bakery is a must go to. It may look dumpy on the outside, but the product speaks for itself.
The pastries here are really good!
I crossed over to 117th Street and walked from Park Avenue to the river. Outside St. Paul’s Roman Church at 113 East 117th Avenue just off Park Avenue you will find an Altar to the Virgin Mary that is very interesting. Take some time to read the plaque and look over the building. It is such a beautiful church.
St. Paul’s Church at 113 East 117th Street in East Harlem
Walking further down the street at the corner of 117th Street and the corner of 3rd Avenue there is an interesting mural on the side wall of a Payless Shoes store dedicated to the Island of Puerto Rico. This colorful artwork shows the strong roots of the neighborhood in the island as well as the pride these residents feel. Really look at the detail work.
Look for the Street art in the neighborhood (to the left of Chopped Cheese Delicious-since painted over 2025)
The neighborhood around Pleasant Avenue, which was the former Italian enclave is changing again as all the brownstones and apartment buildings are being sandblasted and renovated back into shape. Home to Rao’s Italian restaurant and Patsy’s original pizzeria, these blocks are still visited by tourists and residents looking for authentic Italian food. Pretty much outside these two businesses and the relationship to the churches most of the Italian heritage of the neighborhood is gone.
Between 118th and 119th Streets along Pleasant Avenue the neighborhood has created the Pleasant Village Community Garden at 342 Pleasant Avenue with a large flower garden and raised vegetable gardens in this full block garden. Many people were out that afternoon working in the garden and waved over when I was looking for it over. The residents take immense pride in the garden, and it will be interesting to see what it looks like in the middle of the summer.
Pleasant Valley Community Garden sign at 342 Pleasant Avenue
The plantings outside the gardens on the sidewalks
As you turn the corner on 119th Street, on the wall of River East Elementary School, the kids have painted the most interesting mural that lines the wall of the back of the school. Look over the colorful interpretation of robots. The kids painted a very whimsical mural as only kids can do.
The kids were out in full force that afternoon playing games and doing sports as they off for the spring break and I guess the parents needed to keep them occupied. All sorts of activities were keeping the kids busy, and I noticed a large police presence in the neighborhood while all of this was going on. I made another pit stop for a Coke at the Pleasant Finest Deli on the corner of Pleasant Avenue. I swear those owners are always giving me funny looks when I walked in like I am going to bust them or something.
The last part of the walk I covered 121st to 123rd Streets which is lined mostly with businesses, schools and many new apartment buildings that are going up around the new SUNY College. Most of 124th Street in this area has been rebuilt with a new eco-friendly apartment building across from the Wagner Houses, so new businesses are opening to cater to those residents as well as the whole area from 2nd Avenue to river is being ripped up and rebuilt with a renovation of he park and the extension of the esplanade along the river (the esplanade currently stops at 124th Street and is closed off with fencing). When this park is done, it should look spectacular with new lawns and the pool opened.
Word of advice if you are going to walk near Lexington Avenue between 123rd and 124th Streets, this is considered one of the two most dangerous blocks in Manhattan with two rehab clinics and a shelter on the same block.
There were three police officers hidden in a doorway in between the block and when I stopped for a Coke in a bodega on the corner of 123rd and Lexington Avenue, there were some pretty shady characters hanging out on the corner. This block is best avoided at any time of the day.
I double backed down 123rd Street and cut down 1st Avenue and 120th Street to the Wagner House Playground and saw the impressive statue of Robert Wagner Sr., who the houses were named after. Frankly, I don’t think anyone notices it or knows how important the man was in New York politics helping with housing and social security. That and being the future Mayor of New York’s father.
The statue was created by artist Georg John Lober and dedicated in 1959. Mr. Lober was originally from Chicago and studied Beaux-Arts sculpture at The Institute of Design and the National Academy of Design (Wiki).
Georg John Lober, the Executive Secretary of the New York City Municipal Arts Commission
My last stop was for a snack at the Jamaican restaurant, Jam Hut at 2327 1st Avenue (see review on TripAdvisor-now closed) for a beef patty. These large beef patties are freshly made and rather large. Again the owners gave me a rather odd look when I ordered my food.
You think no one had ever seen a 6:3 white male in the neighborhood before. I have now spent over a month in East Harlem. I had walked every block, park and set of Housing Projects.
You think they would be used to seeing me walking around at this point.
Please read my other blogs on walking East Harlem:
I put my walk in Manhattan aside for the day and walked the streets of Philadelphia, PA for my annual trip on the Acela to visit the ‘City of Brotherly Love’. I go down to Philly twice a year on purpose for my cheesesteak fix at Carmen’s Famous Italian Hoagie’s Cheesesteaks and to have Beiler’s Doughnuts and Basset’s Ice Cream, foods that you just can’t replicate in New York City or New Jersey. Not the way they do it. This requires a trip on the Acela to the Reading Terminal Market downtown.
Downtown Philadelphia Christmas Market 2024
During the holiday season, I also like to see the light show at Macy’s (which I still call Wanamaker’s) and visit the tree at City Hall. Philadelphia has its own magic at holidays. There is such a beautiful holiday market that surrounds City Hall with all sorts of artisan crafted foods and handmade products. There was a slew of singers, actors and musicians that were entertaining the public.
Downtown Philadelphia’s Christmas Market in 2024
The City Hall Christmas Tree may not be as big as the one in New York but no less nice. It was beautifully decorated and at twilight, covered with colorful lights. A lot of people were taking pictures around it or were getting ready to skate around the makeshift skating rink. It is not Rockefeller Center, but the affect was just as nice, and it really did put me in the Christmas spirit.
The Christmas tree by City Hall in Center City Philadelphia
The beautiful downtown Christmas tree with Downtown Philadelphia in the distance
The first part of my trip was to see the light show at Macy’s next to City Hall. I still have a hard time calling it Macy’s considering it was the old Wanamaker’s store since its inception. This beautiful grand dame of the department store industry was so much nicer when it was Wanamaker’s.
Macy’s Center City Philadelphia-The old Wanamaker’s Department Store
The Windows at Macy’s Philadelphia were nicely decorated similar to the windows in Manhattan
The Macy’s Windows based on the New York windows
Window Two at Macy’s Philadelphia
Window Three at Macy’s Philadelphia
Window Four at Macy’s Philadelphia
The beginning of “Mannequin”:
There were beautiful restaurants, luxury departments and it was always nicely decorated for the holidays. Macy’s does a nice job, but it was a different store in the 80’s and early 90’s. I still see traces of the old store in the movie “Mannequin”.
The movie trailer for “Mannequin” was shot at the store in 1986
The famous opening scene that was shot in front of the old Wanamaker Department Store
My favorite song from the movie “Mannequin”
The movie “Mannequin”
I can still see traces of the old store here and there. It was beautifully decorated for the holidays and it was really pretty in the store. The displays were very colorful and the main rotunda was so festive. It was not the same as the old Wanamaker’s but more like a Macy’s store in New York.
The Rotunda of Macy’s Philadelphia (former Wanamaker’s)
The beauty of the Rotunda decorated during the holidays
The decorations in the Fine Jewelry Department
The Eagle in the Rotunda
The Women’s Accessories Department during Christmas
The Men’s Department during Christmas
The decorations of the main floor
I have seen the light show about five times now and I know I can see the whole thing on YouTube, but it is still fun to see it live in the store and hear the organist play the famous pipe organ. It really is an exciting show. I love the music and I love the way they display the story line. Julie Andrews does a nice job narrating the story.
It is such a colorful program with all the lights and music. I love it when she says, “Goodbye Frosty” to Frosty the Snowman. The crowds are huge and all over the main level, so if you go see it in the future get there early.
Julie Andrews saying goodbye to Frosty!
The video on the Lightshow with Frosty the Snowman:
The light show is only during the holiday season so take the special trip out to see it. It is only about twenty minutes long but still it is one of the things I look forward to seeing.
This is one of the nicest shots of the show I could find online:
The Macy’s Christmas Show in the rotunda of the store
One of the reasons I came down to Macy’s Philadelphia not just to see the windows, see the Lightshow but I made a reservation to see the Dickens Village, which was a relic of Strawbridge & Clothier created in 1984 by the former rival of Wanamaker’s.
The Macy’s Dickens Village is now located on the Third Floor of the store which was the old Executive Offices
The start of the tour of the “Dickens Tour”
The start of the “Dickens Tour”
The Dickens display with Charles Dickens narrating
The Dickens display with Scrooge confronted by members of the Charities
The Dickens display The Ghost of Christmas Past
The Dickens display of Fuzzywink’s Party scene
The Dickens display Meeting Ghost of Christmas Present
The Dickens display Nephew Fred’s Party
The Dickens display Scrooge meeting the Ghost of Christmas Future
The Dickens display The end of the story with a Revelation by Scrooge
The Dickens Village is a lot of fun to walk through and it is a fun way to learn the story and understand the lessons about the story. It is nice to see that Macy’s is keeping these traditions going (for now). After seeing the Lightshow and walking through Dickens Village and walking around the store to see the decorations and what the store looks like, I wanted to get some lunch.
My main purpose and then I made a B-line to be the Reading Terminal Market for lunch. Somehow there are just regions where you cannot replicate the foods from that area. Philly is one of those places.
The sign for the Reading Terminal Market
I had not been to the city since the spring, and I needed my serious cheesesteak fix and the best place to do that in the downtown area is Carmen’s Famous Italian Hoagies & Cheesesteaks (Closed October 2024).
The Reading Market Terminal for all those wonderful restaurants
Located in the center of the Reading Terminal Market, which is only about two blocks from City Hall, Carmen’s has some of the best sandwiches in the city. I have my usual plain Cheesesteak with Cheese Wiz.
Inside the Reading Market Terminal in the seating area by all the restaurants
My favorite places to eat at the Reading Market, Beiler’s Bakery and Doughnuts and the Dutch Eating Place
Sorry New York City, we do a lot of things great up here but cheesesteaks like this are not one of them. They load a fresh, soft chewy hoagie bun up with thin sliced steaks and then load that up with loads of Cheese Wiz.
The amazing Cheesesteaks from Carmines
Biting into that sandwich is heaven on earth and I enjoy every bite of it. It is always funny to see the staff watch me enjoy my sandwich and the guy that looks like the owner likes it that I enjoy it so much (See TripAdvisor review). It is also fun to talk to the other guests because they come here from all over for the same reason.
When I returned to Philadelphia in December of 2024, Carmines closed in October upon the retirement of the owner to be replaced by Gus’s Cheesesteaks. Now the Cheesesteaks are $17.00. They still look good but a little expensive.
Carmine’s at North 51 12th Street for Cheesesteaks is great! (Closed October 2024)
Carmine’s Cheesesteaks was replaced by Gus’s Cheesesteaks and the cheesesteaks are now $17.00
When I returned to the Reading Terminal Market in 2024, Carmine’s had closed and replaced by Uncle Gus’s Cheesesteaks and their sandwiches were $17.00! I thought this was way too expensive so I went back to the Dutch Eating Place a few rows over whose prices and portion sizes were still close to what they were when I last visited. The food is still excellent.
I had not had a chance to eat a Thanksgiving dinner because of work, I had to have the Roast Turkey platter. This was lots of sliced turkey between thick slices of freshly made white bread served with Mashed Potatoes with lots of thick gravy with a side of Cole slaw and cranberry sauce. I ordered a freshly made Pink Lemonade for a drink with my meal. It was excellent and what was nice was talking with the other patrons. We had a nice conversation about my dining blog, DiningonaShoeStringinNYC@Wordpress.com. They got a kick out it.
The Roast Turkey platter at Dutch Eating Place is so good and a very generous portion for lunch
Yum! This was delicious!
My next part of the trip was to Beiler’s Bakery, which has some of the best doughnuts in the world. These little gems are so beautifully displayed and are constantly being refilled that I do not think that there is a stale doughnut ever in that case. The line wrapped around the counter.
Don’t miss the selection of doughnuts at Beiler’s at 51 North 12th Street.
It is fun to watch the doughnuts fried out in front of you and then cooled on the racks. Then each doughnut is hand filled and glazed right in front of the customers behind the glass. All of their fillings are hand-made and are oh so good.
The employees making the fresh fillings and filling the freshly made doughnuts
The fresh fillings of the Beiler’s Doughnuts
I had a strawberry glazed with what tasted like fresh strawberry jelly and I had a peppermint cream filled doughnut that was a specialty for the holidays that had just a hint of the peppermint sweetness. It was a hard choice though. I could have eaten a dozen but you have to be good here (See TripAdvisor review).
When I made a beeline back to Beiler’s in 2024, I wanted to try some of the classic and creative doughnuts. I tried a Glaze Doughnut and a Lemon cream filled Lemon Doughnut which I went outside and devoured pretty quickly. The doughnuts are excellent and I really missed coming here. It had been three years since I had been to Philadelphia and I really missed Beiler’s.
The Glazed doughnuts really impressed me in the case
The Glazed Doughnuts are delicious
The Lemon Cream filled doughnuts are amazing
After lunch was over it was off to the Philadelphia Museum of Art to see the “Paint the Revolution: Mexican Modernism 1910-1950”, which was well-worth the trip. You don’t get to see much of this art in New York museums or just on a smaller scale than this. The exhibition showed such a wide range of art from the traditional landscapes to cubism and the modern person. I liked the way the way that the curator set the exhibit up. It jumped around and as it flowed you saw the art from many perspectives. I advise readers in the New York area to take a trip down to see this exhibition.
Philadelphia Art Museum at 2600 Benjamin Franklin Parkway
I walked around the city after my museum visit and saw all the different holiday displays downtown. Philly really is a pretty city and the downtown has been much improved in the last ten years. It is so much more vibrant and safer than in years past. I walked down the main shopping district to look at the closed department stores of the past, Strawbridge & Clothier and Lit’s. Downtown Philadelphia is improving but still has a ways to go since you can’t always build office buildings in an economy that is still working remote.
The old Strawbridge & Clothier in Downtown Philadelphia
Before I took the train back up to New York City, I took one more stop at the Reading Market to go to Basset’s Ice Cream for a cone and stop at Beiler’s Bakery across from their doughnut stand to take some baked goods home. I can’t get Shoofly pie or proper moon pies at home.
Again the place was still so busy and I was able to load up on Whoopie Pies, Shoofly Pie and Sweet Rolls for the trip home and some Whoopie Pies for my aunt who needed some cheering up. They are so well-baked and delicious I wanted to eat them there. Everyone at the stand was so patient with me as I had to make my decisions. Add in a few fry pies and I was done for the day (See review on TripAdvisor).
Beiler’s Bakery was fully stocked on New Year’s Eve and was really busy
Next was off to Basset’s Ice Cream for a cone for my walk back to the station. I settled on the holiday Eggnog flavor (Yum) and the Pomegranate and Blueberry flavor (unusual and worked). On a fresh waffle cone there is nothing like it even in the winter. Everyone I passed saw the huge smile on my face and made comments about eating ice cream in the winter. Sorry folks, there is nothing like ice cream with butter fat in it to make a man smile (See review on TripAdvisor). It was a great walk back to the train station. All the lights went on in downtown and the City Hall Market looked even more festive.
Basset’s Ice Cream at 45 North 12th Street at the Reading Terminal Market
The train station was beautifully decorated with lights, wreaths and a huge tree and it was nice to just sit back and relax until the train came. On the way back, the city was all lite in front of me. The boat houses on the river were lit with Christmas lights and boats passed by lit up as well.
The Christmas tree in Penn Station in Penn Station in Philadelphia
The tree was truly beautiful at the end of the Christmas season
The latter part of the evening when I got back to New York City was a quick trip to the Met to see their Christmas Tree and an evening of looking at the windows of Barney’s, Bloomingdale’s, Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord & Taylor.
Saks Fifth Avenue in New York City at 611 Fifth Avenue
The entrance to Saks Fifth Avenue during Christmas holiday
I took a quick trip through the holiday market in Bryant Park and then to Port Authority. It really was the perfect day to get into the holiday mood.
Post Christmas visit during the Philadelphia Flower Show 2025:
What was sad though when I returned two months later for the Flower Show, it was announced that Macy’s was shutting down the downtown store as part of the store cuts as Macy’s was downsizing the company. Almost all the inner city stores like Brooklyn and Philadelphia were going to join stores like Pittsburgh and Minneapolis. It was a sad day for Philly.
Macy’s during my day of touring
Sad day in Philly
It reminded me of when B. Altman closed in New York City
The display windows said it all but had been very festive just two months earlier
The once elegant Men’s Department
The mannequins for sale
Me with the ‘Mannequins’ on the first floor
Me with the decorations that once adorned the first floor during Christmas
It’s so sad to see where John Wanamaker once walked and Andrew McCarthy and Kim Cattrall once danced down the aisles has now been reduced to abargain sale
The empty cases were once filled with beautiful jewels and fancy perfumes
All the Christmas decorations from two months before were all sold
The beautiful atrium where I watched the light show a few months before
The Accessories Department
No one was near the Eagle that day
The back part of the Atrium
The sadness of the Clothing Department
The Cosmetics Department had nothing left
The beautiful embellishments around the Cosmetics Department of the Eastern States. This is of Massachutes
This is the New Jersey emblem
Where Kim Cattrell and Andrew McCarthy danced in the film
The lion guarding the stairs
The actors dancing in the film “Mannequin”
The front of the old Wanamakers store where the opening scene of ‘Mannequin’ was shot
Not what John Wanamaker envisioned for his store
When I returned in November of 2025, they were trying to keep the tradition alive.
It is a sad day as this was once one of the most beautiful and creative stores in the country now reduced to a bargain sale.
As the leaves started to change colors and wanting to see the foliage around the state before all the leaves fall (they have since), I decided to revisit a place that I was exploring over the summer.
In 2021, a series of storms have knocked the foliage off the trees earlier than before so I got to see what was left before everything falls off the trees this week. In the summer of 2023, everything was in full bloom and sunny and warm. It is amazing how beautiful the area looks in the summer months.
Budd Lake in the summer of 2023
Budd Lake in the Fall of 2025
As I have said in previous blogs, I have never really gotten to know my own state and I was born and raised in New Jersey. I have wanted to see some of the far corners of the state and explore the back highways and roads and see some of the parks, beaches and historical sites that I have only read about but never visited (this has been very helpful in my blog “VisitingaMuseum.com).
Driving around Budd Lake on Shore Drive
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The driving around Budd Lake in the Fall of 2025
Along the way, I have visited many beautiful parts of the state and formed my own opinion of the ‘Garden State’. There is much more to see of the state than what is on the opening of ‘The Soprano’s” and the description of the state in most TV sitcoms.
Driving around Budd Lake on Shore Drive
I made the trip to Budd Lake and the surrounding areas are off Route 80 and in a section of the state near the Delaware Water Gap, a scenic section of the Delaware River surrounding a mountain pass. During the summer, it is lush with trees but in the fall is when it shows its true beauty. The leaves change colors at different times due to the species of tree. The effect is trees at various hues of green, yellow, gold and red at different points during the months of September, October and early November. By the second week of November, the show is over for New Jersey as the leaves have fallen.
Driving around Shore Drive on Budd Lake
In 2016, I had never explored Budd Lake before and took a sunny, warm November afternoon after I had finished everything I needed to do at the house and took a road trip to the area. This is a section off the highway that most people do not venture unless they really want to see this section of the state or live or work here.
In 2021, the day was rather gloomy but still it was a nice day to get out of the house and explore the area in more detail. I missed not coming out here in all these years. On the trip to the area again in the summer of 2023, it was sunny, warm and clear, the perfect day to visit the lake and the surrounding farms.
In 2025, I had not noticed how fast the foliage had changed and I wanted to replace a lot of pictures where the foliage was not full. So I started the trip at 10:00am and made my first stop the Delaware Water Gap and then worked my way back down Route 46 East to Budd Lake and stopped at a lot of farms along the way. The whole trip was much nicer with all the colors on the trees.
Budd Lake is small but breathtaking in the summer of 2023
The road that lines the lake, Sand Shore Road, only takes you to a portion of the lake front, which is lined with beautiful homes and spectacular views. A lot of the homes reminded me of former summer homes that had been winterized while others were new and much more elaborate reflected the money that is moving into the area.
Since COVID and my first visit in 2020, I can see that many of these homes had been through a renovation since the last time I travelled out here. Still when I drove down the road, I felt like I was taking a step back into the 1970’s. It was a just the feel of the homes that I passed.
The view of Budd Lake from the pier.
It was a sunny day that reflected off the lake, which looks more like a catch bastion than a true lake. There were not the boat slips or yacht clubs that normally would line a lake but still there were some smaller boats lining the shoreline. There were small parks with views of the lake and as you entered the Budd Lake State Wildlife Management Area and Bog, the road moved away from the lake and it was mostly homes and woods and not much more to see unless you went into the park. Upon exiting, you are back on Route 46 West.
Budd Lake in the Summer of 2024
The Lake in the Fall of 2025
In 2021, I drove off Sand Shore Road and travelled down the back roads closer to the lake and drove past houses closer to the other shore line and even discovered an independent theater, the Pax Amicus Theater at 23 Lake Shore Road, that was performing that afternoon. You have to travel down Pine Grove Road and Manor House Road on the other side of the lake to see the beauty of the area and views of the lake.
The sun shining on the lake in the Fall of 2025
Route 46 West (I live off Route 46 East) is the highway that time forgot. It goes through many small towns being the main artery of the state until Route 80 was built many years later. It takes you through quaint small towns that had once seen better days but were improving in post COVID times or long stretches of woods.
Driving along the lake in the Fall months
The beauty of Budd Lake in the Fall of 2025
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The sun blazing in the Fall of 2025
The sun simmering on the lake at Budd Lake
Looking across the lake in the Fall of 2024
You have to get to places like Budd Lake when the foliage is at its peak to appreciate it. In 2025, I lucked out and had the day off before a major storm was going to hit and I knew that would knock the foliage down. It had been so dry for the last several months, it really did affect the trees.
The first time I visited Budd Lake in 2016 and then again in 2024, I ate at a terrific pizzeria named Enzo’s Ristorante & Pizza at 382 Route 46 West, which I highly recommend (see review on TripAdvisor). The pizza there amazing and the service is excellent. They are very friendly and the pizza is just wonderful. Their sauce is full of flavor and is cooked perfectly. They also have a nice lunch dinner menu. I passed it on this trip unfortunately wanting to try another place.
Since my visit in 2016, the restaurant has grown three fold and now takes up three full parts of the strip mall it is located in. The pizza was fantastic.
The Cheese Pizza is delicious.
In 2021, I had spent my morning at the Knights of Columbus in Lodi, NJ monthly All you can Eat breakfast so I was hardly hungry. They had a buffet of pancakes, French Toast, Bacon, Sausage, Hash Brown Potatoes, Fresh rolls with butter and coffee, tea and juice that you could load up on. I personally love breakfast so I went back several times. Needless to say, I was not hungry for most of the road trip. So, by the time I got to Budd Lake that morning, food was the last thing on my mind. I had wanted to try the Budd Lake Diner 120 West Route 46 but that will be for another time.
In 2023, I got to try Budd Lake Diner for breakfast when I was hungry for another meal.
The food at the diner is really good and the service is excellent. It is a typical New Jersey diner with the long booths and the extensive menu. The service was excellent and very friendly.
The inside of the Budd Lake Diner
I ordered and ate my second breakfast of the day. I had the French Toast platter with scrambled eggs and sausage patties. The portion size was really big and the meal was delicious ( see my review on TripAdvisor). The prices were also very fair in comparison to its Bergen County counterparts.
The French Toast platter with scrambled eggs and sausage patties at the Budd Lake Diner.
When breakfast was over, I toured around the lake and took pictures from all angles. It was nice to see the lake finally with some activity around it. People were sitting on the beach and boating in the lake. As I toured Shore Drive that surrounds part of the lake, I could see the numerous signs asking people to stay off their property. Shore Drive only follows the lake for a short distance and then veers off and the rest of the lake is surrounded by parkland.
Exploring the edges of Budd Lake
After my tour up the lake, I doubled back to a small shore line on Budd Lake off Route 46 East and stopped and sat on a bench and just watched the day develop in the afternoon. It was something to just relax and look at the colors of the trees surrounding the lake. In the summer, this little park was filled with sun-bathers finishing their day but today I had it all to myself along with the birds who were looking for a handout. I could not believe that seagulls were in shore this far. In the summer of 2023, there were a few people sunbathing in the early morning not paying much attention to me taking pictures.
The small beach at Bud Lake
Before I left Budd Lake I stopped at RH Farm stand, a small farmstand at 500 Route 46 West. I would spend most of my day exploring various farmstands along to way to see the selection and prices of the items. For the most part, everyone was charging New York City farmers market prices for produce. Some stand were charging $6.99 a pound for peaches and $12.00 for a small pie. I guess many of these people were hoping people from Manhattan were coming out for the day. I did find some decent prices but for the most part most of the stands were pretty expensive.
This picturesque little farm stand has been in business since 2012 (I would have thought much longer) and offers an array of produce, gourmet products and flowers. I just thought it looked really nice. The prices are a little high though. Still quality does have a price tag to it.
The entrance of RH Farm Stand
The inside of RH Farms Farm Stand
The inside of RH Farms
The beautiful flower arrangement at RH Farms
The peaches and produce at RH Farms
4th of July display in Summer of 2024
4th of July display in the Summer of 2024. Uncle Sam looks on
Christmas display in the Summer of 2024
The plant display in the Summer of 2024
Their little cat welcome me with a couple of charming rubs to my legs
Visiting the farm in October of 2025
The sign welcoming you to the farm
I was out exploring the Route 46 corridor several years ago from Budd Lake to the Delaware Water Gap and I visited a series of small farm stands along the way. RH Farm at 590 US 46 was one of the standouts that I visited .
It was not just the selection of fresh produce I saw on each of my visits in both in the Spring and Fall, but it was the selection of the variety of goods there was to purchase and the way they were displayed.
There was also a nice selection of freshly baked goods, arts and crafts items and plants and flowers all beautifully displayed like a boutique.
The inside of the farm
The selection of pumpkins in the Fall
I love the way they decorate the farm for each holiday. They decorated not just the selling space but other parts of the farm as well like the grounds and the barn area.
The display of holiday crafts and pumpkins
The holiday display of pumpkins and flowers
The Halloween decorations
I continued down Route 46 West and made a stop in the historical town of Hackettstown, the home of M & M/Mars. You would never know this was a corporate town of anything as the downtown seemed somewhat depressed in 2016. A lot of the stores were empty or filled with some not great shops. This all changed when I visited in 2023.
Downtown Hackettstown NJ in 2023
The statue of the Minuteman greets you as you enter Hackettstown, NJ.
The sign welcoming you to Hackettstown, NJ studded with M & M’s.
In 2021, Downtown Hackettstown had changed a lot. Most of the buildings in the downtown had been renovated and there were lots of new restaurants and shops. There were new design stores, consignment shops, innovative restaurants that were not the cheap and several new antique shops. I guess the New Yorkers in their quest to leave the City discovered Hackettstown as well and started to renovate the town. Many of the Victorian structures in the downtown area as well as the homes on the outskirts of the town have been fixed up and brought back to their glory.
David’s Restaurant at the start of Downtown Hackettstown
When I returned in the Summer of 2023, the whole town seemed to be renovated and so much more vibrant since my last visit two years earlier. Admittingly it was right after everything opened up after COVID, but there was a new feeling here very active and spirited. The whole downtown had changed from the first time I visited back in 2016. The town looked like it came back to life.
The front of the church on a quiet Saturday in 2024
The church in the Fall of 2024
The beauty of the church in the Fall of 2024
There were two terrific places that I found walking around. One was Tracey’s Candy Shoppe at 210 Main Street (see TripAdvisor review), where the owner’s mother and talked when I walked in. They had set the shop up in one of the older buildings in town and the affect made it look like an old-fashioned shop from the turn of the last century.
They had all sorts of candy from the 60’s and 70’s at not such 60’s and 70’s prices. They also had a selection of penny candies that were more than a penny. I found a Charleston Chew, that are still the most amazing candy. More of nougat than a bar.
Tracey’s Candy Shoppe at 210 Main Street
I met the owner’s mother again on my visit this time and she let me sample some of the homemade chocolates that they made inhouse. At $6.00 a quarter pound I have to admit the cinnamon truffle she let me sample was delicious but hardly matched the price. I settled on a small bag of fruit slices ($1.99), which I like much more. I had not had them in years and loved biting into their sugary core.
The homemade chocolates at Tracy’s Candy Shop
The owner’s mother explained how they are trying to bring the downtown back with concerts and farmer’s markets. In its day, it must have been a nice downtown but some of these small towns off the beaten track have been affected by malls and the rerouting of the major highways. Still a classic little place like this, set up to look 1930’s has a place in the books. It had an interesting selection of candies and a very warm, welcoming feel to it and you should visit it when you are in the area.
Tracey’s Candy Shoppe selection is wonderful
Five years later in 2021, it looks like that strategy worked as the downtown is coming back to life. They will be having a traditional tree lighting ceremony and holiday fest the first weekend of December and all sorts of activities during the month of December. It looks like it will keep changing going forward.
Down the block, I found a Colombian bakery, Pan Rico Bakery at 183 Main Street, for a quick snack. They have the best version of an empanada that they serve with a chili hot sauce and for a $1.30 each, they are a steal.
I ordered one of the beef ones which I ate going back to the car and it was well worth the trip inside as the sauce had some kick to it. It is a good place to stock up on a long road trip.
The bakery selection at Ran Rico Bakery
I continued my trip out of Hackettstown and passed the rest of the downtown and the surrounding neighborhood that had many beautiful Victorian homes that lined the streets as you exited town. It showed the money that once was in this town and the influence it once had in the area. Unfortunately, unless you work for one of the major firms out here it must be a hard place to live.
Downtown Hackettstown, NJ and their stock of Victorian homes.
This is becoming quite the downtown in Central New Jersey
The Historical District of Hackettstown offers a treasure trove in Victorian architecture and you can see that new people are moving in and renovating this neighborhood surrounding downtown. The gingerbread architecture is being touched up and the colors of the homes reflect the care residents are putting into their property.
The historic Wilson House location where George Washington was entertained
One place I had missed on my previous trips was the Hackettstown Historical Society. The society is at 106 Church Street right off the downtown and is packed with local information on the town and the surrounding area.
The Hackettstown Historical Society at 106 Church Street.
I visited the Hackettstown Historical Society on a recent trip to Downtown Hackettstown and this small historical society is packed with interesting information on the history of the town and the local town of Mansfield, NJ that has more information but they do not have their own building for a society of their own.
The historical information on Mansfield Township, NJ
The other exhibits on the first floor are on the history and clothing of the “Gibson Girl”. It shows how women were progressing in society during the late 1800’s after the Civil War. It shows how women gained more independence after the war years and showed it in their clothing, physical activities and schooling.
The “Gibson Girl” exhibit
The first floor exhibition also had a display on the first Miss America from New Jersey, Bette Cooper, who was Miss Bertram Island. She won the award and then ran away from the award. She never wanted to participate in the Miss America Foundation and because of her, there was a contract put together for future winners to participate in activities for the organizations. The Cooper family resided in Hackettstown, NJ at the time of her being a winner.
Miss America winner Bette Cooper
Another exhibit explained the transportation for Hackettstown and its influence in the outside community.
The Transportation exhibit in Hackettstown, NJ.
The local toy manufacturers are displayed on the first floor as well.
The Toy Company exhibition on the first floor.
The Beton (Bergen Toy and Novelty) Manufacturing Company display. The company manufactured at the turn of the century in Hackettstown, NJ.
On the second floor, the museum has displays on the businesses of the community. There were many manufacturers of items such as carriages, farm equipment and of course the M & M/Mars Company.
The Business display on the second floor.
Another exhibit was on how a households were run at the turn of the last century and what went into keeping house in those days. From equipment to clothing you could see how a woman’s time was taken up on a daily basis.
The Household Exhibit on the second floor
The Kitchen exhibit on the second floor.
The museum is free but donations are accepted. It is a nice diversion when visiting the downtown area for shopping and eating out. I explored the edge of the downtown before I left the town and discovered that two new microbreweries had opened up. The hipsters found their way here. I even got to enjoy the music at the local Farmers Market.
As I left Downtown Hackettstown to continue my trip to the Delaware Water Gap, I had visited the Farmer’s Market in town before it closed for the day and then made a effort to visit a lot of the farm stands that dot Route 46 West on my way to the park.
Downtown Hackettstown in the Summer of 2024
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Leaving downtown in the Fall of 2025
The foliage in Hackettstown, NJ in 2025
My first stop was right out of town at Best’s Farm Stand at 1 Russling Road. This small farm stand had all sorts of fruits and vegetables and I made a quick note of all the items they carried.
The small stand carries an array of fruits and vegetables.
The fresh peaches at Best’s Fruit Farm.
Best Fruit Farm in the Fall of 2024
Best Fruit Farm in the Fall of 2024
Pumpkins at Best Fruit Farm in the Fall of 2024
I stopped in Independence, NJ to a new farm stand that had just reopened to new owners. The family that reopened the Vienna Hill Farm & Market at 3 Asbury Road did a beautiful job not just renovating the farm stand but renovating the Victorian home that was adjacent to it.
In front of the farm was a large garden where a lot of the fresh fruits and vegetables are being grown and the owner was telling me how they are working with local artists and bakers to bring in new product. The farm stand was gearing down for the closing on Thanksgiving weekend so there was not that much in ways of items left. When I visited in 2023, the farm was stocked with products and was having very brisk business.
The inside of Vienna Hill Farm in summer of 2023
There were still freshly baked pies, cider doughnuts, greeting cards made locally and fresh produce still available for sale in a cheerful barn-like building that greeted passersby.
The farm stand is very modern and attractive
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Vienna Farm would close for the season Halloween week
I followed Route 46 West along the section that lined the Pequest River, a tributary of the Delaware River, to my true lunch destination, Hot Dog Johnny’s. Hot Dog Johnny’s, located at 333 Route 46 West (see TripAdvisor and DiningonaShoeStringinNYC@Wordpress.com reviews) is like Rutt’s Hutt in Clifton.
It is an old roadside stand that people used to stop at on the way to view the Delaware Water Gap or needed to get into Pennsylvania. It must have been there since the 30’s and I had not eaten there since I was about ten when my parents took us kids there when viewing the Gap in the 70’s. The food has not changed.
Everyone must have had the same idea that I had because there was a line 20 deep after I got my food and sat at the outdoor picnic bench. What a view! The restaurant sits on the bank above the Pequest River and has the most beautiful view of the surrounding mountains where the foliage was a golden hue. The hot dogs have not changed in years.
Hot Dog Johnny’s had not changed my last visit in 1974
They are still deep fried in peanut oil and are every bit the crunch they were when I was a kid. Still crisp and full of flavor and still delicious with lots of mustard and pickles on them. The fries are still crisp and well-cooked and the birch beer is still ice cold. On a beautiful fall day overlooking the river and mountains, there is no place better to be.
The hotdogs and fries are the lunch of the day and are still extremely popular.
In 2016, It was one of those relaxing afternoons to watch the view and listen to the locals talk about the upcoming election (Yes, Trump did win). I still could not believe the number of Trump signs on the lawns in this area. Totally different from Bergen County.
The hot dogs and fries have not changed one bit
In 2021, some of the Trump signs are still up and it will be interesting to see what happens in 2024. Still the food has not changed a bit and I still ordered the same hot dog with mustard and pickle, French Fries and small birch beer ($5.72) and it still tasted the same as it had in 1975.
The view of the river from the back of Hot Dog Johnny’s
The river views of Hot Dog Johnny’s
The original stand still on the property
In the Fall of 2024, the restaurant was just amazing as it is in the summer.
The restaurant was celebrating its 80th birthday in the Fall of 2024
The hot dog restaurant in the fall
Fall at the restaurant
Fall at the restaurant
The end of the foliage across from the restaurant
The streams behind the restaurant in the Fall of 2024
The Foliage along Route 45 West was just breathtaking at the beginning of November of 2024. It was at its final stages but it was still amazing. I came back to the same farm in 2025 and was able to get more amazing pictures of the farm. The foliage was extremely colorful.
The fields were just being cut down for the end of the growing season
The farms along Route 45 West in 2025
The beauty of the farms
The same farm in the Spring
Their farmhouse in the Spring
Driving down Route 46 in the Fall is a real treat. The beauty of the foliage is just amazing. I had to keep stopping just to take pictures in the oddest spots just to get the right angles to share with readers.
It was such a beautiful path along Route 46 West in the Fall of 2024
What a spectacular day for a drive
The farms were so picturesque
What a beautiful day
When I traveled back in the Fall of 2025, the farm was just taking down the corn crops and plowing their fields.
The rolling hills of the farms around Route 46 West in Fall 2025
The farm in the Fall of 2025
I had never stopped to look at the river views but there was a real beauty in the them that I never noticed before. I had to stop in an obscure parking lot just to walk back a quarter mile just to take some pictures. It was just gorgeous site to see.
The river view
The river in the Fall of 2025 was just amazing
To add to the haunted pleasures of visiting the farms, the Ramsaysburg Cemetery lays just on the Marshall Farm Stand border. It adds to the spookiness of the Halloween holidays in the surrounding areas.
The cemetery is home to many veterans of the Revolutionary and Civil War
The lines of historic tombstones
Many of the tombstones date back to before the Revolutionary War
The grave of Revolutionary War veteran Private Barney Banghart
The back part of the cemetery has a spooky allure to it in the Fall
After my visit to the cemetery and walking amongst the historic tombstones of our brave veterans. I continued on my trip down Route 46 West and I made a few stops at some of the farm side stands. Talk about a step back in time when you could find fresh cider and doughnuts and freshly picked apples by the side of the road and not worry about germs. I stopped at Marshall’s Farm Stand at 114 Route 46 (see review on TripAdvisor) for fresh cider and cider doughnuts.
Talk about a step back in time. It reminded me of places I used to go to as a kid that have since disappeared with suburban sprawl. I toured around the stands with shelves of fresh jellies and honey, sauces and salsa and arts and crafts. I found a nearly empty shelf of pies and doughnuts and not a sweet roll in site. The girl working the register told me that everything sells out so quickly and they had baked a second batch of everything.
The signs leading to Marshall’s Farm Stand in the summer of 2023
There were three pies left and that was it of the baked good when I got there.
I did grab one of the last bags of cider doughnuts for the trip home and freshly made cider that you rarely see any more. Most of it is processed in big facilities now not at farms. Their doughnuts were outstanding ($4.75 for six). All but two got home with me as I munched on them on the trip through the Delaware Water Gap.
The Apple Cider doughnuts at Marshall’s Farm Market
The Apple Cider doughnuts are amazing here!
In 2021, I bought the same items again but after a big breakfast and then lunch, I only ate two of the doughnuts this time.
Marshall’s Farm Stand in the summer of 2023
The Fresh peaches and plums at Marshall’s Farm Stand.
I had a lively conversation about the upcoming election and trust me, this woman said a mouthful as most people were right before the election. In 2021, people were talking about the recent Governor’s election and Murphy seems in the doghouse with most of these residents. I said my good byes as quickly as possible. Politics is not something to talk about when buying food products.
Marshall’s Farm on a warm sunny afternoon.
The farm in October 2023 for Friday the 13th
The signs that Halloween is on its way
This chair must amuse people taking pictures at the farm.
The farm on Friday the 13th when I returned.
When I returned in October for Friday the 13th, all the farms were decorated for Halloween and all the fall festivals that were planned. It was supposed to rain over that weekend but on Friday October 13th, 2023, the weather was warm, clear and sunny.
Marshall’s Farm Market stand during the fall.
Decorated for Halloween 2024
The display was more elaborate in 2025
The Kiddie Corn Maze in the fall.
Just after Halloween, the farm prepared for Thanksgiving in Fall of 2024.
Marshall’s Farm on a warm November day
The front of the market in the Fall of 2024
They had delicious pies on sale when I visited
The delicious pies and pastries on sale at the farm
The homemade pies on sale
Get there early or they will run out of cider doughnuts
The fields in the Fall of 2024
For dessert, I decided to try another classic place to dine, Humpty Juniors at 72 Route 46 West in Columbia, NJ. This old fashioned sandwich and ice cream stand has been around for years and I wanted to stop for dessert.
Humpty Juniors at 72 Route 46 West in Columbia, NJ
I had passed Humpty Jr’s many times on my trips to the Delaware Water Gap and have never stopped before. I had stopped for lunch at Hot Dog Johnny’s up the road and I just needed a little dessert. I stopped for an ice cream sundae and while I waited I saw the sandwiches that were coming out of the kitchen. They looked amazing. The cheesesteak alone looked like it could feed two people and the hamburgers, that won awards, looked pretty good as well..
The full menu at Humpty Junior’s is really reasonable.
The Dessert menu at Humpty Junior’s
The Humpty Dumpty mascot at Humpty Juniors.
I just ordered a Vanilla Soft Serve with Strawberry sauce that hit the spot after a long ride down Route 46 West. It was a nice way to end my meal. The soft serve was rich and creamy and very reasonably priced. The strawberry sauce was the perfect topping to the sundae. It was nice to sit outside on the picnic benches and enjoy the sunshine. Humpty Juniors warrants another visit for lunch in the future.
The Strawberry Sundae with Strawberry topping.
That is exactly what I did in the Fall of 2024. I eyed the Cheesesteak with Wiz on my last visit and wanted to have it when I returned again. It was fantastic.
The Cheesesteak with French Fries at Humpty Jr.’s is amazing
The sandwich was really large and they put extra Cheese Wiz on it for me
Yum!
When I ate here in the Fall of 2025, I was in the mood for one of their Grass Fed Organic Cheeseburgers. It was really flavorful and juicy and perfectly cooked. The coupled with a soda was the perfect lunch.
The Organic Grass Fed Cheeseburger
The burger and fries were excellent
Yum!
Sometimes you need something sweet for dessert and I thought this is the perfect way to end a meal or just for a snack.
The delicious Cookies and Cream and Cotton Candy Ice Cream for dessert way to end a meal
My last part of the trip was Route 46 along the Delaware River which was still a blaze with color. In both 2016 and 2021, the leaves were still in the process of changing and it was awash with yellows, oranges, reds and gold. It was quite the site. As much as I wanted to venture further into the Gap, there was really no time to walk around as you seriously need time to walk the trails. Still the afternoon of foliage was impressive.
The entrance to Route 46 East from the Water Gap
In 2023, the trees were a sea of emerald as the last part of the summer was still in bloom. The park was still filled with hikers and kayakers who were just coming back from their journeys. The park was busy but the Visitors Center was still closed. I don’t think they will reopen this anytime soon. The paths were full of wildflowers and the views from the park were breath taking.
The Delaware River in the summer
The Delaware Water Gap at River Road off Route 209 in 2025
I was able to stop at the U turn on Route 80 West and park in the beginning of the trails that go through the park. Since it was so gloomy out and it was getting late in the afternoon, I stuck by the Visitors Center, which was closed for the season and walked along the river. Most of the foliage had been knocked off the trees by the two recent storms but there were still hues of gold and yellow with the trees that were left. It is a breathtaking view of the mountain range.
The foliage from the highway
When I returned in October of 2025, I timed it so that the trees would be at their peak and it was before a major rain storm the next day. I figured this would be the best time to come. Plus it was going to be the last nice day of that week. The trees were just past peak but because there had not been much rain that summer, the leaves changed earlier than in past years.
The mountains at the Delaware Water Gap from the Visitors Center in the Summer months
I had gotten to the park earlier than previous years and since I had time, I explored the park more than I had in the past. I looked at the map and decided to visit Turtle Beach , a small gap in the wood further up in the park. I could not believe how bad the roads were in the park. They were loaded with potholes and it made it very difficult to drive in the park. I thought it looked easy to get there but it took some time. My poor shock absorbers took a beating. I got there a half hour later and it was not worth it.
Turtle Beach is a small gap in the woods along the Delaware River for swimming and even with the signs that said that there was no swimming that day, people were in the water. I swear people do not want to listen as the algae count could have been high in the river.
Turtle Beach in the Delaware Water Gap Park in the summer
I originally want to venture further up the road but the roads were so bad and it would get dark by 8:00pm, that I did not want to risk it so I headed back to the main part of the park. That in its self was an adventur3e. At least there was no traffic heading back to the main road.
In 2016 and 2021, I did take one more stop through Hope and Blairstown. I wanted to visit The Toy Chest at 335 High Street, a toy store that is in the small downtown section of Hope, NJ. In 2023, I returned to hope to visit the Hope Historical Society which was supposed to be open and was closed during the hours of operation.
Downtown Hope, NJ in the Fall of 2023
Downtown Hope where Annie was dropped off and Ralph’s bike. Very Clever!
Plus, I wanted to see what the cemetery in Hope looked like this time of year. It is where the opening scene of the movie, “Friday the 13th” was shot. It looks more like the movie this time of year.
The Moravian Cemetery on High Street in Hope, NJ, where “Friday the 13th” was shot in 1979.
The location documentary on “Friday the 13th” in Blairstown and Hope, NJ
My interview with former Scout Master Donald Stein for the “35th Anniversary of the movie ‘Friday the 13th'”, who worked on the film with the Blairstown Fire Department.
The Blog on the Friends of the Lodi Memorial Library’s “35th Anniversary of the movie “Friday the 13th”:
After seeing the famous cemetery, I visited the stores in Hope. My first stop was the Hope Junction Antiques at 331 High Street. This unique little store was a combination of antiques, works from local artists and in the upstairs gallery was a display of art from a painter who lived in the area (this is where the famous diner scene from ‘Friday the 13th’ was shot).
The Hope Junction Antiques at 331 High Street in the fall of 2023.
The store windows for Halloween and Friday the 13th
The store already had their Christmas merchandise out and while I was admiring some handmade ornaments, the owner came out and we chatted for a while. Come to find out she was an expat from Bergen County and had lived in Ridgewood, NJ. Small world. What I did not know was that I later found out this store was used for the opening scene in the diner for the movie, “Friday the 13th”.
I ended up buying some of her handmade Christmas ornaments that she created when she was stuck at home during COVID. She created some interesting works. After my purchases, it was off to the toy store.
The merchandise at Hope Junction Antiques is one of a kind
On a recent trip back to Hope, NJ lead me back to Hope Junction Antiques and their beautiful Christmas windows and decorations. I went out for the ‘Hope Annual Moravian Christmas’ on December 11th, 2021, an event which included a Lantern tour of the Downtown buildings, a live Nativity and a Candlelight Service at the St. John’s Methodist Church at 7:30pm. The luminaries that had been planned had been canceled because of the upcoming rainstorm but they put some out for the tour on the edges of the streets.
My first stop when I went into town was to talk to the owner of the store, Lisa Iulo, to tell her that my mom loved here homemade Santa ornaments that I bought from her last month. She took pictures of the outside of her store for me before I started the tour. Talk about beautiful decorations!
Hope Junction Antiques at Christmas time is amazing!
These festive little sheep are available at Hope Junction Antiques
There are interesting items to peek in the window at Hope Junction Antiques
The Toy Chest toy store
The Toy Chest was still open at 4:00pm and I had a lively conversation with the owner, Kirk Perez, who funny enough was another expat from Little Ferry and had moved down to this section of New Jersey to be closer to his wife’s family. It is a great little store loaded with all sorts of games, plastic toys and action figures.
The Toy Chest has an interesting selection
What he has added since my last visit since 2016 is all sorts of interesting high-end collectables dealing with horror and fantasy films, a complete line of Playmobile and Lego products and creating a showcase on the second floor for wooden toys and board games. The main floor also has an extensive collection of action figures and memorabilia from the film “Friday the 13th”.
The front of the store
There are a few more unique little stores along the strip but otherwise I just walked around a little and then got to Blairstown down the road for a quick drive through the downtown at twilight. It was a nice little tour.
In 2021, I was chatting so much with the merchants in Hope, NJ that I never got to Blairstown. It has gotten so dark so early (I hate it when it gets dark at 5:00pm) and had been so gloomy outside, I decided to head home early. It was pitch black outside when I got to Route 80 East. When visiting in the summer, I wanted to see more of the park.
In 2023, on the beautiful fall afternoon, all these smart merchants embraced the original film and were either wearing ‘Friday the 13th’ shirts, carrying Friday the 13th merchandise or having photo shots as the real estate office did with the bicycle. The Moravian Church was even selling cemetery dirt for $10.00 for a donation to help the church.
The cemetery dirt on sale on Friday the 13th.
The afternoon was a step back to a quieter time where people are not on top of each other and there is a slower pace. It really is another part of New Jersey not touched by time as the other parts of the state have become. It still is the New Jersey of my childhood.
The Delaware Water Gap in all its glory in the summer of 2023.
Hope was just as beautiful in the Fall of 2024. The town had just finished a busy Halloween and was preparing for Christmas.
The Methodist Church
Where Annie was dropped off in the movie “Friday the 13th”
Open: Sunday & Monday 9:00am-4:00pm/Tuesday Closed/Wednesday 12:00pm-6:00pm/Thursday-Saturday 9:00am-6:00pm (Seasonal-will close after Thanksgiving and reopen by Easter. Please check their website).
Open: Sunday 2:00pm-4:00pm/Monday-Tuesday/Closed/Wednesday 2:00pm-4:00pm/Thursday/Closed/Friday 2:00pm-4:00pm/Saturday Closed (check the website for additional open hours)
I took some time off this weekend to be a supportive Alumni. Michigan State was playing Ohio State at home but I took the train down to Philly to go to the see the Penn vs Cornell game.
I don’t get down to Philly the number of times that I would like to and I take the train when I need my cheese steak fix. New York City is known for so many cuisines but no one I can find can make a cheesesteak like Carmine’s in the Reading Market. You just can’t seem to get a good Cheesesteak in New Jersey or New York City unless someone is from Philly. So, I made my pilgrimage to Philly for a football game and a sandwich.
This blog covers my many trips to Philadelphia for the Cornell-Penn game and the foils of each game. It has been back and forth over the years but in 2025, we finally really clobbered them and proved ourselves with a resurging team. The many great experiences and places to visit and especially the places to eat. I love my cheesesteaks!
In 2015:
In 2015, I lucked out too. The day of the game it was a beautiful warm afternoon and the last time I went to Philly for the Penn vs Cornell game it was cloudy and cold being the end of November. This year we are having a surprisingly warm Fall. In 2015, the game was a complete bust as Penn walked all over us. In 2021, both teams were pathetic but we were able to squeak by with a win of 15-12. Both games were not that good.
Cornell versus Penn in 2015
In both years, what really annoyed the Cornell Alumni was that they closed off the other half of the stadium for “construction purposes”, a fancy way of saying that they did not want to clean up the whole stadium after the game was over with so we had to sit with the Penn Alumni who we outnumbered like we did the Yale Alumni in their own stadium a few months earlier. It did not make much of a difference as our team has had a terrible season coupled with the only win over Columbia and that was with a field goal. Both years we were freezing under the awning of the stadium while the other side of the stadium was nice and sunny.
Penn was no better. Most of our Alumni went to the far reaches of the stadium as the blood-bath started and by the second half, we started to turn things around but it was too little too late. We caught up somewhat in the second half but still lost the game 34-21. So much for another Cornell season.
The Penn side of the stadium is always smaller than ours. This is Homecoming for Penn in 2025
Before the game made up for it. It was nice to walk around Philly in the nice weather. We had an Alumni tailgate a few blocks from the stadium and we have a really good band. Like Michigan State (one of my four Alma Maters), even when the season is at its worst, Cornell Alumni are really supportive, so it was nice to listen to the music before the game. They started to march down to the stadium while I was touring around the Penn campus.
Downtown Philadelphia from the Arts District
Before the game, I got to walk around the Penn Campus which is really nice for a city campus. You would never know you were in a section of downtown Philly. The stadium itself is really nice. One of the more traditional stadiums in the Ivy League which is sadly never filled with Penn students and alumni.
For a team that just shared the Ivy League title they are constantly being outnumbered by supportive Cornell Alumni who out cheer them every season. You should have seen the game two years ago, a nail biter that went down to the last play in which we upset them by one point.
Although not the game of the century, for us at Cornell it was the big game. We filled a big portion of our side of the stadium while the home team seemed to drift in when they wanted to that afternoon. Their Alumni seem to have gotten a little more supportive in the last two years.
The best part of the afternoon was not the game itself or the cheering fans, it was the food vendor located outside Franklin Field in on non-descript truck. These Greek gentleman (as they proudly told me when I asked if they were Italian) made one of the best sandwiches I have ever eaten for only $4.00, compared to the highway robbery of $9.00 in the stadium.
The Chicken Philly Cheese steak and their homemade Meatball subs on a fresh chewy hoagie roll when heaven on earth. Maybe it was the quality of the meat, the freshness of the bread or just the way it all came together with their friendly personalities but that experience really made the game. The truck is located outside the stadium and I don’t know if it is there all the time but if you are in Philly, flock to this truck which is one block from the Penn Museum. The meatballs are so full of flavor and the sauce so rich the sandwich itself is a reason to go to Philly.
Even though we got our butts kicked that afternoon by thirteen points and it ended our season on a low note, it was still fun to walk around and experience Philly on a brisk Fall Day. Very different from New York but unique in its own way.
At least on the way back on the Acela, my best friend, Kris and I exchanged phone calls on the Michigan State-Ohio State game. That nail-biter ended as I exited the train in Penn Station, New York City. That game we won 17-14 on a last-minute field goal.
In 2021:
This was the first time I had been down for the Penn versus Cornell game since 2017 and that time it was freezing cold. I missed the 2019 game because I had to work on Saturday mornings and it was impossible to make the train or even drive down before the game was over. Since class was on Friday night this year, I made sure that all the housework was done before I left, all my class work for the students was done and all the bills were paid before I left. I had a clean conscious and could relax. Even though I was only gone barely twenty-six hours, I got such a good night’s sleep, I felt like I was gone for a week.
I took the Northeast Regional down to Philly which I have to say is a nice ride. I arrived in the City in about an hour and a half and the best part was that the hotel I was staying at downtown was fifteen minutes away walking. It was in the high 50’s when I arrived and ended up being around 63 degrees by the afternoon. It was clear and sunny for the whole day which was a pleasure. Drexel University which is located right next to Penn was having their Parent’s Weekend so both colleges were buzzing with students and parents.
Just north of the Penn campus, the Cornell Alumni had set up their tailgate and when I dropped my luggage off at the Sheraton Downtown at 201 North 17th Street, I double backed to the train station and walked behind it to College Park where both colleges are located.
Sheraton Downtown Philadelphia at 201 North 17th Street
Just as I got onto campus, the band and the cheerleaders showed up and we had a mini pep-rally in the tailgate area. This was really nice because neither had been at the Yale game a few months earlier. It was nice to have some spirit and cheer and I will tell you that the band was in the mood to play for us as well. They played our fight songs and school song and all sorts of traditional ‘pep’ music to get everyone going before the game.
The game itself was a real dud. Both teams looked worse for the wear and neither of us scored until the end of the first quarter when we scored a touchdown. We scored two touchdowns before and they were both called back so it was very frustrating. The whole game was frustrating coupled by sitting in the one section of the stadium that was so cold. The rest of the stadium was lit by the sun and we were in the same section as the Penn Alumni and it was all shade. By the second half, I stood on the other side of the stadium near the bar area they set up and finally got some sun and heat. They were much better.
In the end, we won 15-12 and I have to say that it was not much a match up. The one thing I do like about Franklin Field is the concession stands. They are loaded with all the foods that are bad for you and so good at the same time. I had a cheesesteak, a slice of pizza and a Coke and it did not break the bank and on top of that, everything was delicious. The people at the concession stand know how to make a cheesesteak with provolone.
Now this is lunch at the stadium
After we won, I had about an hour after the game so I ventured over to the Penn Museum that is located across the street.
The entrance to the Penn Museum at 3269 South Street
In the three times that I have visited the museum, I never get to spend the time at this wonderful little gem that I want because there are so many great museums in Philly and it is hard to get over here except during football season.
The “What We Wear” exhibition at the Penn Museum
The museum has extensive Greek, Egyptian and Pre-Columbian Galleries to explore and on a nice day, the gardens and fountains are relaxing to sit by. I got to tour the “What We Wear” exhibition before the museum closed. The day of the game as the museum closed down for the afternoon, I got to watch our team leave the stadium. The parents were all riled up after the win.
Since it was getting late, I decided to tour parts of the Penn and Drexel campuses before it got too dark outside. I loved looking into the quads and older buildings that make up the character of these two campuses. Both campuses were still busy with groups of families but everything else was closing around them. I decided to walk over to the Reading Market for a snack before relaxing at the hotel.
The Reading Market Terminal at 501 North 12th Street
By the time I got there after 6:00pm, the market had already closed for the day. I was bummed but would come back for breakfast the next morning. I walked around Chinatown in search of a small take-out place.
I came across Asia Bakery at 115 North Street in Chinatown. It was a relief to find this place as I was not hungry and it had the most amazing baked products. The Roast Pork Buns here are delicious and the Cream filled Buns are excellent (See review on TripAdvisor). They didn’t even make it back to the hotel as I ate them on the way back to the Sheraton.
I would come back again in 2025 and buy some buns to take back to the room. Their prices are still fair in 2025.
When I returned in 2025, I stopped in for a Pineapple Custard bun as a snack. The quality and freshness of their baked products is excellent.
Yum!
When I got back to the Sheraton, I hit the pillow that evening and I did not wake up until the 8:30am the next morning. I had one of the best night’s sleeps in ages. The beds at the Marriott are the best, so soft yet firm. You will get the best night’s sleep on these beds.
The next day I was refreshed and ready for a long day of touring. My goal was to explore Old Town Philadelphia again and I wanted to start with breakfast at the Reading Market at Pearl’s Oyster Market located right inside the Terminal.
Breakfast at Pearl’s Oyster Bar was the best. I had the most amazing Breakfast platter with French Toast, Scrambled eggs, turkey bacon from a butcher in the Market and a side of Hash Browns and everything was delicious. The portion size was not gargantuan but was enough to cover me until lunch. The French toast was nice pieces of hallah bread dipped in a flavorful cinnamon mixture and cooked until a golden brown.
The breakfast here is delicious
It was some breakfast
I went back the Sunday morning I was leaving in 2025, and the food and service were consistent as usual. I have never had a bad meal here. I wanted something different than just pancakes and eggs. I had a hard time choosing between the Chicken and Waffles and the Crabcake Benedict, but the Benedict won overall.
I ordered the Crab cakes Benedict with hash browns
Everything was delicious and so well made
After breakfast, it was off to explore Old Town Philadelphia. I had been to Philly over the summer and there were places I wanted to revisit and places on the bucket list. My first stop was the Elfreth’s Alley Association Museum at 126 Elfreth’s Alley. This unique little house shows how early merchants ran their businesses and lived.
Elfreth’s Alley Association Museum at 126 Elfreth’s Alley
This interesting little museum lets you experience what it was like to live like a merchant in the late 1700’s. The shop was in the front of the home facing the windows and you would do business with the customers in the front of the house while the family had the kitchen in the back and lived upstairs in the small bedroom.
The front of the museum where the dress makers worked
I could not believe that a family of six once lived here. In the back, there is a small garden to sit outside and relax.
The bedroom area
My next museum on the tour of the neighborhood was the Betsey Ross House at 239 Arch Street. This is one of the last of its kind on the block and barely lasted the chopping block of the 1960’s urban renewal of the area.
What fascinated me about the tour is that Betsy Ross had been married twice and did not even own this house. She rented rooms from the owner and ran her own upholster business from the front of the store and lived in a room in the back with her husband. There were also other people living in the house at the time and it is not that big of a house. She was approached by the Patriots about creating the flag which she had never done before.
It was interesting that she was an independent businesswoman when many women did not have employment. Also, when I reached the last room of the house, the actor playing her was so convincing as Betsy Ross, I felt like I was talking to the real person.
After the tour of the Betsy Ross House, the next museum in the neighborhood I visited was the Fireman’s Hall Museum at 149 North Second Street. This museum is the perfect place for out-of-town firefighters and their families to see how the Philadelphia Fire Department was founded and operates.
I found the museum fascinating in that you have the entire history of the modern fire department from the bucket brigade to the current engines and Trucks that operate today. You can see where Benjamin Franklin organized the first departments to the days when they were run by the insurance companies.
The best part is that the museum is run by the Philadelphia Fire Department and you get to meet several of the firemen when you visit who can answer all sorts of questions about their department.
The last museum on my bucket list to visit on this trip was the Museum of the American Revolution at 101 South 3rd Street.
The Museum of the American Revolution at 101 South 3rd Street
I found this museum not only interesting but very educational. It described the entire Revolutionary War from the acts that England put on the Colonists from the Stamp Act to the Tea Taxes and not even consulting with the Colonial Administration on these decisions.
What I found fascinating about this museum is that they had George Washington’s tent that he used in battle, original weapons from the war and more interestingly is that they had pieces of the King George Statue that was pulled down by New Yorkers in Bowling Green Park. I had thought it had been destroyed and melted down. I even found out that the head had been smuggled back to England.
I was tired of all the museums that I had visited in both the July and October trips and it was time to sample the food of Philadelphia’s Old Town. There was a lot to choose from. My first stop was Big Ass Slices at 224 Market Street.
I love the logo for Big Ass Slices at 224 Market Street
The name does not do the pizza justice. The slices are oversized being the size of two slices and have a delicious pizza sauce that makes the body of the pizza ($5.30 for a Big Ass Slice). What was nice was that I was able to eat it indoors without enduring the cool afternoon.
The pizza here is amazing
Another stop I made on my summer trip was The Franklin Ice Cream Bar for ice cream. The other ice cream shops were either closed at the time of the night or had long lines. The Franklin Ice Cream Bar at 112 Market Street and its sister store,
The menu
The Franklin Fountain at 116 Market Street were both busy that day. The ice cream is homemade and amazing but expensive ($8.50 for a medium cup). I had the Caramelized Banana and the Sea Salt Caramel and I highly recommend them.
The Salted Caramel and Caramelized Banana ice creams
Yum!
The next on the list was Shane’s Confectionary at 110 Market Street. This over 100-year-old candy store was very interesting as it was like taking a step back in time when merchants made a statement not about their product but the way it was presented and sold.
You walk into the store and you are greeted by gas lamps and wooden cases that showcase the chocolates. I have to admit the prices are pretty high but these are homemade candies made inhouse. I bought one of their well-known Lighthouse chocolates and a Chocolate covered Truffle, another specialty they were known for that totaled $7.50 for two pieces of chocolate. Totally worth it! Both tasted so good.
The inside of Shane Confectionary
I walked down some of the side streets and passed many of the boutiques that make up. One store that stood out was Claudia Mills Rugs at 133 North 3rd Street. This interesting store was a standout in that they creating the rugs right inside with the looms working as you walk in.
The finished products lined the walls in all their colorful glory. It is the perfect store for decorators and people looking to add some zing to their home decor.
The inside of Claudia’s Rugs
With all this walking in Old Town Philadelphia, I started to get hungry again and decided instead of heading back to the Reading Market, I wanted to try a new place for a cheesesteak. I went to Campo’s Philly Cheesesteak at 214 Market Street.
I now know why this restaurant has been open since 1947. The cheesesteaks are excellent. I ordered a Cheesesteak w/o (without onions) and Wiz (Cheese Wiz), the only way I will eat a cheesesteak. The hoagie roll was so soft and chewy and the Cheese Wiz pulled the thin steaks together and the taste was amazing. It was nice to eat inside with other people again.
The meal was delicious
The Cheesesteaks are amazing
Yum!
I walked down to the Delaware River and looked at the Camden Waterfront. God has that changed but at least they are trying with the city. There are now parks, hotels and the aquarium and they look like they are building new housing. Rutgers expanded their campus in Camden so that has helped.
I passed the Independence Seaport Museum (for the next trip, it was closing for the day) and walked along the path and watched the cars and boats pass by. It must have been something for those early colonists who saw only woods and a lot of promise when they walked along the same path. I saw Philly coming back to life and that was a good thing. It had been shut down too long before I returned in July and then in November.
I walked back to the now closing Reading Market Terminal and walked through the hallways again watching tourists ordering the last of their meals and taking gifts home with them. It was such a relaxing overnight stay and it was good to revisit the museums and shops I had visited over the summer to get a new perspective on them. I was able to update a lot on MywalkinManhattan.com and LittleShoponMainStreet@Wordpress.com so it was a good working trip.
That and we beat Penn! That made the trip all worth it! I will be back to Philly soon.
Go Spartans and Go Big Red! Go Green Go White! Go Red!
There were no highlights on the Cornell versus Penn game in 2015. We lost 34-21.
Cornell versus Penn 2021: 15-12 (Won)
We Won!
Michigan State versus Ohio State 2015: 17-14 (won)
We won!
Michigan State versus Purdue 2021: 29-40 (lost)
We lost! Badly!
In 2025:
I returned for the Cornell-Penn Game after a four year absence. Two years ago when I was in Grad school, I had two major papers to write for classes at NYU plus the fact that a Nor’easter had come up the coast and down poured all over the game, it would not have been a very pleasant experience.
After a very long week of work and finishing our quizzes and preparing for the upcoming Team Projects and Thanksgiving break, I left for Philly right after classes were over. After a very quick trip from Penn Station in New York, I walked from Penn Station in Philadelphia to my Airbnb on the edge of Chinatown.
What the building lacked in esthetics, made up in price and location. It was one block from Chinatown and just inside the Central Business district.
Arriving in Philadelphia for the game
Penn Station in Philadelphia at night
So I walked through the empty downtown area, admiring the architecture. I could not believe that it was only 6:00pm when I arrived but it felt like 9:30pm! It was so dark out. The downtown was so quiet and elegant at night. It being so empty you could admire its beauty first hand.
Downtown Philadelphia on Market Street at night
Things were already being set up for Christmas. The Uptown Christmas Beer Garden was already set up by City Hall.
I got to the Airbnb and settled in and then walked all of Chinatown in search of the perfect Soup Dumplings. I found the At Lucious Dumplings at 939 Race Street. I think I chose it because it look modern and new from the outside and did not have the old fashioned look from Chinatown standbys. The food and the service were wonderful.
Since it was getting late and zI did want a huge meal sitting in me before I went to bed, I ordered a small bowl on Hot & Sour Soup to start and an order of Pork Soup Dumplings and an order of Fried Pork Dumplings. Everything was freshly made and delicious.
The Hot & Sour Soup was well spiced and full of fresh ingredients
The Soup Dumplings were so juicy when you bit into them. You could tell they were hand made.
The Panfried Pork Dumplings
The meal and the service were wonderful. The prices were very fair and the music they played was a combination of modern jazz and 70’s hits. The whole experience made for a perfect dinner.
My perfect dinner
After dinner was over, I walked around Chinatown, which seemed rather quiet for Friday evening. It really was a warm and beautiful evening out and I thought it would be busier.
Walking around Philadelphia’s Chinatown at night
I was exhausted from work that morning and then traveling on top of the sheer running around from that week and decided to head back to the Airbnb and just relax. It was going to be a long day the next day. I stayed a tiny Airbnb on Wood Street in the up and coming section of Old Town/Northern Liberties section of the downtown just off Chinatown.
The rains passed be the next day and it was a beautiful, warm Fall morning. I could not believe it. It was 60 degrees outside when I went for breakfast. The neighborhood showed it true light, and I could see there was a lot going on both in the night and day here.
I got to see the hipster neighborhood in the light
The neighborhood is just north of Chinatown, giving me excellent access to my favorite sections of the city, Chinatown and City Center.
The Old Town/Northern Liberties neighborhood during the day
I knew exactly where I wanted to go for breakfast, the Dutch Eating place in the Reading Market Terminal. The Airbnb was just three blocks away which made it convenient to everything I wanted to do in my two-day visit to Philly.
It was a beautiful morning in Philly
I love the Reading Market with all its sights and smells. Their food pretzels whole place was waking up when I got there but there was line for the Dutch Eating Place.
The Dutch Eating Place at Reading Terminal
I was able to get a stool pretty quickly and sit down to breakfast. People were coming and going so fast that the counter turned over rapidly. I wanted something different this time and I had a Bacon, Egg and Cheese on Rye Toast with a grilled Raison Sticky Bun. Along with freshly squeezed orange juice, it made the best breakfast on this busy morning.
My breakfast, the Bacon, Egg and Cheese sandwich with a grilled Raison Sticky bun
The breakfast sandwich was excellent
The Grilled Raison Sweet roll
Yum!
Then I needed to walk it all off, so I walked all around the Reading Market Terminal. I love just walking around the Market and looking at all the stalls and the selection of foods available. There is some selection of all sorts of cuisines and many places of dessert. I love all the smells and sounds of the cooking and the fun of watching people push in their faces and loving their meals. There is such a joy to good food.
Walking through the Reading Terminal Market
I enjoy just looking at this and that and making mental notes for the next trip to Philly. There was so much to see and experience from stall to stall. Unfortunately, a lot of stalls are closed on Sunday, so it is a bummer. Still there is a lot to see and do here.
Fresh fruits and vegetables
The Southern cooking
The selection of sandwiches
The salads
The selection of all sorts of fresh produce
Loads of delicious salads
Racks of delicious ribs
I was tempted so many times even though I was still full from breakfast. Then as soon as I walked all the hallways, it was off to Miller’s Twist for a pretzel before I left for the game. I figured I needed to fill up until halftime.
Now I had all the carbs and food in me for the walk down to the Penn campus on the other side of downtown. The Fall had come to Philly, and the foliage was just beautiful on the Penn Campus.
Walking around the Penn Campus
The Penn Campus really was beautiful on this early Fall day. All the foliage had not fallen and there were all sorts of golden hues to it. I had to change clothes and just put on my polo as it went up to 67 degrees that afternoon. A far cry from the 40 degrees days I have experienced in that stadium in earlier years.
Outside the Franklin Stadium
The stadium that morning after the rain storm
It ended up being a clear sunny day and the perfect Fall weather for a football game.
The statue of Benjamin Franklin outside the stadium
Franklin Stadium the morning of the game
I am used to the apathy of the Penn students and Alumni even though it was Homecoming Weekend. The stadium was 2/3rds empty for the whole game. It did fill up for the second and beginning of the third quarters but once we starting to clobber them, the stadium emptied out.
Franklin Stadium right before the start of the game
Cornell’s football team during the morning warmup
The band soon joined from the other side of the stadium
Our band entering the stadium
The game started at 1:00 pm sharp and we could not have asked for a better afternoon. The tickets were more than usual as it was the Penn Homecoming. You would have never known it by the crowds.
Our band doing their Opening number facing the Penn side of the field at the start of the game
The Cornell Band Opening number
The game was really good this year (finally) as Penn was ranked higher than us with a better record, so I was not expecting much. We did much better than I thought we would do.
Our band coming off the field after a great performance
Then heading to the stands
What a great day for a game
Then our team made their entrance to the field and the game began
The video of the Team entering the field to start the game
The first half went back and forth and we looked far better than we did at the Yale game back in September, which was such a pathetic game. We looked like we had some kind of turnaround at the Bucknell game and for the last three games, there was a turn around. Something had changed.
Even the cheerleaders had some pep to them
The girls (and one guy) did a great job leading the cheers but it is easy to do when you are winning.
Even the crowd was larger on our side of the stadium and it was homecoming for Penn. I thought that was pretty bad for the home team.
The cheerleaders performing on the sidelines
We lead 13-10 at half time and I had to go to the Penn side of the stadium to search for a cheesesteak. One side of the concession stand was packed but the cheesesteak side was empty. I breezed past the Penn Alumni who looked annoyed that I got through while they waited in the other line.
My lunch that afternoon at Franklin Stadium. They were not selling cheesesteaks on the Cornell side of the stadium
Yum! It was a good as it looked!
The Penn side of the stands looked pathetic by the second half. I had to charge my phone and we ended up scoring twice quickly. That is when Penn fell apart. They had a slight resurgence with a 75 yard return for touchdown but then that was it for the rest of the game.
Our last play, TOUCHDOWN!!
Our last field goal of the game
This is how bad Penn Stadium is on game day. Their Alumni and students don’t come to the games even when they are having winning season!
We won the game evening our record 4-4 and we looked like we could win the rest of the season! Hopefully!
Our mini pep rally after the game was over with the Alumni, football players, cheerleaders and the band. A far cry from the Yale game and from the Penn Games of the past.
My last glimpse of Penn Stadium
The band was playing outside and having a good time while the cheerleader ms loads the bus snd the players prepared for the bus ride back to Ithaca.
Everyone in good spirits after the win!
The beautiful fall day in Philadelphia
After the game, I walked down Walnut Street to Rittenhouse Square. The park like the rest of the neighborhood was packed with people on this warm Fall evening. It was 65 degrees and locals and tourists alike were outside enjoying this almost Summer evening. It got dark by 5:15pm and the lights came on to show the magic of Philly.
Walking past the old Lit Brothers store on Market Street that night
I was hungry again and stopped by the Reading Market before it closed and got one of the last Whoopee pies at Beiler’s Bakery before it closed for the evening.
Now a Whoopee pie is a snack
I had a nice dinner at a small hole in the wall restaurant in Chinatown before I headed back to the Airbnb at Bahn Mi Cali at 900 Arch Street. I had passed it the night before and decided to check it out for a quick dinner. I was still stuffed from lunch but still in the mood for a sandwich.
The Roast Pork Banh Mi was only $9.00 and was a sizable sandwich. The roast pork had lots of flavor to it and I ate it inside the restaurant.
What the restaurant lacked in esthetics it made up in taste
The delicious Roast Pork Bahn Mi
Yum!
Then I headed back to the hip warehouse neighborhood where I fell asleep as soon as I hit the pillow at 7:30pm. It was pitch black that night. The hipness kicked in.
The artwork on one of the warehouse buildings. Such hippiness!
This was one of the best trips I made to Philly in a long time. I was able to just relax and take it all in. Winning the game was just the icing on the cake. Until the next year!
My walk today took me all over the lower park of Inwood. My all day walk took me from the northern border of 207th Street to the Harlem River covering both sides of Dyckman Street to Inwood Park and the Marina area covering Payson Avenue and the lower part of Seaman Avenue. My legs were killing me at the end of the day but the sites I saw were amazing.
I started at the 207th Street stop and walked up 207th Street walking both sides and peeking into the small businesses that lined the street. There are still a lot of Mom & Pop stores in this area catering to the local clientele.
On a recent visit to the neighborhood, I had both breakfast and lunch at G’s Coffee Shop at 634 207th Street (see reviews on TripAdvisor and DiningonaShoeStringinNYC@Wordpress.com). The food is so reasonable (their breakfasts are delicious) and the service is very friendly. You feel like you are part of the neighborhood here.
G’s Coffee Shop burgers at 634 207th Street are excellent
I walked both sides up and down Seaman Avenue lined with pre-war apartments and sprinkled in with some small houses. Then I back tracked to walking the side streets of 204th Street, Cooper Street, Academy Street, Beak Street and Cumming Street admiring all the buildings and pocket parks along the way. I doubled back to Seaman Avenue and walked Payson Avenue which lines Inwood Hill Park.
The apartment buildings that face the park are offered spectacular views of the flora and fauna of the park and paths leading into the park are just steps away. It is interesting that taking some of the paths off Payson Avenue lead you right into the interior of the park and takes you into the interior of a forest right on Manhattan Island.
Once you exit Payson Avenue to Dyckman Street, walk the stretch of Inwood Hill Park to the end. You will pass a very active playground which on the weekend seems to be one long birthday party. At the end of Dyckman Street on the Hudson River side you will find the very edge of Inwood Park that leads to La Marina Restaurant at 348 Dyckman Street on one side that offers sweeping views of Hudson River and the Palisades on the New Jersey side.
The entrance to the Dyckman Beach Cove
The other side of the street leads to the soccer fields and to the Dyckman Street pier and next to it a small, picturesque beach and rock formation. It offers some of the best views of the Hudson River and who knew that there was a beach in this part of Manhattan. On a sunny day, it is the most relaxing place to relax on the benches and just look at the view of the Hudson River and the cliffs across the river.
The Dyckman Beach attracts more than just people on a warm day.
The ducks on the beach
After a long rest, I walked back down Dyckman Street to cover the area between that and Riverside Drive which opens to Fort Tryon Park. These streets have a row of pre-war apartment buildings that offer great views of the park and as you exit, more small pocket parks and playgrounds are on both sides. Dyckman Street between Payson Avenue and Broadway is lined with upscale eateries making it the ‘Restaurant Row’ of Inwood with more on the way.
I took the walk to the other side of Dyckman Street that led to Fort Tyron Park and from the hill offers another view of the Hudson. I relaxed in two smaller parks that are part of this sea of green on Dyckman Street.
The entrance to Ann Loftus Park in the Fall of 2025
The very active Ann Loftus Playground, named after a local neighborhood leader, had all the rambunctious charm that a playground should have with kids playing on the swings, jumping through an active fountain and climbing on the jungle gym, which I thought had been outlawed since the 80’s. Parents chatted with one another while kids ran all over the park.
The Ann Loftus Playground just finished their renovation
The park again in November 2025 when I walked through to enjoy the foliage
The park was not as busy on a cool November afternoon in 2025
Enjoying the views during the Fall of 2025
Sidewalk Art in the park
Another park across the street, the Lt. William Tighe Park Triangle, which is named after a prominent Inwood resident and veteran of two World Wars, was locked in the day but I could see the colorful plantings and small benches that lined the park. This park sits across from the Dyckman Street ‘Restaurant Row”.
There was a free art show in 2023 in William Tighe Triangle Park
In 2023, the park gates were finally open (in the nine years I have been doing this project, they have never been open), they were having a small art show, so I was able to walk around the garden. The artwork was nothing interesting, but the park is so beautifully maintained and landscaped that it was fun to walk around and take a quick break from the walk to see it. This is why it took so long to leave upper Manhattan, there was so much more to see and do that not been open before.
I made my first pit stop of the day at McDonald’s for one of their new frozen Strawberry Lemonade ($2.00). I have been swearing off McDonald’s for a while, but this is something so perfect and wonderful to have on a hot humid day. It is so sweet and tart it will quench your thirst while you are walking around the area. It is the perfect fast-food drink.
Dyckman Avenue shopping district
I made my way down Dyckman Street on the other side, passing many family-owned businesses catering to the neighborhood and a few national chains proving that this area is very up and coming. I covered the lower parts of Sherman, Post and Nagel Streets lined with their apartment buildings and businesses until I passed Fort George Avenue and the start of High Bridge Park.
The entrance to High Bridge Park off 207th Street in the Spring of 2024 (park under renovation)
High Bridge Park entrance right off the subway stop in Spring 2024
Along the stretch of Dyckman Street the park while rustic was full of trash. It wrecked the effect of the high hills and large boulders with their small paths. Once passing 10th Avenue, I reached the entrance of Harlem River Drive and the beginning of High Bridge Park with the lush greenery and small parks and gardens within the larger park.
High Bridge Park is unique in itself that there are many smaller parks that are part of it. As I walked into the park on a busy weekend day, it seemed that every family in the area was either having a barbecue or a birthday party as people were cooking in every part of the lawn that was open. As you enter the park and walk down the path off Harlem River Drive you find the quiet and secluded Swindler Cove Park with its well-tended paths and natural preserve appearance along with beautiful views of the Harlem River. These winding paths will take you through the back woods and offers nice places to sit and chat.
High Bridge Park at West 190th Street and Amsterdam Avenue
I then walked up 10th and 9th Avenues crisscrossing the side streets up to 207th street. At the end of each side street from 201st through 207th there is a small park at the end of the block that the park system runs. Again these parks, as small as they were filled with families having small parties. Each little park was called Sherman Cove Park, and all offered nice views of the Harlem River.
Sherman Creek Cove Park at 3703 Harlem River Drive
It was a nice place to rest after a long day of walking. I finished my walk on this side of Inwood with a grape soda at the Community Food Store at 2893 Broadway. This bustling store offers everything you need for a day in the park or to run a small business.
Sherman Cove by the East River with new grass regrowth
My last stop of the day when I doubled back down 207th Street was a snack at Dichter Pharmacy and Soda Shoppe at 4953 Broadway. This Pharmacy is a throwback to the old Woolworth stores with the things you need to buy in the front and an ice cream parlor and lunch counter to the side. I saw their sign for ‘the best ice cream sundaes in New York’, so I had to test their claim. I was not disappointed. I had a vanilla and blueberry sundae that hit the spot after a hot day and was tempted with an order of Mozzarella sticks but decided to be good (they did stop making the hot food in 2023).
They have a full menu of lunch and dinner items, and it is worth checking out this unique spot. It is worth it just to sit back and chat with the soda jerk. So many great things to see today though my feet were killing me.
Check out my other blogs on walking around the Inwood neighborhood:
My walks in Manhattan seem to have a late start. Work and household responsibilities come first but then the ride into the city is always anticipated. I look forward to that walk around the neighborhood. My walk took from 218th Street to 207th Street from 10th Avenue to Inwood Hill Park. Today I started my trip in the late afternoon and started to walk on the other side of Broadway at 218th Street, home to the Columbia Athletic Complex.
The entrance to the Hudson River from Muscato Marsh
As a Cornell Alumnus, I have spent many a day at the Stadium watching the on again off again rivalry between the two schools. In the last six years, I have attended three away games at the Columbia Stadium, and I believe we have an even record with them. I have to admit that Cornell’s football record has not been great in the past few years but we as Alumni can still dream of that unbeaten season.
The inlet in the summer months
As I walked through the complex watching the Columbia team do its warmup, I have to tell you one thing, even though our teams sit at the bottom of the Ivy League each year (we’ll get better), over the past three years I have noticed more cheering Cornell Alumni at the games, which our team seems to appreciate. It is funny to go to an away game and there are more people on the Cornell side of the stadium then the home team.
Columbia C at Marble Hill
Walking around the complex brings back many great memories of warm afternoons and the Alumni parade to the Cornell Club. Don’t miss the Lion statue in the middle of the complex. It really is quite a site. The Lion Statue was a result of the Class of 1899 and was designed by artist Fredrick G.R. Roth.
Fredrick G. R. Roth was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY. He was trained at the Academy of Design in Vienna and the New York Academy. He studied animals in their native habitat. In the early 1930’s, he worked in the Works Projects Administration as head sculptor.
The statue has been moved to a few locations over the years since its inception. In 2005, the school renamed the mascot “Roar-ee” (Columbia Alumni Page).
Artist Frederick Roth was a Brooklyn born American artist who studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and the Royal Academy in Berlin. He continued his studies at the New York Academy and was known for portraying living animals (Wiki).
Grab an ice cream cone at the ice cream truck that is always parked at the entrance to Inwood Hill Park. His soft serve ice cream is $3.00 plus the chocolate topping, a dollar less than downtown.
On the edge of 218th Street, past of the Columbia Boathouse is the Muscota Marsh (See my reviews on VisitingaMuseum@Worpress.com and TripAdvisor) that overlooks the big ‘C’ on the cliffs in the foreground. This beautiful and relaxing little park can be reached by walking down the hill from the sports complex. It is the only freshwater marsh in the City of New York.
The Columbia Boathouse in Muscato Marsh
The Muscota Marsh at 218 Street and Indian Road is a one-acre public park adjacent to Inwood Hill Park and located on the shore of the Spuyten Duyvil Creek, which is a section of the Harlem River. Opened in 2014, the marsh has both a freshwater marsh and a salt marsh. Besides attracting plant and animal life, these wetlands are intended to help filter rainwater runoff, and this helps to improve the water quality of the river. (Wikipedia).
Muscota Marsh at 218th Street and Indian Road in Inwood
The benches overlook both the Bronx and cliff views of New Jersey and a small piece of land that juts out from Inwood Hill Park that has a picturesque view in the foreground. It makes a nice walk to stroll amongst the benches and look at the plantings or just sit on a bench on a sunny afternoon and just enjoy the views. It is quiet and relaxing.
The boathouse and the Big C
The views of the bridge from Muscato Marsh
Once you leave the marsh, you enter Inwood Hill Park, which offers its own beauty, strolling along the paths and walking through the lawns and woods. You will pass Indian Road Playground at 570 West 218th Street, a small park that is popular with the neighborhood kids. I went to the point of the park that juts into the river and watched a group of teenage boys fishing in the river. Traditions don’t die hard in this city as my grandfather did the same thing in the East River in the early 1900’s.
As you stroll down the path from this spot in the park and continue along the path, you will come across Shorakkopoch Rock, a boulder marking the site where Peter Minuit bought the island of Manhattan from the native Reckgawawang Indians for about 60 guilders of trinkets and beads in 1626 (See VisitingaMuseum@Wordpress.com and TripAdvisor).
I ended my day at the corner of 207th and 10th Avenue having covered this whole part of Inwood. This is a beautiful, diverse and active neighborhood where everyone seems to get along and look out for one another. Even the vendors look you over as you enter the Number One subway back downtown. I don’t know if they are looking for business or making sure you’re not creating funny business. It’s part of the neighborhood that I wish more tourists would see especially in supporting our Dominican residents.
The boulder marks the spot of a giant 280-year-old 165-foot tulip tree once stood until it died in 1932. Legend has it that this is the spot of one of the greatest real estate investments took place. It is such an important part of Manhattan history that most tourists miss.
Shorakkopoch Rock inside Inwood Park where Peter Minuit bargained for Manhattan
Strolling back to the neighborhood, I walked down 218th Street and admired the homes that line the beginning of Park Terrace and the south side of 217th Street. These gothic looking homes have beautiful features and gardens to admire in the front. Their well-landscaped yards showcase the best in colorful flowers and shrubs that attract both small birds and butterflies.
These homes remind us of a time when the neighborhood had a real residential feel to it. This part of Inwood reminds me a lot of Beacon Hill in Boston, with its sloping streets, well-tended courtyards and prewar apartment buildings. It’s a nice stroll just to pass the buildings and be taken back to a different time in the city.
The Houses in Inwood are really beautiful
Inwood rose garden
In the middle of the neighborhood sits Isham Park at Isham Street & Seaman Avenue. This was once part of the Isham family estate that the Isham family had donated to the City during the early part of the 20th Century. It was home to the Isham Mansion of William Bradley Isham. The mansion was torn down in 1940 due to disrepair. Bounded by Seaman Avenue and Broadway, this offers the neighborhood a quieter alternative to the bustling Inwood Hill Park next to it. What a lot of people don’t know is that Park Terrance leading into Isham was the original entrance to the Isham estate.
On this quiet afternoon, residents were reading, playing ball and catching up with their neighbors. It had a real family feel to it. Right off the park sits the Bruce Reynolds Memorial Gardens at 11 Park Avenue. These beautiful, well-landscaped paths were dedicated to Bruce Reynolds, a local resident and a former member of the N.Y. Parks Department and a Port Authority Police Officer who died on 9/11.
Mr. Reynolds had been a big part of the neighborhood cleanup of the park and got local youths to help set it up when the gang problem in the neighborhood got to be too much. After time spent in the Parks Department as a ranger, he moved on to become a Port Authority Police Officer (NYCParks Department).
These gardens are a legacy of his hard work to maintain this local neighborhood garden. It is a quiet place to sit and relax. The flowers were in full bloom when I visited, and the gardens were loaded with bees, butterflies and birds moving along the flowering beds. I also want to note that the members of the community have Saturday potlucks and there are concerts open to the public in the warmer months. It is a pleasant park to sit and relax in.
The bird feeders of the gardens
My walk continued down 207th Street after covering all the roads from 218th Street to 207th Street from Inwood Park to Broadway. I was quite the hike up and down the hills. The neighborhood is surrounded by elegant pre-war housing especially around Park Terrance with its pocket gardens between the buildings. A nice place for the residents to get together and mingle while walking their dogs. 207th Street is mostly residential from the park to Broadway and then gets very commercial from Broadway to the entrance to the University Heights Bridge.
The art show at the Bruce Reynold’s Gardens
On a bustling summer day, people are out socializing, selling their wares on the sidewalk and there are fantastic street vendors selling everything from shaved ice with syrup, rainbow ices, fresh orange and fruit juice and pastelitos fried right in front of you. All along this shopping street are reasonably priced stores selling clothing, cell phones and housewares. Here and there you can see some changes in the neighborhood with new restaurants catering to both old and new residents, but for the most part 207th Street is the equivalent to Mott Street in Chinatown except this street caters to the neighborhood’s strong Dominican community.
There is nothing like a rainbow ice on a hot day
There are terrific pastelitos at a small cart on the corner of Sherman and 207th Street that fry theirs right in front of you and you have a choice of chicken, beef, egg and pork for a $2.00.
The pastelitos at 207th Street street vendor are delicious
The pastilitos are delicious at this vendor
The chicken pastilitos
The beef ones
This is one of the best deals and they are sizzling hot. Recommendation: buy two chicken and one beef and a coke with the guy next to them. It is a great walking lunch while exploring both sides of the shopping district. Finish the meal off with a rainbow ice, three scoops for $1.00 at a vendor on the other side of Sherman Avenue. Be prepared to speak your broken Spanish if you are not fluent.
Another good option for reasonable food in a nice atmosphere is D’Lillian Bakery at 526 West 207th Street for wonderful baked products like sugar doughnuts and fruit turnovers. They also sell pastelitos as well and most items here are around $1.00. Just be prepared to speak Spanish.
(This project is dedicated with much love to my father, Warren George Watrel, who still inspires me!)
Hello and Welcome to ‘MywalkinManhattan.com’, an extensive project to walk the entire island of Manhattan. My name is Justin Watrel and I will be your guide in exploring the island of Manhattan, searching every nook and cranny of the island for the unusual, the usual and the in between.
The official walk started in front of the Marble Hill Houses in the Marble Hill neighborhood
‘Walking the Island of Manhattan’ may not be terribly original as there are about four other people doing the project at the same time, but this project is different in the way I see the island. Not rushing through to prove I have walked it but to see what these neighborhoods are all about and what is there to discover and enjoy.
The unique homes of Marble Hill were my starting point in June 2015
For all you ‘Manhattanites’ who think you know your island, I will show you things that you have never seen and places you have never gone, restaurants you have never tried and historical sites and museums you never knew existed. Maybe just a few blocks from where you live. As the son of two “Brooklynites’, I have traveled around the city a lot since 1969, my first time in the City when my parents took me to Chinatown to Hunan Gardens, a Chinese restaurant on Mott Street. I ended up there for eight birthdays until it closed in the early 2000’s.
Lunar New Year Parade in Chinatown every February
“My Walk in Manhattan” is a project to walk the entire island of Manhattan in New York City from top to bottom from the beginning of the Summer of 2015 until I finish the walk. Manhattan is 13.4 miles long and 2.3 miles wide and covers a total area 23.7 square miles. Along the way of walking the streets of Manhattan, I will be walking into parks, museums, restaurants and looking at the architecture of the neighborhoods and the buildings in them.
My soon to be path around the Island of Manhattan
I have found that people miss a lot when they walk with their cellphones and only look down at it. When you look up, you see the true beauty of the City. You see the stone work of old brownstones, you see small boutiques off the beaten track and can indulge in those hole in the wall restaurants that are usually found by foreign tourists. Nothing is more interesting then seeing a stone face on a building staring back at you, a tiny pocket park that residents created out of a garbage dump and that small entrepreneur trying to create a vision.
The Cable Building at 611 Broadway
This project was inspired by many things. My major inspiration for this project follows the recent passing of my father, Warren George Watrel. My dad and I loved to walk around the city and spend the day at various museums, walking around Central Park and the Conservatory, taking the subway to try new restaurants in Chinatown or Little Italy or any new place I had read about in the Village Voice (my Bible when looking for things to do on weekends).
Columbus Circle on the West Side
My father was a ‘Brooklynite’ from Williamsburg (long before it was ‘Hipster Central’, he would have been amused) and loved the city, so this voyage is dedicated to him. Having watched the movie “The Way” with Martin Sheen, we look for inspiration in our travels and try to find the answers to why something happens the way it does. Walking to explore does that.
I was my father’s caregiver after his illness hit him and I continued my trips into Manhattan as my father got better. It was the inspiration to this site’s sister site, ‘BergenCountyCaregiver.com’. After he passed in 2014, I wanted to spend Father’s Day doing something different yet do something that we would have done together. Thus started the first walk in Marble Hill.
My first Day in Marble Hill, Manhattan
Another inspiration was a recent article in New York Magazine entitled “Which New York is Yours? A Fierce Preservationist and a Pro-Development Blogger Debate” in which the author Justin Davidson asks about the disappearance of New York’s Character. “What does that character actually consist of? If we did make an all-out effort to preserve it, how would we know what to protect?” How much is the city changing? I have worked off and on in New York City since 1988 and the answer is in some parts of Manhattan it is night and day. Could you imagine walking in Bryant or Tompkins Square Parks in 1990?
I did and they were very different places back then. With the changing Zoning Laws and gentrification of many neighborhoods, its not the city of 1970’s movies. What I am looking for are those unique little pocket parks that we pass, those statues of people we have no clue who they are and those historic plaques of places gone by and people we don’t know.
Astor Row Houses in Harlem
Another are the books, ‘Vanishing New York: How a Great City Lost its Soul’ by Jeremiah Moss and ‘The Death and Life of the Great American City’ by Jane Jacobs. How do cities keep progressing and changing? How does change effect a city and what direction are we going in? Does the Island of Manhattan have to be all luxury or can it be mixed to help keep the creativity alive and keep innovation going? Do we want the big bad 70’s again or the luxury brand of the 2010’s and 20’s? How is it impacting and changing the city? How much has Manhattan and the rest of the boroughs changed with the rezoning of the city under the Bloomberg Administration. This can also be looked at in the documentaries “Gut Renovation” and “My Brooklyn”.
The last inspiration was my doctor. He said I have to lose ten pounds. I am hardly over-weight but like many people he feels that I will be healthier if I lose the weight and keep it off. I want to see how a walk like this tones the body.
Bowling Green Park in Lower Manhattan
I know many people before have walked the entire length of Manhattan while others have or are attempting to walk the every block in the city, mine has a more personal reason. To really see the city I love from the ground up and explore parts of the island that I have never ventured to and see what I find there. Along the way, I want to see how the city changes while I am taking the walk. This is not the “Christopher Columbus” attitude most people are taking when exploring the neighborhoods but more honoring those residents who are trying to make the City better.
The Bowling Green Park Fence
My project also includes stops at various points of interest and to get a better feel for all the neighborhoods, I am walking both sides of the street to get a better look at the buildings in each neighborhood and what defines the character of a neighborhood. I get the impression from some of the readers of Mr. Davidson’s article and from comments on the Internet that Manhattan is some “playground of the wealthy that is being gentrified to the hilt and soon no one will be able to afford any part of Manhattan”. Like in any place, there are people struggling everyday to survive in New York and like every city in the country, people are moving back in droves and want a quality of life for them and their families.
Delacorte Clock in Central Park
In the Age of COVID, it has been interesting starting the project again. I had been on hold from March 13th, 2020 through June 10th, 2020 when the City was closed for anyone other than First Responder and people who had to work there. I was so happy when I could return and continue walking Manhattan. My walk down Broadway for the forth time was a surprise with all the businesses closed on the Upper West Side and I met the challenge of “The Great Saunter Walk” , the 32 mile walk around the perimeter of the island in 14 hours. There is now more to see and explore and write.
The COVID world though has me facing closed businesses that I have covered over the years. Restaurants and stores that I have mentioned in this blog since 2015 have since closed permanently or closed for the time being, I am not too sure. We also have a walking world of masks that keep us safe. The times in Manhattan are changing from the way we eat in restaurants to the way we shop and visit museums.
SoHo boarded up after the June Riots 2020
Fifth Avenue boarded up after the June Riots 2020
Things are constantly changing in Manhattan since the riots in June and COVID keeps raging in the City with people not wanting to wear masks. I hope that things will get back to normal soon. I still see people out and about doing their thing and enjoying the warm weather so I am optimistic about life. Still though, Manhattan keeps changing with the Theater District boarded up and Chinatown looking like a ghost town. We will see how New York City recovers from COVID like the rest of the country.
By August of 2025, the area completely bounced back
I have now expanded this site to three other blogs, ‘VisitingaMuseum’ (VisitingaMuseum.com), which features all the historical sites, community gardens and small museums and galleries I find in not just Manhattan but throughout the rest of the NYC and beyond in the suburbs.
‘DiningonaShoeStringinNYC’ (DiningonaShoeStringinNYC@Wordpress.com), where I feature wonderful little restaurants, bodegas and bakeries that I find along the way. The one requirement is that the meal is around $10.00 and under (for us budget minded people).
“LittleShoponMainStreet” (LittleShoponMainStreet@Wordpress.com) where I find unique and creative stores in Manhattan and locally whose merchandising, displays, merchandise and service stand out in an age of Amazon. This harks back to a time when shopping was enjoyable and not a chore.
I have also added two new sections to the blog, “My life as a Fireman”, which I have moved from an old site that I had created for my old engine company to describe my experiences on the Hasbrouck Heights Fire Department over the last 16 years. Also, this is what takes up my time when I am not exploring New York City.
Justin Watrel, Fireman
Another is “A Local Journey” are tours of downtown’s and communities outside the New York City area to travel to when you need to escape the City’s clutches. I have specific guidelines in finding stores, restaurants and museums/cultural sites in the area. This has lead me to really explore my own town of Hasbrouck Heights, NJ and exploring out of town destinations like Red Hook, NY and Beach Haven/Long Beach Island, NJ. You would be amazed on what these small towns offer.
Downtown Red Hook, NY in the Summer months
With COVID still rearing its head when I am in New York City, I do everything to stay safe from being fully vaccinated (I have take both shots and no I have not turned into a ‘Pod Person’) to wearing a mask and keeping hand sanitizer on me. I abide by all NYC Parks rules and try to stay away from people when in museums and restaurants.
Downtown Red Hook, NY during the Christmas holiday season
Even with all its problems, New York City is still the most exciting City on earth and follow the blog, neighborhood by neighborhood and join me in discovering what makes Manhattan one of the greatest places on Earth!
So to readers who will be following me on the journey walking through Manhattan and beyond, I hope you enjoy trip walking by my side!
Me in Red Hook, Brooklyn discovering my new love in “Street Art”
This project is dedicated to my father, Warren George Watrel, with lots of love and many wonderful adventures and memories to keep me company as I take “My Walk in Manhattan”.
My dad, Warren and I at his 60th high school reunion in 2013
‘Break My Stride’ still plays in my mind when I do this walk.
This walking song plays in my mind when I start ‘Walking’. Thank you Mary Mary!
mywalkinmanhattan 