The Mount Vernon Hotel Museum at 421 East 61st Street
Mount Vernon historical sign during the summer months
The history of the building
The model of the building
I had come across the Mount Vernon Hotel Museum when I was walking on East 61st Street for my blog and went to take the tour of the building. It is a one hour (or more as I there for almost two hours but I was by myself) tour of both floors. You start with a film and a quick talk about the history of the building. The hotel building has had several owners and uses over its over hundred years.
I visited the museum during the holiday season in 2025 and I got to see all the decorations around the hotel. There was elegant decorations in most of the rooms and got to see how people ate during the holiday season as well as with visits guests would have indulged in when they came for the day.
Then you start the tour of the upper room where the ladies would gather and talk. This is where they might have tea, musical recitals and read and sew. They would gather with other women for conversation and debate.
The Upstairs foyer gallery
The foyer landing decorated for the holidays with the former traveler, James Taylor, who discussed in his memoir about visiting the hotel
The Ladies Parlor
The upstairs is where the sleeping rooms and the ladies parlors are located, where female guests would enjoy tea, games, music and reading. The main landing was for dancing and for gatherings.
The Ladies Palour with the Chinese writing desk and festive decorations.
The room set for tea with Englishware
The holiday set up afternoon service
The sleeping rooms were kept simple and functional
The Men’s game room
The main floor was the Men’s gaming rooms, where there is a bar and two rooms for male activities such as cards, gambling and reading. Here the men would discuss politics and business over a drink and games of chance.
The main games room
The main entrance was used as the dining room for dinner (our lunch), which was the biggest meal of the day served around 2:00pm.
The bar area where spirits are sold
The afternoon supper was part of the package and couples would join one another for a several course meal, which would serve as the main meal of the day.
Dinner time at the Mount Vernon Hotel Museum
The tour guide went over what would have been served, menu’s and meal times. Dinner would have been served at 2:00pm, tea time would have been around 4:00pm-6:00pm and Supper around 8:00pm.
The multi course meal for everyday on display
The meal would include popular dishes such as turkey and oysters and a specialty, Turtle soup. Fresh vegetables and fancy desserts would be part of the package.
The tour of the kitchen show preparation of foods, recipe books and all kitchen equipment including the stoves and baking materials.
The kitchen for both the hotel and house
The kitchen used to cook afternoon meals
The area used for baking and roasting
If you like the history of “Old New York” and like old homes, hotels and buildings, this is a very interesting tour that deals with the City’s growing middle-class and the new ‘leisure time’ that was coming with the changes in the work week. There are many pieces of period furniture all over the building that show the growth of affluence of the time.
The side board set with holiday desserts
The side board ladened with holiday treats
Don’t miss the formal walled in garden in the back. It is a place of relaxation from the rest of the city. There are stone walk ways and landscaped gardens as well as an herb garden. The building is owned and maintained by the Colonial Dames of America.
The walled gardens during the winter
The walled garden in the winter
I revisited the museum for the holidays and the hotel was decked out in garland and holy based on the decor traditional for the Revolutionary War era Christmas. The archways and tables were lined with greenery and the tables were loaded with oranges plunged with cloves to give the homes at that time a rich citrus smell.
The downstairs dining table was set for a Christmas meal of wild turkey, mock turtle soup, and apple and pumpkin pies. This would have been served in the afternoon as the main meal while it was still light out.
Holiday goodies at the Mount Vernon Hotel Museum getting ready for the holidays
There had been a light snow while we were touring the hotel so when we visited the gardens, it really did have that Christmas feel to it with that light snow all over the pine and the bushes.
How the neighborhood has changed
The old stable area
During the time of the Revolutionary War and afterwards, homes were not as elaborately decorated as they would have been during Victorian times after the Civil War. Homes were lined with greenery that would have given the home the fragrant smell of pine and strings of cranberries and popcorn would have been used to decorate mantles.
The hotel decorated for the holidays
The hotel was getting ready for one of its many special events during the holidays so there was a lot of commotion going on downstairs. It is a very festive looking place for the holidays so try to tour it when it is open in the month of December.
The museum in the 2025 holiday season
What is the Museum:
Constructed in 1799 as a carriage house and converted into a ‘day hotel’ in 1826, the Museum transports visitors back to Mount Vernon Hotel, a 19th Century country resort for New Yorkers escaping the crowded city below 14th Street.
The model of the original house layout
Recognizing the building as one of the few remaining 18th century sites and the only surviving day hotel in New York City Historic Landmark in 1967, added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 and accredited by the American Association of Museums in 1983.
History of the House:
The Mount Vernon Hotel Museum & Garden presents the period of the Mount Vernon Hotel which operated from 1826 until 1833.
Constructed in 1799 as a carriage house for a 23 acre estate and converted into the Mount Vernon in 1826, this stone building sits on land originally owned by Colonel William Stephens Smith and his wife, Abigail Adams Smith, the daughter of John Adams.
This fashionable country resort was popular among New Yorkers who wished to escape the hustle among the bustle of the city, which at that time extended only as far north 14th Street. The Hotel advertised “free from the noise and dust of the public roads and fitted up and intended for only the most gentle respectable” clientele. In those days, one could take the stagecoach or steamboat up to 61st Street spend the day at the hotel sipping lemonade in the ladies parlor or playing cards in the gentlemen’s.
In 1833, the house became the home for three generations of a New York City family. In 1905, as the area became more industrialized, the building was purchased by Standard Gas Light Company (today’s Con-Edison). The Colonial Dames of America, a woman’s patriotic society purchased the building in 1924 and did an extensive restoration to the structure, the Colonial Dames opened the site to the public in 1939. The building endures as a rare reminder of an important era in New York City’s history.
What the organization does:
*Welcome 5000 school children annually in grades-pre-K through high school for field trips.
*Summer History Weeks for children ages 6-12
*A Summer High School Internship for 15 students to support college readiness skills and career exploration.
*Two summer Hearst Fellowships for undergraduates or graduate students.
*40+public programs each year, including:
-monthly free Story time
-monthly Lunchtimes lectures
-holiday programs, garden concerts, hands on craft and cooking workshops.
*Temporary exhibitions on facets of life in early 19th century NYC, some promoting local contemporary artists.
*Special programs for individuals with Alzheimer’s and their caregivers.
*Outreach programs to schools, senior centers and homeless shelters.
*Themed group tours focused on 19th century food, decorative arts or literature.
*Three options for team building events.
*Two free admission days: Smithsonian Museum Day and Open House New York.
Programs are made possible in part by the support of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and Council Member Ben Kallos, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, the Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Rosenthal Foundation and the Michael Tuch Foundation.
(Mount Vernon Hotel Pamphlet)
The Colonial Dames of America:
With these words, spoken in April 1890, Maria Denning “May” Van Rensselaer imitated what was to become the oldest colonial lineage society for women in the United States. The Colonial Dames of America. Its mission is to preserve historic sites and objects, award scholarships, educate the public about American history, inspire patriotism and promote fellowship among its members.
I could not believe how fast the Christmas holiday season creeped up on us. One minute I am finishing classes for the summer and the next I am running around the State of New Jersey and Upstate New York attending the start of Christmas events. I have never seen a year pass by so quickly.
I started the Christmas touring early with a quick trip on the Thanksgiving break to Cooperstown. NY for some R & R at The Otesaga Hotel. The hotel was having some massive discounts on rooms and I had the time and money for a quick trip upstate. Plus I had wanted to update my birthday blog and needed new pictures, so I traveled Upstate, through the winding back roads and highways of the Catskills to Cooperstown, NY. It was a relaxing trip.
The town was preparing for the Christmas festivities the Friday after Thanksgiving. When I arrived, they were finishing decorating the downtown for their holiday parade.
Downtown Cooperstown, NY decorated for the Christmas holidays
The finishing touches on Santa’s Village
The holiday treats in the Schneider’s Bakery window
The downtown is really picturesque as urban renewal never hit this small town and it still has its Victorian charm. All the local businesses have been replaced by tourist spots but the architecture of the homes and businesses still amaze me. The buildings were decorated with bows, garland and lights and the windows of the shops that were open were preparing for a long holiday season.
Downtown Cooperstown, NY decorated for the holidays
The hotel was starting to decorate for the holidays as well holding off the major decorating until after Thanksgiving. Traditionally the hotel closed for business after the Thanksgiving weekend but since COVID, has been open year round with winter activities. The hotel will be decked out fully for the holidays.
The outside of the front of the hotel with Christmas trees
The inside lobby of The Otesaga Hotel ready for the holidays to start
My stay up in Cooperstown was relaxing and enjoyable. I toured the museums, walked the grounds and explored the downtown, which most was closed this early holiday week. For me it was a two day escape to relax after a kind semester and getting ready for finals. Santa could not have provided me a better gift.
After my trip up to Cooperstown, it was a whirlwind of running around over the Thanksgiving week. I got back on a Wednesday and then Thanksgiving was the next day. The weather cleared and I went into Manhattan for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, which I had not seen live in a decade. Again, I was updating pictures on an older blog.
It was a beautiful sunny day in Manhattan and the parade route was packed with people. It was a lot of locals but there was loads of tourists as well as I heard all sorts of languages being spoken as well. In the post-COVID era, tourism is back in New York.
Getting ready for the parade on West 46th Street an excellent spot to view the parade
It was really great to see the parade again and we had the perfect late Fall weather. It was clear, sunny and about 50 degrees outside by the start of the parade. Cool but perfect for this time of the year.
The Tom Turkey float opening the parade
The floats and balloons heading down Sixth Avenue to the Macy’s store on West 34th Street
The Gingerbread House float
Towards the end of the parade on the Christmas float, singer Darlene Love, who sang ‘Nobody aught to be alone on Christmas’, which was featured in the movie, ‘Home Alone II’, was in the parade and I thought that was really cool.
Singer Darlene Love on the Christmas float
My video on her performance in the parade as she passed by us. Everyone was excited that she was in the parade!
Then Santa arrived to much excitement of the crowd. I have to say from where I stood, this Santa really looked like Santa. He could not have been more engaging with the crowd as the float passed by.
The Santa float passing by us
Santa waving at us as we waved back
Santa passing by us on West 46th Street to head to Macy’s to open the holiday shopping season
The parade passed us by and was over before noon
After the parade was over, I was starved and made my way downtown. I could not believe how mobbed the City was all over the place Many stores and restaurants were open all over the place and the sidewalks packed with people.
The statue of Horace Greeley was decorated all around
By the time I passed Herald Square, the parade had ended and they were taking down the barriers. I could see tourists looking to see if the store was open! In 2015, they opened for a Midnight Sale (Union rules on opening on Thanksgiving), and after that I never saw it open that early again.
Macy’s during the day
Macy’s decked out for the holidays later that evening
The store was decorated for the upcoming holiday season starting at 6:00am the next morning. I was back in the City the next morning working in Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen for a post Thanksgiving meal and passed the store afterwards and the whole area was mobbed.
The ‘Wonderful Stories’ theme of the storied windows
The windows were decorated for the holidays and the store was so creative with the Santa theme.
The ‘Wonderful Stories’ theme
The Macy’s Parade window
The inside workings of the store
The outside of the store
I made my was down Broadway, taking the same route I had done three weeks earlier on my Broadway walk down the length of Broadway. How the foliage changes so fast when I arrived in Madison Square Park.
I made my way down busy lower Fifth Avenue to Washington Square Park, where the students from NYU hung out. The park was really busy that afternoon considering school was out for the Thanksgiving Weekend. It also was decked out for the holidays. I took my walk down Broadway the way I walked to school last year (God is NYU over already?!).
The entrance to the park from the NYU side of the park at the start of the Christmas holidays
The entrance to the park so beautifully decorated
I reached my Thanksgiving dinner destination and nothing says Thanksgiving than Chinatown. I thought maybe a few restaurants would be open and neighborhood quiet. Both Chinatown and Little Italy streets and restaurants were mobbed! Mott Street was packed with people. I was floored by that. I went to one of my favorite restaurants for Thanksgiving dinner, Wonton Noodle Garden, known now as Mei Lai Wah, at 23 Pell Street.
Wonton Noodle Garden (Mei Lai Wah) at 23 Pell Street
The food is always wonderful and the service is excellent. I always eat at the bar area in the back and you get the best service and see what is going on. Being at the bar you observe not only what is going on in the kitchen but in the dining room. I ordered the Cantonese Wonton Soup with roast pork, pork wontons and egg noodles and an order of Fried Wontons, which are so good.
My Thanksgiving dinner of Cantonese Wonton Soup and Fried Wontons
The Cantonese Wonton Soup with roast pork and wontons
Fried Pork Wontons
It was a really wonderful meal and the perfect Thanksgiving dinner with a nice twist. This is how to spend the holiday.
After dinner, I walked around Chinatown on a cool night and it was so picturesque. When the lights went down earlier in the day, you can see the true beauty of Manhattan.
Mott Street at night, the heart of Chinatown
The beauty of Chinatown and lower Manhattan
I decided to walk back to the Port Authority and admire the views on the way up Broadway. I never get tired of the lights on Broadway.
The Empire State Building on Thanksgiving at night
It really was a wonderful holiday and it was fun to spend it in Manhattan.
After working in Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen the next morning and walking the streets of Alphabet City for my blog. It was fun to explore the streets of this diverse neighborhood. I also knew the weekend was going to be lot of running around and I wanted to get as much done in Manhattan as possible. I knew that I would not get back to finishing the streets until after the holidays and then it would be cold.
The next morning it was an early morning drive to Long Beach Island and the holiday activities of the shore towns the line it of Beach Haven, Ships Bottom and Barnegat Light. Even in the colder months, there is a lot going on in these once sleepy summer towns. They are open for the holiday season and the towns have lots of activities going on.
The beauty of the inlet that separates Long Beach Island from Seaside Park
The boats were out in full force that cool morning
You have to be there to experience how relaxing it is
It was a cool and crisp day and there were a lot of activities going on all over the island. There were places I wanted to revisit. This holiday would be one long picture taking mission.
Watching people walk along the bunker by the lighthouse
Walking along the pathway back to the car
Learning about the areas role in the Revolutionary War
After the tour of the lighthouse and its grounds, I headed over to Viking Village for the Crafts Fair and Santa’s visit. That is always a lot of fun.
The Viking Village Craft Fair and some of the interesting work at the fair
The statue outside is always clever in its decorations
The entertainment was really good. Musician Jimmy Aziz played for everyone in the afternoon
His performance singing “Easy as Sunday Morning”
I really enjoyed the performance as did other people who stood by to listen to the mini concert. I got to walk around the craft fair, admiring all the artists works and many of the display pieces. There were a lot of talented artists showing there work that afternoon.
One of the craft displays outside a store
While I was walking around waiting for Santa to arrive on the fire truck, I was admiring the display the people at Viking Village had set up in his honor for the holidays.
The Santa display set up in Santa’s honor
Then 1:00pm arrived and we could hear the bells and whistles of the fire truck as Santa and Mrs. Claus arrive at Viking Village. There is always a lot of anticipation for their arrival and the crowds lined up so deep, that the truck dropped them off at the entrance and they walked in this time.
Santa and Mrs. Claus arrive by fire truck with help of the Barnegat Light Fire Department
Santa and Mrs. Claus arrive to a enthusiastic crowd
Then they sat down to join the crowd and hear requests from children and adults alike. They were busy for the rest of the afternoon.
Santa and Mrs. Claus await the first family to visit them
The proud couple with their first little visitor
As the long lines started for their visit, I decided to get some lunch while the crowds waited in line. In the same complex was the restaurant, ‘Off the Hook’, a wonderful seafood restaurant I had eaten at before. It was the perfect place for an outside lunch on the picnic tables.
Viking Fresh Off the Hook at 1905 Bayview Avenue in Barnegat Light, NJ
The food here is excellent and again I really enjoyed my meal. They had a limited menu and I started with the New England Clam Chowder, which I enjoyed so much the year before.
The start of my meal, the New England Clam Chowder
It was thick and rich and loaded with clams
For my lunch, I ordered the Fried Shrimp Tacos. They were served in a soft taco shell with fresh shredded lettuce and tomatoes. With a little hot sauce and sour cream, they made the best lunch.
The Fried Shrimp Tacos with fresh shredded lettuce and tomatoes and fried potato chips
Now this is dining at the shore!
Yum!
Maybe it was the salt air or the excitement of the holidays and Santa’s visit or just the beautiful day of just the delicious food and eating outside on the picnic bench but it was such a nice lunch and I really enjoyed myself. The meal was excellent. It was also nice to eat outside on a sunny day when the weather is cool but not cold.
On the way back to Beach Haven to visit the Beach Haven Library Open House, I stopped at Baked on the Beach at 2102 Long Beach Boulevard for dessert. I love their cookies and needed something sweet to finish the meal.
Baked on the Beach at 2102 Long Beach Boulevard in Surf City
I had to get one of their cookies and got the ‘Beach Bum’ with all sorts of chips inside an oatmeal cookie.
The Beach Bum cookie
The delicious desserts at Baked at the Beach
After I finished at the Craft Fair and lunch, I headed down to Beach Haven to go to the Beach Haven Library & Museum Open House. I never knew that there was a museum at their library so I looked forward to seeing it. What a beautiful library.
The Beach Haven Library & Museum at 219 North Beach Avenue
It is such a beautiful and historical library dating back from 1924. The downstairs was very interesting with wooden bookshelves and display cases and shelves showcasing the libraries collection. On the top floor was the museum with many artifacts from the island’s nautical and resort past.
The first floor of the museum with the library book collection
The second floor book collection
The second floor museum gallery
While the museum was small, it was packed with all sorts of interesting artifacts. There were hotel ledgers from long closed hotels, relics from ship wrecks and items from local families.
Hotel ledgers where guests once signed in
The artifacts save from ship wrecks and pictures of local spots
The upstairs conference room decorated for the holidays with book shelves lined with the collection
Downstairs there was a very nice Open House with snacks and a working fire with music and nice conversation with the staff.
The Open House Refreshment table
The Christmas decorations in the library with the working fire place
The Christmas tree in the Children’s Room
After I left the library, I explored the Downtown area and the Pharmacy had their Open House too with ice carvings and several contests. This was a how many reindeer can you count in the window contest.
The Counting Reindeer contest in the window
So many reindeer
The ice carving demonstration
Before I left for my last event on the island, the Ships Bottom Tree Lighting Ceremony, I stopped for some ice cream at The Woo Hoo. This is always a treat and I do not care how cold it gets there is nothing like homemade ice cream.
I decided on the Christmas specialty flavor, ‘Santa’s Favorite Cookie’, which was a Cinnamon ice cream filled with crushed biscotti cookie, cookie dough, chocolate chips and M& M’s. It was heavenly.
‘Santa’s Favorite Cookie’ ice cream
Yum!
I love the holiday decorations at the Woo Hoo
With the wonderful lunch and some time before the tree lighting, I walked over to the pier to see the sun set over the island. This is always a treat.
The sunset over the pier
The sunset was so beautiful that night
The decorations in the park in Beach Haven
It got darker for the tree lighting ceremony and I got so lost. Then I did not know where the tree lighting was taking place. I had to Google the location about three times and I finally found it down by the harbor by the bay. By that point, they had lit the tree and people were visiting Santa. It was a nice way to end the evening at the shore.
The Christmas Tree lighting ceremony in Ships Bottom, NJ
People were taking pictures by the tree and visiting Santa. They also had refreshments for everyone as well.
The beautiful Christmas tree in Ships Bottom by the bay
The decorations with Santa leading the way
The festive pirate ship
People were visiting Santa in the gazebo that night
This was a nice way to end my evening at the shore. The lights and the sounds were really nice and there was still a nice crowd when I left the tree lighting. It was really a wonderful afternoon at the shore. Long Beach Island knows how to celebrate Christmas.
After another long week at work, it was going to be another long weekend of activities as I had the Snowflake Festival in Kingston, the Cape May Historical Walking Tour and their Christmas Parade and then the Bergen County Firemen’s Home Association Christmas Party for the residents followed by a Sinterklaas event at the historical Van Allen House, home to the Oakland Historical Society. I would be in the car all weekend.
I had gotten an email from the Dorsky Museum on the SUNY New Paltz campus that the BFA/MFA Student Opening Show was going to be that night. I decided to attend before I went to the Snowflake Festival in Downtown Kingston. Don’t ask me how but I attended both events with plenty of time to spare.
I got up to New Paltz in record time and had time before the art opening to visit Historic Huguenot Street, the complex of historic homes in the historic district in the downtown area.
Some of the homes were decorated with simple wreaths and not much else but the snow from the recent storm offered a picturesque view with a Christmas feel.
The decorations outside the Dubois House
The historic Dubois House
The Janet Hasbrouck House
The historic Presbyterian Church decorated for the holiday
As it got darker, I made my way to the SUNY campus and to the art museum. It really was a good show with a nice reception and interesting art. While the students were devouring the food at reception, I had the whole gallery to myself to look at the art.
I have to admit that some of the art was quite unusual. The students did have a streak of creativity to them.
The Dorsky Museum Gallery
Some of the unique pieces
Once the students devoured the Reception buffet, everyone came in to see the exhibition
This is the one piece that really stuck with me at the show
The gallery at the museum is rather small do I got through the whole show in less than an hour. I had a quick snack with what was left on the buffet table, which was not much. The food was really good and a snared the final meatball.
Just enough of a snack to get through the next two hours
I only stayed at the Gallery opening for about an hour and then it was back on the road again and up I 87 I went to downtown Kingston to the Annual Snowflake Festival. The weather was cold but at least it was not raining like the previous year. The crowds were beginning to grow that night.
The crowds that evening on East Front Street
The decorations in downtown Kingston, NY for the Annual Snowflake Festival
The first entertainer at the beginning of the event I saw was the Fire Thrower and she did an amazing job interesting us. She really got the crowd engaged.
The Fire Thrower engaged the crowds downtown
The next group of entertainers I saw was the band on stilts, whom I have seen at Sinterklaas for years. They got the crowd motivated.
The guys do a marvelous job every year
Even their Christmas songs are fun. Here are them performing ‘Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer’
I made my way around the downtown this year to try to enjoy everything in the festival, which meant running from one thing to another.
Main Street where the stage was and the core of the entertainment
My first stop was the bank with all its entertainment and things to do. They really kept the crowds entertained.
There was a group of singers performing Christmas carols. I thought they were the bank staff.
They had all sorts of desserts and hot beverages like Hot Cider and Chocolate for the crowds
Mrs. Claus was entertaining all of us with puppets and stories. There was also crafts for the kids
Mrs. Claus posing for me. It took me a half hour to finally email this picture to here.
Then I headed over to the Dutch Reformed Church to hear the fiddlers. The church is always so beautifully decorated for the holidays. It never disappoints anyone to just visit inside and keep warm and listen to wonderful music.
The inside of the Dutch Reformed Church that evening
The start of the concert with the Strawberry Fiddlers performing
Here you get to see the true beauty of the church
I then got a close up shot of the fiddlers
The Strawberry Fiddlers performing that night. They really got the crowds going. I heard two songs performed before I moved on to the next thing to do.
Walking through the well lit downtown where freshly fallen snow the night before made it look more picturesque.
The downtown was amazing at night
My next stop was the Kingston Volunteer Museum’s display of antique fire trucks.
I didn’t go inside because the crowds packed the place and I remembered from both years how God awful their hot chocolate was and bypassed it this year. Still the fire trucks were the big lure and festively decorated with Christmas lights.
The decorated trucks outside the museum
As the evening wore on, I had never seen an evening fly by. My last stop of the evening was the Senate House, which was closed that evening, but in the barn Santa and Mrs. Claus were receiving visitors and a guitarist was performing.
The line to see Santa was about sixty deep and I really did not have time to see them. I had seen Mrs. Claus already.
Santa and Mrs. Claus greeting guests that night
So I listened to the guitarist, who I seen perform before. He performed all sorts of classic Christmas songs with a good personality. He talked about this traditional Italian Christmas song that his Sicilian wife loved so much.
The singer performing on that cold night. I do not know how he did it.
Here he is performing ‘Dominick, the Italian Christmas Donkey’
The musical performance of ‘Dominic, the Italian Christmas Donkey’
The last thing I did that night after the performance was get in line for the horse drawn carriage around the downtown. The line had been fifty deep most of the night. It ended up I was the last person allowed in line as it was the last ride of the night.
The horse drawn carriage rides that night
Everyone was trying to get on the last ride of the night and begged because they had kids. I love it when parents use their kids as pawns. Even so just as we were to get on the carriage a group of people snuck out of a restaurant and took the spots of the family in front of me and myself and we could not get on.
They were so pissed. The police were just starting to reopen the downtown roads and the carriage guys said he had no control over it. So the carriage guy said he would take us on a ride back to the other side of downtown to load up these very cold horses.
The temperature had really dropped at this point. We got the best ride because we got to see more of downtown and see it lit up for the evening.
The very last ride on the horse drawn carriage through the downtown. It was the best trip of the night!
By this point the event was over. It was past 8:00pm and when this event ends, it ends! The roads opened up and the crowds disappeared. I turned around and everyone was gone.
Like last year, most of the restaurants close at 8:00pm on the dot. I am not sure why. One of the few restaurants open that night downtown was Vincenzo’s Pizza at 305 Wall Street. It was packed when I arrived being one of the few restaurants open at that time.
The inside was crowded as there was barely anything open after 8:00pm
I needed something to warm me up and carry me over before the two hour ride home and pizza would not do. So I ordered a Meatball sub. Was that ever good on a cold night.
The best comfort food that night. Yum!
After dinner was over, the crowds were gone and I had to head home. I stayed for just a little bit longer to admire the decorations one more time and visit their Christmas tree.
This downtown display replaced the Pumpkin man from a month ago
The Kingston Christmas tree downtown
I headed back to the car and managed to get home in an hour and forty-five minutes. There was no traffic on the road that night. I was happy as I had to turn around early that next morning for my trip to Cape May for the Christmas Walking tour.
I only got about six hours sleep before I had an early ride to Cape May for the Christmas walking tour of the decorated homes, churches and B & B’s. I had been wanting to do this for years and with Sinterklaas cancelled again in Rhinebeck, NY this was my opportunity to go on the tour.I got on the road early for the three hour ride down the Garden State Parkway.
Needless to say, the walking tour in Cape May was an excellent experience and one I have wanted to do for years but the B & B I stayed at in Wildwood was a complete horror show. They never turned the heat on in the house and I slept in a room that was 32 degrees. An igloo was warmer than this place. That was a whole other story.
The Christmas tree at this B & B was the only good thing I experienced that night
I got to Wildwood and dropped my things off. I felt something coming on and I seriously needed Chinese food especially Hot & Sour soup. There are no Chinese restaurants in Cape May proper so I had to eat in Wildwood. Most restaurants this time of year are closed because the town is so quiet. The only choice that took a credit card is the Dragon House at 3616 Pacific Avenue in Downtown Wildwood.
I had eaten here many, many years ago the first year of when I started attending the NJ State Firemen’s Convention. It was the only option in town and I swear it was like a step back into the early 1970’s both in decor and food. It still is a Cantonese holdout.
The restaurant still has paneling and red backed booths
The food is just good here and I will leave it at that. It is not bad but not great and it would not warrant another trip. It served its purpose as I ordered the lunch combination meal of Hot & Sour Soup and Beef and Broccoli. Everything was just average but the soup was spicy enough to open me up and I did feel better for the long night of activities.
My 1970’s lunch started with Hot & Sour soup
The Hot & Sour Soup did open me up
The Beef and Broccoli was just good
After lunch was over, I headed down to pick up my tickets for the walking tour and walk around Cape May. It was promising to be a very cold night but it was in the mid 40’s when I got there. I dressed as warm as I could.
Enjoying the decorated homes of Cape May
Cape May at Christmas is a fantasy land of Christmas decorations
I started the day with a walk around the Physick Estate in Cape May, where I picked up my tickets. I had toured the house at various times of the year so I knew the home quite well.
The Physick Estate was the start of the holiday walking tour
The home was once the home of Dr. Physick and his extended family. I picked up my tickets and started to walk around Downtown Cape May. The crowds were overflowing into the town because of the Cape May Holiday Parade. It would be starting about an half hour after I arrived.
The start of the parade with local organizations and the Coast Guard Band to start the parade
Then the floats and bands joined the line up
In the beginning of the parade, the Coast Guard, with its band and equipment entertained all of us. The boats were lit up with brightly colored lights and the band played on.
The Coast Guard boats were lit up at the beginning of the parade
The Cape May Fire Department then joined the parade
More decorated Coast Guard boats passed by
I only stayed for the first half hour as the parade winded through Downtown Cape May to the large crowds of on lookers.
I started the Cape May Holiday Walking tour with my green band on and map in hand. I walked two blocks to my first stop at the Cape May Stage, where I had seen many shows during the holidays.
The Cape May Stage decorated for the current production
The woman who helps run the theater told us the story of the building and of its time as a church. Then about its history as a theater and the famous actors who have graced the stage.
The Christmas tree in the lobby
My next stop up the street was the Macedonia Baptist Church at 630 Lafayette Street, which was decorated for the upcoming holiday Mass.
The tour guide who was a parishioner of the tour told us the history of the church and its place in the community.
The Macedonia Baptist Church decorated for the holidays
All the Inns and B & B’s that were around the square near Columbia Street were packed to the gills with people waiting in lines that were about 40 deep so doubled back to Hughes Street and visited the J. Stratton Ware House, one of the few private homes on the tour. The house was nicely decorated with festive green.
The J. Stratton Ware House at 655 Hughes Street
The J. Stratton Ware House during the day
The inside of the living room of the house
The main room
The festive Dining Room table
On the way to the next destination. I passed the Chalfonte Hotel, where I should have stayed that night rather that night instead of the place I decided on in Wildwood. We all learn from our mistakes.
The Chalfonte Hotel at 301 Howard Street decorated for the holidays
The Chalfonte Hotel during the day in the Summer of 2025
The hotel’s first floor had been winterized and had been open that weekend but the rooms were sold out and the only one that was open was $250.00, which I could not afford that weekend. So I stayed in my Airbnb ‘igloo’ that night. More on that later.
The next B & B I visited was the Beauclaire’s B & B at 23 Ocean Street (the inn during the day)
The Bedford Inn at 805 Stockton Avenue during the day
The inside fireplace decorated for the holidays
The banister fully decorated
The Christmas tree in their parlor
The White Christmas tree in the foyer
The Parlor at the Inn
The last house of the evening I toured was the Physick Family, where I started the tour during the day. I have visited the home many times at Christmas and I never get bored of looking at all the Christmas decorations. Dr. Physick was once prominent resident in town whose home is still a showcase of the community.
The Physick House when I arrived that afternoon of the tour
The estate was decorated both inside and out and there were lights and decorations all over the grounds. It really puts you in a festive mood and it is a house you should not miss at the holidays.
The 1879 Emlen Physick Estate at 1048 Washington Street
The home is always so beautifully decorated for the holidays and I try to take this tour every year. While the decorations do not change that much it is still spectacular to tour.
Being greeted by the docent in the Living Room
The Parlor was decorated for the holidays
The beautiful woodwork in the home
The Christmas tree was decked for the holidays
The sideboard during the holidays
The Dining Room table set for Christmas lunch
The elaborate table setting for the holiday dinner
The Table Tree in the Parlor
The beautiful decorations set around the room for the holidays
It is always nice to take your time to tour the house and admire all the beautiful objects to enjoy looking at. The house is a real treat to visit at the holidays. After my visit to the house, I took a tour of the gift shop and admired all the beautiful decorations there as well.
The Physick House Gift Shop at the holidays
After the tour was over, I was starved and you will be amazed how quickly places close around Cape May even after a major event. After walking around for awhile and passing packed bars that there would be no way to get a seat, I came across Mario’s Pizza and Italian Eatery at 315 Ocean Street Unit 7, that was still open for the evening.
Mario’s Pizza and Italian Eatery at 315 Ocean Street Unit 7
On a progressively cold night, the warm pizzeria was a God send. It was one of the few restaurants open after the tour and the pizza was really good. Their red sauce base for the pizza is so well spiced and dinner was just delicious.
The pizza was really good that night and warmed me up
After such a wonderful evening in Cape May, the real fun began when I got back to Wildwood. The weather had been dropping all night and it had to be about 38 degrees by 10:00pm when I returned to the B & B.
It had been warm inside the building when I left that afternoon but when I returned, the house seemed cool. I called the number and tried to talk to innkeeper but no one picked up. I went down to the Christmas tree in the Living Room to get some work down but it just kept getting cooler in the room. So I called again.
This merry go round went on all night with me calling and texting through Airbnb and their phone number all night. By 3:00am, I gave up and slept in my clothes with every blanket in the room on top of me. I barely got two and a half hours sleep with an almost three hour car trip ahead of me. I was pissed off.
The only saving grace the next morning was the shower was hot and I was able to warm up. I slammed the keys down at the innkeeper and marched out of this place. I eventually got reimbursed for the stay (I know the owner screwed up) but this was after long talks Airbnb. My advice to my readers is stay away from the Sea Gypsy B & B in Wildwood, NJ.
On the way to Boonton, I had to stop at a rest stop to regroup and eat some breakfast before our meeting that morning. I stopped at the Burger King at the Wildwood Rest Stop on the Garden State Parkway and was pleasantly surprised by the wonderful breakfast and friendly service there. The woman working the counter was so nice to me, it put me back into a much better mood.
The Wildwood rest stop was very nice that morning (and warm!)
I had a simple Croissanwich meal with sausage and you do not know how this cheered me up after a bad night. It just warmed me up.
My breakfast that morning
Even the rest stop Christmas tree cheered me up that morning
Work was in full force with all the Presentations of the students final projects. I was totally drained by the end of the week. Plus the memory of that freezing cold room in Wildwood, I did not want to travel the next weekend. The weather was not going to be nice either and I did not want to drive as snow.
After a very long weekend last week and a storm coming through the next weekend, I cancelled all the plans I had and just stayed home. I had wanted to see the Christmas House Tour in Mauricetown, NJ but with a snow storm coming decided against it. Smart move as I had to dig out on Sunday morning. It was a spectacular view thought.
The house in the first snow fall of the year
Our street after the storm
After I dug myself out, I walked around the property and admired the view. I could not believe how quiet and beautiful the backyard was the morning.
The backyard was a winter wonderland
The backyard after I shoveled the walks. It would melt that afternoon but was so beautiful when the snow stopped.
That Wednesday I had a series of presentations with my three classes at the college. For the last six weeks, the students had labored on these projects and I looked forward to seeing them.
The Tuesday before this, I needed a haircut, so I headed into New York and off to York Barber shop where I have been getting I have been getting my haircut since my barber, Jerry, retired after almost forty years of being my barber.
I have been coming here for a year and they do a wonderful job with my hair and I loved the scented hot towel after I am finished with my cut. I looked for my presentation.
The inside of York Barber Shop
I love the old-fashioned feel of this shop that has been around since the 1920’s and some of the barbers have been around for over thirty years.
After I got my haircut, I had time to walk around Manhattan and see all the decorations. So many homeowners and businesses decorated for the holidays and you can see the creativity and originality in getting ready for the holidays.
As I walked up to the barber’s and back, these were some of the best pictures I took around Manhattan as the sun set and the lights came on.
The churches are especially decked out for the holidays
Walking around Greeley Square decked out for the holidays
Brownstones on the Upper East Side decorated awaiting Santa
The lone Christmas tree in the window
6 1/2 Street by the MoMA
6 1/2 Avenue by Sixth Avenue
The lights in the pathway next to the CBS building
The beauty of the Upper East Side
Around the corner from the barber, I saw this lone wreath on this building
I thought this was the spirit of Christmas
I then walked back down through the Upper East Side, I saw all sorts of beautiful displays for the holidays.
The Pierre Hotel at 2 East 61st Street decorated for the holidays
Then I took a tour of both Saks Fifth Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman. For two stores that are teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, they looked pretty good. We are seeing their ‘gilded’ sheen and we will see what happens to them after Christmas.
The floors were so elegantly decorated for the holidays. The company though is ‘dancing on the rim of a volcano’ right now. The store looked so beautiful on each of the floor and I figured this is where all the money was going. The in store designers did a magnificent job with the store for this holiday season.
The back floor of the first floor of Saks
The escalators between the first and second floors
A first floor clothing display
This was a display was on the first floor perfume department
Then I walked outside to admire their Christmas windows. They were not their best but I thought some of them were fun. These were my favorites.
The snowman through Central Park
A cab ride down Fifth Avenue
The baking of Gingerbread treats
Then across the street from Saks Fifth Avenue was Rockefeller Center as it turned to twilight.
The decorated lions outside the New York Public Library
Then I headed back to Port Authority to head home. I stopped by the New York Public Library to see the decorations and take a walk through the Christmas Village in Bryant Park. I love looking at the lions when they are decorated.
The Christmas tree at the Bryant Park ice skating rink
It was a nice but quick afternoon in the City before the Presentations the next day . The students had to Present their final projects which was a major part of the grade. They had been working on this for the previous six weeks and it was time to see the results. All of these projects are under my Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. banner for my business classes.
My 8:00am class presenting the ‘ Sounds and Subs’ Team Project
Some of my 8:00am students presenting their diagrams of their restaurant for their presentations
The day of the project, I have the students dress in professional dress to present their ideas to the clients. The student executives presented their ideas on location, design, menus and ideas for local musicians who could entertain on a nightly basis. The client was looking for a concept that would attract music lovers not just from the suburbs but from Manhattan, Brooklyn and Newark.
Then at 11:00am, I had my next class present their project “Farmer’s Market-A Farm to Table” dining concept with the same set up as the other classes. They had to pick a location, figure the rent, logistics and zoning, the menu, create items for the gift shop, create an opening party and do the social media on Tik Tok and YouTube.
My 11:00am class Team Pictured for the ‘Farmer’s Market-Farm to Table ‘ concept
This class created menus with Farm to Table concept with sandwiches, entrees, side salads and unique signature desserts. Some students kept the menus safe while others really put their heart and sole into it and showed how creative they were with their menus.
The Holiday project normally serves as Quiz Four for my class but I wanted the students to concentrate on their Academics this semester so I used this as an extra credit project.
Each Team has been requested by corporate to create a proposal for the Corporate Holiday Party that includes a invitation with a Christmas themed logo, a menu proposal with an appetizer, entree, and a dessert along with a signature holiday drink. Then the Team had to film a video greeting in English and Spanish wishing everyone a Happy Holiday season. They had forty-five minutes to pull it off and these were the result of that project.
One Wednesday morning, December 10th, the class presented their ideas to me and these are the results of the individual Teams.
Team Two’s diorama of their restaurant concept
Some of my students presenting their projects that morning to me
The Team
One of the Team’s presenting their logo
My last class at 6:25pm that made their presentation that evening was my Business 101 class with their restaurant concept ‘Pasta and Pies’, which was a restaurant that offered sweet and savory pies and pasta dishes.
This class created menus with creative pies and what can be tucked into them, selective pasta dishes with side salads and unique signature desserts. Some students kept the menus safe while others really put their heart and sole into it and showed how creative they were with their menus.
One Wednesday night, December 17th, the class presented their ideas to me and these are the results of the individual Teams.
Each Team made their presentation to me and the Team below really did a wonderful job with their presentation and won the competition.
Team Three so professionally dressed for the Presentation and the Team that won the competition
Team Four gave them a run for their money
All of the major Presentations were done on December 10th and then the next week on the 17th was the final exam. Each division had to create their PowerPoint, their video Presentation and a website for their division of the company. This way the entire Team have a reference point to put on their resume.
I joined other faculty members for the college’s Holiday Party that week and then went to the Bergen Room, our on campus student run restaurant for Christmas lunch, which is the final student project before the winter break. There was a lot of eating going on this week.
The Bergen Room Bistro had a very special Christmas Dinner in December of 2025 which was the last meal of the year by the students. The room was beautifully decorated and the food and service were wonderful.
The Bergen Room Bistro had a very special Christmas Dinner in December of 2025 which was the last meal of the year by the students. The room was beautifully decorated and the food and service were wonderful.
The menu for Christmas dinner in the Bergen Room in 2025
Christmas dinner in 2025 was a wonderful afternoon of good food and conversation. I loved the was the tables were set with a Christmas tree napkin. This was the last meal of the semester and the students and faculty advisors made the whole room as spirited to the holidays as possible.
The Christmas table set for a wonderful lunch
The table setting
The Christmas tree napkin fold
The candy decoration on the table
There was a fun centerpiece decorating the table
The students did a nice job decorating the tables for the Christmas holidays. The menu was so enjoyable. We started off either homemade soup.
The Minestrone Soup
The Garlic Bread
We then were treated to an Antipasti and a Caesar Salad. Both served family style and everyone at the table helped themselves while we were talking at the table.
The Antipasti
The Caesar Salad
The entree kept with the Italian theme and for the main entree, we had a platter of Chicken Parmesan with a side of Pasta Primavera and Penne à la Vodka.
The Chicken Parmesan
The Penne à la Vodka
The Pasta Primavera
My Christmas lunch that afternoon with delicious pastas and salad and the Chicken Parmesan
My holiday drink, the Berry Sparkler
For dessert, we had homemade Tiramisu
At the and of the meal, we applauded all the students for all their hard work on the meal and their dedication to the class and the Bergen Room.
The Culinary arts students who cooked this wonderful meal for us.
I loved how the centerpieces said “Merry Christmas everyone!”
It was a nice afternoon of talking to my counterparts on the faculty before the break and gave me a chance to finish my grading on campus and get ready to post grades to the students before the Winter break.
Because of the snowy weather and the bad experience in Wildwood, I decided to give the Christmas activities a rest the weekend between the Presentations and the final exam. I resumed my touring and picture taking the weekend after the finals. We finished finals on December 17th and I had graded all my students in my morning classes before I gave my evening final. Once finals were done, I spent the evening finishing grading my evening classes exam and went straight to bed. I had to be up early to meet students.
That Friday I met with any student who wanted their exams back and wanted to know their grades. This way there were no surprises and several students took me up on this. I had finished all the evening grades that morning and left for campus. Then in the afternoon I posted grades and changed clothes and headed to dinner and the theater in the City.
Singer Megan Hilty was returning to Carnegie Hall for a Christmas show performance and I decide to take this opportunity to revamp the blog I did on this eight years earlier. That meant dinner at Patsy’s Italian Restaurant and an evening in Carnegie Hall, both of which I was looking forward to the evening. It was the perfect way to end an extremely long semester.
Carnegie Hall was sold out both nights
The concert that evening ‘A Place Called Home’ was the return of Singer Megan Hilty since her concert I saw this time back in 2017. I could not believe that eight years had gone by so fast. Both performances were sold out and seeing her perform again was worth the wait. As I said before, this holiday was a picture taking mission so I recreated the whole evening I had at her show and started with dinner at Patsy’s Italian Restaurant.
Dinner at Patsy’s was wonderful but I could not understand why they put everyone on the second floor and kept the first floor empty. Patsy’s was founded in 1944 by Pasquale “Patsy” Scognamillo and has been in its current location since 1954 serving locals, celebrities and tourists alike. There has only been three chefs at Patsy’s, Patsy himself, his son, Joe and Joe’s son Sal (Patsy’s history).
The second floor dining room at Patsy’s right before the theater
When I had dinner there before my trip to Carnegie Hall, the food was amazing (see my review on TripAdvisor). I came with a big appetite and had a wonderful three course meal. I read about the menu online and then I saw Sal, the owner cooked the Lobster Linguini on Martha Stewart’s TV show.
I started with the Mozzarella in Carrozza for two which I finished on my own. It is basically a breaded mozzarella sandwich with their fresh Mariana sauce which were pan-fried perfectly and melted in the middle. It is served with their delicious homemade red sauce.
The Mozzarella in Carrozza at Patsy’s is excellent
The Mozzarella Carrozza
For the entree I had the Lobster with Linguine Oreganata, which I had seen prepared on the Travel Network and on Martha Stewart’s TV show and feeling generous to myself at the holidays, I treated myself. It was excellent. Perfectly cooked pasta with almost a half of sweet lobster topped on the dish. While the entree is not cheap, it is well worth the price so treat yourself!
The Lobster Linguini comes in two parts when served, with pasta and a split and broiled with bread crumbs. It is a delicious dish.
Don’t ask me how ate dessert but as the Dessert Cart kept passing me, I kept eyeing this cake and it ended up being a Napoleon Cake filled with white cream and layers of pastry dough. It was such a great end to a fantastic meal.
For dessert I had on my second trip to Patsy’s, the Vanilla Cream Napoleon Cake
Walking down the stairs at the holidays
Somehow I stuck upstairs with all the tourists but I it was fun as it was where all the action was that evening. The downstairs was extremely quiet that night. I do not know why they kept it so empty. The restaurant during the holidays is so nicely decorated and this is the view going down the steps.
Chef Sal Scognamillo of Patsy’s Restaurant
After dinner was over, I had to take a long walk around the block to digest. It was a wonderful three course meal but still I wanted to digest and relax before the show and what a show it was that evening. I love going to Carnegie Hall.
Carnegie Hall at 57th Avenue and 7th Avenue at Christmas time
The view from my seat in the ‘nose bleed’ section of the sold out concert. This was one of the last seats left when I bought the tickets at the last minute. I still could hear the concert fine and it was nice being back in Carnegie Hall again.
The singing group before the second act
Some of the songs she sang that night:
“The Christmas Song”
“Have yourself a Merry Christmas”
“The Most Wonderful time of the Year”
“A Place called Home”
The second part of the concert was all Christmas carols and some of the more religious songs. They ended the concert with a sing a long and everyone in my section of the theater really got into it. We ended the concert with the singer and Santa taking a bow. It was another great concert and if you have to the chance to catch her concert at Carnegie Hall at Christmas, get a ticket and go! It is well worth it. It really puts you in the holiday spirit.
The end of the sing a long
“Jingle Bells” was part of the sing a long
Megan Hilty and Santa taking a bow
After the concert was over, I took a long walk around Midtown, up and down both Fifth and Sixth Avenues to look at the Christmas decorations. I love Manhattan at Christmas.
West 57th Street decorated for Christmas
The decorations are incredible at night
The candy cane decorations are fantastic
Then I walked down Fifth Avenue and passed the Star on Fifth Avenue, which changed colors either each rotation.
The Star on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street in aqua
The star in blue
The Star in red
Star in a green and red
The video on the Star changing colors
I then turned the corner down Fifth Avenue and admired all the lights and decorations. Businesses really decorated this year.
These beautiful Christmas present boxes lined upper Fifth Avenue
The Peninsula Hotel in all its glory
The beauty of the decorations that top the entrance of the hotel
Cartier on Fifth Avenue decked out for the holidays
Saks Fifth Avenue at 611 Fifth Avenue across from Rockefeller Center
All the buildings at Rockefeller Center were decorated to the hilt and surprisingly the crowds by the tree were not that heavy that night so I got some great pictures in around the complex.
The front of 630 Fifth Avenue across from Saks
The Ralph Lauren bus outside of 630 Fifth Avenue
Walking through Rockefeller Center was easy that night
The Tree at Rockefeller Center was beautifully lit that evening
After my walk around Fifth Avenue and then through Rockefeller Center, I walked down Sixth Avenue to see all the decorations there was well. Corporate America at its best.
The tree at 1221 Sixth Avenue
The tree at 1221 Sixth Avenue
The tree outside of Sixth Avenue
I then made my way down to Bryant Park to see what was happening there and even after 11:00pm the park was going strong.
What really dazzled me was the Bryant Park Christmas tree. It was lit for the evening and the array of lights and colors was so brilliant. It really put me in the Christmas spirit.
The Bryant Park Christmas tree ablaze with lights
Not only was the tree amazing but in the background of the park the Empire State Building was having a light show that made the building look like a giant ice cycle.
Now that grading was done and posted for my classes I finally started my holiday break and that meant a series of tours of historical building and sites in Upstate New York in the Tarrytown region. I had tickets for a special Victorian Christmas event at Sunnyside, Washington Irving’s home first and then of Philipsburg Manor and their holiday tour. It was a long day of touring.
The Washington Irving estate decked out for the holiday event
The sign for the holiday event
I started the tour with some of the holiday refreshments they had in the meeting room off the gift shop. They had a variety of cookies and snacks along with coffee, tea and hot chocolate . The perfect snack to start the tour of the house.
The refreshment table at the event
After a snack and a talk with the docents, it was off to tour the house which was all decorated for the holidays pre-Civil War around 1835.
Washington Irving’s home , Sunnyside in Irvington, NY
The house was beautifully decorated for the holidays and what was nice was that the rooms were not overdone. Each room was tastefully decorated for the holidays. These were some of my favorite rooms in the house.
Washington Irving’s office and study
The Dining Room set for Christmas lunch
The Dining Room table was so beautifully set for a Christmas luncheon. These side boards held all the desserts, sweets and beverages.
The Living Room held the Table tree which was popular before the Victorian era and the full tree came into vague.
The Children’s guest room for a visiting niece held all sorts of holiday toys and gifts
The French Bedroom has some of the best views in the house and wonderful exposure to sunlight and the river.
The kitchen was all set for the holidays as the servants prepared meals for the holidays. The table even had original recipes for dishes cooked in the house.
The last part of the tour once I left the kitchen was the grounds and this wonderful patio is just off the kitchen.
The last part of the events was a crafts room in the barn where we could make either pumice, which are oranges studded with cloves, Christmas crackers or ornaments . I chose the pumice as the smell is incredible over time as it ages. It was a really nice scent.
In between my tour of Sunnyside and the Philipsburg Manor, I stopped in Downtown Irvington to see if the Irvington Historical Society was open and it was on their last day of the exhibition on the ‘The history of the Irvington Gazette’. I got to tour the museum and then walk around their wonderful downtown, which was beautifully decorated for the holidays. Their latest exhibition that I visited was on The Irvington Gazette, their local paper.
The Irvington Historical Society at 131 Main Street is always so beautiful during the Christmas holidays
When I returned to the museum in December of 2025, the new exhibition that was on display was the history of The Irvington Gazette Gazette, the local paper. It is a testimony to the power of local news. This is the importance of local newspapers.
The Irving Gazette exhibition
The exhibition up close
The first issue of The Irvington Gazette in color
The museum is small so I was able to tour the whole exhibition in about an hour and still have time to walk Downtown Irvington, NY. It is such a beautiful and quaint downtown and one of those Upstate downtowns that are so beautiful at Christmas time.
Downtown Irvington, NY decorated for the holidays
The downtown was decked for the holidays
Toy soldiers smile and wink at passers by on the fences of downtown
The fences in the downtown
The downtown merchants really decorated too
Irvington City Hall decked for the holidays
Even the Downtown Merchants got it
Both inside and out
After touring Downtown Irvington and admiring all the decorations, I moved on to my next site, Philipsburg Manor, the site of the Philipse family gristmill and home when they were in Upstate New York.
Philipsburg Manor and Gristmill in Sleepy Hallow, NY at 381 North Broadway
The first part of the tour was the gristmill where the wheat from the estate was produced, bagged and shipped down to the storerooms in New York City.
The inside of the gristmill
The finished flour products that would have been used for shipping
The gristmill that was used to manufacture and process the wheat into flour
We then toured the grounds and got to see where life would take place during the working months on the property. We passed the vegetable gardens where the slaves would grow their crops and where animals would graze.
The grounds of the Philipsburg property during the winter time when things would have slowed down on the estate.
We next toured the Manor house which would have been used by the Philipse family when they were visiting the facility which was at least once a year. The house would have been prepared for them as if they could come out at any time.
The Philipse family Manor house on the property
We toured the preparatory kitchen used by the slaves to prepare and cook meals both for the owners and his guests and themselves.
The seasonal table in the main kitchen with its fresh fruits and vegetables all sourced locally
The formal kitchen where all the meals were finished and where the china and pewterware would be kept for serving
The formal bedroom where members of the Philipse family would stay when they were visiting the site
The Philipse family kept everything in house for the tenant farmers and even had a store within the house selling goods from the City saving them a boat trip that could take hours or days.
The store room
This way the money was kept on the estate when money was paid for crops and supplies.
Items that would have been found in the store room of the Philipse shop
The store room items
We then moved to the dining area where business would be conducted and inventory and accounts would be settled.
The Dining area
The Philipse bedroom
The Philipse bedroom and dining area
Our last part of the tour was the historic barn
The docents did a great job demonstrating the process to separate wheat
The sunset over the estate at the end of the tour was amazing
This was the last weekend that the estate would be open and I had wanted to see as much of the town as I could. This tree was fully decorated with lights and was illuminated at twilight.
The illuminated Christmas tree in Downtown Tarrytown
After classes were over after finals week, I was completely burnt out from work. It had been a rough semester of trying to motivate everyone. My best friend and I decided to take a night off and spend the night in Manhattan. She arranged a room at the Fairfield Inn at Penn Station and we met in the City.
The lobby of the Fairfield Inn & Suites at Penn Station at Christmas time
I was really surprised by the hotel. When I had walked in here about a decade ago it was not the nicest hotel with some shady characters in the lobby. When I walked in this time, it had all been renovated and decorated for the Christmas holidays. The room was comfortably corporate and we just relaxed before we left for lunch.
We stayed in the neighborhood and went to Pho 2 at 273 Eighth Avenue. We were both in the mood for Bahn Mi sandwich and this small City chain has wonderful food in every branch I have eaten at in Manhattan.
What surprised us was a new item on the menu that we enjoyed, the Pork and Chicken Tacos. These were even better than the sandwiches filled with fresh veggies and spicy meat tucked into a soft shell. A nice twist on fusion food.
For dessert, we stopped at the Krispie Kreme at Penn Station. We got a kick out of the ‘Peanuts’ themed doughnuts and we had to get a few of them to bring back to the room. I thought the design was very clever.
It was a very interesting and very delicious pre-Christmas lunch. We had a ball just eating and talking in the afternoon. I think the two of us just needed an afternoon to relax. We then spent the evening watching the new documentary “Drop Dead City”, on the 1975 financial crisis in New York City. Seeing the changes in the City especially in Brooklyn and Manhattan over the last thirty years, you would think this movie was made up. I remembered seeing it all as a kid as I lived it every time we went into the City to go to the museums and to Chinatown.
The Directors talking about the movie in 2025
The movie’s trailer
I am not sure how tired we both were but right after the movie, I was fell asleep and slept for eight hours. I was not sure if I was just tired from work, the weather, all the running around I was doing for the holidays and for the blogs or a combination of all of these. December had been a long month. I felt much better the next morning.
Before I left for home the next morning, I had a good breakfast at the hotel’s buffet. That I really enjoyed. This also put me into the holiday spirit.
The morning buffet at the Fairfield Inn & Suites just before Christmas
The buffet was really nice and had a very nice selection of items to choose from
They even had a pancake making machine to make fresh pancakes for guests
I thought the machine was really clever and made good pancakes
It was a wonderful breakfast and a very interesting and very international crowd as I heard languages from all over the world being spoken. It looked like everyone was loading up for a long day of touring.
The room was really decorated for the holidays
After breakfast, we both crashed back in the room and just talked for an hour while we were digesting. We talked about work and the upcoming holidays. We had the option to stay until 4:00pm if we wanted but I had packing to do. I was leaving for the Christmas holidays, first to Woodstock, then to Rehoboth Beach and finishing in Cape May. It would be a long holiday for me and a lot of running around and picture taking for my blog.
We took one last look at the view out our window of the Moynihan Train station and then went downstairs to check out. I had to go home and pack. It was going to be a very busy Christmas.
The view from our room of the Moynihan Train Station
The first part of the holiday was busy and a lot of running around. The second part of the holidays was just as busy. I did not sit still until after New Years. This is why there are two parts to this holiday blog. There so much more to see and do.
So look out for Part II of the blog: A trip back to Woodstock, NY
It has been almost a decade since I attended the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade. The last time I attended the parade, it was when my best friend came in from the Midwest as part of a four day band trip that the local high school sponsored as they were performing in the parade. We had a really nice time.
For the next several years it was either spending time with a friend out on the island or family commitments or the weather that kept me away. Last year it down poured on the parade. This year it would be hit or miss with the weather but the rainstorm the day before went out to sea and it ended up being a sunny cool day.
My spot on the corner West 46th street and Sixth Avenue for the start of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade
I got there early leaving the house at 7:00am to a packed bus. I was lucky to get a seat and I am at the beginning of the route into the City. We just passed all the stops on the way into the City as we zoomed through the Lincoln Tunnel, a first in a long time.
The crowds at 8:00am on Sixth Avenue
I had read that the route had moved from Broadway to Sixth Avenue, so I walked a couple of blocks uptown to get away from the Times Square crowds. I figured that was where all the tourists were headed. I settled on West 46th Street, which has an incline near one of the office buildings and offered a better view.
The crowd just kept growing around me at the start of the parade.
The parade started uptown at 8:30am and made its way down Broadway until 59th Street and turn on Sixth Avenue and made its way down Sixth Avenue to Macy’s on West 34th Street. I was around the halfway point. Around 9:15am, we heard the first band coming down the Avenue and Tom Turkey, one of the oldest floats in the parade that I could remember from my years in the parade.
The Tom Turkey float used to house the grand marshal of the parade. My first year with the parade in 1988 it was a freezing cold Clint Black, the country singer.
Tom Turkey passing West 46th Street
As the float passed by there was no one on top. Maybe it was too cold or maybe they were on a different part of the float. That height can freak people out.
The start of the parade passing all of us on West 46th Street. The crowds and the excitement started to build. We could see Tom Turkey coming down Sixth Avenue to start the parade. People started to cheer as the parade passed us by.
The start of the parade with the Macy’s logoed gold balloons, which have been part of the parade since I volunteered in the early 1990’s.
The Macy’s balloons at the start of the parade
After this, it was a series of balloons and floats that passed by. The funny part was I thought there were more marching bands in the past.
The Super Mario balloon passing by
The Super Mario passing by
Doria the Explorer balloon
Doria the Explorer passing by our spot
The SpongeBob SquarePants balloon
The Sesame Street float passing by
The Diary of a Wimpy Kid balloon
The Green Giant float passing by
The Disney Float passing by with Micky Mouse
The Spiderman float makes an impact on the parade
The Spider-Man float passes by
The Minon passing us and looking everyone over
The Stuart the Minon balloon passes by
The Golden Turkey float passes by with rapper Busta Rhyms
The balloons Gabby and Panda Paw balloon pass by
Cool & the Gang on the Bronx Zoo float
The Smokey the Bear balloon
The Snoopy float, one of the many that have graced the parade for years
Snoopy passing by
Snoopy has been part of the parade in different forms since the early 1990’s. This is the latest version of the balloon.
The Pac Man Balloon passing by
The Marshall from Paw Control balloon passes
The Buzz Lightyear balloon passes by
The Silver Macy’s Balloon
The parade passed by in intervals as the parade had to stop for performances further down the route.
The Jolly Polly Pirate Ship passes by with Mr. Fantasy. I did not know who he was.
The balloons moved down Sixth Avenue
Here comes the Shrek Onion Carriage balloon in the distance
The Shrek Onion Carriage balloon
The Goldbear balloon
The Bluey the Dog balloon
The Counting Sheep Dream float passing by with performer Debbie Gibson, a singer from the 1980’s.
The Noorah balloon
The Palace of Sweets float
The Pillsbury Doughboy then passed us
The Pillsbury Doughboy passing us in the parade
The Deck the Halls float passed us with Ms. Christmas herself, Darlene Love, whose Christmas song, ‘Nobody aught to be alone on Christmas’ is played every year in the movie, ‘Home Alone II’.
Darlene Love on the Christmas float as it passed by
Then Minnie Mouse made her appearance towards the end of the parade
Then the ‘Believe’ balloons came down Sixth Avenue to announce the arrival of Santa
Here comes Santa, which basically opens the shopping season snd Christmas
Santa waving at the crowds
Santa waving to us as he passed by
Santa saved my way as we all waved to him
Santa on his sleigh marking the end of the parade as it passed West 46th Street
Then the parade ended by us as it made its way to West 34th Street to join the crowds at Macy’s. There all the performers would perform clips from their shows.
Sixth Avenue at the end of the parade
After the parade was over, I spent some time in Midtown getting some work on previous blogs and creating new ones.
After work was over at the club, I headed down to Chinatown for my Thanksgiving dinner. I had been feeling the sniffles trying to come in, so I had my dinner at Wonton Noodle Garden for an early dinner.
I felt I needed the excise and the fresh air to fight this thing so I walked from East 44th Street to Chinatown. I figured a several mile walk would get rid of this thing. I got some great pictures in along the way. All the parks on the way to Chinatown still had foliage left on the trees and the parks were also decorated for the upcoming Christmas holiday season. This is when you get to see the City at its best.
When I was attending NYU, I never realized how close Chinatown was to campus and I made my dumpling runs as many times as I could. I wanted to be supportive to Chinatown businesses. I decided earlier I would go to Wonton Noodle Garden (Mei Lai Wah) on Bayard Street for Thanksgiving.
I thought Chinatown and Little Italy would be closed down for Thanksgiving and I would not have much of a choice of places to eat. Wrong! Chinatown was mobbed with both locals and tourists and all the restaurants would be packed until 6:00pm.
When I got to the restaurant, it was packed with diners. I sat in the counter area by the kitchen, which I enjoy. You get quicker service and I like talking to the staff.
My Thanksgiving dinner, Cantonese Wonton Soup with Roast Pork, Egg Noodles and Pork Wontons and a order of Fried Wontons
This is the best dinner and the cure all when you have a cold. It cleans out all the cold in your system. The food and the service here are excellent. I have coming here since the original restaurant opened on Mott Street back when I was in Junior high.
The Cantonese Wonton Soup chicken broth is so rich in flavor
The Fried Wontons are the perfect accompaniment to the soup, crisp and served with a sweet sauce
The Wontons are so good
The staff is so funny here. They can never believe my appetite. I had had only a quick breakfast and no lunch so this served as both lunch and dinner. I was still hungry after lunch. I knew where to walk for dessert.
I stopped down at Great Taste Bakery on 53 Catherine Street for dessert.
Not only were they open but still baking. I got two egg custards that were still hot out of the oven. The tables were filled with local residents talking with their neighbors in Chinese.
The egg custards at Great Taste Bakery
This is one of the last reasonable holdouts in Chinatown for excellent desserts and cheap prices. It caters to the older locals and the hipsters who are flooding the neighborhood.
After dinner, I decided to walk back to Port Authority since it was such a nice night. Most people think I am crazy when I do this but it really is a nice walk.
Walking through Chinatown around 5:30pm Thanksgiving night
Midtown with the Empire State Building lit for Thanksgiving
The Empire State Building in all its glory
It really was a great afternoon and a wonderful Thanksgiving. This was fun just seeing the parade on a sunny afternoon and the perfect dinner in Chinatown.
There is always a lot of excitement when a new art exhibition is ready to open. It is even better when the museum opens it to its members first before the public gets a glimpse. The lines always wrap around the corner from the museum.
The long line of MoMA members waiting to get into the museum for the opening night of Artist Ruth Asawa’s exhibition
I noticed this year especially and right before Thanksgiving, all the museums are throwing open their doors for Member’s Nights. I have been invited to five Members Nights at museums all over the City. You can’t attend them all but when you can, it is a lot of fun.
The excitement the museum creates for these evenings
Video of entering the museum at the start of the opening with 80’s Japanese Pop Music
I think in an economy like this, these Members Nights are one of the best ways to engage with the membership for both donations and renewals of memberships especially before the holiday season. Plus it gives the members a wonderful night out to see the exhibitions ahead of time and enjoy the evening after a long week at work.
Born on a farm in Southern California, Asawa began her arts education when she was a teenager and she and her family were among the thousands of persons of Japanese descent who were forcibly incarcerated by the US government during World War II. It was at the internment camp that Asawa began taking classes in painting and drawing. After her release, Asawa studied to be a teacher but was unable to get a license because of her Japanese heritage, so she enrolled at Black Mountain College, an experimental art school in North Carolina. Asawa took classes from and worked alongside fellow artists Josef Albers, Robert Rauschenberg, Merce Cunningham, and R. Buckminster Fuller. Black Mountain was also where she met her husband, the architect Albert Lanier.
I loved her wire woven sculptures. They were the real standouts of the show.
The wire woven sculptures were the standouts of the exhibition
I thought these were a unique design
I liked here colorful paintings, these are of her child’s footprints. I loved the idea that her children were involved with the art
The patrons enjoying the art
The display of the wire art
The displays were impressive and graceful
The colorful faces looked tired
The look of nature in the wire art in the form of trees
I loved her works of food
At the end of the exhibition and the evening, I joined everyone on the main floor where the bar and gift shop were located. The main floor was the busiest part of the museum. I wondered if some of these people even went upstairs to see the exhibition or just stayed downstairs to socialize.
The main floor of the museum is always packed with people
Share in the excitement of the Membership opening
These evenings always get my mind off the stress of life. It is nice to just be in Midtown Manhattan and be in the moment. It is nice to see art, hear music and walk through the museum.
I started October with one game plan, not to over do it this year with loads of activities. At this point, I had been to almost every activity in the area over the last five years and I needed to concentrate on work and my writing this time around. I was still catching up with blogs from the summer and work with my 102 students at the college was getting over whelming. I took it easy this Halloween and did not cram as much in as previous years.
That and the fact that over the last five years I have been to every haunted house tour, cemetery graveyard walk, themed meal event and musical performance that I can find in the tri-state area. I had been to them multiple times and I wanted to find new things to do. Plus work was taking up a lot of my time, so I learned to better pace things this year.
The month started off with a tour to see the foliage both in New Jersey and in Upstate New York. The first trip I made was for the Apple Festival at the Gandy Farmstead which I had toured during the Firemen’s Convention two weeks earlier and two weeks after that it was back to the Hudson River Valley for the Annual Sheep and Wool Festival.
My blog on the Apple Festival at the Gandy Farmstead:
I had a very busy weekend of running around South Jersey. I have been updating my blog on the Historical Sites of South Jersey and trying to visit as many of this small museums and special events venues before they close for the season. Like any of my blogging trips, I planned the weekend like “D Day”. I lucked out as the weather was wonderful both days, clear, sunny and in the mid 80’s. I could not think of a better time to go to the shore than post-Labor Day weekend. My goal was to attend the Apple Festival that I had heard about at the Gandy Farmstead Museum when I toured the home for my blog, VisitingaMuseum.com (see blog and reviews).
The JW Gandy Farmstead Museum at 26 Tyler Road in Greenfield, NJ
Two weeks after my initial visit to the Gandy House during the Firemen’s Convention, I returned for the Historical Society’s Annual Apple Festival on Saturday, October 4th. The event reminded me of the Brinckerhoff House Strawberry Festival I had attended in May , a very nice family and community event that attracted everyone.
The East Fishkill Historical Society-Brinckerhoff House Strawberry Festival 2025/Exploring Fishkill, NY blog:
Since there were a lot of shore towns I wanted to revisit while the weather was nice, I arranged to stay at an Airbnb in Ocean City so I had plenty of time to do what I needed to do and relax afterwards. Plus when the event was over, I could visit Ocean City and explore both the downtown and the boardwalk.
I could not believe how crowded the roads were as so many places were having either Fall festivals or October Fest. Route 9 was like a parking lot near Smithville, NJ as the town was having their ‘October Fest’ over both days of the weekend. Traffic was backed up for about two miles trying to get in so I got off Route 9 and traveled down the Garden State Parkway.
I got to the Apple Festival around noon and the parking lot was packed with people. One of the members said later that afternoon that he could not believe the consistent crowds as it was still busy at 2:15pm (the festival was over by 3:00pm). The crowds were filled with several generations of family members who I am sure were traveling from one event to another on this spectacular sunny morning. People were still arriving even as the event was winding down that afternoon.
The sign welcoming you to the event
When I arrived at the festival, the parking lot was still filling up so I had to park way in the back so I could get in and out easily.
On the Gandy family property on the other side of the home, they had an antique car show, a mini train ride around the tracks of this part of the property and a Caboose train car that you could explore.
The train tracks around the farm property
The train set up and tracks to tour around the farm
The train rides were really popular with both the small and ‘big’ kids
This small train trip had a nice sized line to it as families were really enjoying themselves
The back of the Gandy Farmstead with crafts and entertainment
Entering the Apple Festival with a Farmers Market and Apple sale
The Farmers Market of locally grown produce
There was a stand that was a mini Farmers Market with locally grown apples, pumpkins, squash and tomatoes on top of other produce. It was so nicely displayed and the prices were really reasonable.
They had a wonderful duo interesting the crowds that afternoon
There were all sorts of crafts stands around where the entertainment was performing
The local crafts people were really talented and included crocheted, painters, floral arrangers and jewelry markers. There were all sorts of handmade items and there were stands to buy homemade jellies and pickles and the prices were not like North Jersey, where a jar of jam at a Farmers Market will run you $15.00. The prices here were closer to $5.00 for certain items, which I thought was very fair.
One woman sold flowers from her gardens and arranged bouquets
This woman painted her own crafts and did beautiful work for both Halloween and Christmas
Here beautiful holiday crafts
I loved this Santa tree and was going to get it for my mom
This woman had the most beautiful handmade doll clothing and knit items for the holidays
What is an Apple Festival without food? I went to the concession stand for lunch and ordered a hot dog with a glass of locally made Apple cider and had an homemade Apple Shortcake, which I found out later the members had made the night before.
The concession stand where all the food was made
Enjoying my lunch. Both the hotdogs and apple cider were locally made and that’s why it tasted so good! The apple cider was from a local farm and I wished they had sold this at the festival. I think the farmer would have sold out!
Hot dogs taste so good off the grill!
The delicious homemade Apple Shortcake with homemade apple topping were made by the members
I also stopped off at the apple stand where cases of apples were being sold. It looked like many people were going to make pies and sauce with these and the stand looked like they were selling out.
I managed to buy one of the Mango sweet apples they were selling individually
The apples were so hard, fresh and sweet that it made the perfect addition to dessert. Nothing is better than a Jersey Apple right off the vine. I could not believe how fast they sold out of the boxes of apples and the individual apples were selling just as fast.
The Mango Sweet apples
Talk about delicious
After lunch, I ran into the Board members who had helped me with the tour two weeks early and I took a quick tour of the first floor of the home. The laundry room was not open the day of my private tour, so I toured this part of the house on top of taking a better look at the first floor.
Touring the outside grape arbor
The grape arbor on an early Fall day
Touring the first floor laundry room
An early washing machine
How to do laundry at the turn of the last century
After having lunch, touring the house and visiting all the vendors I relaxed for the rest of the afternoon and listened to the entertainment perform. The duo performed a combination of 70’s hit songs, country music and some James Taylor.
The duo performing classic hits
The first part of the song “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl)” from the 1970’s before people walked in the way
The rest of the song performed. They did an excellent job with it
Before I left just after 2:00pm, I stayed to see who won the Apple pie contest. There were only three contributors but I wanted to get a slice before I left. They did not slice them up while I was there. Bummer! I really wanted a piece of fresh Apple pie.
The winners of the Apple pie contest
The Apple Festival sponsored by the Upper Township Historical Society happens every October. It is a wonderful family event and fundraiser for the Historical Society. I know I had a lot of fun and it reminded me of the events that I went to as a kid in the 1970’s, which was long before cell phones.
It was funny that the only person who had a cell phone glued to his hand was me but then I was there to cover this event. It really was a relaxing and wonderful afternoon with good food and entertainment. It was just like the 1970’s all over again with families enjoying each other’s company. Sometimes I think that people underate these local events which are so much fun. I don’t know about everyone else, but I had a ball!
Two weekends later, I headed up to the Sheep and Wool Festival at the Duchess County Fairgrounds and the followed by the Graveyard Walk at St. James Church in Hyde Park. There is such much to see and do this time of year.
The Sheep and Wool Festival is not as big as the Dutchess County Fair but had a lot of the same food and merchant vendors. On a smaller scale, it is much more manageable but with the number of people who attend this every year, they could use more food vendors for the event.
The sign and directions in the fairgrounds
The foliage was so beautiful that afternoon
The Festival takes place the second week of October just when the Duchess County foliage is coming to its peak. The fairgrounds were covered in golds and reds.
Entering the Midway at the Sheep and Wool Festival where the food vendors were located. The foliage was at peak color.
The Midway was not as packed with vendors as the fair but is had a nice selection of food vendors
Entering the middle of the festival was getting busy
The foliage was amazing both inside and outside the fairgrounds
I got up to the fair late this time, not arriving until 2:00pm ( I thought the festival ended at 6:00pm but it ended at 5:00pm) and needed to get done lunch. Amongst all of my choices, I still always head to Janek’s, the barbecue/hamburger truck that has been my favorite for years.
Janek’s food truck is always at the same location
For years I have been getting the Piggy Back burger with Cheddar cheese and pulled pork on top(which I highly recommend) but I decided to do something different and have the Burger with freshly made Pastrami and Swiss Cheese. A very nice substitute.
The Pastrami and Swiss burger
The burger was perfectly cooked with slices of smoked pastrami on top
Yum!
After a good lunch and getting my energy back, I headed over to the animal pens and the craft stalls to see all the handmade products. My first stop was the Sheep pens, where sheering was going on and they were many contests to showcase the livestock. The Sheep were being shown, sheered and were talking amongst themselves as we walked around the pens admiring them.
I found that the sheep looked really relaxed and seemed to have more fun staring at us
This little guy kept smiling at me watching him
While the livestock contest was going on to a huge crowd, I toured the Crafts stalls. In the Summer for the fair, this was full of cows and goats, it now had all sorts of wool vendors, knit items, handcrafts and cosmetic items.
The colorful wool items on display
These wool dragon sculptures I thought were really interesting
After the show was over, I decided to tour around Rhinebeck. I just wanted to take a quick walk around the downtown before I took a tour I had done a few years earlier at the St. James Church graveyard. Since I was Upstate, I figured I would do both the same day since the weather was nice.
I got to St. James Church in Hyde Park at 7:30pm so I had plenty of time. I had taken this tour back in 2021 just as everything had opened up and it was a lot of fun, plus I wanted to update my pictures of the church and the graveyard. It also gave me time to talk to the docents and get some background on the church.
St. James Church before twilight at 6:15pm
The staff was just setting up the lights at the cemetery (technically a graveyard)
The inside of St. James Church in Hyde Park, NY, parish of the Roosevelt family
I got to the church an hour before my tour and just relaxed and admired the beauty of the church. I never saw an hour fly by before my tour started. Then darkness came and my tour started.
Darkness came by 7:30pm and the cemetery looked much different
We started the lantern tour with a talk of the spirits who were buried in the grave yard. Each of the actors was waiting for us at each stop. I still could not believe these actors were waiting alone in the dark in a graveyard for people to walk by the them.
Each of the actors told their tales of when they were living and stood beside the place that they were buried. It was very intriguing.
The first person we met was Mrs. Emma Victoria Pitkin Marshal
Mrs. Marshall was once known as the ‘Poet Laureate’ of Dutchess County. She was well known in the world of publishing.
The second spirit I met was Mrs. Harper, Mrs. Mill’s housekeeper up at the Staatsburgh mansion. She told us the story of her life working for the Mills and Livingston families.
Mrs. Catherine Kennedy Harper
Mrs. Harper told us about her life working for the Livingston family and her relationship with Ruth, who she was her nanny and then housekeeper.
Our conversation with Mrs. Harper
Our next spirit we visiting was the ghost of Gertrude ‘Gerdie’ Livingston who talked about her time in the Hudson River Valley and in New York City.
Gertrude ‘Gertie’ Livingston
Mrs. Livingston telling her tales of the Hudson River Valley
In between our conversations with the spirits of the past, we walked through the graveyard as twilight gave way to darkness. The graveyard was illuminated with lanterns and lights to follow the paths. It is easy to trip over a tombstone while you are walking around the paths. They did give us lanterns to light the way but there were not enough to go around.
The vaults are illuminated at night to follow the ghostly trail
Our next with the spirits was the ghost of Reverend John McVickar, who was the Rector at St. James Church starting in 1811. He married Eliza Bard, the daughter of Dr. Samuel Bard of Bard College and raised their nine children together.
The spirit of Reverend John McVickar telling his tales of his life in the church
Walking past the church at night
The last apparition we met that night was the spirit of Mr. Augustus C. Colman, the son of a sailing captain who invested heavily in Manhattan real estate on the advice of his boss. John Jacob Astor.
The spirit of Mr. Colman telling his tales of the City
Both himself and the Reverend went at it in the graveyard
The stained glass windows at the church
The church at the end of the tour
I decided to head home after the tour via the Kingston Bridge and drive into downtown Kingston, NY for dinner. I stopped at my favorite go to restaurant in The ‘Stockade District’ Wing Shui at 53 North Front Street. The food is consistently wonderful and extremely reasonable and you can sit down inside the restaurant.
Wing Shui Chinese Restaurant at 53 North Street in Kingston, NY
I was surprisingly hungry even after the big burger at lunch. It got cooler that evening so I ordered the Wonton Soup, the Steamed Dumplings and one of their wonderful eggrolls. It was such a great meal and really warmed me up. For such a small hole in the wall restaurant/take out place, the food is excellent.
My dinner that evening at Wing Shui
The Wonton Soup had for large wontons that you could barely fit in your mouth in the rich chicken broth. That warmed up after a graveyard walk in the dark.
The Wonton Soup with the oversized Wontons and rich chicken broth
The steamed dumplings were plump and moist and filled with spiced pork mixture.
The dumplings here are delicious
Their egg rolls are always a treat and are the first thing that I ever tried here years ago.
The egg rolls here are excellent
Yum!
I was nice to sit in the restaurant and just warm up. The temperature really dropped that evening and it was a rather cool October in comparison to other years. There is nothing like Chinese food after a long walk in a graveyard.
After dinner, I walked around Downtown Kingston some more and admired some of the decorations and store windows decorated for the holidays. It seems like Halloween is now the lead into Christmas rather than Thanksgiving (some places have already decorated for Christmas).
The ‘Jack Pumpkin’ decoration that looked like it out of “The Nightmare before Christmas” in Downtown Kingston, NY
A lot of windows were decorated for the Halloween holidays. The merchants in Downtown Kingston are so creative and here are some of my favorites.
This was displayed in the window on a North Front Street store.
The faceless entities in the windows
They face this witches hat
The skulls and pumpkins in the window. The merchants get quite creative at the holidays in the downtown area.
The Thursday before my birthday, we had a special late night at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and I finally got to tour the new Rockefeller Wing of the museum. After almost three years and COVID, the galleries have been mounted. The Oceania and African collections had been remounted with a new layout and pieces of the collection that had been in storage had been brought out. The collection looked a brighter and you could appreciate the art better.
I just needed an evening in the City to clear my head before my official birthday and I figured a night at The Met would help. It was nice to finally see these works again after several years of hiding. The galleries looked so much nicer and the works brighter and more vibrant.
Artwork that reminds you of the Halloween holidays
After I left the Met for the evening, I walked through the Upper East Side neighborhoods west of Madison Avenue and the creativity of the brownstone neighborhoods rivaled anything in that suburbs.
Walking on the Upper East Side before Halloween:
The Pumpkin glare
Black cats and Witches
From twilight to darkness, I walked all the side streets to see how people decorated. There were some very clever displays.
Outside of the grocery store
Then it got dark and the real magic began
Just at twilight
I walked down the Upper East Side from East 79th Street to East 60th Street from Madison to Third Avenues. It depended on the block but some streets were really competitive. These are the best displays I saw.
Guarding a building
Creatures that bump in the night
Halloween land
The doorway
The Headless Horseman
Guarding ghosts
Jolly pumpkins
I loved this ghoul guarding the house
I just hoped he didn’t come to life
Skeleton Parade
Ghostly lights
A happy ghost
More jolly pumpkins
The elaborate Halloween Kingdom
The Evil Witch guarding the house
Here is the witch explaining her wicked ways
More ghouls guarding the homes
A Christmas Halloween
From both angles
Boo!
Last year I did the ‘luxury’ birthday with dinner at Perrine at the Pierre Hotel and Afternoon Tea at the Lowell Hotel on top of my haircut at York Barber, and my trips to the Central Park Zoo and the Met. This year I was just content with staying home and relaxing. I have been doing nothing but running around from one thing to another in between classes.
Maricel asked me what I wanted on my birthday this year and I said ‘rest’. Having over a hundred students between three classes at various stages of their classes can be daunting for anyone especially for me. I had done the whole luxury birthday thing last year and on my birthday this year, it poured so badly during the day that I just stayed home and crashed. I stayed home and watched Michigan State get crushed by UCLA. That was rough!
For my birthday dinner that night, I kept it low key and went to Sofia’s, a Greek restaurant in Hasbrouck Heights. It was perfect because it was relaxing that night and the food was excellent.
For dinner I had the Shrimp Saganaki, which is a shrimp appetizer which is cooked in a tomato sauce and topped with cheese. I have loved this dish since they first opened.
The Shrimp Saganski appetizer
It is as delicious as it sounds
For dinner, I had the Gyro sandwich, which they put on their freshly made pita’s. Their sandwiches are delicious and they do not skimp on anything. I really enjoyed my meal.
My birthday dinner, the Gyro sandwich
For dessert, I had a change from the $35.00 slice of pink Dior cake at the Lowell and indulged in a slice of Baklava at Sofia’s, who much they make homemade and in house.
The Baklava at Sofia’s served as my birthday cake this year
This sweet cinnamon indulgence has layers of flaky and sugary phyllo and nuts and lots of honey. The perfect way to end the meal and the cap to my birthday dinner.
The next day Maricel took me out for a breakfast birthday at the IHOP in Hasbrouck Heights. I had not been there in a long time (and was a little shocked at the prices on the menu). I was just expecting pancakes, but Maricel knows me well enough and made the morning even more special. She greeted me with balloons. Turning 60 seemed to be a bigger deal to her than it was to me.
Maricel greeting me at IHOP on my 60th birthday
It is amazing how something as simple as this could mean so much. I love when my friends just do the simple things that touch me so much.
Now for people who say they do not like IHOP, you have never been to the one in Hasbrouck Heights. Their food and service is consistent and delicious. I have been coming here for years and have never once had a bad meal there. I love breakfast and could eat it all day long.
I had the “Two for Two” with two pancakes, two French Toast, two sausage and bacon and they even through in a side of toast. Talk about a perfect breakfast.
My birthday breakfast at IHOP at 111 Route 17 South in Hasbrouck Heights, NJ
The staff got caught up in the excitement of our meal and came over to sing “Happy Birthday” to me and brought me a dish of Vanilla ice cream with a candle in it. I was really touched. Sometimes the simplest things people do are the most touching.
The staff at IHOP really made the morning special with kind words, a nice song and their delicious Vanilla ice cream treat! That is good customer service!
This is what a best friend is for!
She saved the best for last and gave me a birthday present. Folks, I hate getting presents! Everyone always gets me what they like and never what I like. I always have to fake a smile and my older brother says I am the worst at it.
Maricel surprised me with a Hermes gift pack of Verte cologne, which is my favorite. I used it for years at Macy’s and Tiffany’s when I could afford it. I swear she totally surprised me. I told her she ‘nailed the birthday and made it perfect!” I love when people can read me.
Maricel by the balloons
After my birthday surprise, I took turning 60 with a badge of honor. When I look at my grandparents at my age, they always so much older to me. I guess it was just the times and their life experiences. They had it so much rougher than I did and I am always grateful to them from what I can remember of the love and support they had for us when we were little. With the exception of my father’s mother, none of them lived into my adult hood.
October also meant Midterms, Team Projects and Term Papers, which some of my students just could not handle. It was a struggle in each class to get the students to do their homework. Let’s hope they get to the finish line on December 17th.
My blog on the Bergen County Firemen’s Home Association:
The grounds of the NJ State Firemen’s Home decorated for the Fall holidays
The next weekend, I was in Boonton for our quarterly Bergen County Firemen’s Home Association meeting. Both the outside and inside of the Firemen’s Home was decorated for the Halloween holidays. They really did a nice job with it. After the meeting and entertainment were over, I went up to visit Downtown Boonton to see how it was decorated for Halloween. They do such a good job. The town was decked out with ghosts and ghouls all over the Main Street.
The horrible ghoul in the center of downtown
The town was not decked out for the Halloween and Fall holidays. It was not just the Halloween holidays but the beauty of the change of seasons and the Fall foliage.
The Hill section of Boonton
The Hill section of the town in October
The beauty of the Victorian homes
Each street was so beautiful
The homes were the colors of gold, red and copper
The businesses did a nice job with the scarecrows this year. The ghosts and ghouls dotted the downtown.
The Annabelle doll
The ghouls are out
The cat in the hat
Pumpkin head
Mars Attacts outside a restaurant
This strange Teddy was outside the library
Boonton does a wonderful job of decorating during both the Halloween and Christmas holidays. The downtown is decorated with all sorts of interesting and creative artwork and beautiful lights. I recently walked around the Downtown at the start of the holiday season and it was really festive. I always get a kick out of the scarecrows decorating the town.
My blog on Exploring Downtown Boonton (a very unique downtown):
The fire department, even after I retired after 19 years, still keeps me busy. We had our Fire Department Relief Association meeting the night of ‘Halloween in the Park’ and after our meeting was over at 7:30pm, I headed over to Woodland Park in our town and watched everyone get on hay wagons and ride around Woodland Park being chased by ghosts and ghouls. I do not think I have attended this since before COVID. “Halloween in the Park” is an event our town sponsors that bring hay wagons thorough Woodland Park’s small bundles of trees and woods and scares them with costume characters.
It used to be spookier but when neighboring town, Wood Ridge, built a series of condos on the border of our towns and they took down all the trees on their side of the park, all you see is the windows of condos at the back of the park. Still, its a lot of fun and residents get a kick out it.
Woodland Park in Hasbrouck Heights, NJ at night
Halloween starts for me in Hasbrouck Heights with the town’s Annual Halloween in the Park, an event that takes place each fall in Woodland Park in Hasbrouck Heights. First thing to note that since developers have built new condos on the parks edges, it has taken some of the allure from the park. You can see the lights and people moving around.
We ‘stand by’ with the fire department for lights for the event and emergency calls when we have to leave. Still it is a lot of fun watching everyone get on the hayrides and start screaming in the distance. We watch from the equipment while eating a pizza dinner which we share with our Ambulance Squad who is on hand incase someone gets hurt. The last ride of the night, we get to go on when everyone else has left.
Patrons waiting at the Pavillion
The fireplace roaring at the event
Ghouls waiting for you
The park decorated for Halloween
The DPW takes families around the park in hayride fashion with bales of hay in the trailers and everyone on the trailer is chased and harassed by various ghosts, ghouls and witches. You spend most of the evening being chased with someone with a knife or chainsaw.
The start of the haunted hayride
Video of Halloween in the park
Ghouls and creatures of the night chasing everyone
This popular event is always sold out and residents get such a kick out of it. I of course was working that night and got there in time for the last two rides and people were still screaming at 9:30pm.
Halloween in the Park in Hasbrouck Heights, NJ in Woodland Park
I did more traveling down the shore to see what was happening in both Point Pleasant and Seaside Heights beaches. The boardwalks were decorated for the holidays and there were scarecrow contests and pumpkin carving on the Boardwalks. The day started off sunny but then a giant cloud came over the towns which did not clear until 4:00pm. Just as I was leaving, the sun came out again.
Both Seaside Heights and Park and Point Pleasant and Point Pleasant Beach are getting more active during the Fall Holidays as more people have moved down the shore permanently. There are a lot of events for kids and their families families to participate in.
When I visited Seaside Park and Seaside Heights, I stopped in just after a Scarecrow Making Contest. The contest was already over by the time I got there but people were still looking them over. The kids did a really nice job with the contest. While Seaside Heights and Park don’t have the activities that its northern neighbor Point Pleasant has, the activities led to some creative ingenuity of the kids and there were interesting decorations all over the towns over the Halloween weekend.
The town even decorated the Boardwalk more this year with skeletons and other creatures. There were not many activities on the Boardwalk on the Halloween weekend but the decorations were fun. Even on this warm afternoon at the shore, it put me in the Halloween spirit.
Skeletons on the Boardwalk
Zombies on the Boardwalk
The Boardwalk was busy with people who had just participated in a Pumpkin carving contest. The weather was overcast by the late afternoon but most of the businesses on the Boardwalk were open and there was a choice of places to eat and shop along the way. The two bars were packed with people who were watching the Giants game. I big change from when I was in Cape May and it is all Philly fans.
My full blog on Visiting both Seaside Heights and Seaside Park:
After my visit to Seaside Heights and debating on where I wanted to go to lunch, I drove up the coastal highway through the other beach communities to Point Pleasant and Point Pleasant Beach. The downtown arts community always knows how to decorate the downtown and Jenkinson’s does a nice job on the Boardwalk.
When I visited Downtown Point Pleasant, I was able to admire the decorations on both the downtown Main Street and then walk to the Boardwalk. The downtown is always so nicely decorated and I love the whimsical scarecrows that decorate the downtown. The windows are filled with creative displays that always seem to be begging for Christmas decorations even before Halloween is even over (like most stores everyone wants to rush the holidays).
Downtown Point Pleasant in the Fall of 2025
The Point Beach Arts community gets very creative in Downtown Point Pleasant with the Gazebo decorated for Halloween
I walked their downtown and saw that their Arts Commission added more scarecrows to the downtown light posts.
The scarecrows from 2025
Another creative scarecrow
There was a lot of creativity in this downtown contest
The scarecrows came in all styles
Barbie display
The Phantom bride
More unusual scarecrows
They get very creative in Downtown Point Pleasant
When I walked to the Boardwalk a couple of blocks away, it was a little cooler than last year but there was still a good crowd walking around the Boardwalk. The afternoon activities sponsored by Jenkinson’s kept everyone active with their series of programs at “Boo at the Boardwalk”. They decorated the Boardwalk for the Halloween Holidays and kept all the stores and restaurants open adding to the festivities. With the Fall holidays getting warmer, it is a smart business decision to extend the Summer activities further into Fall.
Halloween is always fun on the Jenkinson Boardwalk. There was always something going on. The towns really get into the Halloween holidays. The park really knows how to celebrate the holidays.
My blog on Exploring both Point Pleasant Beach and Point Pleasant:
It was a lot of running around the shore from Boardwalk to Boardwalk but it is interesting the amount of activities these towns have been doing and the creativity that goes into them. This led me to visiting another shore town the next week when I visited Long Beach Island the Town of Beach Haven.
It was rather quiet in town when I visited Beach Haven the week before Halloween. Usually there was a lot more going on but it was probably reserved for the weekends. Some parts of the of the town were decorated for the holidays but I did not see the activities of the other shore towns that day. Still there were reminders of Halloween here and there throughout the town.
My first stop was Woo Hoo at 211 South Bay Avenue for some ice cream. The store was all decorated for the holiday, and they even had a specialty ice cream flavor for Halloween, Spooky S’mores. The ice cream here is a real treat as it is made in small batches on premise.
Woo Hoo carries some non -ice cream merchandise
They have now cut the menu down to just ice cream. There is no longer any ‘meal’ items like sandwiches and fries. The woman at the window explained, they will be only the homemade ice cream on their menu. I had no problem with that. Woo Hoo was preparing for the Halloween and the shop was decorated for the holidays.
Games for kids
They decorated the interiors
The store was surrounded by ghosts and ghouls
I looked over the menu and I saw a flavor I remembered from the past, Spooky S’mores, which I had when I visited the island a few years ago for Halloween. It is a Marshmallow Ice Cream with a Chocolate swirl with graham crackers and Halloween M&Ms and you only see it at this time of the year. I had to have that.
The Spooky S’mores flavor
It was delicious
The Spooky S’mores was loaded with graham and M&Ms in every bite and the ice cream was so rich and creamy. Going to Woo Hoo at the holidays is the best!
They now have ice Cream making classes
The service could not be friendlier. The staff is very accommodating and will help you make a selection from the various choices. Not only that but the staff knows the island really well and can point things out for you to see.
I spent the rest of the afternoon exploring Beach Haven, walking through the stores and amusements areas which were still open this late into October. The warm weather over the weekend really attracted a lot of people and watching people play miniature golf this late into the season was interesting. The shore towns in New Jersey really are going full season.
Beach Haven Bay during the day
It was a nice snack to enjoy after walking on the beach or exploring the island. I walked down the block at the end of Dock Road and enjoyed the views and watched the boats sail by. I also got a great tan.
Beach Haven, NJ by the bay is just beautiful
Just sitting by the bay relaxing
Admiring the boats while I digested
The creative artwork by the shore
It was fun to just walk around Beach Haven’s downtown that afternoon and enjoy the warm weather. They had a Chowder Cook off going on down the road, so the town was packed with people that afternoon.
My blog on Exploring Long Beach Island and Beach Haven, NJ:
I saw by the weather report that Hurricane Melissa was coming up the coast and I knew that this would knock the foliage down all over the state so I made one last trip down the Route 46 Budd Lake to the Delaware Water Gap. I started at the Delaware Water Gap to take the pictures of the foliage in the sunshine and then I worked my way back, stopping at farms along the way and in Hackettstown to take more pictures. I wanted to get the pictures of the foliage before the storm knocked it all down.
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 continued my path down Route 46 East, taking pictures of foliage and stopping at the Marshall Farms to see the Halloween decorations. Sometimes you will pass a farm stand and you see the standard pumpkins, peaches and apples outside. When you pass Marshall’s Farm Stand in Delaware, NJ, you see a whole farm experience with orchards of fruit, corn fields and a property that is decorated for the upcoming Halloween holidays.
The side of the Marshall’s Farm Stand at 114 Route 46
The other side of the farm stand stocked high with pumpkins
The festive pumpkin sat on the roof of the building
The whole front of the farm was stocked with all sorts of early Fall produce, honey, jams and jellies and delicious baked goods including pies, cakes and rolls and their specialty, their mini Apple Cider doughnuts.
The fresh Jersey produce
The cream rolls and homemade pies, including apple, berry and Shoo Fly pies
The best is their mini Apple Cider doughnut. One bag of these and you are content for the afternoon. I can barely get out of the parking lot with indulging in one or two of them before my drive down Route 46 to the Delaware Water Gap.
The farm stands addictive Apple Cider doughnuts
These sugary delights are so good!
What I also enjoy is their delicious apple cider. I found out though that they do not make it in house but a farm close by makes it both for their farm and Marshall’s. It is sweet and very refreshing and only comes in gallon containers.
I love walking through the stand, walking past the pumpkin, produce and the crafts display.
The pumpkin display in the parking lot
After I put my purchases in the car, I walked around the farm, looking at all the decorations they had for the upcoming Halloween holidays. The farm has pumpkin picking, corn mazes and a hayride where the $5.00 cost includes along with the hayride a cup of apple cider and a doughnut. I could handle that.
The sign for the weekend hayrides
The witch sign in the parking lot near the Corn Maze
The witch painting at the start of the corn mazes
Ghosts decorating the field
The Corn Maze was still tall and green and I am sure led all around the property. Each part of the front part of the farm was decorated for Halloween festivities which would happen the next weekend.
The cemetery in the back of the farm stand
A horrible ghoul
All the Halloween decorations at the start of the hayride
Here is my blog on the whole trip down Route 46 East and West from Budd Lake to the Delaware Water Gap:
Hurricane Melissa came up the coast the week of Halloween and a lot of functions were either cancelled or had to move inside. I had no desire to go into the City when it was pouring rain. So I missed some of the museum and Central Park events that had been cancelled and stayed home. We really lucked out on Halloween night, and the weather was a brisk 58 degrees. It was clear and the perfect night for the parade. The parade this year went off without a hitch. I got to the parade after a long day at work and I made it into the City by 4:00pm.
We started the sign in for volunteers at 4:00pm
I met my counterparts at the start of the shift and I really lucked out. We had a really good group of people who would answer ‘no’ to people. I was able to see a little bit of the puppet rehearsals before people started to arrive for the event. There was a lot of excitement as everyone got ready to start the parade.
The puppets ate the beginning of the parade
Puppet rehearsal before the parade kick off at 7:00pm
I met many creatures, witches and things that go bump in the night at the beginning of the parade and they enjoyed showing themselves off.
This Sea Maiden joined us at the beginning of the parade
This group of friendly witches and warlocks joined the parade early
As the sun went down and the parade was about to begin, balloon creatures joined as the Good Witch led the way. The parade of costumed characters was in full swing by 5:30pm as people entered the gates for the parade.
The Good Witch with the balloon creatures
The Good Witch with the insect
Even Frankenstein joined the parade
Moon creatures joined this Witch of Darknes
Ghosts and ghouls with balloons
Then the parade start was getting closer between 5:30pm and 7:00pm, it got crazy at the gate and people tried every which way to get into the gate. I kept and to talk and finally yelling at people to keep it organized. I swear I have never seen adults act like little children. We have more people try to sneak through the gate with every excuse. I have learned to put my foot down and it is by pass only.
Then the golden hour of 7:00pm came and the parade started. As the floats were heading uptown, people were still scrambling, trying to get in. At 8:00pm, this woman walks up to the gate one hour into the parade and tells me she was here as a volunteer. I told her we were closed at that point and have a nice night and see her next year. It amazes me how people use excuses to get in.
Watching the parade from inside
We finally closed the gate at 8:30pm and the police took over security from there. I was able to walk in and watch where the parade begins. It is always interesting to see how the parade works and how this organized.
Watching the parade progress uptown from the sidelines
The chutes where the floats come out combined with the number of costumed people is carefully done and I have never seen so many people marching in the parade. Later on, someone told me the police were turning people away because too many people were showing up.
The parade from Dominick Street heading uptown
I could not believe how crazy it got in the park as the parade progressed. I have to give the guys who are the volunteers who coordinate the parade so much create. They do an amazing job. They really are worth their weight in gold.
More of the floats heading uptown
The video shows the true magic that goes into the parade from behind the scenes
The last of the floats heading uptown
The last of the floats start to head uptown by 9:00pm and after that, it is all costumed people, not just New Yorkers but people from all over the world who had come to walk our unique parade.
People walking uptown in full drag
The weather cooperated and their was an over flow of people marching and enjoying the parade
The costumers enjoying themselves
I loved the creativity of the costumes
The last of the floats heading uptown
I loved these costumes. The headless guy was pretty gruesome
A better look at the headless Spector
The last of the floats heading uptown
The last of the floats starting uptown before the costumers took over
I left the parade route and walked through the parade to get to at least 8th Street before I veered off on to Seventh Avenue. I walked uptown to join some of the volunteers after the parade for dinner.
Walking through the Village and looking at the decorated windows and homes
Some of the private homes are so beautifully decorated in Greenwich Village
Another great decorated home in Greenwich Village
The West Elm right next to the restaurant on West 12th street
I am sorry but to decorate your store to the hilt on Halloween night is really rushing the holidays. They did this the year before as well. Who ever heard of looking at a Christmas tree on Halloween night?
Still the store looked gorgeous and their visual people did a marvelous job
It was nice to sit down to dinner that night. I was starved rushing from work to the City and then to the parade route. I did not get to eat anything and was famished.
Joining friends for dinner at Da Umbertos at 107 West 17th Street
It was nice to meet some of my counterparts and swap stories about the parade.
Meeting with friends for dinner that night
The restaurant had a wonderful buffet that evening
The Penne Vodka and Sautéed Shrimp were wonderful
The dinner I enjoyed was wonderful
After dinner and some wonderful conversation, I said my goodbyes. I had been going strong since 4:30am that morning and was beginning to run out of steam. I just wanted to head home and go to bed.
I decide to walk back to the Port Authority from the restaurant since it was such a beautiful night. The weather really cooperated and it was a crisp and beautiful night.
Even the Empire State Building was decorated for the holiday
I was lucky that I walk fast. I made the 11:50pm bus out of Manhattan and got home by 12:30am. It had been a long night. The night was still young and I still did not see the spirits of the night except parading up Sixth Avenue.
Even when I reached Hasbrouck Heights, the decorations were still up and lit. It was nice to see that holiday spirit strong in town.
The houses were still lit and decorated when I got home
Residents love to decorate their homes in Hasbrouck Heights
It always amazes me of homeowners creativity
Post Halloween:
There were still traces of Halloween even after the holidays. Stores and homeowners kept their displays up but the lure of Christmas and the warm weekend meant that people started to take things down so the Christmas declarations could go up.
I went down to Mill’s Bakery to check out their Halloween treats and there was still some things left. The sweetest things were available in all the bakery cases.
The front of Mill’s Bakery at 275 Valley Boulevard in Wood Ridge, NJ
I loved the festive Frankenstein cake. Talk about creative!
The festive and creative cupcakes
The fun loving cupcakes
I loved the Halloween cookies and a little pricy at $5.00 each but were well worth it. I bought a few for snacks.
The mummy cookie was so good!
So was the Pumpkin
The ghost was good too!
Mill’s Bakery does such a good job at any holiday
I took my cookies and went back to Downtown Hasbrouck Heights to tour the window paintings from the contest a week earlier. The sweetness of the cookies gave me a sugar rush.
Walking in Downtown Hasbrouck Heights for the Halloween holidays
Downtown Hasbrouck Heights was still decorated for the Halloween holidays with festive window displays and the kids window paintings from the recent Window Painting contest.
Some of the window painting downtown
These kids are so creative
The weekend of Halloween (Halloween fell on Friday night this year), I took my best friend, Maricel to the “Pumpkin Blaze” on Croton on the Hudson, NY. I go to this annual event as part of my membership to Historical Hudson Valley. I love walking through the old Van Cortlandt Estate and seeing the creativity of the carvings and displays.
We started off early and had dinner at one of my favorite Chinese restaurants that I feature on my blog, DiningonaShoeStringinNYC@Wordpress.com, Dong Happy Gardens at 440 South Riverside Avenue in the ShopRite Mall. The food and service are excellent and the family who run it are really nice.
I love the food here. It is white tablecloth quality for a small take out place in a strip mall.
I had the Orange Chicken with Pork Fried Rice and an egg roll and Maricel had the same with but with Barbecue Spareribs. I can’t tell you how wonderful the food is in this tiny take out place but you have to try it for yourself. I have never had a bad meal here.
The Orange Flavored Chicken with Pork Fried Rice is excellent
Then we shared some Panfried Pork Dumplings. They really hit the spot on a cool night.
The Panfried Dumplings were a nice addition to dinner
Dinner was a chance for us to catch up and talk. So much has been happening in our lives and we never get a chance to talk.
After dinner, we headed over to the ‘Blaze’ and then the fun began. The parking lot was packed with people and the weather really cooperated. It was cool but not cold and walking through the pathways was nicer than we thought.
The Spider display
A close up shot of the spider
Maricel in front of the rainbow flag that was on display at the entrance of the displays
We started our tour through the Blaze walking through the rows of pumpkin carvings. I noticed there were less of them this year than in years in the past. Still there was some interesting pumpkins.
The first row of carvings I thought were interesting
An interesting face
Another interesting face
The Haunted Pumpkin Windmill
Frog swimmer
The Pumpkin Octopus
Visiting the Hudson River Sites
Pumpkin sling shot
Me in front of the Statue of Liberty sculpture
The Statue of Liberty sculpture
Walking through the Light Tunnel
Maricel and I in the Tunnel of Lights
This is the experience you get when you walk through the Tunnel of Lights
Then we reached the Van Cortlandt Manor, home to the Van Cortlandt family. The house had been closed for years for touring since the renovation but been open for the Blaze.
The cemetery was moved from here to earlier in the tour with a Circus in its place.
The ‘Under the Big Top‘ pumpkin sculpture
The beauty of the Van Courtlandt Manor at night
The Wonderful Lightshow at the manor house
We then toured the amusement area. The Merry Go Round with its eerie sounds and glowing pumpkins made it foreboding.
The eerie Merry Go Round
The Merry Go Round
Maricel though it would be more cheerful with a picture of me
We then looked over the Halloween Circus train that passed us by. I loved looking at all the Circus animals.
The Haunted Circus Train
My video of the Circus Train
We then walked through the end of the display with all sorts of ghosts and ghouls that included a Pumpkin man and the Headless Horsemen.
The Headless Horseman
Chasing poor Ichabod Crane
The evil Pumpkin man showed himself towards the end of the tour
The end of the tour looking back at the lights and displays. There were all sorts of lit pumpkins as we exited the tour.
This was my favorite
Me at the end of the Pumpkin Blaze with one of the flying monkey’s behind me.
It may have been a Halloween with less activities and far less running around but it was far better than my years of Trick of Treating as a kid! Yuck!
I could not believe how fast the Summer came and went. It was like a blink of the eye. I had covered a lot of ground over the last three months that included many neighborhoods in New York City, many Upstate New York and New Jersey towns plus updating older blogs that needed some work. They needed new pictures and updates in the businesses I had featured in the past. A lot has changed since COVID.
I started Alphabet City just before the Labor Day Weekend and a lot has changed here since the 1960’s and 70’s. The whole hippie movement is now over only to be replaced by the current hipster movement where men are wearing knit head coverings in almost 90 degree and still wearing ‘man buns’ that are ‘so 2010’. To each his own.
Looking down Avenue C on a sunny afternoon
I just ignored everyone and started my walk on the Avenue’s of the neighborhood. The neighborhood is broken up that the closer you are to public housing the less gentrified it was on the block. The border seemed to be around 10th Street. The lower the street, the nicer the bars and restaurants.
The one thing I did notice about the neighborhood was the amount of community gardens that popped up in corners all around the blocks. This was the result of the community efforts in the 1970’s and 80’s that saved the neighborhood and what has made the neighborhood as desirable as it is now. It seems you can’t stop gentrification. Even so, these hard working gardeners are setting the tone for the neighborhood.
The signs of the times on top of the old tenements on Avenue C
The other thing I noticed about Alphabet City are the tagging and outdoor murals that line all the blocks. The people who creat this street art are so clever and creative. They really have an eye on color and design.
Some of the art cleverly tucked along the walls and columns in the neighborhood
Some of the art close by
I liked this design
The first of the Community Gardens that J toured that afternoon (they all seemed to be open the Saturday that I visited) was the Francisco ‘Pancho’ Ramos Community Garden at 709 East 9th Street. The garden showed the creative spirit of the people who volunteered there.
The sign for the Francisco “Pancho” Ramos Community Garden at 703 East 9th Street
(The History of the Park from its website)
The Lower East Side of the 1970s was a hard place with little green. Local residents noticed the abandoned, littered lot at the corner of Ninth Street and Avenue C and began to sow seeds and plants along the chain link and among the debris, and so the Ninth Street Community Garden & Park was founded in 1979. Today Pancho’s Garden hosts community events including music, art, and gardening workshops.
The pathways were lined with flower beds and some with vegetable gardens with the latest crops coming in. Here and there were pieces of artwork such as sculptures and paintings.
Walking through the gardens at the end of the summer
Following the paths
Walking through the flowering arbors
Some of the creative artwork that lined the paths
The raised flower beds
Some of the creative touches of the gardens
The Vegetable Gardens in full growth
Even the shed and play areas were colorful
This is what the community spirit of hard work and dedication can create in a neighborhood
Another interesting mural that I came across on the walls of the buildings
Just a reminder that the Alphabet City name is not a negative one anymore
The Alphabet Wine Company at 100 Loisaida Avenue (Avenue C)
Walking through Alphabet City today reminded me of years ago when I toured Bushwick in Brooklyn. The negative connotation of the name was now synonymous with ‘hipster’ cool. When I started to see signs like Alphabet Wine Company, you know times have changed for a neighborhood with not such a great past.
Passing the Lower East Side II still reminds you that public housing is a big part of this neighborhood
The next set of street art I admired was 15C Cultural Center building at 68 Loisaida Avenue (Avenue C). The shop was closed that afternoon so I got to see all the interesting art work on the metal gates.
This was on one side of building of the 5C Cultural Center at 68 Avenue C and 5th Street
Danielle Mastrion is a Brooklyn-born, New York City based painter and muralist who specializes in large scale, brightly colored murals. She holds a BFA from Parsons School of Design (Artist website)
This mural was around the corner dedicated to Puerto Rico
The changes to Avenue C start around East 10th Street as you leave the area around the public housing and walk closer to the areas that cater to a younger NYU/Pace student population. When I visited the neighborhood originally walking the borders of the neighborhood and even this evening, the bars and restaurants exploded with students whose first weekend in New York City was filled with excitement.
They chatted on their cellphones and yelled to their friends and acted like a scene in early ‘Sex and the City’ episodes. I can always tell when an out of towner is trying too hard.
The rebuilt section of Avenue C
I walked through my next community garden, Gustavd Hartman Square. Some of these patches of green were really small and just required a peek inside.
This plot of land, located at Second Street and Avenue C, is named for Gustave Hartman, a municipal court judge and philanthropist who spent most of his life in this neighborhood. Gustave Hartman was born in Hungary and immigrated to the United States with his parents while still a young boy. He attended P.S. 22 on Sheriff Street (now Columbia Street), the College of the City of New York, and received his law degree from New York University in 1905.
This plot of land, located at Second Street and Avenue C, is named for Gustave Hartman, a municipal court judge and philanthropist who spent most of his life in this neighborhood.
The growth of the garden needed a little pruning
I then started my walk back up Avenue C from the border of East Houston Street, which itself on all sides of the street has been knocked down and rebuilt. I have never seen a street go from shabby to chic more in the last fifteen to twenty years. Here the upper parts of the old Chinatown and Little Italy and the Lower East Side have merged with the Village. The lines have been blurred.
The changes to Avenue C start in the lower part of the neighborhood
The next set of public housing is the Bracetti Plaza
The next community garden I visited was the Secret Garden, a tiny park at 293 East Forth Street. Volunteers were hard at work weeding and planting while I walked around
Charlie Doves is a graffiti and fine artist from New York City’s Lower East Side, known for his work inspired by graffiti’s Golden Age and Japanese art. A master of his craft, Doves has moved from street art to fine art, fusing different techniques and styles to create a timeless body of work (Arts AI).
The Secret Garden Community Garden at 293 East Fourth Street
Alfredo Bennett, professionally known as The Royal “Kingbee” is a NYC artist. He was born in Harlem and raised in The Bronx in the early 70’s. He began his career painting graffiti on walls until gathering recognition and eventually being commissioned to perform his artistic abilities all throughout the city of New York. The artist went to JF Kennedy High School in the Bronx (BX 200 Artist.com).
The art was not just limited to the murals that looked more professionally done. The taggers showed their creativity on the closed gates of the businesses and the walls of the buildings around the Avenue.
Tagging art on Avenue C
Tagging art on Avenue C
The next community gardens I visited and one of the original is the Carmen Pabon Del Amanecer Jardin, dedicated to Carmen Pabon.
The sign for the Carmen Pabon Del Amanecer Jardin at
Carmen Pabón, ‘la madrina del Lower East Side,’ was a Puerto Rican community activist, gardener, poet and actress who founded a community garden as an urban sanctuary for children, local artists, Nuyorican poets and the elderly. Carmen helped thousands to create a better life for themselves and fed multitudes of Lower East Siders experiencing homelessness.
While a lot of the neighborhood is low rise and tenement housing, I stopped to admire this unique brick building at 116 Avenue C, with its interesting faces on all levels staring back at you. It reminded me of the many buildings I had passed recently in Lower Chelsea.
Each window had a demonist look in its eyes as you passed it. This building was built in 1900 (Streeteasy.com).
These menacing demons stare back at you from every window
I spent some more time cross crossing through more gardens admiring the work of dedicated gardens. The next I visited was the Flower Door Garden at 135 Avenue C.
La Plaza Cultural de Armando Perez Community Garden was founded in 1976 by local residents and greening activists who took over what was then a series of vacant city lots piled high with rubble and trash. In an effort to improve the neighborhood during a downward trend of arson, drugs, and abandonment common in that era, members of the Latino group CHARAS cleared out truckloads of refuse.
Working with Buckminster Fuller, they built a geodesic dome in the open “plaza” and began staging cultural events. Green Guerillas pioneer Liz Christy seeded the turf with “seed bombs” and planted towering weeping willows and linden trees. Artist Gordon Matta-Clark helped construct La Plaza’s amphitheater using railroad ties and materials reclaimed from abandoned buildings.
What I liked about this particular garden was all the interesting metal work along the fencing. It popped all around the fencing like you were living in ‘Whoville’.
One of the entrances of the gardens
Walking around the inside along the paths
The whimsical ironworks on the top of the fencing
As I made my way back up Avenue C, J came across a small museum that I had never heard of before, the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space at 155 Loisaida Avenue (Avenue C).
The Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space at 155 Loisaida Avenue (Avenue C)
The museum is a time capsule of information from the late 1960’s through the 70’s when the neighborhood had really hit rock bottom with the City’s almost bankruptcy. The neighborhood and its residents banded together to save the neighborhood and clean up all these empty lots of garbage and debris.
The entrance of the museum
The description of the museum’s purpose
The museum has pictures of the neighborhood at various stages of its development. There are the ups and downs of this section of the City and how its residents maintain it. The neighborhood has seen so much change and much of it due to the volunteers who keep improving it.
The inside of the museum
How the changes took place in Alphabet City
The masks and decorations that line the walls
The history of the neighborhood and its triumphs
After my trip through the museum, I continued the walk up Avenue C. Above 10th Street is was a little patchy but you can tell the neighborhood is getting better. I never felt unsafe walking around the ‘Alphabets’.
For the rest of my walk, I enjoyed the ‘open-air’ museum that the sides of the buildings offered me. There were many interesting murals to admire.
I think this one was in honor of the island of Puerto Rico.
Artist Antonio “Chico” Garcia is a New York City based Graffiti artist. He is well known in the neighborhood and has been featured in several periodicals (Wiki).
I saw this on the side of a Chinese restaurant
Then when I got to the top East 14th Street and I came across this mural on the side of a school and I admired the different styles of art in each panel.
The panel that lined the school created by artists from the Thrive Collective
Danielle Mastrion is a Brooklyn-born, New York City based painter and muralist who specializes in large scale, brightly colored murals. She holds a BFA from Parsons School of Design (Artist website)
I loved this whimsical school painting by artists Savannah Zambrano and Andrea Amanda
Savannah Zambrano is a freelance sequential artist that hosts workshops and panels, does face painting and caricatures, and works with Traditional and Digital Media (Artist Bio website).
The artists sign with the Thrive Collective
I loved this mural with the Puerto Rican flag by artist Miki Mu
Michela Muserra is an international muralist and illustrator based in Brooklyn. A graduate of Accademia di Bella Arti in her hometown of Foggia, Italy. The artist has worked as a teaching artist with Thrive Collective since January 2017 (Thrive Collective website).
I love this colorful display of positive behavior of Frank Ape by artist Brandon Sines
Artist Brandon Sines was exposed to many cultures while growing up simultaneously in New York City, Toronto, and Los Angeles. He mixes Pop Art’s mass culture, Surrealism’s private associations, and inventive paint handling to create dreamlike environments. His mark making ranges from experimental techniques to illustrative precision. Parts of the paintings are crystal clear, and other parts reach abstraction.
This was another great mural on the school but I could not find the artist
The piece of art that I noticed was as I was walking down East 14th Street and I came across this taggers work. To me it looked like a surreal ghost.
The piece of street art was East 14th Street
I turned the corner to Avenue B and started my journey down the street. Being closer to the colleges and further from the projects and around Tompkins Square Park, the vibe is different on Avenue B. The restaurants are a bit more expensive and there are more bars.
Walking down Avenue B
Walking through the neighborhood that offers so much to a visitor
I saw this ‘Love’ mural on one of the businesses
On the corner of Avenue B and East 13th Street I saw all this great street art on top of murals
As I continued the walk through this part of the neighborhood, I came across another series of community gardens that dot the street.
The Relaxation Garden was the first of the gardens I passed and this really had nothing to it. It looked like a garden waiting for something to happen to it.
The inside of the Relaxation Garden needs some TLC
I stared up at one of the buildings on Avenue B and this face from above was staring back at me. I thought this was really interesting but do not want to know how this artist did this without falling off the roof.
I thought this face staring back was really cool but I do not want to know how the tagger did this.
While I was walking, I stopped at the various restaurants and bars to look at their menus. I have to admit, they are not cheap. For a neighborhood known for poverty in its pockets, the places are pricy.
Passing the outdoor cafes on Avenue B
I then passed one of the community centers in the neighborhood and came across this series of panels. These were very retro 1970’s.
Panel One ‘Resist’
Panel Two ‘People Power’
Panel Three ‘Educate’
I thought they were profound and reminded me of works from the 1970’s.
Avenue B like Avenue C has its share of landscapers and gardeners and you see this in the creativity of the small community gardens.
The first one I walked through and admired was in front of the Trinity Lower East Side Church at 602 East 9th Street on the corner of Avenue B.
The Trinity Church Lower East Side at 602 East 9th Street
In 1839 German Saxon immigrants began to meet for worship in the home of a baker. By 1843 they were sufficiently strong to incorporate The Evangelical Lutheran Trinity Church of the Unaltered Augsburg Confession in the City of New York, since changed to Trinity Lower East Side Parish. In 1850, the congregation built a new church with four apartments below and a one-room school in the back. The present church was designed by Robert Litchfield and built in 1993. Dedicated on July 9, 1996, the facility includes a 100-seat chapel, community center and parsonage (Trinity Church website).
The gardens in front of the old church were a bit over grown but very colorful.
The fenced in garden in full bloom at the height of the summer
The one thing I like about this garden is how tranquil it was that day. Services were over so the church was quiet. It is the perfect place to just sit and think and relax.
Avenue B lines the eastern side of Tompkins Square Park and the park was alive with joggers, musicians, dog walkers and groups of college students stretching across the lawns talking, reading and sunning themselves. This is a far cry from the homeless camps of the early 1980’s.
Tompkins Square Park was extremely busy that afternoon
It’s fun to just walk through the borders of the park and see the neighborhood just conversing with each other. Community is not dead in New York City. Someone had tagged over this mural but I still thought it was interesting. The colors really stood out in the mural,
Romero, is a Korean and Spanish, first-generation American artist, and muralist . She is a New York City based artist. Her art is a contemporary representation, inspired by her mixed cultural background and layered complexities of the human experience. Her work is inspired by human emotion, identity, women’s empowerment, and New York City (Artist bio from website),
YouTube video on Artist Bianca Romero
Some of the community gardens are more creative than others. The next one I visited was the East 6th Street and Avenue B Garden at 84 Avenue B
The East 6th Street and Avenue Garden at 84 Avenue B
All the community gardens seemed to be open the weekend of my walk so I got to see all the gardeners at work. People were digging, pruning and cutting shrubs and trees and cleaning the beds of weeds and then composting.
History of the Garden:
(from the garden website
Throughout 1983 and 1984, garden members surveyed the site, drew up the plans for its optimal use, built over 100 4’ x 8’ plots and a large communal plot (“the Circle”), laid pathways, prepared for the installation of a fence, and laid out ornamental borders. In April of 1984, Green Thumb issued a one-year lease. Garden members were busy planting ornamental shrubs and trees. The Garden received important early technical assistance from the Citizens’ Committee, Green Guerrillas and the Trust for Public Land .
The welcoming French at the entrance of the Sixth Street and Avenue B Gardens
This was one of the larger community gardens and it was fun to stroll down the paths of flowers and vegetables and watch everyone hard at work.
The inside of the entrance of the gardens
Walking along the paths
The Vegetable gardens
The gardens at the height of the summer
The pathways in the gardens
The sitting area in the middle of the garden
The Weed Library and composting area
The tree has been part of this garden for years
I loved the ironwork along the fencing of the garden as I walked up Avenue B
The neighborhood reaction to a empty storefront in a gentrifying neighborhood
The garden was established in 1993/1994 soon after a building there was demolished. The building’s address was 194 Ave B which is also the garden’s address, but the garden’s entrance is at 546 E 12th St (NYC Parks/GreenThumb will eventually replace the garden sign. Down to Earth Garden, which changed its name on July 1, 2020 from Children’s Garden, is a Green Thumb community garden in the East Village/Lower East Side of Manhattan, NYC.
We’re a small community garden, 1261 sq ft, on 12th St, by Ave B, southwest corner. However, we have been very active in composting (in combination with El Sol Brillante’s composting activities) since the fall of 2009
The flowering beds of the garden
The side beds
The artwork against the building was covered with vines and new growth
There was one last garden I visited but is was closing for the evening and that was the Vamps A Sembrar at 198 Avenue B.
The small Vegetable beds and visible art in the garden
The History of the garden:
(from the garden website)
The garden used to be two separate GreenThumb community gardens (Vamos A Sembrar and 200 Ave B Association Garden) until 2019, when they were combined as Vamos A Sembrar under the guidance of GreenThumb
This community garden had just closed for the afternoon so I could only see if from the fence. I could see the beds of vegetables growing. I really admired the artwork on the walls of the building. I will be returning on a future weekend to really explore all of these gardens, which I find are open on the weekends for the members and outside people.
I passed Pop’s Pizzeria at 223 Avenue B that I had eaten at when I walked the borders of the neighborhood. I had gotten at the restaurant late at night so I had not noticed the outside of the restaurant that evening.
When you look up above the restaurant, you see this Skelton painting smiling above the entrance.
The Skelton face that I did not see before when dining here on my last trip to the neighborhood
I finished for the evening around 5:00pm and went to get some dinner.
I checked Google and Avenue D Pizzeria which I had passed when walking down Avenue D was still open. So I walked down one of the side streets to give it a try.
The pizza selection was really good that night and the slices were reasonable at $1.50 for a Cheese slice and $2.50 for a Sausage slice.
The pizza selection that night
The hot food selection is $10.00 for a plate
The pizzeria also has a selection of hot entrees and sides at a reasonable price as well. There is no place to sit down anywhere near the pizzeria so I went back to Tompkins Square Park to eat my dinner. I found an empty bench and ate by one of the gardens.
My dinner that night in the park
I have to say that I was really impressed by the pizza for having to walk for blocks to eat it. The sauce was spiced so nicely and they loaded the sausage on the other slice.
After dinner I walked through the park and watched the bars and restaurants come to life. Most get a younger crowd of college students but there are a lot of family restaurants as well. I was amazed at the amount of kids who were dining with their parents that evening.
Admiring street art on the border of Alphabet City (I could not find the artist)
Since it was such a great night that I decided to walk around both Little Italy and Chinatown since they both border Alphabet City.
Walking around Little Italy on a warm late summer night
Outside the Cannoli King dessert shop a guy was singing Sinatra songs. I stopped to listen and this guy was really good. Everyone in the crowd was filming him.
Singing outside the Cannoli King at 152 Mulberry Street
It was fun to stand there and just enjoy the concert. The singer was wonderful!
The singer was great
Afree the mini concert was over, I continued my walk down Mulberry Street into Chinatown. Once upon a time there were distinct boundaries of Chinatown and Little Italy but they have become very blurred over the last twenty five years with gentrification affecting both neighborhoods.
I walked down Mott Street to Catherine Street and stopped at my favorite bakery that I know is always open late, Great Taste Bakery at 35 Catherine Street. I love the reasonable pastries and buns here and it is one of the last of the Chinatown bakeries that is still open late. This is also one of the few neighborhood bakeries left in a very gentrifying Chinatown. I come here after meals or just having dumplings up the road and finish here for dessert.
I love their Pineapple cream buns with some lemon tea at Great Taste Bakery
Since there was no place to sit down in here too I ate at one of the benches outside near the local park.
These buns are so good!
After all the walking that evening, you would figure I would be tired. There was something about the Lemon tea and the sweet bun that gave me a second wind and I walked from Chinatown to the Port Authority. It was such a beautiful warm night I figured ‘why not’? It was a beautiful walk up Broadway.
Admiring one of the old churches on lower Broadway on my long walk up Broadway to the Port Authority
Looking at Madison Square Park at night
It really ended up being a beautiful evening ing the City. For all its problems, the City really is magical at all times of the day. You just have to look at all the good things that people do that make this City better. Between the small mom and pop restaurants providing wonderful food to the community gardeners who make Alphabet City bloom, it really shows that New York City is bouncing back from COVID in its own way.
The Museum of Reclaimed Urbsn Space at 155 Loisaida Avenue (Avenue C)
The Mission of the museum:
(from the museum website)
The Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space preserves the history of the Lower East Side’s grassroots activism and promotes environmentally-sound, community-based urban ecologies.
We do this by:
*Archiving and documenting the history of the Lower East Side’s activism.
* Educating visitors with exhibitions and guided tours of the neighborhood.
*Empowering individuals to participate in the drive for sustainable change with workshops and events.
Information of the museum
While walking around Alphabet City for my blog, MywalkinManhattan.com, I came across the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space on the fast gentrifying Avenue C. Alphabet City, technically part of the East Village, has been going through mass gentrification since the early 2000’s. One of the reasons why the neighborhood has not been fully gentrified as been the Public Housing in the upper parts of the neighborhood and lining Avenue D.
The predicament though is even the public housing is going through a renewal with the renovation of the grounds and the buildings with new lighting, landscaping and sidewalks. Hurricane Sandy had really damaged the infrastructure of the complex and the City has been working on this for a few years (Hurricane Sandy was in 2012).
What has been happening in the lower parts of Manhattan as well as parts of Harlem, East Harlem and Washington Heights is that these have become the ‘last frontiers’ for gentrification as New York City keeps getting more expensive. The museum captures the transition of the neighborhood from a burnt out section of the Lower East Side with the bankruptcy of the City to show the grit of the neighborhood not to let their neighborhood decline.
What I enjoyed seeing is how the neighborhood residents banded together to take empty lots and turn them into community gardens, many of them still exist today. These tiny pockets of green have made the neighborhood more desirable to live in. With the expansion of NYU and Pace into the neighborhood and boom of college students moving into the neighborhood made safer by these long term residents have been changing the makeup of Alphabet City. The museum did a wonderful job showing how they banded together and fought the City as it improved in the 1990’s and tried to ‘plow over’ these gardens. There presence today is what gives the neighborhood its character.
The founding of the museum
The history of the neighborhood
The History of the Museum:
(from the museum website)
he Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS) was founded in 2012 by members of Times Up! environmental organization and based in C-Squat. As a living history of urban activism, MoRUS chronicles the LES community’s history of grassroots action. It celebrates the local activists who transformed abandoned spaces and vacant lots into vibrant community spaces and gardens. Many of these innovative, sustainable concepts and designs have since spread out to the rest of the city and beyond.
The museum showcases an often untold version of New York City history through photography, videography, authentic artifacts, and documents. MoRUS is a 100% volunteer-run organization committed to open, community-based action. With this space, we invite visitors to learn, engage, and participate in grassroots activism of the past, present, and future.
One of the interesting masks that dot the corners of the museum
A view of the inside of the museum
The Collection and Purpose of the Museum:
(from the museum website)
MoRUS was born in the East Village out of the observation that the neighborhood and its inhabitants, undergoing rapid transformations, are beginning to forget about their own history. When New York City almost went bankrupt in the seventies, community members struggled to preserve and restore their neighborhood. These activists have become fewer, and the new residents, who reap the benefits of their predecessors’ efforts, are left unaware.
Noticing it, Bill DiPaola and Laurie Mittelmann, both long-term residents of the East Village and members of Time’s Up! Environmental Organization, were determined to provide new opportunities for long-term activists to share their story and to pass on their experience and knowledge firsthand to new generations.
Located in the historic building C-Squat, MoRUS officially opened its doors in 2012 as a non-profit organization. The museum’s storefront was renovated almost entirely by volunteers. They did electrical work and plumbing, built walls, ceilings, and floors, and constructed furnishings such as a reception desk and an elaborate mosaic sign. This process took eight months, and involved other volunteers simultaneously sourcing funds and exhibitions, designing tours, and creating structure for the volunteer collective that runs the museum, such as guidelines, by-laws and committees.
Decisions are reached, events are planned, and new volunteers are plugged in through weekly general meetings and committee meetings. Committees include marketing, fundraising, administrative, merchandise, programming, tours, and exhibition/graphic design.
The Museum has become an important fixture in the neighborhood, not only to preserve the untold story of the East Village, but also to encourage community activism and sustainable development.
The cemetery sits behind the former ‘Ladies Shopping District’ department stores
The front of the cemetery
When I was finishing my walk of the streets of Lower Chelsea, I came across this quiet and respectful cemetery in the middle of a busy neighborhood. This small graveyard was the third of series of moves that Shearith Israel made to bury their dead since the original cemetery open on the edge of what is today Chinatown.
Like its earlier counterparts, the cemetery is locked to visitors. So you can only admire it from a far. The graves date back to the early 1800’s.
The History of the cemetery:
(From the New York City Cemetery Project and Find a Grave)
This cemetery is located on 21st Street between 6th and 7th Avenues, in use 1829-1851. Shearith Israel, the first Jewish congregation in North America, was formed in 1654 by Spanish and Portuguese Jews who journeyed from Recife, Brazil, seeking refuge from the Inquisition.
The entrance to the cemetery is always locked
The sign for the cemetery
While New Amsterdam’s city fathers did not recognize freedom of worship, they respected the Jews’ right to their own consecrated burial ground. Shearith Israel purchased the cemetery plot on West 21st Street in 1829 for $2,750. It, too, was on the outskirts of the expanding city, which for sanitary reasons had prohibited interment below Grand Street after the yellow fever epidemic of 1822.
The view of the cemetery from the fence
In 1832 the congregation bought land extending the cemetery east to Sixth Avenue and south to 20th Street. Fifty years later the land was sold to Hugh O’Neal, who built a dry goods store there. Shearith Israel used the cemetery for burials until 1851.
The graves are from the early 1800’s
That year, New York City prohibited burials south of 86th Street and the establishment of any new cemeteries within city limits (Find a grave.com).
The side section of the cemetery and pathway
The view of the cemetery and its quiet respect to those buried there
The history of the Cemetery from the Congregation of Shearith Israel The Spanish & Portuguese Synagoge website:
According to rules of ritual purity, Cohanim are prohibited from coming into contact with the deceased (except for their immediate family.) This means that ordinarily Cohanim cannot participate in any of the mitzvoth related to burial. One particularly commendable priest, Mr. Lewis I. Cohen, realized that the consecration of a new and unused cemetery afforded him an opportunity to participate in a mitzvah usually off limits to Cohanim. So it was Mr. Cohen who volunteered to dig the first grave for the first burial of the new cemetery in November 1829.
Some of the notable persons laid to rest in the 21st Street cemetery were Moses Levy Maduro Peixoto and Isaac Seixas, ministers of our congregation, and Harmon Hendricks, founder of one of America’s first great industrial companies and whose descendants are still members of our congregation today. Perhaps the most influential person to be buried in the 21st Street cemetery was the great Jewish diplomat and proto-Zionist, Mordecai Manual Noah.
In 1851, the city prohibited burial in Manhattan below 86th Street. Rather than continue to look north (as Trinity Church did), the Congregation searched outside of Manhattan for its next burial ground. Together with Bnai Jeshurun and Shaarei Tefila, the congregation purchased a large plot of land in Ridgewood, Queens.
I finally finished walking Lower Chelsea which means that I have now walked 2/3 of Manhattan island. It has taken a decade to do this since my initial start but life does get in the way. I hope to all you readers you have been enjoying the journey.
The streets of Lower Chelsea took so much time because here in this corner and there in that corner I kept finding more interesting things I wanted to share with everyone. It makes this journey even more fun.
I started my journey in the Meatpacking District in the early afternoon of a glorious summer day. It was clear, sunny and warm and the perfect 80 degree day.
Ninth Avenue and West 14th Street
I started the walk on the corner of West 14th Street and Ninth Avenue, which was once all slaughter houses up until about twenty years ago. Some converted to clubs in the 1980’s and then funky shops and over the last twenty years has seen a change in upscale dining, shopping and living.
There are still meatpacking businesses and distribution centers on the edges of the neighborhood but I am sure that won’t last forever with the cost of real estate in this neighborhood. It’s just funny to see the meat distribution centers sitting across the street from stores selling $1000.00 leather jackets. In just a decade period, I have never seen a neighborhood change as dramatically as this one.
This was one of the scenes of “Sex and the City” where I saw the Meatpacking District change.
Once they featured this neighborhood in ‘Sex and the City’, it was already past trendy. Now most of the streets are lined with ultra chic and expensive stores. I have never seen so many stores lined next to the vestiges of meat wholesale businesses.
The edge of the Meatpacking District at the corner of West 14th Street and Ninth Avenue
Walking down Ninth Avenue to Ganesvoort Street seems to be one long Mexican restaurant. The street is lined with chain restaurants next to luxury condos. The cobblestone streets and plantings though give it a real picturesque look.
Walking down the cobblestone street of Ninth Avenue
Once you reach Gansevoort Street there is nothing left of the neighborhoods storied past
Looking down Gansevoort Street and its cobblestone look
Looking down Gansevoort Street seems like seeing a combination of what was old being converted to new plus a lot of new construction with very innovative design tucked in between. I love the hodge podge of architecture and how it all blends into the neighborhood.
Very whimsical street art along Gansevoort Street
The High Line Park ends on the edge of Ganesvoort because once upon a time these were the famous Washington Markets. The line was used to get produce and other foods transported out of the area.
The new Whitney Museum is at the very edge of the neighborhood and is a catalyst for tourists
When I was visiting the neighborhood for the second time to finish Hudson Street, I stopped at the Whitney Museum and found out that after 5:00pm on Friday nights, the museum is free for entry. That and being an NYU Alumni, I got in that night and was able to tour the museum and all the exhibitions for two hours.
On the very edge of Hudson River Park sits one of the few man made beaches in New York City , the Gansevoort Peninsula Sand Bluff that is part of the most southern part of Hudson River Park. This wonderful and relaxing park became my ‘go to’ spot when I wanted to relax after a long day of walking. The views are spectacular and if you can snag one of the lounge chairs either on the beach area or facing the Hudson River, it is even better.
Entering the park from Eleventh Avenue, the Gansevoort Peninsula Sand Bluff
The amazing artwork along the beach ‘Days End’ by artist David Hammons
This fascinating piece of art is entitled “Days End” by artist David Hammons. It looked like the shell of an empty building and struck a nerve as the sun started to set on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River. It is an ‘Open Air’ sculpture that explores the history of the neighborhood (Whitney Museum). This sits right at the entrance of the park.
Mr. Hammons is an American born artist who studied at the Chouinard Art Institute (CalArts) and at Otis Art Institute. He is known for his Body Prints and sculpture work (Wiki/Artnet.com).
Underneath it is the amazing and very busy beach
The pathway along Hudson River Park
The beautiful plantings along the pathways
The colorful flowers in season in Hudson River Park
The very edge of the dock in the late afternoon looking over Lower Manhattan
The views from the dock section are fantastic and have the most breathtaking views of both Jersey City and Lower Manhattan. It really shows the growth of these areas for business and residential over the last twenty years.
The view of the beach with everyone looking so relaxed
The view looking up from Tenth Avenue
I rounded Gansevoort Street and walked down little 12th Street , which itself is making a lot of changes from business to both retail and residential.
Making the turn on Little 12th Street
The mural above Golden Goose at 812 Washington Street
The view of the High Line Park from Little 12th Street
I thought the front of 12 Little 12th Street was quite unique
Little 12th Street like most of the neighborhood is in transition right now. Stores and restaurants have been opening and closing in the neighborhood and right now there are quite a few empty storefronts. The effects of COVID are still being felt all over the City.
On the contrary though, the empty store fronts are producing some interesting Street Art on the windows and doors of these establishments. These were some of my favorites.
I thought this was amusing
This looked like something out of the movie ‘Just can’t Wait’
This artist I was seeing all over the neighborhood
I love the irony of politics
Interesting art
I loved the little cents guy
This work was really creative
There is all sorts of public street art like this all over the neighborhood.
Turning on to West 13th Street,, I saw the last vestiges of the Meatpacking and Distribution industries. Some companies are still holding on in the area and their buildings prominently display their signs.
On some buildings, the signs have been kept as a reminder to the areas past and house expensive stores. The neighborhood has not totally gentrified yet and still has a grasp on the food industry, probably catering to the local restaurants and hotels.
Turning onto West 13th Street is a small look into the neighborhood’s past.
The Meat distributors who still operate in the neighborhood are becoming less and less. The London Meat Company and the Weichsel Beef Company still stand strong with their building on Little West 12th Street. These companies are the last holdouts of the old neighborhood. I have a funny feeling with the land worth millions that this will be a luxury condo or hotel in about five years.
What I read about the Meatpacking District is that this area was zoned for the Food Wholesale Markets going back to a deed from the Astor family when they owned this area. This tiny section of the neighborhood is still on that deed and many of these companies still have long term leases. How long before the real estate industry buys them out is anyone’s guess.
The Collier company was a producer of high end books and magazines and produced the publications in this building to up until the 1960’s. The building was designed by architects Trowbridge & Livingston in 1901 in the Neo-Classic style (Daytonianinmanhattan.com).
Looking at the view down West 13th Street and its future in upscale shopping and residences.
The cobblestone streets on the corner of West 13th Street and Hudson Street
I took a long turn around the neighborhood and walked up Tenth Avenue from the park on Gansevoort Street and walked up this still seedy stretch of the neighborhood.
I have been seeing this artist’s signs all over lower Manhattan
The Gansevoort Market Meat Center is in a state of transition eight now located on 10th Avenue
Surprisingly, the building has become a haven for street artists. These were some of the works on the building that I thought stood out. It is like an open air contemporary art gallery.
I loved the cartoon like character of this work
I love seeing this artist’s work
This artwork I thought was unique
This was on one of the garage doors
This poster was prominently shown on one of the walls
The signs along 11th Avenue still remind you that this is an area of food distribution.
I never noticed this interesting piece of art on the Rivian Building at West 14th Street
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The last block I walked was down the tiny stretch of Washington Avenue that was the ‘Avenue of extremes’.
The upscale shops across from the meat distributors
On one side you had the back of the meat distribution building and on the other side of the street were boutiques selling $1000.00 sweaters and jackets.
The changes in the neighborhood from manufacturing and distribution I staggering. The front of Louis Zucker & Company still stands guard at 830 Washington Street
The neighborhood still showing its grit with the Louis Zuckerberg & Company distributor across the street from ironically enough a new Shake Shack all underneath the High Line Park.
I loved the messages on the garage doors
The view of the transition of 9th Avenue and views of the Highline Park
The tiny cafe tables across the street from the meat distributors and right under the High Line Park
On the second day of the walk around the Meatpacking District, I finished the small corner around Hudson and Gansevoort Streets on the very edge of the neighborhood that it shares with the West Village.
I loved this colorful mural outside of Starbucks but I could not find the artist. I am not sure if it is independently painted or is a corporate painting by the store.
The change in the neighborhood at Hudson and West 14th Street
I walked down 10th Avenue again to see if any of the distributors were still open but they had closed at this time of the evening.
What is left of West Street off 10th Avenue on Gansevoort Street
I realized this is where my grandfather back in the 1930’s owned his garage in side the old Washington Markets. I had a lively conversation via text with my brother that I wished our family still owned the building what we might be worth today. He laughed and said where it stood is an upscale condo. To have a crystal ball!
In the late afternoon, as I was walking back down Gansevoort Street, I noticed that the Whitney Museum was having a free Friday night and I used my NYU pass to get in. What a breathtaking museum with interesting contemporary art and gorgeous views of the Hudson River.
I traveled floor by floor from the top to ground floor and explored the museum. There was a special exhibition with artist Christine Sun Kim, whose art reflects the artist’s view on being deaf. I thought her art told a good story on how she has been treated.
In works full of sharp wit and incisive commentary, artist Christine Sun Kim, engages sound and the complexities of communication in its various modes. Using musical notation, infographics, and language—both in her native American Sign Language (ASL) and written English—she has produced drawings, videos, sculptures, and installations that often explore non-auditory, political dimensions of sound. In many works, Kim draws directly on the spatial dynamism of ASL, translating it into graphic form. By emphasizing images, the body, and physical space, she upends the societal assumption that spoken languages are superior to those that are signed.
The Sun Kim exhibition
This exhibition surveys Kim’s entire artistic output to date and features works ranging from early 2010s performance documentation to her recent site-responsive mural, Ghost(ed) Notes (2024), re-created across multiple walls on the eighth floor. Inspired by similarly named works made throughout her career, the exhibition’s title, All Day All Night, points to the vitality Kim brings to her artmaking; she is relentlessly experimental, productive, and dedicated to sharing her Deaf lived experiences with others (Whitney Museum website).
One of the pieces of relatable art
Then I toured all the floors to see the different exhibitions of art and some of the restaurants and bars in the museum. Food here is very expensive.
The bar on the Eighth Floor
The American flag on the Seventy Floor
The picture of Gertrude Whitney , the founder of the museum
The view of the Hudson River from the Seventh Floor staircase
The lower floors had large scale pieces or were closed for the new exhibitions being mounted for the Fall. So I headed for the first floor to visit both the gift shop and restaurant.
The restaurant, as pretty as it is and as nice as the pastries look, is extremely expensive and I think $14.00 for an eclair is a bit much. I was there on a busy Friday night and no one was in the restaurant. Since it was a free night for patrons, they probably did not get their usual crowd. This is considering it was a lot of tourists and local New Yorkers that night.
The exhibitions will be closing in two weeks to prepare for the fall shows so much of this art will be moved around. What I like about the new Whitney Museum versus the old one on the Upper East Side is the openness and airiness of the galleries and balconies that over look the neighborhood. It feels more inviting and less confined and elitist as the old building. The new museum is so inviting and easy to view. I saw the whole museum in about an hour.
It was still sunny when I got out of the museum at 6:00pm and I went back over to the Gansevoort Beach again. It was clear, sunny with no humidity and a slight breeze, perfect to sit by the river and relax.
I first decided to visit the beginning of the High Line Park, that starts on Gansevoort Street which was once the center of the Washington Markets. They sent produce and farming items to places all over New York City.
The start of the walkway of the High Line Park at Gansevoort Street
Artist Brittany Marakatt-Labba is a Swedish Sami textile artist, painter, graphic artist, and a member of the Maze Group. She is a BA in Textile Art from the Art Industrial School. While Marakatt-Labba works with numerous types of media, it is primarily her narrative embroidery using motifs from the Sámi culture and mythology that she is known for around the world (Wiki).
The sign of sculpture “Urmodern”
The view of the High Line Park at 14th Street
The view of West 14th Street from the High Line to the Hudson River
The of West 14th Street border of the neighborhood, which is undergoing massive renovations
After exploring the remainder of the neighborhood and touring the beginning of the High Line, I finished my day relaxing by the Gansevoort Beach and sitting on one of the wooden lounge chairs by the Hudson River. There is nothing like the breezes and the views by the Hudson River.
The most southern part of Hudson River Park
Looking north to Little Island
Walking around the park with a view of the Hudson Yards in the background
The view of the skylines of Lower Manhattan and Jersey City
Enjoying a beautiful sunny day by the Hudson River
The one New Yorker who found the perfect spot in New York City
Video of walking along the pier
The Meatpacking District has so much to offer from interesting architecture to wonderful restaurants at funky street art, there is something for everyone here. You just have to walk around and enjoy the views.
Some much is changing in this neighborhood so we will wait and see what happens next.
What I love about being a member of the museums in New York City is that there is an opportunity to see the museum in the early hours for private events. This morning I got up early to experience Manhattan on a spectacular sunny morning for the event ‘Oasis in the Garden’, a talk on the design, purpose and art in the MoMA outdoor garden.
We met inside the museum before the tour
Since the museum opened at 9:30am and there was no one at the museum at that hour, we had the outdoor garden to ourselves for almost an hour and a half.
The outdoor garden at the MoMA at 10:00am in the morning
Our tour guide led about fifteen of us through a history of the creation of the gardens, the purpose in the museum, its renovation in 2004 when I joined and the sculpture in the garden.
She also talked about taking her students here and that some of them wanted specific answers to what the art meant rather than forming their own opinion. It is funny how I see this in my own students.
What I liked about our tour group was that it was an older, very educated crowd of people who brought different opinions on how the art we were seeing should be thought about. From the time the artist created it to it modern interpretation by the ‘politically correct police’, I was amazed by the other members take on each piece of art.
The gardens are a refuge from the noise and crowds of the museum and the City
Video of the fountain
The Albert Giacometti ‘Talk Figure III’
Each piece of sculpture we touch upon was chosen specifically for the gardens and we talked about its place from when it was made to the modern interpretation and how they differ. Our first discussion was about the Albert Giacometti sculpture ‘Tall Figure III’. Some people talked about hunger and the stance on poverty. I asked if her students had different thoughts of the statue when it was made versus today.
She explained everything is seen differently through the artist’s eyes versus the modern I perception. It was hard to compare the two opinions without a debate. I thought today’s students needed to lighten up a little and stop taking art at face value and just enjoy it. The context of work over a hundred years ago is very different from how it can be looked at today.
We had time to talk and relax between art pieces and I swear the sound of the fountains relaxed me so much I almost feel asleep.
The fountains were so calming that morning
Video of the Japanese fountain
The August’s Rodin ‘St. John the Baptist Preaching’
We talked about the religious standpoint of the sculpture versus its place in modern society. I thought it was a naked guy hitchhiking. It’s funny how you see art.
The Jacques Lipchitz ‘Figure 1926-30’
With the ‘Figure’ many of the member talked about their interpretation of the modern take of Cubism and some members asked about whether these were arms and legs or something else.
The back of the gardens
The back of the gardens were so peaceful. I stood back from the tour so I could just hear the water rumble.
The Henry Moore sculpture ‘ The Family Group 1948-49
We discussed the modern family unit of today versus when the sculpture was created.
The back of the gardens
The Henri Matisse ‘The Back (III) 1913-16
The Aristide Maillol ‘The River’
We talked about the fall from God. One person said it looked like someone was tripping into the fountain. I thought that was clever.
The Jean Dubuffet ‘Study for Tower with Figures’
This was the last figure we discussed and we were asked as a group what was the first thing that came to our minds when we saw this. I said ‘Juxtaposed’. So much going on and a lot being said. We talked about children and their make up in the family unit. How they change things.
I have to say that I saw the art in a different light this morning. It was interesting to hear the artist’s interpretation versus what members thoughts were on what the art meant. I thought it was a good take away when we finished the tour. There were so many interesting opinions on the art. What I liked was the weather was so amazing, and it was so nice to be outside.
The garden as the public entered later that morning
I know I got a lot out of the tour. It’s always nice to see different points of view of what the art means and how we interpret it. This is why it is fun to be a member of the MoMA. It’s nice to see the museum when it is quiet and you can just take your time.
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