The front of the Marshall Farm Market at 114 US 46
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 farm stand
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
The Halloween decorations in the back of the building
The Halloween poems on the decorations
The Halloween decorations
What I love about the farm in the farm in the Fall are all the beautiful colors and hues of the surrounding area.
Looking down Route 46 West/East
The sign on the other side of the fields
The decorations in the front part of the parking lot
Poems and riddles were on all the panels
There is a very warm welcome for Halloween
Don’t forget to visit the Delaware Water Gap just down the highway. The colors are amazing in the early Fall.
The sign for the park
The Delaware Water Gap in the Fall
The beautiful hues of the park
Visiting Marshall’s Farm Stand in the Spring:
Marshall’s Farm Stand 114 Route 46 West in the Spring months
Marshall’s Farm Stand in the summer of 2023
Talk about a step back in time. It reminded me of places I used to go to as a kid that have since disappeared with suburban sprawl. I toured around the stands with shelves of fresh jellies and honey, sauces and salsa and arts and crafts. I found a nearly empty shelf of pies and doughnuts and not a sweet roll in site. The girl working the register told me that everything sells out so quickly and they had baked a second batch of everything.
The signs leading to Marshall’s Farm Stand in the summer of 2023
There were three pies left and that was it of the baked good when I got there.
I did grab one of the last bags of cider doughnuts for the trip home and freshly made cider that you rarely see any more. Most of it is processed in big facilities now not at farms. Their doughnuts were outstanding ($4.75 for six). All but two got home with me as I munched on them on the trip through the Delaware Water Gap.
The Apple Cider doughnuts at Marshall’s Farm Market
The Apple Cider doughnuts are amazing here!
In 2021, I bought the same items again but after a big breakfast and then lunch, I only ate two of the doughnuts this time.
Marshall’s Farm Stand in the summer of 2023
The Fresh peaches and plums at Marshall’s Farm Stand.
I had a lively conversation about the upcoming election and trust me, this woman said a mouthful as most people were right before the election. In 2021, people were talking about the recent Governor’s election and Murphy seems in the doghouse with most of these residents. I said my good byes as quickly as possible. Politics is not something to talk about when buying food products.
Marshall’s Farm on a warm sunny afternoon.
At any time of the year, visiting Marshall’s Farm Stand is a treat!
The History of the Farm:
(from the Marshall Farm Market website)
Founded in 1920, by George Amer Marshall, Marshall’s Farm Market sells quality fruit, vegetables, and specialty foods. George W. Marshall ran the farm for many years and now the third generation of Marshall’s continues the tradition. Marianne Marshall Saponaro & her husband Nick Saponaro are on site daily to make sure customers have the finest products available.
A visit to Marshall’s Farm Market is like stepping back in time. Old time values of hard work, friendliness, service, and the finest quality are what you can expect. Many people return each year to purchase produce, gifts, specialty foods, outdoor furniture, meats, cheeses, pumpkins, and more.
Families visit Marshall’s Farm Market each Fall for the hay rides and the Halloween Hollow display. There is nothing better than a cup of apple cider on a cool Autumn day. All of the seasons are special on the farm. Stop in year round to see what new items have been added to the store.
In the Spring of 2022, I had been sent the notice that the County of Morris, New Jersey was having a two-day Open House of many of their historical sites for touring and for special events for a program entitled “The Pathways of History: Museum and Site Tours of Morris County, NJ”.
The “Pathways to History” event takes place every May
The weekend event spread to small museums, historical homes and cemeteries all over the County with walking tours and lectures at various sites. Having never been or even heard of many of these sites, I was interested in visiting as many as I could for my blog, “VisitingaMuseum.com” which is here on WordPress.com as well.
I plotted my two days of the event and tried to organize the trip so that we could see as many sites as we could. The event asked the sites to open one of the two days as most of these sites are small and have a tough time getting volunteers. So, I tried to coordinate the sites I had wanted to visit with visiting other places along the way such as farm stands I wanted to visit and restaurants I wanted to try.
The map of historical sites that I wanted to visit
I recruited my aunt to help me take pictures of the sites and travel with me to get her opinions on each of the sites. She also wanted to get out of the house and travel with me so off we went. We started the day with a good breakfast at the Blue Cafe at 273 Valley Boulevard in Wood Ridge, NJ (See my reviews on TripAdvisor and DiningonaSheStringinNYC@Wordpress.com). I like the hometown atmosphere and service of the restaurant.
The Blue Cafe at 273 Valley Boulevard in Wood Ridge, NJ
Not wanting to snack along the way, both my aunt and I had a large breakfast. She had an Egg White Omelet with bacon and tomatoes with a side of hashbrowns and toast ($8.95). I had the Pancake Platter which came with two pancakes and two scrambled eggs with a side of link sausage ($8.95). I have to say that everything came to the table promptly and was delicious. The portion sizes were very fair, and the service could not have been nicer.
We needed a good breakfast at Blue Cafe for the long journey
My pancakes were perfectly cooked and had that nice, malted taste and the scrambled eggs had a nice taste of clarified butter. The sausage had a nice spicy sage taste to it. My aunt could not finish her eggs and asked me to take some. They were delicious as well. The flavors of the bacon and the tomatoes had a nice complexity to them and the hashbrowns were well seasoned and crisp.
My pancakes and eggs that morning was delicious
With a nice breakfast behind us and a warm sunny day, we both looked forward to visiting the sites without stopping much. We travelled down Route 80 and then down Route 206, which once upon a time was one of the only highways to travel through the State of New Jersey. It took us down to Route 24 through the rolling hills of Chester, NJ and to our first stop, the Obadiah La Tourette Grist & Mill at 12 East Mill Road in Long Valley, NJ.
East Mill Road lead into a quaint little town that looked like something out of the early 1800’s with older clapboard homes and historic churches with old cemeteries surround them in a highly wooded spot. It reminded me of my trips through the Hudson River Valley.
The Obadiah La Tourette Grist & Mill at 12 East Mill Road
The Grist Mill was fascinating. The mill has been a working mill from the early 1800’s until about the late 1930’s, during the Depression when they needed to expand operations. The place had pretty much been abandoned until the 1980’s when it had been falling apart by the side of the road and concerned citizens got together to save it. It is now going through a renovation.
What the mill looked like in 1993
When I toured both the upstairs and the downstairs, upstairs was all the equipment to move the wheat and bundle it for processing and for milling. I even saw amongst the equipment the old portion size bagging attachment where the final packaging took place.
On the lower level of the mill, you could see the stream under the building and the turbine wheels of the old mill still placed in the stream and along the side of the mill. You could view from the deck the workings of the equipment and how the stream powered the mill itself. You could also see the flow of the stream and how it is now affecting the structure of the building.
It is amazing how we survived with just Mother Nature at one time
The staff takes immense pride in the building structure and how the renovation is coming along as well as its unique history. The tour guides could not have been more enthusiastic about explaining to myself, my aunt and the other visitors about the history of the mill, the way they milled the flour and the ongoing structure improvements. It was also so picturesque with the small flowing stream and woods that surrounded it.
We walked along the property back to the car and please to all readers, watch yourself on the road because for some reason everyone was speeding that morning and there is no sidewalk. Remember to walk to the back of the buildings to view the stream, the woods and all the historical homes in this little hamlet.
Our next stop was on the other side of the stream and around the corner from the mill. We visited the Union Schoolhouse & Union Church and Burial Ground at 6 Fairview Avenue in Long Valley, NJ. The Union Schoolhouse has been converted into Washington Township Historical Society building housing its collection. The Union Church burned down years earlier and was left is a stone structure that you can view inside and out. The church is surrounded by the old cemetery where prominent members of the community are buried.
The Washington Township Historical Society at 6 Fairview Avenue
The Union Schoolhouse/Washington Township Historical Society is a well-organized two-story building, that houses a collection of antique objects from the community. There was a set up a school room, selection of quilts, old dishware, antique furniture and on the first floor a complete display of the Welsh Farms Ice Cream Company and Dairy.
The second-floor school room reflects the buildings past as a schoolhouse
The original ice cream factory (no longer exists) used to be right down the road from the old schoolhouse and members of the Welsh family are buried in the cemetery. I thought that was fascinating as I never knew it had been started here.
The local Welsh family started the Welsh Farm Dairy and Ice Cream factory down the road
The Welsh Family cemetery plot
I toured through the old church with another patron and the tour guide while my aunt, who did not want to walk on the uneven ground of the cemetery got her own verbal tour with one of the members of the historical society. We got to walk through the cemetery and see the graves of the prominent families that were once members of the church. We also got to see how the staff used tombstone cleaner to make the tombstones brighter.
The Union Church and Cemetery
What was also impressive about the building was the beautiful flower garden that lined the stone wall between the schoolhouse and the cemetery. One of the local Garden Clubs must have planted and taken care of the gardens because they were so well pruned and planted. It was so colorful with an array of flowers line with blooming tulips along the path.
The old Washington Township Schoolhouse is now the museum
On the way back down Route 24, my aunt and I decided to stop for a snack. We stopped at an old favorite mine that I have been visiting since the early 1970’s, the Hacklebarney Farm Cider Mill at 104 State Park Road which is right outside Hacklebarney State Park, which I had also visited many times as a child for walks and barbecues.
Hacklebarney Farm is always busy especially on the weekends
The Hacklebarney Cider Mill Farm at 104 State Park Road
I love coming to Hacklebarney Farm Cider Mill at all times of the year. It is especially best in the late Spring and in the Fall months when the leaves are changing, and all the Halloween events are happening. The farm had opened their hot dog stand early on customer demand the owner explained to us as well as made sure the bakery was well-stocked for visitors on the tours.
The hot dog stand and the work buildings remind you that this is a working farm and not a tourist trap
The Apple Cider Doughnuts are delicious here
We toured through the bakery, and I ordered a Cider doughnut and a Fruit Dumpling for dessert, and we shared a Chicken and Cheese Quesadilla and two Cokes for our lunch (See my reviews on TripAdvisor and DiningonaShoeStringinNYC@Wordpress.com). It was so nice to just sit and relax and enjoy the weather.
The wonderful baked goods at the Hacklebarney Farm bakery
The Quesadilla was well made and stuffed with lots of chicken and cheese and the salsa had a nice spicy flavor to it. I love the crispiness of their Cider doughnuts with lots of cinnamon sugar on top of them. The Fruit Dumpling was filled with fresh blueberries and strawberries and had nice buttery sweetness to it. We devoured everything in record time, and I could not believe how hungry we both were that afternoon. Maybe it was all the driving or maybe it was just looking over all the rolling hills and the soft breezes from the field.
Enjoying the farm on a warm day
We got a chance to talk to the owner again when she came over with an old picture of the farmhouse that her great-grandparents had built and the pride that they took in all their baked goods. She told us that everything is made from scratch in their kitchen and all the fruits are hand peeled for their desserts. In the Fall, I have watched them make their apple cider on property and you can watch the steps to make the cider you will buy inside (when it is in season, make the trip out here for it. It is well worth the trip).
The Hacklebarney Farm family farmhouse
The gourmet items in the farm shop are always a treat
After a relaxing afternoon of relaxing, playing with their dogs and walking around the farm, we left for Downtown Chester, which is located right down Route 24 and on the other side of Route 206. We passed the old shell of a building that was once Larison’s Turkey Farm Inn which closed in 2009.
The old Larison’s Turkey Farm building is a reminder of changing times
Closed for 15 years the buildings are beginning to rot and fall down
I had eaten here a few times with my family over the years and you used to be able to get a full turkey dinner for a reasonable price. Forget trying to visit the place at Thanksgiving. The place is now falling apart, and I read online that they want to knock down this historic landmark for a strip mall. It would not be a bad thing as the building looks like it is going to fall down on its own. Notice the roof is rotting.
Our next site on the listing was the Chester Historical Society or otherwise known as the Chester’s Rockefeller Center at 137 Main Street. Main Street Chester was a madhouse on Saturday as there was a food truck festival going on in the park downtown and traffic was all over the place. We must have circled the downtown three times looking for the Historical Society.
The soon to be Chester Historical Society at 137 Main Street
We finally found the empty building that was falling apart right next to the park. All that the historical society was an empty building that had been moved to the park and a kiosk that was closed off by the food truck festival. When we were able to stop and talk to the members who were there, they were closing up shop for the afternoon.
They said they were showing the plans for the renovation of the building and how they wanted to store the collection. That is what amounted to their current historical society. It was a work in progress. The little building was built in 1897 and was ordered from the Sears & Roebuck Company.
The Chester Historical Society is just beginning to be established
We quickly got out of downtown Chester and headed back up Route 206 North and took some back roads to our final destination that afternoon, the Silas Riggs Saltbox House/The Roxbury Township Historical Society at 213 Main Street in Ledgewood, NJ and the King Canal Store and the King Victorian Home at 209 and 211 Main Street right next store to the house. The sites were closing up shop for the afternoon, but they were nice enough to stay open so that we could have a long visit.
I am so happy that we could visit the sites as the people running them were so interesting and they took such good care of the sites. A few of the volunteers said that this always happens that someone comes late, and they were hoping to close on time, but they take such pride in all these sites that they did not mind staying for us.
Our first stop was the King Canal Store. The store had been sealed off after the death of Albert King by his wife, Emma. After his passing, she followed his wishes and closed the store down only opening it during the Great Depression when locals needed supplies.
After Mrs. King’s death in 1975, the store and her home, the King Homestead were bought by the Rotary Club of Roxbury, NJ and they set out to renovate and restore the site. The King Canal Store was left untouched and is a step back in time when the Morris Canal was a major form of transportation in the state. The store had been open since the Civil War and closed on the eve of the Great Depression even though the family had been seeing declining sales since the closing of the canal to traffic.
The King Canal Store is a step back in time when this was the neighborhood gathering place
Next to the King Canal Store at 211 Main Street is the King Homestead built in the Queen Ann style by Albert King for his family. The house was closed by that point, but I was able to walk the grounds and on the porch. It is a spectacular home.
The last place on the tour before we ended the first day of touring sites was the Silas Riggs Saltbox House at 213 Main Street. The home had been Emma Riggs King’s parents and it had been moved to this site when it was threatened with demolition. The home is a perfect example of the “Saltbox” architectural style.
The Silas Riggs Saltbox House/The Roxbury Historical Society at 213 Main Street
I loved touring this smart little house. Talk about well taken care of and well appointed. The home is well decorated with vintage antiques and artifacts and when you walk in the door you have this welcoming feeling. The house is so warm and cosey that volunteers have commented that people feel that they could move in here.
The front room of the Silas Riggs Saltbox House
What I enjoyed about the Silas Riggs Saltbox house is that the home was decorated in period furnishings that all worked to welcome you into the home. It was almost like the people who lived there just left for the afternoon.
What I really liked about the house was the back-room kitchen with the open hearth. Not only was it a perfect place to cook but it must have been the gathering place for the family and also heated the house. One of the volunteers told me that they had a successful “Soup Dinner” fundraiser during the holidays where they made homemade soup from scratch and homemade cornbread as well. It must be nice to eat a hearty meal in this period home during Christmas as the family once did.
The rustic kitchen at the Silas Riggs Saltbox House
After the house closed for the after, all the other sites had closed at 4:00pm as well and we made our way down Route 10 just off the old main street and then back on to Route 46 East to head home. It had been getting warmer all day and we both needed a snack before dinner. It was by coincidence that we just happened to pass the Dover Dairy Maid Ice Cream store at 240 East Route 46 and stopped for a cone.
Never having travelled down this part of Route 46 East before, I had never seen this popular place for ice cream and all of a sudden, I turned the car and needed some ice cream. There are times in life that you take a different bend in the road, and this was one of the more popular ones. Their homemade ice cream was amazing.
The Dover Dairy Maid at 240 East Route 46 is the best
While my aunt tried the Mint Chocolate ice cream, I had a yearning for something more fun and I got a bowl of Cotton Candy ice cream and at $5.45 for two large scoops, it was a reasonable trip. It is nice that a business not only does not gouge a customer but offers that personal service was reflective of when I was a kid in the 1970’s when this business opened. I felt like it was a step back in time when things were simpler. We even at our ice cream out on the benches in the back of the store. Talk about 70’s! Between here and Hacklebarney Farm I felt like a kid again.
In 2024, I indulged in a Butterscotch Sundae at Dover Dairy Maid
There was no traffic on Route 46 East that evening and got home in record time. My aunt and I needed some recovery time, so I dropped her off and met her for dinner later that evening. We finished off the evening at Napoli Pizzeria at 25 Washington Street #2 in Lodi, NJ for dinner. Napoli’s food is consistently excellent, and I love their pizza. The best part is that the parking is always plentiful and never have to travel far to go.
Napoli Pizzeria at 25 Washington Street #2 is wonderful for lunch and dinner
It was a nice evening chatting over a cheese pizza ($10.95) and a glass of wine. We talked about all the sites we had visited and the ones that we could not and made plans to revisit some of the sites in the future. There was a lot more to see and do in Morris County. It was a nice way to end the first day of touring and it had been such a perfect sunny day that it was a pleasure to stop and really enjoy each site.
The historical marker at the Ayres-Knuth Farm at 25 Cooper Street
On the second day of the “Pathways’ tour, my aunt was busy, so I started early with a quick breakfast at home and was on my way back to Morris County for a second day of adventure. My first stop on the tour was the Ayres/Knuth Farm (The Ayres/Knuth Farm Foundation Inc.), a former working farm just off Route 10.
The main farmhouse on the Ayres/Knuth Farm
Not only was the site open for touring but they also had a mini car show with antique cars and fire trucks owned by some of the members. Seeing some of these Model T Ford’s and Steam Engine Fire Trucks in perfect condition shows American quality motorship at its finest.
What interested me about the farm is that it had been a working farm up until the last fifty years and showed the progression that the farm took in its almost 100 years in the county. The farm itself dates back to pre-Revolutionary War days with the farm being purchase in either 1735 or maybe 1759 by Obadiah Lum. The property itself was settled and developed by Daniel Ayres, who was born in New Jersey in 1778 (The Ayres/Knuth Farm Foundation).
The Ayres-Knuth Farm and the outer buildings
105 acres of land was given to him by his father-in-law, David Garrigus upon the marriage of his daughter, Hanna in 1803. His son, William took over the farm in 1856 upon the death of his father in 1856, changing the farm to add husbandry and fruit cultivation. When William retired in 1896, none of his children wanted the farm and it was sold. Changing hands many times, it was bought by Martin and Anna Knuth in 1906. The farm was taken over by two of their children and it remained in the family until the 1990’s upon both of their passings. In 1996, the Township of Denville purchased 52 acres of the original farm and it is now managed by the Ayres/Knuth Foundation Inc. (The Ayres/Knuth Farm Foundation).
On this clear and sunny Sunday morning, it was fun to walk around the former working farm to see how it developed. Both families learned to modernize and add to the operation. I was able to tour the smaller tenet farmhouse (built in 1895), the barn (built in 1895 (and the various outer buildings like the chicken coops (built in 1895), outhouse (built in 1930) and the Smokehouse (built in 1825). The small well was built in 1797 and was the oldest structure left on the property.
What got my attention is that there still are tenant farmers on another tract on the property still working the land and the property is protected by grants from Morris County. So, it still is technically a working farm. A lot of care was taken to preserve the farm as is and the volunteers told me that there were plans to fix up the other buildings. The Tenant House needed a lot of work and was run down but the main Farmhouse had been renovated and was closed that day.
After having a nice conversation with many of the volunteers about the development on the farm, I was off to the next site, The Whippany Railway Museum at 1 Railroad Plaza in Whippany, NJ. I usually don’t get excited by railway museums one looking like another but the care and dedication of the volunteers of this museum is just mesmerizing. They really care about the detail and condition of every railcar and artifact that comes into possession of this museum, and it shows by the way its displayed.
The Museum was so well organized and told the story of the rail systems not just in New Jersey but their development all over the country.
The inside of the museum
Unlike some rail museums that I have been to where they put dishes, lanterns and tickets all the same shelves, the Whippany Railway Museum took a lot of pride in setting up their displays more as a progression to how the railways evolved over time starting with coal, then to steam and then electric.
The Whippany Railway Museum
Not only that it was the way people traveled and how dining and then First Class tried to rival the growing Jet Age travel to keep customers. Each case line told a story. The cases show a progression in communication, ticketing, uniform, dining and equipment used on the trains. Take time to look over the information supplied in the cases as well. They also have a nice gift shop inside the museum.
The history of the Pullman Car
It was the hour-long walking tour that really blew me away. This volunteer named Mike walked around the museum asking people if they would like to take a tour at noon and then for the next hour and a half, we toured all the train cars.
The Whippany Railway Museum grounds
Each of the train cars were at different stages of renovation and some were fully restored. Mike explained to our small tour group that different members of the museum had special skills, and everyone had a hand in restoring the cars. The volunteers all dressed like period conductors and would be stationed at each car to describe the railcar to us.
The Whippany Railway Museum grounds
Where the museum really shines and where I saw the most pride is in the rail cars that have come to the yard over the years and have been carefully restored. The Southern Railway No. 385 built in 1907 for faster freight service, the Texaco Fireless Cooker No. 7240 built in 1937 for industrial switching duty and one of the newest steam locomotives still surviving, the U.S. Army No. 4039 built in 1942 for WWII service are just some of the cars on display (Whippany Railway Museum pamphlet).
The inside of the luxury car
The railcar that most impressed me was the Lackawanna Railroad Subscription Club Car No. 2454 that was once known as the “Millionaires Express” (Whippany Railway Museum). The mahogany paneled car carried businessmen from New York City through towns in the middle of New Jersey.
The inside of the car
What I thought was interesting was the people who rode it (Christie Todd Whitman’s father was a member) and the fact that you had to ‘buy’ the seat, which meant that no one could ever sit in ‘your chair’ if you were not there. This car ran for 72 years finally retiring out in 1984 (probably due to the recession and changing times).
The outside of the Lackawanna luxury car
After the extensive tour was over, I visited the model trains that were riding around the outside of the rail cars and talking with other volunteers on what the future plans of a new railcar that just arrived. I also walked up to their snack shop that is at entrance of the museum site and was bummed when they did not have any of the large pretzels in stock.
The snack shop at the museum
The woman said that they are their most popular item and had not arrived for the tour day. I then moved on to my third site, The Whippany Burying Yard at 325 Route 10 East.
The Whippany Burying Yard historic marker
The Whippany Burying Yard was also having a tour that I just made when I arrived. It was given by a retired college professor who had lived in town all of his life and knew the history of the cemetery quite well. The old cemetery is steeped in history as one of the oldest cemeteries in New Jersey and home to many Revolutionary and Civil War veterans. As we learned on the tour later on, the only people that can be buried there now are former Mayors of the Town of Whippany who have died.
The entrance to the cemetery
Two of the founding families of the town have many family members buried here, the Tuttle’s who still have relatives living in the area and the Kitchel’s. The guide for the afternoon took us on an hour tour of the cemetery, pointing out prominent members of the war years including Timothy Tuttle (died 1754), a founding judge of Morris County, Keturah Tuttle Platt (died 1850), who was a Charter member of the First Presbyterian Church, Captain Timothy Tuttle (II of III-died in 1816), who was a member of George Washington’s First Regiment in the Continental Army, Samuel Tuttle (died in 1762) and Colonel Joseph Tuttle, a blacksmith and Deacon at the Presbyterian Church who served in the French & Indian War.
The entrance to the Whippany Burial Yard
The Kitchel family was prominently represented as well with Abraham Kitchel (died in 1741), who was one of the six original judges of Morris County and his wife Sarah, whose family was claimed to date back to Charlemagne, Emperor of France, Abigal Kitchel (died in 1768), Uzal Kitchel (died in 1813), a Militiaman in the American Revolution and his wife, Anna (died in 1815). Many of these people as well as their ancestors made major contributions to the growth of the surrounding community.
The Tuttle Family burial plot
We were also given a lesson in the construction and care of the old tombstones, some of which were beyond repair. Some of the original grave sites were made from sandstone, marble and granite with granite becoming the popular choice later on. Here and there some of the tombstones were decorated with winged skulls or cherubs. These show morality images of the dead (Whippany Burial Yard pamphlet).
The Post Family cemetery plot
We were also walking by the river that the graveyard sits on and were told that current erosion is affecting some of the grave sites. These might have to be moved in the future and the tour guide was not sure if any have been lost over the years. The old Presbyterian Church that sat on the site (built in 1718 and removed in 1755) has since disappeared and there is no trace of it now.
The Whippany Burial Yard has many different types of tombstones
At the end of the tour, the guide explained to us that the old Tuttle House, dating back from the late 18th Century was just left to the town by its last owner to be preserved as a museum for the community. The Tuttle house will need a lot of work in the future.
The Tuttle House at 341 Route 10 will be a future museum for the Historical Society
It was getting late in the day after my last tour, and I figured I had time to see one more site before the day was over. I wished they did not end the day so early at 4:00pm. It does not give people much time to visit all these sites in one day, but the museum tour guides made them so interesting that you did not want to leave so quick.
One last look at the historic cemetery with the Tuttle House in the background
My last stop on the tour day was the Florham Park’ Historic Preservation Commission’s Little Red Schoolhouse and Hancock Cemetery at 203 Ridgedale Avenue. On the map it looked so far away but it was only ten minutes down the road from the cemetery and I got there in plenty of time to spend the last half hour of the day at the museum.
The Little Red Schoolhouse Museum at 203 Ridgedale Avenue
I was the only one there with two members who said that they were surprised on how busy the day was for them. They told me that almost every person who visited said the same things: either they passed the place a million times and never knew it was a museum or they lived here for about twenty years and never knew the town had a museum. I said I was from another area of the state, and this was my first time as well. The little museum is nicely set up.
In the back there is a small classroom set up keeping with the theme of the building. This lets students who are visiting the building of their counterpart’s early education with desks, ink wells and chalk boards that have not changed that much over the years. There are old desks and chalkboards and items that date either from the late 1880’s to about the 1930’s.
Not much has changed in the modern classroom over the years
There is early century clothing, farming equipment from the town’s farming past and event Native American objects found in the town and in private collections. Other items included decorative items from the home including dishware, home products and furnishings. Each section of the museum is divided up by lifestyle.
The docents that day explained that the items were reflect the town’s past and some came from families that have been in town for years. The museum reflects the community spirit of town’s past. It explains that times have progressed but not changed too much over the years. They also told me how hard they work to promote the museum.
I asked where the Hancock Cemetery was, and they told me down the road from the museum, so I left after about a half hour to let them close and looked for the cemetery. I never found it “down the road” so I was not too sure what direction they were talking about. By the time I got back to the museum, it was shut, and all the cars were gone. It was now 4:30pm. I decided to head off to dinner.
I got lost trying to take the back roads from Route 10 to Route 46 (later on when I got home, I found I was in the right direction but did not know it). I passed the Parsippany Historical Museum at the Bowlsby-DeGelleke House at 320 Baldwin Avenue on the way but at 5:00pm I could see one of the costumed docents was desperately trying to close up for the day, so I did not stop.
I finally made it to Downtown Boonton, NJ for dinner. The town was really quiet on an early Sunday evening. I passed the Boonton Historical Society and Museum at 210 Main Street that was closed for the evening. They had a full day of activities that day and must have closed early.
Boonton Historical Society and Museum at 210 Main Street
Inside the Boonton Historical Society in the main gallery
Ever since I got involved in the Bergen County Firemen’s Home Association, I have been visiting this interesting little museum. They have the most intriguing walking tours on the history of the town’s development and on the ruins of the local iron works. They also have nice inhouse tours of the museum and very inviting Holiday Open House (pre-COVID).
Dinner that evening was a restaurant I had wanted to try several times but it either was not open or did not look open because there was no one in it. I2I at 408 Main Street just up the hill from the museum.
I had been looking forward to eating here for some time and even though the food and the service were quite good, the owner did something that really irked me, and I will not be returning anytime soon. (Please read my TripAdvisor review above for details on my experience) (The restaurant closed in May 2024 and is being renovated).
After dinner, I walked around Downtown Boonton for a bit, looking over stores that had opened since the pandemic. The downtown is getting more and more hipster businesses and you can tell that an ‘artsy’ crowd is starting to move into the area. All the neighborhoods around the downtown are having a lot of home improvements from new paint jobs and windows to new landscaping meaning the artists from the City are starting to move in.
Downtown Boonton, NJ
Please read my blog on Exploring Downtown Boonton, NJ-Day Two Hundred and Two:
Downtown Boonton, NJ has a lot of interesting stores and restaurants
I drove home later that evening. It had been an interesting two-day exploration to Morris County, NJ and I did not realize the rich history that it had. There are many more places that will be visiting in the future on their list as they open up for the summer months.
In 2024, I was able to visit other sites on the Pathways listing. The original sites I had visited were on the first day of touring so I was able to visit a whole other roster of sites in Morris County on a gloomy rainy afternoon. Since I had a late start and the weather was rainy and gloomy, I only got to visit five sites but there were different from the previous year’s visit. I also visited some museums at other times as well since they are only open at certain times of the month.
I got so lost getting to the Butler Museum that it took over twenty minutes to find. It was different from the Google Maps that I followed. I finally reached the museum which was located on the other side of the Butler downtown in the old town train station.
The Butler Museum 221 Main Street
The Butler Museum is housed in the former New York Susquehanna and Western Railroad station. Constructed in 1888, it was remodeled in the 1890’s and in 1907, when a freight room was added to the northwestern end of the building. A major restoration took place from 2011 to 2015. Purchased by the Borough of Butler for a museum just in time for the Bicentennial Celebration in 1976, the museum houses a large collection of artifacts of local and regional significance.
The Butler Fire and Police Department artifacts.
Exhibits highlight the social, educational, fraternal, political, and business life of the community. Unique to the Butler Museum are artifacts pertaining to the Statue of Liberty, statue designer Frederic Bartholdi, and his friend Richard Butler, for whom the town is named. Mr. Butler was an important member of the committee that raised the funds to construct the statue’s pedestal (Pathways to History of Morris County website).
The Statue of Liberty exhibition.
Displays also include products manufactured by the American Hard Rubber Company, the area’s largest employer from the 1880’s to the late 1950’s. Development of items such as Ace Bowling Balls and Ace Combs can be traced from blueprints and salesman samples to the finished products.
The Ace Company exhibit
The resource center presents the opportunity to view past copies of local newspapers, almost a century of Butler High School yearbooks, and a pictorial history of Main Street, Butler.
The Butler Museum main gallery with the Ace Rubber exhibition as well as the Butler Fire and Police departments. The displays represent years of tradition in the town. The displays contain many of the items from former businesses of the town.
The next two historical sites I visited were the Pompton Plains Railroad Station and the Martin Barry House which were located down the road from each other. The Pompton Plains Railroad Station Museum was just off the downtown and is a small compact museum on the history of the rail system in this part of the county.
The Pompton Plains Railroad Station Museum at 33 Evans Place.
I was visiting Morris County for the “Pathways to History” tour, I visited the Pompton Lakes Railroad Museum. This tiny museum served once as the depot for the local railroad but now houses its history. Piled all over the building is the history of the rail service in this area. Small displays are located all around a pot belly stove that serves as the center point of the museum. The memorabilia includes a series of pictures, maps and schedules.
(From the Pathways to History tour pamphlet 2024):
Pompton Plains Station, home to the Pequannock Township Museum, was erected in 1877 by the Montclair and Greenwood Lake Railway as a replacement for an earlier structure built when passenger service began in 1872. After closing in 1966, the station remained in private hands until 2006 when it was purchased by Pequannock Township with Morris County and Township Open Space funds, as well as, funds from the Morris County Historic Preservation Trust. It was listed on the NJ and National Registers of Historic Places in 2008 and was restored to its “Turn of the 20th Century” appearance in 2010 (PPHS website).
The Historic Marker at the station.
The building’s simple wood construction is characterized by its late 19th Century American “Stick style” architecture, with its notable exterior embellishments being the distinctive “Dutch cap” trim over each window and door and its decoratively patterned slate roof. The museum supports an extensive collection of photographs and artifacts illustrating the Township’s 300 years of recorded history. Featured is a collection of over two dozen models of historic buildings, as well as, exhibits about Civil War veteran, Medal of Honor recipient, station agent and prior owner of the nearby Martin Berry House, James R. Evans (PPHS website).
The Pompton Plains Railroad Station Museum gallery.
Other exhibits cover the history of the station, and the pioneering 1940’s rocket engine factory Reaction Motors. Plans for 2023 construction, which will include restoration of the decorative 19th century slate roof and chimney, will be on display.
The Conductor’s Office is part of the display at the museum.
The next site I visited was the Martin Barry House, which is located just behind the strip mall on the highway. You need to make the right once you get off the highway on the street behind the mall and make a sharp right at the top of the street to find the house.
The Martin Berry House from the top of the hill at 581 Route 23 South. It is on a road hidden from the highway.
When I went to visit the Martin Berry House for the “Pathways to History” tour, I found it impossible to find. The Google Map has it in the middle of a parking lot in front of the strip mall along the highway and there is no pathway to the home from the parking lot. What you have to do is go the street behind the mall, head up the hill and make a right down a gravel road and there is the house at the end of the street.
There is not much parking here but with an isolated home like this, the Historical Society needs to put some things in place before they start having events here. The Society had bought the house not too long ago and there is still some renovation work that is being done, so the Society is in its first stages of opening the house to the public. It has some nice revolving displays and an interesting Colonial kitchen. The gardens are also beautiful when in bloom. Visiting the house in the future will offer many surprises.
(From the website of the Martin Berry House and the Pequannock Township Historical Society):
The Martin Berry House, or MBH, was built on this spot in about 1720. The original house was smaller than what you see here. This is the the result of the second major enlargement or renovation of the original construction as well as later renovations and remodeling.
The Martin Berry House from the gardens.
The MBH is owned by the Township of Pequannock and operated in partnership with the Pequannock Township Historical Society (PTHS). PTHS was formed in 2015 out of a movement that was original called the Friends of the Martin Berry House that had itself been initiated in 2014 to support the Township in its efforts to acquire the MBH.
The Martin Berry House Furniture display in May 2024.
Since a lot of these sites are far from each other I could only visit four this time. Since the Glenburn Estate was closed that day (with no notice), the last place I visited was the Lincoln Park History Museum at 141 Main Street.
Lincoln Park History Museum at 141 Main Street
The entrance of the Museum off the Main Street.
This colorful and well lit little museum is packed with information on the development of the town. The transformation took place with the form of transportation that changed the area starting with the Morris Canal running through then the railroad system and then the advent of the automobile. This area is still quite sleepy even though its located just an hour outside of New York City.
Lincoln Park History Museum, located at the original 1922 Library building. Lincoln Park, or as once known, Beavertown, is small in geographic nature but has a rich and diverse history. The museum’s goal is to rediscover the town’s past and celebrate / preserve the history, which sadly, at times, is lost and forgotten.
The history of the town’s police and fire departments
Join us and discover our past which includes: dinosaurs, native American artifacts, revolutionary roads /houses, civil war hometown hero, part of the Morris Canal path, part of the Boonton Line Railroad branch, airport, major flood events, some Hollywood film locations and of course our townsfolks who sacrificed in war, volunteers (fire department, police, first aid, pal, scouting etc.), all who made Lincoln Park a wonderful town to grow up in and formed pride and sense of community (Pathways Tour website).
The history of the Morris Canal that ran through the town before the railroads.
The Morris Canal was an important part of the town’s development.
Learn how the town transformed from a small crossroad in the American revolution to a canal stopping point with incline plane, lock and hotel. Learn how it progressed from farming to resort area to commuting town and transform to what it is today. The town keeps growing.
The day the Railroad came to town and it changed everything! On December 14, 1870 the first passenger train stopped at Beavertown. School was closed that day so the students could witness this momentous occasion. The following year Beavertown’s name was changed to Lincoln Park. This event, started a large and long transformation of the town. Prior to this, the town was all farmland and the few businesses in town centered on support of the Morris Canal. Once the railroad came, the transformation started (Pathways Tour website).
On a different day, I came back to Morris County and visited the Chatham Township Historical Society/Red Brick Schoolhouse Museum at 24 Southern Boulevard in Chatham, NJ. I had not been able to get there on the last trip and it is only open one Sunday a month and by appointment only. So I drove out to see it. What a delightful little museum.
The front of the Red Brick Schoolhouse Museum/Chatham Township Historical Society at 24 Southern Boulevard
The historical sign of the Mount Vernon School
The museum sign that welcomes you to the museum
The Mission Statement of the Museum:
(from the museum website)
The Historical Society of the Township of Chatham was established to increase the knowledge, awareness and preservation of the Township of Chatham history.
I visiting the Red Schoolhouse Museum on the first Sunday of the month and found a delightful little museum filled with artifacts that represent life in Chatham during various times in the town’s history. The museum has two floors with displays telling the history of the Township of Chatham from the beginnings with the Lenape Tribe living in the area to modern times.
The Museum gallery
On the first floor there is the special exhibitions that rotate in the museum. Some of the themes of the exhibitions were Children’s Toys and Playthings through the ages, Wedding gowns and formal wear and Revolutionary War items. The museum also has an interesting exhibition on the Lenape Indians who lived in this region before the Dutch arrived.
Wedding Gowns and Formal Wear exhibition on the first floor
Dressmaking and Sewing in the home and in business
Children’s Toys and Playthings through the ages
Children’s dolls and stuffed animals
The Train display of electric antique items
Revolutionary War and Trade items on the top shelf and historical cameras
The second floor has displays that tell different stories. The display cases have Native American artifacts, farming equipment, household items, pictures of the town at different stages of development, the community changes from a farming to business with the advent of the railroad. Here you see the changes in household items as time goes on.
The Lenape Display
Native American stone objects
The Arrowhead collection
Each display tells an interesting story of the Township of Chatham. Looking over how the towns in the area developed I didn’t even know there was a Village of Chatham and a Township of Chatham. I was also impressed with their toy collection which should be a conversation piece to any group of elementary school students. I think this would be interesting to seniors as well on times have changed since they were children. The museum really has something for everyone. All different stories are being told at this museum and the collection continues to grow when residents pasts become part of the museum’s future.
The display on resident Reverend Samuel Tuttle
The Statement of Purpose:
(from the museum website)
The Historical Society of the Township of Chatham, a volunteer, not-for-profit organization founded in 1975, is dedicated to increasing knowledge, awareness and preservation of our town’s unique historical heritage. We maintain the Red Brick Schoolhouse Museum where we coordinate our educational programs, research, and preservation advocacy as well as manage the discovery, collection, and conservation of materials that illustrate the history of the area prior to and after European settlement.
Artifacts from one of the museum’s historic digs
The audience served by the Society’s programs includes members of the Society, residents, students and visitors to the community, scholars, the public in general as well as businesses and governmental agencies in the area.
The display of the history of the Red Brick Schoolhouse
It was a lot of running around on a gloomy rainy day but it was a perfect time to visit all these sites and maybe revisit when they are reopen again. For now, there is more of Morris County that I want to explore when these small sites are open again.
Please look at their link for more details and happy exploring!
I cannot believe that another Christmas has come and gone and COVID is still raging around. Talk about having to adapt to a new world a lot wiser and more aware. I have just become more careful over the last year and kept my activities to a minimum (yeh right, I still run all over the place for work and keeping people informed about happenings all over the place). I just try to stay safe. I put my walk of the Garment District on hold for the Christmas holidays and all that came with it.
Christmas started right after I came home from Thanksgiving dinner in Lambertville when the next morning, I had to wake up at 6:00am to get ready to go to the Christmas tree lot for the Annual Hasbrouck Heights Men’s Association Christmas Tree Drop Off of the trees. We had 390 trees being delivered and it was all hands-on deck.
Setting up the Christmas trees
Who knew that the truck would arrive at 8:00am and we got caught off guard. No one expected it to come until at least 10:30am. So, at 9:00am, over thirty members and their children emptied all 390 Christmas trees off the truck (they shorted us ten trees), got them tagged and ready to sell. We had not even finished tagging the trees and our first tree sold at 10:30am.
The Hasbrouck Heights Men’s Association at Christmas tree set up 2021
I stayed on the site until 4:30pm and we had already sold the first twenty-one trees. I could not believe how fast the trees sold that day. The only reason why I left is that I had to help with the Hasbrouck Heights Fire Department on the town’s Annual Holiday Parade. God did it get cold that night.
The night after Thanksgiving, the Hasbrouck Heights Chamber of Commerce holds the Annual Holiday Parade and the Hasbrouck Heights Fire Department is always a participant from helping Santa enter town in the Parade to setting up the sound system for the Tree Lighting Ceremony. I swear it got so cold that night by the time the town lit the tree it must have gone down to 35 degrees. Thank God we bundled up!
The Hasbrouck Heights Fire Department at the Annual Hasbrouck Heights Holiday Parade
After the tree was lit, I never saw a place empty out so fast. People were so cold! Even with all our layers, we were cold too.
I did an about face and the next morning left for Beach Haven, NJ to attend some of Long Beach Island’s Christmas activities. The day ended up being much nicer and was a bit warmer. It is a two-hour trip to the shore and you would think that a beach community is not the place to spend an early Christmas weekend but you would be amazed at the activities they had planned all over the island that day.
I left the house around 8:30am on what started out as a gloomy morning that turned sunny and clear by the time I reached Long Beach Island. I decided to visit the Barnegat Lighthouse first to see if it was decorated with lights like the lighthouse at Montauk Point. That was always impressive the years I went out to visit my friend, Lillian.
The lighthouse was not decorated for the holidays but was finally open to walk in and climb the stairs. It was over a hundred steps up and back down. What a view all the way up. There were small stops on the way up with views on each level landing. By the time I reached the top of the stairs there were only three of us up there and God was it windy. I only lasted at the top of the lighthouse a few minutes before I almost blew off. What views of the waves coming in!
The Barnegat Lighthouse at the tip of Long Beach Island
Before I made the journey to the southern part of the island on my November trip, I stopped by the “Santa’s Viking Christmas Village” to see the arts and crafts festival at Viking Village at 19th and the Bay Barnegat Light. It was a sunny but cool afternoon but the winds had calmed down and I was able to walk the booths with no problems. I was in search of homemade Santa’s for my mother’s upcoming birthday. I found them in two different booths, one made of a conch shell and another made of wood.
The craft fair was very busy that afternoon.
The local seafood restaurant was open for takeout and you could smell the fried fish in the distance along with the horrible singing by a guitarist who could not carry a note. Thank God he took a break in time for the Barnegat Light Fire Department to bring Mr. and Mrs. Claus to the Village for a visit to the local children.
Santa’s Viking Christmas Village at dusk at closing
Santa and Mrs. Claus arrived right before I left the Village that afternoon.
After touring the Village, I made my way back down Long Beach Boulevard to the LBI Foundation of The Arts & Sciences Holiday Market 2021, which was mostly full of more expensive artwork and home decor products. It was not as festive as the Village Market and all our mask wearing steamed up everyone’s glasses which was a big complaint.
My next stop was the Long Beach Island Historical Society which sponsored an “Elves Workshop” for kids and their parents with all sorts of arts and crafts happening at twelve different tables lining the front room of the museum. There was cookie decorating and Christmas tree creation with beads and cloth and gingerbread house making. To end the evening, they had Smores and Marshmallows roasting over open firepits in the park across the street.
The Elves Workshop at the Long Beach Island Historical Society
The museum knows how to welcome in the holiday season.
The Christmas display at the front of the Long Beach Island Historical Society
After my visit to the Historical Society, I went down the road and revisited the NJ Maritime Museum 528 Dock Road right by the water. I had read so much at the shark attacks in New Jersey back in 1916 and wanted to see the exhibition again. I also wanted to see the exhibition on shipwrecks again so I spent the rest of the afternoon at the museum and then walking down to the harbor to watch the sun set. The sun sets on that island are amazing.
For dinner that night, I went back to the Chicken or the Egg at 207 North Bay Avenue in the Beach Haven downtown. The food and the selection here is just excellent and the perfect place for comfort foods on a cool night. My waiter could not have been nicer and recommended the White Clam Chowder, which was so thick and rich and you could taste the cream and fresh clams in every bite. God the seafood was so sweet.
The Chicken or the Egg at 207 North Bay Avenue in Beach Haven, NJ
For dinner, I started with the New England Clam Chowder and did it hit the spot. Loaded with clams and potatoes in a rich cream soup. It warmed me up inside. I ordered the Chicken Pot Pie for the entree, which was delicious as well. Chunks of chicken and fresh vegetables in a flaky crust and a rich gravy. On a cool night by the shore, there is nothing like it to warm you up. Talk about making the perfect choices for dinner.
Kapler’s Pharmacy had refreshments and Horse Drawn carriage rides that afternoon.
After dinner on my visit in November of 2021 at the Chicken or the Egg, I finished dessert at The Woo Hoo and walked up through the downtown to see the last of the people roasting marshmallows in the park and walked to Kapler’s Pharmacy at 1 South Bay Street. The drug store was sponsoring horse drawn carriage rides around the neighborhood.
The rides were completely full that afternoon and evening as the weather was really nice that day.
I thought what a nice way to end the evening with a twilight view of the sun setting and watching the Christmas lights going on at houses around the neighborhood. The Jersey Shore at Christmas can really surprise you.
Kapler’s Pharmacy event at 1 South Bay Avenue in 2021
I thought it was a nice group of visits to get my mind off what is going on in the world. What’s better than the Jersey Shore in warm weather? Visiting at all times of the year in warm weather and then returning for the Christmas holiday events. Who says the Shore closes at Labor Day?
Later that day I found out that Michigan State beat Penn State 30-27. What a way to end the day on my November trip!
After a short trip down to my mom’s for her birthday and two Private Member Nights in New York City at The Met and the Museum of the City of New York (see blog below):
Day Two Hundred and Eight: Private Members Nights in NYC:
it was back to Rhinebeck, NY for the Sinterklaas Parade and Celebration on Saturday, December 4th. I swear I was running from one place to another the whole week but was looking forward to the parade that had been cancelled last year because of COVID.
I travelled back up to Rhinebeck again for the festivities and got there by 10:00am in time to help unload the truck at the Starr Library. That brought back a lot of memories from parades past and it was so nice to walk around the cool air of Upstate New York. What started off as a very gloomy morning cleared up and it ended up being a clear, sunny and mild day in Rhinebeck.
We unpacked the familiar floats and puppets from years past and put together the bees, owls, geese, knights and dragons, horses that would lead Sinterklaas down his route and Children’s puppets that had children hoping for better times ahead. I always enjoy the comradery of the morning of putting the puppets together for the parade. Our theme this year was “Miss Mouse and Mr. Toad get married” so our events were based on the two characters getting hitched.
(I wanted to thank volunteer Jonathan Green for these pictures)
Me (in the jacket and khakis at the set up for the ‘Sinterklaas Parade’ in Rhinebeck, NY
Setting up the puppets for the parade is interesting
All the latest puppets ready to enter the parade
Mr. Toad preparing for his marriage to Miss Mouse
Miss Mouse preparing for her marriage to Mr. Toad in the Sinterklaas Parade
The Dragon is preparing for his duel with the knights of the parade
The puppets were set up in record time and we were finished by 11:45am
After we were done with the puppets, I drove down to Downtown Rhinebeck and parked a few blocks away and walked over to Main Street and joined in the opening festivities at the Beekman Arms. The restaurant was already packed with customers when I got there and the banquet room was full of visitors at the Opening Ceremony.
I had already checked in to my hotel, so I did not have to come back to the hotel until later that evening. This time I stayed at the Marriott Poughkeepsie which was much closer to Rhinebeck than staying at the one in Fishkill. I have to say that both hotels were wonderful when I was visiting the area.
The Marriott Poughkeepsie at 2641 South Road/Route 9
The inside lobby of the Marriott Courtyard Poughkeepsie
The Opening Ceremony at the Beekman Arms is always a lot of fun. All the costumed characters are introduced like the Pocket Lady, Mother Holly (who is always feeling jolly), the Queen Bee and the Snow King and Queen. They also introduced the Mayor of Rhinebeck and his wife, who portrayed Mr. Toad and Miss Mouse and reconfirmed their wedding vows in real life in front of the whole crowd. I thought that was very touching and I told her this later when I ran into her at another event.
The Opening Ceremony at Sinterklaas.
After the marriage ceremony and the traditional Polar Bear Dance, Jonathan Kruk, a well-known storyteller, told the story of Sinterklaas. Mr. Kruk is a wonderful speaker and knows how to tell a story. He always captivates a crowd. Even though I have heard the same stories for years, I still enjoy listening to him speak.
No one is better at storytelling then Jonathan Kruk at Sinterklaas
Because I said that I would help with the checking in with the volunteers for the parade, I had to be back to the library by 4:00pm so that only gave me about a little over two and a half hours this time to enjoy the festivities.
What was nice was the policy blocked off the Downtown area so that everyone could walk in the streets and watch the performers do their thing. There were bands on stilts performing rag time music and holiday classics, the Polar Bear danced around and greeted visits with a quick spin on the street and I visited the Toad Stool where Mr. Toad and Miss Mouse greeted each visitor with a bundle of ribbons so that you could give them to strangers for good luck. I had never heard of that tradition before but it was interesting to walk through a giant toadstool.
I also walked around the businesses that were open and admired the store window displays. It was as if each store was trying to outdo the other for creativity and beauty of the Christmas season. My favorite was Samuel’s Sweet Shop at 42 East Market Street in Downtown Rhinebeck.
I watched the Grumpuses, Sinterklaas’s helpers do their traditional dance, singing groups entertain the outdoor crowds (Keeping COVID safe) and performers with sticks doing their routine. What I liked about Sinterklaas this year is that there were a lot of outdoor venues, so people were not cooped up inside wearing masks.
By 3:00pm I was starved and knowing that I would not be able to eat until way after the parade was over, I stopped at Pete’s Famous at 34 East Market Street. I love dining here and like their generous portions and the friendly service. I had my favorite Turkey Club sandwich with French Fries which is always good.
They roast their own fresh turkey every day for their sandwiches.
The day started to fall into dusk and the whole town was being lit up. This is when Rhinebeck shows its true beauty as a Christmas village. All the trees in the Downtown are lit with white lights and adorned with paintings of the Sinterklaas Festival and ribbons. Also, all the stores light their windows and it makes the whole town look like a Currier & Ives woodprint.
Downtown Rhinebeck at dusk
Downtown Rhinebeck at night when its magic comes to life
I got back to the library at 4:00pm and assisted the staff in getting everyone ready for the parade, explaining how to work the puppets and hold them and making sure that everyone knew to listen to the marshals who were running the parade when it started.
It had been two years since we had a parade but it felt like time had not even passed by. I love to watch the parade come to life. As everyone lines up, the lights go on at each puppet and the bands get into high gear. Then there is the excitement of walking down the hill into Downtown Rhinebeck to the adoring crowds of the parade.
The crowds have tripled in the decade that I have been volunteering for the parade. The first time that I volunteered it was in 2010 with my father on my first trip up to Rhinebeck since being at the Culinary Institute and then I started volunteering again in 2014 when I started working on the Halloween Parade in the City. Just like that parade, excitement builds as the parade starts.
Walking down that hill is an amazing thing as people get so excited to see the floats and hear the music especially at this time with COVID raging on. Things seemed more festive as this is an outdoor event and it was two weeks before the omicron outbreak raged the country. It was a night of revelry and welcoming in the holiday season.
Sinterklaas is a magically evening in Downtown Rhinebeck
Opening Ceremonies at The Beekman Arms
Because the positions in the parade and the puppets were all filling myself and the other person, I worked with on checking people in took the “Follow the Banner in the Parade” banner down the hill to get everyone to the staging area for the conclusion of the parade. We were right behind the drumline of women who concluded the parade and whipped spectators into a dancing frenzy. I watched as people literally danced in the streets happy to be outside enjoying this evening. It was so nice to see families have such a good time.
This wonderful view of the parade that was posted online of ‘Sinterklaas 2021’
The parade ended in the community parking lot with all the characters are introduced and the well wishes to Sinterklaas and his entourage. There was music and the fire eaters showing their talents off to the large crowd who were looking towards a much happier holiday season. It was just nice to see everyone having a festive evening.
After the ceremony was over, I just walked around Downtown Rhinebeck, admiring the beautifully decorated windows and admiring the white lights adorning the trees. I love this downtown at Christmas.
The Downtown Rhinebeck Christmas Tree near the Community parking lot.
I stopped at Village Pizza for dinner and it was nice to just warm up. God is their pizza delicious.
After dinner, it was another quiet walk around downtown Rhinebeck to admire the lights and the window displays. I love walking around this town.
Downtown Rhinebeck before dusk
Downtown Rhinebeck’s merchants go all out for the holidays
The next morning, I was off early to join some of the other members of the Bergen County Firemen’s Home Association for a modified Christmas hello to all our retired firefighters living in the NJ State Firemen’s Association.
Since our party was cancelled for the residents due to COVID, we gave our gift to the residents the week before (we got each resident a long-sleeved shirt that was monogramed with their name on it which I heard they all loved) and we also had a special Jersey Mike’s lunch for the residents the month before to ring in the holiday season.
Because of COVID regulations, we could only have a few members come but myself and the President of the Bergen County Firemen’s Home Association talked with our fellow firefighters during ‘Holiday Bingo’ or walked around to greet them and wish them a ‘Merry Christmas’.
Santa greeting guests at the NJ Firemen’s Home in Boonton, NJ in 2019 in better times
It was just for a short time that we were allowed to stay but the members of the home appreciated it. We wanted to let our fellow firefighters know that we did not forget them during the holidays.
Members of the NJ State Firemen’s Home enjoying the Jersey Mike’s dinner we sponsored
Classes took up most of next week for me as we prepared for my Introduction to Business class to make their big presentation to me for their final grade. So, I was running around most of the week working with both my online class and my live class as we were getting ready for final exams.
On Thursday, December 9th, I took a break from all of my grading and went to see the production of “A Christmas Pudding” at Bergen Community College where I work. The students were putting on a Christmas retrospect of songs and readings which was a very nice performance.
The Theater students sang many traditional and contemporary songs from the American songbook with one student singing a very emotional version of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” from the movie “Meet Me in St. Louis”. Considering everything that was going on with COVID, I thought it was very touching. The students did a good job with the production and it really put me into the Christmas spirit.
The Play “A Christmas Pudding” at Ciccone Theater at Bergen Community College on December 9th
Another thing that put me into the Christmas spirit was all the new songs coming out this year. Did we need some Christmas cheer this year! I wanted to share two of my favorites that came to me via YouTube.
These two songs appeared on the Internet when I was writing this blog and I thought they were very symbolic of what is going on right now during the holidays as we try to resume to a new normal. I wanted to share them with all of you.
John Legend’s new Christmas song: “You Deserve it All”
Nora Jones new Christmas song: “Christmas Calling”
Kohmi Hirose did this great version of “Sleigh Ride” in English
On December 10th, my students presented their Class Group Project entitled “I’ve got a Golden Ticket to Bergen Community College-Homecoming 2022” and the students did a terrific job with the project.
The students logo to “I’ve got a Golden Ticket to Bergen Community College-Homecoming 2022”.
Here is the presentation with all the commercials:
Day Two Hundred and Nine on my “MywalkinManhattan.com” blog:
This “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory themed project was inspired by the 50th Anniversary of the film. I had the students watch the film for inspiration and ideas, then put the framework for the project together and they took it from there.
There is a message from me their CEO as well:
A welcome from CEO/Co-Founder of Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc.
I could not have been prouder of my students both in my live class and in my online class who created the individual Class Project, “Market Street Candy & Confections”, reopening a 100-year-old candy store with a modern twist.
Here is the project with all the graphics that the students created:
Day Two Hundred and Ten on “MywalkinManhattan.com”:
With the major class projects over with, I prepared the students final exams and emailed off my online students their exam first. While they came in, I was able to grade along the way. Taking a break from that over the weekend, I visited Hope, NJ for a Lantern Walking Tour of the town and then a Candlelight Church Service at the Methodist church.
The Hope Annual Moravian Christmas Tour and Church service in Hope, NJ
I discovered this tour when I was traveling out to the Delaware Water Gap when I was updating my blog on “Visiting Budd Lake” and I stopped in Hope before heading to Blairstown, where I had wanted to visit the Blairstown Museum at the end of the day (it had closed by then). I saw this flyer when one of the shopkeepers in town handed it to me and I thought it would be an interesting event. What an eye opener!
I never heard of the history of the Moravian religion before and how they founded the town. We toured all the former factories and homes that had been built around the turn of the last century and then heard actors talk about that time during Christmas. Life just seemed slower then.
This is also where the opening scenes of the cult film “Friday the 13th” were shot. The initial scene where Annie arrives in Crystal Lake for her journey to the camp. I included the clip from the opening scene and the what the current locations look like now.
“Friday the 13th” from 1980 filmed in Hope, NJ
The famous opening scene from the film “Friday the 13th”
The inside of the Hope Junction Antiques with one of kind artwork and antiques.
This unique store carries an array of local and regional artists work, the owner’s personal art pieces and a selection of decorative items and antique pieces. It had an interesting selection of holiday items when I visited the town both on my journey through Budd Lake and Route 46 and when I took the walking tour on December 11th. The store was open still right before the tour.
Burgdorff Realty at 2 Walnut Street where Annie enters the truck
The cemetery is the ‘crossroads’ but is actually right down the block from the antique store and the realty company. This is now part of the St. John’s Methodist Church. This is where the Candlelight Services were held.
But I was not there for a movie tour but a cheerful Christmas tour of Moravian history. I met my tour group at the Hope Community Center which was beautifully decorated for Christmas. Before the tour started, the Hope Historical Society who was running the tour was selling food and Christmas items as a fundraiser. We started the Lantern Tour from this location.
The Hope Community Center at 5 Walnut Street decorated for Christmas
The Festival of Trees inside the Community Center
The Festival of Trees
When we finished visiting some of the old factories, we visited ‘Trout Alley’, where people used to travel to get around the toll booth when they arrived in Hope. The path is now used to get to the antique store at the end of the path.
The Hope Historical Society was the sponsor of this program and was open the evening of the tour. We got to walk inside and look at old pictures of the town, old maps and artifacts that have been donated over the years by local residents that are part of the history of the town. The small one room building also houses vintage furniture and household and dress items. Please look at my blog at VisitingaMuseum.com above.
Looking down the street from Downtown Hope, NJ to the Inn at Millrace Pond where the Festival of Trees was located.
The house on High Street where we heard about Moravian Christmas traditions
Costumed characters sat on the porch that evening and reminisced about life at the turn of the last century as they prepared for the Christmas holidays. They talked about the hours needed to prepare the decorations and food for the legions of relatives and friends that would be visiting.
It was more spectacular at dusk when it was lit for Christmas
The First Hope Bank and Moravian homes that are now private residences
The bank was called the Gemeinhaus, which was the church/community center of the village. It was built in 1781. The house next door which is part of the bank is the Caleb Swayze House that was built in 1832.
Moravian Residences by the bank
The Caleb Swayze is the house towards the right and it was built in 1832. It is now part of the bank.
The homes and the current bank at dusk lit for Christmas
The Toy Chest Toy Store at 335 High Street a former Moravian home
I have been to the Toy Chest Toy Store many times on my journey to Hope, NJ and it has the most amazing selection of toys, games and collectibles in the area.
Moravian home where the Manger program was performed and after it was over, we visited many local homes of prominent residents from the area. To end the tour, we visited the back of someone’s garage where there was a live nativity scene performed that evening with actors reading from the Bible.
The live Nativity performance
This interesting little barn/garage is across from the church and I thought looked quite festive
St. John’s Methodist Church at 354 High Street and the former Moravian Church where the Candlelight services were held. The service is posted on their Facebook page below.
I attended the Candlelight Christmas services at St. John’s Methodist Church which had once served as the Moravian Church and the service was followed as it would have been at the turn of the last century.
The inside of the church during the holidays
The Christmas tree at the church
The visiting priest had once been head of the church here and gave a very inspirational talk on the holidays that was followed by the lights being dimmed and caroling by candlelight which gave the whole church an interesting glow (you can see the whole service on the church’s Facebook page attached).
The start of the Candlelight ceremony at the church
The downtown lit up for the holidays
Afterwards I took one last walk around Hope to admire all the lights and decorations. After a quick slice of pizza at Hope Pizzeria at 435 Hope Blairstown Road, I was on my way home through the darkness. It really does get dark on these back roads until you hit Route 80. The little pizzeria is tucked into a small strip mall on the side of the road and has great pizza. It really was a festive and interesting evening.
Hope Pizza and Catering at 435 Hope Blairstown Road
For my Christmas present to myself every year, I go to Carnegie Hall for the NY Pops Christmas Concert but it ended up being on the night of my final exam and there was no way to cancel it, so I had to miss it again this year (COVID cancelled it last year).
When I visited the City the Sunday before for the “Shark” exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History, I walked back to Port Authority through Lincoln Center and I wanted to see what was going on this Holiday season and I saw that Kristin Chenoweth was performing a one woman show to promote her new Christmas album that Monday night. I was on the Internet that night to see if there were tickets left for the show.
The “Shark” exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History at Central Park West at 79th Street
The next night I had tickets in hand and off I went to Lincoln Center which I had not been to in two years since I had seen “Whipped Cream” in December of 2019 for the holidays. It was so nice be dressed up and going to the Met again. The theater was packed with people with the same idea. The City was ablaze with Christmas colors and lights.
Lincoln Center in all its glory at Lincoln Center Plaza
What a concert! Talk about being in sync with the holidays and just what the doctor ordered after a long semester. I needed a good concert and this really put me into the holiday spirit. Ms. Chenoweth was really in great spirits that night and brought the house down with these two songs from her album plus playing from Broadway shows and the Great American Songbook. It was a great Christmas concert and I left humming down Eighth Avenue.
This song opened the show at the Metropolitan Opera House on December 13th, 2021
I was starved when I left for the theater since I was in a rush to get into the City that afternoon with enough time to make the concert and still grade quizzes that were coming in from my online class at the Cornell Club.
I had a sudden craving for Linguini in White Clam Sauce so off I went to Amore Pizza Cafe at 370 West 58th Street which I had visited over the summer. I ordered their Linguini in White Clam sauce which ended up being a piping hot almost pound of pasta with a quarter pound of clams on top ($10.95) with a Coke. Talk about excellent and the perfect dinner on a cool night. The sauce was so flavorful and the clams were so sweet and fresh. I ate contently and the manager was so happy when I told her the food was excellent. Talk about an end to a wonderful evening.
The Linguini with White Clam Sauce was just superb that night at Amore Pizza Cafe
For the rest of the week, I had visited the Met and the Museum of the City of New York for private events and while seeing the new “Shark” exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History, I went to see the “Origami Tree”, that has been a staple of the museum for years. All of these events really put me in the Christmas spirit and put the ghosts of last Christmas behind me. It was not too last.
The Origami Tree at the American Museum of Natural History
I wanted to visit the Hudson River Valley again before the holiday season was over and I saw on the Dutchess County Tourism site that Mount Gulian, a mansion near Beacon, NY was being decorated for the holidays and December 15th was the first day it would be open for touring.
I grabbed my aunt and we decided to spend the day visiting decorated homes and towns for the Christmas season. Our first stop was Beacon, NY to visit some of the stores on my website, LittleShoponMainStreet@wordpress.com, Colorant and Flora a Good Time both located in the downtown area and then off to Mount Gulian, a decorated mansion up Route 9.
Downtown Beacon, NY at Christmas
Mount Gulian was the home of the Verplanck’s for generations, the original house burned to the ground in 1938 and this house is a replica of the original sitting on the original home’s foundation. The house is decorated in many of the Verplanck’s family heirlooms donated by branches of the family over the years.
The main rooms on the first floor of the home including the former living room, dining room, sitting room and library were all decorated for the Victorian Christmas holidays. The hallways and doorways were also adorned with garland and bows and lights giving a festive and warm appearance to the house.
The tour took about an hour (see my blog on VisitingaMuseum.com) and the history of the house was discussed at various times and how family members called it home. Our tour guide also gave us interesting facts on the family and their connection with the house today. It is so nice to hear that various members of the Verplanck’s family still take an interest in the home.
Mount Gulian’s Dining Room decorated for Christmas Dinner
The sitting room at Mount Gulian
The Library decorated for the holidays
After the tour was over, the tour guide invited us to enjoy refreshments of hot cider and home baked goodies. Since there were only three of us on our tour, it gave us a chance to discuss the history of the families in the Hudson River Valley, the status of these famous homes and the future of historic sites of the region. It was really an engaging and interesting afternoon and the tour guide could not have been nicer. The whole event really represented what the Christmas experience is in the Hudson River Valley.
Between the Sinterklaas Parade in the beginning of the month, visiting the decorated homes of the region and walking the festive downtowns of the area giving them a “Currier & Ives” look about them. Dutchess, Ulster, Greene and Columbia counties really know how to convey the holiday spirit.
Downtown Rhinebeck, NY at Christmas
Our next stop was visiting Rhinebeck, NY which we arrived before dusk. The town was just lighting the trees and all the storefront windows were beautifully decorated for the holidays as they were on the night of the Sinterklaas Parade. The only town I know that can compete with Rhinebeck for the title of ‘Christmas Village’ is Cape May, NJ.
Rhinebeck has a magical look at nightfall
Samuel’s Sweet Shop at 42 East Market Street gets into that spirit every year
I love the way they merchandise the store for the holidays and their prices are very fair on their candies and desserts. You have to try their doughnuts.
The delicious candies and baked goods at Samuel’s Sweet Shop
Our next stop after leaving Rhinebeck was downtown Red Hook, NY which to me represents the best in small towns in the Hudson River Valley with excellent reasonable restaurants, creative store owners and a blend of old and new in architecture. Plus, everyone is so friendly when you shop and dine there.
Downtown Red Hook, NY at Christmas
I have written about my many trips to Red Hook in my blog “MywalkinManhattan.com” and discussed visiting the downtown and its proprietors.
The Red Hook town Christmas tree is such a great addition to the downtown and it more amazing at night as is the rest of the town when it is lit. When it gets dark in town, Red Hook gets that classic Americana feel to it.
Downtown Red Hook’s Christmas Tree
Downtown Red Hook, NY at dusk is so beautiful
After the walk around Red Hook (most of the stores closed early that night), my aunt and I crossed the Kingston Bridge and visited the ‘Stockade District”, the historical and shopping district of Downtown Kingston, to see how the town prepared itself for the holidays. It really was beautiful even with the light rain.
Downtown Kingston, NY at Christmas
The businesses had garland and beautiful white lights adorning them and the windows were very festive as in the other towns. Large snowflakes decorated the main streets which were lit brilliantly.
Downtown Kingston, NY Christmas tree
The Kingston, NY Christmas tree is right in the middle of the downtown shopping district and gives off such a holiday vibe. It is also so beautifully decorated. It really brightens up this stretch of the street.
Our last stop that evening was visiting Woodstock, NY, where I had spent three wonderful Christmases and is a place that I highly recommend spending the holidays. The Christmas Parade every year is so festive and well organized. The town is also so nicely decorated for Christmas and the square always has the most unconventional Christmas tree. They are usually oddly shaped and decorated and that’s their charm.
By the time we got to town that evening, all the stores were closed for the night and we dined for our early Christmas dinner at Shindig at 1 Tinker Street.
The love the Christmas tree in Downtown Woodstock, NY. It always looks so unusual.
Downtown Woodstock, NY square and Christmas tree
My visits to Woodstock, NY during Christmas meant a lot to me and I always loved going to the town’s Christmas Parade on Christmas Eve night. Santa always makes such interesting entrances.
Shindig has the best hamburgers and some of the most delicious mac & cheese. Talk about great comfort food on a cool misty night in the Catskills. We were the last customers to dine there that night, so they did not rush us as they were cleaning up for the night. Don’t miss their Cowboy burger. I highly recommend it.
Shindig at 1 Tinker Street in Woodstock, NY (Closed June 2022)
We had such a wonderful time visiting all the towns with their Christmas decorations and beautiful window displays. The Hudson River Valley is a wonderful place to get into the Christmas spirit. Who knew with all this Christmas cheer that all hell would break loose two days later.
Thank God I did all these events when I did because by Friday, December 17th, the night of my final exam, there was panic all over the country with the spread of a new variant of COVID, Omicron. All of a sudden, this new variant from South Africa started to move like wildfire all over the country and New York City was inundated by it.
I had to stay home all weekend and grade final exams because grades had to be posted by Tuesday. All I heard on the Internet and on TV was the rapid spread and the almost panic mode that everyone went into. I hauled up in the house and concentrated on school and getting the students emailed with their grades so that they could relax and enjoy their Christmas break.
I posted all my grades by Monday night and had to drop off all the paperwork on Tuesday at the college. I was just glad that they had not cancelled classes on Friday night when I was giving my exam. That would have been too much on me scrambling to get the exams done. Since I was the only one teaching on a Friday night, I was hoping they just forgot about me and the class would just happen which it did. Thank God!
Tuesday afternoon, we had a sparsely attended Faculty Party which I thought was very nice considering what was going on all over the country. We kept our masks on while we were walking around the room and enjoyed a lot of finger foods made by our Culinary Department and soft drinks. It was nice to just talk to people through our masks and catch up with people I had not seen all semester.
On the Sunday, December 19th, the Sunday before Christmas, the Hasbrouck Heights Fire Department held its Annual “Santa Around Town”, one of the highlights of the holiday season for both the town and the department. Last year because of COVID rules, we could only drive down each street slowly waving at residents.
This year we were able to go back to making stops and greeting each resident and taking pictures with children and their families. Even a family dog decked out in its Christmas jacket joined in the fun. It was nice to see people outside and engaging with their neighbors.
The Hasbrouck Heights Fire Department’s ‘Annual Santa Around Town’
The Hasbrouck Heights Fire Department’s “Santa Around Town” 2021
By Monday, December 20th, it seemed that the whole country was going crazy with the new COVID variant. Flights were being cancelled, people were putting get togethers on hold and families were abandoning their plans for the holidays. Our family seemed fine until one by one, things kept happening the whole week and everything was derailed by Christmas Eve.
First my brother’s flight was cancelled and he could not get another flight until late Christmas Day so he nixed coming to Delaware for Christmas. Then a family member got sick so my mother cancelled all Christmas plans including our family dinner. She did not want anyone at the house who was not vaccinated. This derailed the plans even more as family members and friends were not vaccinated so no one was going to visit her house that day.
So when my mother called me to tell me that everything was being cancelled, I immediately looked into going back to Woodstock, NY where I had spent many happy Christmases. These plans were abandoned when my other brother’s flight was fine and he was coming for Christmas and he did not want to spend it alone in Rehoboth Beach.
So, I changed my plans again and booked a room at the Chalfonte Hotel’s Southern Quarters and Thank God was able to book the last room at the resort. The main hotel was closed for the season but the Southern Quarters is the small B & B concept they have next door, which serves guests all throughout the winter months (the main hotel will not reopen until May).
This was the weird part about the eve before Christmas Eve, it snowed overnight which it was not in the forecast and it looked like we would have a white Christmas. Since it was supposed to rain all day on Christmas, I looked at the weather and thought ‘great having to walk around with wet weather on Christmas’ but like the rest of the holiday season, Christmas Day brought its own surprises. After paying my respects at the cemeteries, it was off to Cape May to start the holidays.
My Christmas Eve was spent as it had three years earlier, going to dinner at the Boiler Room at The Congress Hotel for dinner. I love their coal-burning oven pizzas and their fresh salads. The dinner was really amazing and the restaurant was pretty busy all things considered. I guess some people were not going to be spooked by everything going on around us, myself included. I figured I was fully vaccinated and if I wore my mask every place, I needed to I would be fine.
The Boiler Room Pizzeria at The Congress Hotel in Cape May, NJ at 200 Congress Place
I had the most wonderful dinner. I started with a Mixed Green salad with Balsamic dressing and chopped strawberries which had the most complex flavor with the sweetness of the strawberries playing off the Balsamic vinegar. The greens were so fresh that they crunched when I bit into them.
The Mixed Greens were so fresh and crisp
For the entree, I had the Prosciutto and Arugula Pizza with fresh mozzarella. Talk about a crisp pizza and the sauce could not have been more delicious with the fresh tomatoes and olive oil.
The Prosciutto Arugula Pizza at the Boiler Room
(sorry the pictures have such a strange light but that is the dining room)
After dinner was over, I walked all over The Congress Hotel which is always so beautifully decorated for the Christmas holidays. The halls are lined with white lights and garlands and a fire roaring in the fireplace in the main hall. Outside on the lawn, there a colorfully decorated tree and decorated tables with pool heaters for people to sit under.
Congress Hall Hotel Lobby decorated for Christmas
Seeing the casual and engaging conversations the other guests were having you would have never known that there was a major outbreak going on. Most people walking around the hotel were not even wearing masks.
After walking through the grounds and through all the gift shops to see what was for sale (their gift shops are really nice and they have an interesting bakery), I walked the Washington Mall which serves as the Cape May downtown. All the stores were closed by this point but I got to admire all the beautiful window displays and the white lights adorning the trees. The only town that can rival Cape May at Christmas is Rhinebeck, NY. Both have that Christmas feel to them.
The Gazebo in Downtown Cape May
After my walk around Downtown Cape May, I went to 9:00pm Christmas Eve mass at Our Lady Star of the Sea Church in Downtown Cape May at 525 Washington Street. I needed some spiritual guidance at this time of the year as well as the rest of the congregation did as well. What really surprise me again was that 95% of the parishioners did not wear masks. I guess people in Cape May thought they were away from the danger (I wore mine through the whole service, hey you never know).
Our Lady Star of the Sea Church at 525 Washington Street in Cape May, NJ
It was a beautiful service with the choir singing and a very inspirational Christmas talk from the priest. The service could not have been more perfect and the church was so beautifully decorated with Christmas trees with white lights and poinsettias all over the place. Very secular but still in the spirit of the holidays.
Christmas services at Our Lady Star of the Sea Church
The next morning, I had to be on the Cape May ferry at 10:15am and there was literally nothing open for breakfast without going to one of the hotels and there was no time for that. There was no food service at the ferry and the woman at the ferry was unsure if food was going to be available on the boat (it was we both found out later), so I left the ferry and had to go to the local WaWa around the corner at 3719 Bayshore Road.
If there was ever a meeting place on Christmas Day that everyone congregated at it was the local Wawa. The place was mobbed with people socializing with one another and wishing everyone else a Merry Christmas. You would have thought I was at City Hall or a Town Square. Everyone knew everyone else in the store and they were all ordering their breakfasts, getting coffee or their takeout orders or filling up on gas for a trip somewhere. I felt like I was in Mayberry.
The surprising part was I ordered a Bacon, Egg and Cheese omelet on a fresh hoagie and it was really good! I was amazed. The All-Berry Smoothie that I ordered with it was also terrific. I was blown away on my Christmas breakfast which I ate on the back of my car since there was no place to sit down.
After breakfast, I noticed the gloomy morning was starting to clear up and by the time the ferry left Cape May for Lewes, DE, it was becoming sunny and bright. When we got to Lewis by noon, it was sunny, clear and going up into the 60’s. It ended up being 65 degrees and sunny the whole day. God answered my prayers for a warm Christmas!
By the time I got off the ferry at noon in Lewes, De, it was a bright sunny and warm day. This is when the forecasters predicted rain all day. The entire afternoon was in the high 60’s, sunny and clear. It was the perfect day to be at the shore.
After dropping some presents off at my mom’s and wishing her a Merry Christmas, my brother, niece, my brother’s girlfriend and I went to Dos Locos in Downtown Rehoboth Beach for Christmas lunch. Unusual choice but it was the only place open. I had the most delicious Shrimp Quesadilla for lunch and that was more than enough after the big breakfast I had two hours earlier.
Before we left the restaurant, we took a memorable group shot in front of their Christmas tree. As we were leaving, I was amazed by how many people had the same idea we had and the restaurant really started to fill up.
My family at Dos Locos for our Christmas Dinner
To work off lunch (and my earlier breakfast), we walked all over the boardwalk that afternoon. Being such a nice day, again everyone had the same idea and we were wishing other families a “Merry Christmas” as they walked on the beach and walked their dogs around the downtown area. It was also ideal to go window shopping. By 3:30pm, it had reached almost 67 degrees and we walked along the beach and watched as one brave soul took a Christmas swim in the ocean. I know it was warm but it was not that warm outside.
My family by Santa’s House on the Rehoboth Beach Boardwalk
We took a lot of family shots around the Rehoboth beach Christmas Tree and at Santa’s House. He had left for the North Pole, so he was not around at this point. Still, everyone on the boardwalk was taking pictures by the tree.
My brother and I by the Christmas tree in Downtown Rehoboth
My brother and I in the bandstand in Downtown Rehoboth Beach
Me at the holiday displays in the Bandstand in Rehoboth Beach
The Manger at the bandstand in Rehoboth Beach with Santa’s House in the background
It started to get dark by 5:45pm at that point (the days are starting to get longer) and we headed back to my brother’s hotel as they prepared for dinner and I had to head back to the ferry to go back to Cape May.
I was surprised on how well Christmas had turned out. For a day that started off as the original ‘Clusterfuck’, it is amazing how plans change and the day can still turn out to be pretty good. I got on the 7:45pm ferry back to Cape May and we were in by 9:00pm. Again, not much was open on Christmas Day for dinner and I refused to have dinner at WaWa.
When I got back into town, the only two restaurants were the Chinese restaurant in the mall but they were closing for the night. So, I went to the Ugly Mug at 426 Washington Street in the Washington Mall for a snack. It was the only place open besides going back to Congress Hall.
Talk about crowded for a Christmas night! All the locals either had tired from their families, tourists need to get out of their hotels or people had just gotten off their shifts from work, people lined the bar having a good time eating, drinking and laughing. The Christmas games were going on and the bar was in full swing.
The inside of the Ugly Mug
With only five minutes left to order, the manager of the restaurant who was eating right next to me was eating a cheesesteak and highly recommended it. So, it was a cheesesteak and a Coke for me on Christmas night. It was nice to sit back and talk with the other patrons and bartenders in a relaxed environment.
The Cheesesteaks at The Ugly Mug are fantastic. Just like Philly!
The cheesesteak was so good
I spent the rest of Christmas night walking along the shore, listening to the waves hoping to get a glimpse of Santa on his way back to the North Pole. For the craziest Christmas Day with twists and turns, it ended up being a really great day. Not at all what we had planned but sometimes things work out for a reason. I ended up getting the best night’s sleep.
The day after Christmas my plans changed when a friend of mine who came into town changed the plans again and I decided to go to the theater at the Cape May Stage at 405 Layfette Street. I saw the final show of the season “Adopt a Sailor: The Holiday Edition”, which was performed by the Theater Director and his wife who are professional actors.
The Cape May Stage: Adopt a Sailor: The Holiday Edition
It was a clever story about a Manhattan couple that ‘adopt’ a sailor from the deep south for Christmas Eve. I thought it was a bit predictable with the stereotype of the uptight Upper West Side couple and the ‘naive’ sailor from the South but it ended up being a very bittersweet story about the couple looking within on their own relationship with this sailor shipping out on Christmas to a dangerous part of the world. It made them think about how small their own problems were and what Christmas was all about.
After the show was over, I decided to spend my last night in Cape May watching the sunset at Sunset Beach in West Cape May at 502 Sunset Boulevard. If you ever want to see the most spectacular sunset in the world and I have literally seen them all over the world, this is the most fantastic location to see the sunset over the Delaware Bay.
I stayed until after 5:00pm to watch the sun dip below the bay in most spectacular fashion. It really does amaze the way it slowly disappears into the bay and then the whole sky is a brilliant variety of colors. People were literally applauding the sun setting. I left Cape May for home after this.
You have to see the sun set at Sunset Beach at least once
In the week between Christmas and New Year’s, I spent the night in the City before the Ball dropped museum hopping between the Met and the MoMA trying to see the current exhibitions before they closed and taking the long ride up to Inwood to see the Cloisters decorated for Christmas and the current exhibition “Spain: 1000-1200” and taking a second look at the Christmas decorations all over the City.
I wanted to explore the neighborhood for changes since COVID and my last trip to the area since the summer, so I walked from The Cloisters to West 155th stopping for lunch and visiting stores and bakeries that I had written about in the past.
I stopped for lunch at the New Golden Star Chinese Restaurant at 4247 Broadway, a restaurant that I had passed many times on my walks down Broadway and had wanted to try. The food is excellent and the service could not have been nicer. I had a Chicken with Broccoli ($11.95) with Hot & Sour Soup and an eggroll.
New Golden Star Chinese Restaurant at 4247 Broadway
The Chicken with Broccoli was delicious and the sauce with a combination of Hunan and Soy really made the dish. The Hot & Sour Soup was one of the best I have had recently. The chili peppers added some kick to the soup and it was loaded with vegetables and sliced pork. The service could not have been nicer.
The Chicken with Broccoli was excellent
After lunch, I continued my walk down Broadway. I had originally planned had planned to go the Met on Fifth Avenue but it was too late for that and then I decided to walk down Broadway but by the time I got to West 155th Street near the cemetery I was pooped. I needed something sweet, so I stopped at one of my favorite bakeries uptown Five Star Estrella Bakery at 3861 Broadway for a snack.
I had the most amazing Vanilla and Strawberry Iced Doughnut ($2.00) and between the sweet thick icing on top and the rich dough, every bite was heaven. I was reenergized but my feet were beginning to kill me. I stopped at Ilka Tanya Payan Park and sat down to finish my doughnut and relax.
I just admired the Christmas tree in the park for a bit before taking the subway back to midtown. I never knew that the park was named after the actress and activist, Ilka Tanya Payan. I thought it was nice of community to set such a beautiful tree up for the holidays and it was nicely decorated. I was finished for the day.
Ilka Tanya Payan Park at Edward Morgan Place & Broadway
New Year’s Eve this year was a quiet evening at home watching the ball drop on TV. There was no way I was going back to the City with those crowds in that cold. Thank God that 2021 is now over and hopefully better days ahead!
This was not the Christmas I planned but things took so many twists and turns that I just went with the flow. This is why I am fully vaccinated. Life needs to go on as normal in these unnormal times.
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!
My three favorite Christmas songs: These are the songs that I wait to hear on the radio.
The Ronette’s: Sleigh Ride:
Ray Parker Jr.: Christmas Time is Here
The Waitresses: Christmas Wrapping
I also thought these Christmas songs in Chinese were interesting when I found them on YouTube:
I find it intriguing how other countries see Christmas and interpret it.
I decided to take the long weekend from finishing East Harlem (that took about two weeks to finish on various days through some spooky territory) and head up to Ithaca, NY for our summer Alumni Reunion for Cornell University, Class of 2004 and 2010 PDP. In the Fall of 2024, I retraced my steps back up to Narrowsburg, NY and stayed the night to eat at the Heron Restaurant.
I decided before I left that I was going to take the long route and explore New York State. There were a few towns along the way I wanted to explore and a few restaurants that I wanted to try that I had read about in travel magazines. Who knew it would take four hours to get to my eventually destination of Bovina Center, where I would be spending my first night?
I unfortunately started the day late by cutting the lawn and helping a friend with a problem she was having and did not get on the road until 3:00pm. Even though it was a long trip up to Narrowsburg, it was a beautiful one that almost competed with the trip to Hana when I was on Maui years ago. It was a beautiful sunny day when I started the first part of this trip to Narrowsburg, NY to visit the Heron Restaurant and The Nest Hotel, two places that had been recommended on a tour guide of the area.
The first destination was to explore Downtown Narrowsburg, NY
The first part of my day was exploring Sussex County, NJ and driving up Route 23, a highway I had not traveled since the 70’s when I went to visit Sterling Forest with my parents. Route 23 take you though towns that time forgot. These small little towns that have a unique character to them, with their home town stores and buildings from the turn of the last century. I was not able to spend much time in these towns but it will be fun to explore in the future.
Downtown Sussex, NJ is being gentrified and the sidewalks are being bricked up
The town of Sussex had a beautiful downtown with large grand hotel in its downtown that I want to revisit. It is such a elaborate building and impressive brunch menu. Plus I want to look around the downtown more. There were some interesting businesses and beautiful architecture to admire.
The Hotel Sussex in Downtown Sussex, NJ
Leaving the town of Sussex, I traveled to the corner of the state to the highest peak in the State of New Jersey in the mountains of Stokes Forest, where the peak sits at 1803 feet above sea level and quite a view from the top. The roads twist and turn once you leave Colesville, NJ and make sure you buy gas before you leave Sussex because the gas gets more expensive once you get to the New York border.
Downtown Sussex, NJ is being renovated with new brick sidewalks in 2024
I crossed Route 84 into New York State and the City of Port Jervis where there is not much to see and then started my trip up Route 97 to my first stop, Narrowsburg. I have taken many scenic trips before but this is an amazing and breathtaking view of both the Delaware River and the surrounding mountains.
The historic sign in Downtown Sussex, NJ
Route 97 foliage in the mountains
Route 97 in this part of New York State hugs the Delaware River as it winds up the border of the state. For most of the trip up, I tried to take my time with an occasional car honking at me to get going. It is a road that you want to take your time to enjoy and look at the mountains as they pass by and the river below. On the way up you are on the mountain side of the road and the view down can be scary. Almost like the trip to Hana on the island of Maui, where you hug the mountain on the way there and then panic and drive slow with the guard rail next to you on the way back. Still it is a spectacular view on the way up.
Route 97 that hugs the Delaware River
The Delaware River in the Fall of 2024
Rolling hills, high mountains covered forest in full form and deep valleys where you can look down and see the river below. It was the beginning of the summer and everything was in full bloom. With the sun washed against it, it is the backdrop for a postcard. I was able to slow down and admire the river below. If you are traveling up Route 97, take your time but plan accordingly because it takes a lot longer than the map will lead you to believe. It took two and a half hours to get to Narrowsburg.
The Delaware River in the Fall of 2024
Narrowsburg, NY has become a refuge for people escaping the high costs of Brooklyn and other parts of the NYC. How residents of Brooklyn found this tiny town tucked up in the mountains on the banks of the Delaware River, I have no clue but it is becoming a trend in small towns along the Hudson River from Beacon to Hudson. These small towns are attracting artists, chefs, boutique owners, movie makers and bed & breakfast owners who are fixing up old homes and reclaiming downtown’s upstate with new businesses catering to people in the city.
Narrowsburg was starting the evolve again but had businesses that still catered to locals with small drug stores, shops and a very nice post office. Here and there the town was starting to change. I had read online that little sleepy town was at the narrowest and deepest part of the Delaware River thus the name Narrowsburg created in 1840.
Downtown Narrowsburg, NY in the Fall of 2024
The town was a sleepy hamlet where lumber and the local stone quarry were the main industries and in later years an escape to small room houses and bungalows for people from New York City escaping the heat. In its location on the river, it must have been a transport hub for New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania being so close to the crossroads for all three states.
The Bridge between New York State and Pennsylvania
The view of the “Big Eddy” in the Delaware River in Downtown Narrowsburg, NY
By the time I got there at 5:30pm, most of the stores had closed for the night. The town has its usual drug stores and small restaurants but look closer and you will see the traces of Brooklyn that I kept reading about. You can walk the downtown in about a half hour but really look at the views. In the middle of the downtown, there is a gap between the store fronts and you have a little park that looks over the river and it is picturesque. What a beautiful view of the river valley below and the mountains in the background. I can see what inspires the artists to move up here. It reminded me of Woodstock with its boutique shops and small art galleries.
Two businesses that I had wanted to visit were the Nest Hotel (now closed), a small boutique hotel I want to visit and the Heron Restaurant, which was getting rave reviews online on all the review sites. Both of the them are what I was expecting. The Heron, a farm to table concept with local purveyors, has a simple and interesting menu. The brunch menu was being featured when I visited and the small dining room is well designed. Because of time and a reservation in Bovina Center, I skipped this and kept walking. I visited the Nest, a small local hotel and got to see the small store attached (both now closed). It is supposed to be well-appointed and service excellent. For another time.
The inside of the Heron Restaurant in Fall of 2024
I got to pass most of the small boutiques and art galleries and then walked around the corner to see a very busy Chinese restaurant in full swing and a local theater closing for the evening. The area was surrounded by beautiful woods and streams. You can visit the whole town in about an hour but this is a place to relax and reflect and the 45 minutes I spent here just wasn’t enough.
I passed the Narrowsburg sign as I was leaving the town
I left Narrowsburg and continued on my journey up Route 97 to the connection to Route 17, which I had traveled up years earlier to my interview in Ithaca for graduate school. I traveled up Route 17, a sleepy highway that was once the main through fare for this part of the state until Route 81 was built. Then I got off at local Route 30, which is a winding road through the mountains.
Having a 7:30pm reservation, I did not have much time to really look as I drove past small towns and through wooded areas. I had passed most of these towns during the holidays on my trip to Woodstock when I explored the area.
Driving down Route 30 by the reservoir
Even the highway was beautiful
The beauty of Route 30 is the winding road through the small towns with views of the mountains and through the valley gaps. Passing the Pepacton Reservoir is a gorgeous site, with its small islands full of trees, wooded hills and the bridge you have to cross and the views of the lake.
The views in the summer of 2025
With the sun being in the perfect position, the a spectacular gleam on the lake and if you have time, stop at one of the rest stops along the way and really look at it. Its quite a view.
Somehow I got lost in the turnoff on Route 28 on the way to Andes, a small growing artist town on the way to Bovina Center.
With these views you do not mind getting lost
I had to double back up Route 28, remembering most of these farms six months earlier when driving through on Christmas Day.
The views of driving up the highway by Andes, NY
Bovina Center is located on sleepy Country Route 6, on a turnoff that is easy to miss. I got to the Brushland Eating House 1927 Country Road 6, Bovina Center, NY, (See TripAdvisor reviews) my destination at 7:30pm on the dot.
Turning off on Route 6 in Bovina Center
The Brushland Eating House had opened the same time as my first trip to Woodstock , NY at Christmas of 2014 and had been on my ‘bucket list’ since to visit after reading an article on it in Hudson River magazine.
Downtown Bovina Center in the summer of 2025
The accommodations were supposed to be wonderful and the food in the restaurants rated excellent by all reviews I had read online. The overnight stay exceeded my expectations. I have never decompressed like this before. I felt this way both in 2017 and again in 2025. I was so relaxed on my stay.
The Brushland Eating House at 1927 Country Highway 6
I arrived in Bovina Center three and half hours later than I expected and one of my hosts, Sara, could not have been more gracious. She could tell I was tired and asked if I wanted to check in first and then come down for dinner in the restaurant. I took her up on that. I just wanted to settled in a bit. Thank God that the restaurant was rather quiet that night.
The front of the restaurant in 2025
I can not say enough good things about the Brushland Eating House. My ‘room’ was a two floor loft that was decorated with local art work and vintage décor like a record player, board games and locally made art and furniture.
The main floor of my bedroom
It looked like a loft in a major city in some trendy neighborhood. The room could have entertained 6 people sleeping there and no one would have gotten in each others way.
The Living Room
The first floor had a large living room/dining room, a nice size kitchen over looking the yard and a bedroom overlooking the hills, valleys and a farm behind downtown Bovina Center.
The kitchen area which you will never use
The first floor bedroom
The second floor sitting room
The second floor bedroom
Looking down from the second floor
The second floor had another bathroom, a second bedroom with the same but larger view of the surrounding community and a large dressing area.
The views from the bedrooms
The stairway to my room
The view of downtown from my deck
The view across the street
The beds had brand new mattresses with a soft comforter. I just sank in for a bit and then unpacked. I went to dinner around 8:00pm. That was a treat.
The Sitting Room decor
The Brushland Eating House Restaurant is on the ground level of the building and had gotten excellent review both online and in local magazines.
The crowds waiting to go in in 2025
The restaurant’s décor used the plan of the old post office, which this one served the community as in the past and local artisans built the bar and added to the shelving. The restaurant is painted in deep colors and has a rustic feel to it.
The menu items are locally sourced ingredients from the surrounding farms and it shows in the limited menu that Chef Sohail prepares each night. I liked their use of New York State wines on the menu and enjoyed them with the meal.
Starting the meal with an a Mixed Greens Salas from the owners gardens
The meal was incredible (See TripAdvisor & Airbnb). Not being to stop for any lunch because of the time it took to go to Narrowsburg, I ate a full meal.
In 2017, I started with the mixed greens salad that had a light dressing, the pork schnitzel and the olive oil cake that was covered with a powered sugar icing. In 2025, I could still taste that wonderful meal and had to do the repeat less the Olive oil Cake, which was not on the menu. So I had the Rice Pudding with Poached Peaches.
The Mixed Green Salad from lettuce from their garden
Everything was excellent. The greens were so fresh I swear that they were just picked.
The Pork Schnitzel with homemade Sauce Tomate
The lightly breaded Pork Schnitzel with Capers
The pork schnitzel was pounded thin and fried to perfection and the meat had so much flavor.
The olive oil cake was a real treat. I had never had it before. It had a savory/sweetness to it with the thick icing and studded with fresh blackberries.
It was not on the menu in 2025, so I had the Rice Pudding with Poached Pears. The pudding was so rich and creamy. The peaches were in season and were poached in what tasted like liqueur and cinnamon. The perfect summer dessert.
The Rice Pudding
The meal was mind blowing both nights and With a couple of glasses of wine, I had never relaxed so much.
Brushland Eating House Bovina Center, NY
The New York State wines really were good. They had a nice body and flavor and worked well with the meal. The service was flawless. The waiter and I got along famously and she told me her stories about commuting into the city. We laughed at each others stories. It was also such a nicely paced meal as the restaurant was half full for a Thursday night.
In 2017, after the meal, I talked with my hosts Sohail and Sara for a bit before they started to clean up. If there was ever an ideal business that I would want to own and operate, this would be the one. In 2025, Sara greeted me warmly when I arrived for dinner at 8:15pm. I got to see Sohail the next day at check out and we talked for a bit.
In 2017, I can tell by the outside that the place still needs a lot of work but they really know what they are doing and could not have been more gracious hosts. When I came again in 2025, the outside renovation was complete and it looked so elegant.
Sara and Sohail, the owners of the Brushland Eating House
The building after the restoration was complete
The welcoming stairs
The attention to detail in the gardens near the entrance
The Vegetable and Flower gardens in the back that supply the restaurant
The backyard area
The mural on the house
After dinner, I walked around the small downtown that is Bovina Center. It is literally in the middle of nowhere and that’s what I liked about it. You could see the stars and since there was not much in the way of street lights, you could hear the babbling brook in the darkness.
The outside of the restaurant at night
Walking around Bovina at night
The room was so quiet and relaxing that I wished I could have stayed longer. I slept like a log and it was fun in the morning to just sleep in and relax. There was no TV in the room and I just read and wrote in my journals and books that whole morning. I was inspired by all the quiet. It was also nice to just look out the window on a misty morning and look at the rolling hills and farms that lay before me. It is such a rural environment but I found out later on as I walked down the street to Russell’s General Store, a lot of people here are transplants from other places.
The front of Russell’s General Store at 1962 Country Road 6 in Bovina Center
Russell’s General Store, 1962 Country Road 6, Bovina Center, is a step back in time to when the pace was slower and everyone knows everyone. I met with Bea, the owner, who ironically is from Los Angeles near where my brother lives, and she could not have been nicer. She greeted me so warmly I thought she was a long lost friend. She knew everyone who walked in the door, greeted them by name and even let them go around the counter to get coffee. It was fun watching her deal with her vendors. The bread guy walked in with his daily order and put it onto a old fashioned scale.
Russell’s General Store at 2009 Country Highway 6 in Bovina Center, NY
I had read online about her breakfast sandwich, and it is mind blowing (See review on TripAdvisor). She cooks either homemade bacon or pork sausage out, cracks two organic fresh eggs and fries them out and puts fresh homemade cheddar on a freshly baked Chibana roll.
My breakfast that morning
The pork sausage is freshly made too and perfectly spiced. When you bite into it, all the flavors combine and it is a gooey and delicious mess. I had not had a breakfast sandwich this good since I ate at Miss Lucy’s Restaurant in Saugerties, NY three years earlier.
The Sausage, Egg and Cheese on a Chibana roll
Yum!
Not only was the breakfast sandwich excellent but for dessert (yes, dessert) I had a piece of locally baked apple pie with fresh whipped cream. The combination of fresh apples with fresh farm honey in it will take you away Bea explained that she had a woman locally who owns a farm that she makes the pies on the side. Do not miss this! I never thought anyone could compete with my mom in pie baking but this woman is neck and neck.
When I returned in 2025, there was no pie anymore but I did have one of their homemade Blueberry muffins which were excellent. A hint of honey with the fresh blueberries.
The Blueberry muffins are wonderful
The whole meal was enjoyable. It was fun to look at all the knick-knacks along the shelves and the penny candy and other items from stands I used to visit in the 70’s.
The inside of Russell’s General Store
The inside of the store
The grocery section
The Penny Candy (actually. Nickel) candy section
I walked back to the loft and just collapsed for the next three hours until I had to check out and then said my goodbyes to Sohail. He was walking with his dog in the back of the building in a garden he had planted. I told him how lucky he was to have nice business like his that he and Sara could build on so close to the city but far enough away to enjoy a good quality of life. He looked happy.
I left Bovina Center and drove down Route 28 to Andes to check out the town and work off breakfast and lunch. I ended up staying for over three and a half hours and having lunch here. Andes, like Bovina Center, Narrowsburg and many small towns in this part of upstate New York are being settled by people from NYC and they are waking up these sleepy towns with new businesses, art galleries, cottage food businesses, antique shops and fixing up Victorian homes and added life to towns that even ten years ago were dying out.
Just before I got to Andes in 2025, a woman named Jane was selling her homemade pies outside her home for $30.00.
Jane’s whole pies are too much for one person but look so good
I did not want a whole pie nor did I want to bring one on my trip. So when she came outside, she said she sold them to the Andes Diner and I could get a slice there. Off I went to the Andes Diner at 85 Main Street.
I walked along the main street a couple of times, wandering through shops and galleries, talking to all the owners and looking at their wares. No wonder why so many of them come to the farmers markets in the city. There is so much wonderful pottery items and food stuffs that people would love to buy in the city.
Downtown Andes in the summer of 2025
There was a pottery store where the dishes were reasonable and very nicely made. I loved the small parks and the stream that ran through the town. I liked the slow pace of the town and the beautiful views of the woods and old houses. The place is out of a postcard.
The business and activities signs in Andes
I had a quick lunch as I knew it would take about three hours to get to Cortland, where I would be staying for the night. In 2017, I had lunch at Two Old Tarts, 22 Lee Lane, Andes, NY (Closed March 2021). The food and service are excellent. It’s a beautiful, airy restaurant that was once upon a time the restaurant that now is the Brushland Eating House, so that was a good sign.
I ordered a grilled cheese, which was cooked with fresh cheddar, green apples, tomato on a sour dough bread. The flavors combined well and the sandwich just worked. Their mac salad is one of the best I have ever eaten at a restaurant and everything was a nice sized portion. The couple who run it are really nice and the service is friendly.
Two Old Tarts Restaurant Andes, NY (Closed March 2021)
Andes is a nice little town to just walk around and relax and enjoy the experience of a small artsy town. It is a nice day trip when you are in the area. It kind of reminds me of Phoenicia outside of Woodstock, just a nice town for a afternoon trip.
This unique little farm had an interesting farm stand with local food stuffs and crafts all on the honor system with a box to leave your money.
The fresh foods available at the farm stand
The goat protecting the food store
The logo on the barn
This friendly little goat wanted to bond with me
The grounds of the farm were nicely landscaped
I was impressed by this farm being so productive in such a small space. The funny part was I only saw animals and not people.
After I left Andes, it was off to Cortland for the Alumni reunion. I always stay in Cortland because its fifteen miles from Ithaca and the fact that Ithaca charges double for their hotels for alumni events. The trip up there was anything but fun.
Do you ever think to yourself when you travel, ‘but it looked so much closer on the map’. That’s what I experienced when I traveled from Andes to Cortland. It just looked so much closer on the map. That and there was a major accident on Route 17 North.
The highways and back roads upstate are so beautiful
I could not believe how beautiful Route 10 is in the summer
Half way up Route 17, we hit a major traffic jam and we backed up for almost a half an hour. Most of the cars were rerouted up the local Route 7 to Interstate 88, which would take us to Binghamton. I followed up the longer Route 8 and passed a series of farms on the way up.
One of the farm stands along Route 8
In 2017, I stopped at Penguin Ice Cream, a small local dairy stand for a cone. I had the most unusual tasting Peach Ice Cream and it was soft serve which is unusual for this flavor. Its a nice stop with friendly service but not the greatest ice cream I have ever tasted. In 2025, I could see why. The store looked long abandoned.
In 2025, the store was long closed
It must have moved across the street to this store but had closed years ago
It took about another 45 minutes to Interstate 88 and then reaching Interstate 81 another 45 minutes to get to the exit for the Route 81 turnoff. Once on that, up I went to Cortland.
In Cortland, New York I have written about in the past, I have stayed here a lot in the last few years. First for my uncle’s memorial service, then the Homecoming game last year against Yale. It just makes it easier. I checked into the Cortland Quality Inn, at 188 Clinton Avenue (I do not recommend it) and then headed over to the cemetery to pay my respects to my uncle and my cousin who are interned there. It is a very pretty cemetery and they are buried in an area that overlooks the campus of SUNY Cortland, where my uncle worked years earlier.
Visiting my uncle and cousin’s graves in Cortland
It was a quiet afternoon and I was able to spend some time there and pay my respects. That has been hard but the purpose of this project is to pay my respects to my dad as well. That had been a rough summer for all of us losing my uncle, my father’s older brother, six months after my dad passed away.
My uncle wanted to be buried next to his daughter after she passed
The rest of the evening I spent walking around the downtown and the surrounding neighborhoods. You could tell by the many Victorian homes off the downtown this must have once been a very wealthy area. It really is a pretty city when you walk around.
The downtown has some good restaurants and the older buildings in any other town closer to the city would be lofts and artist studios. There is so much more that can be done in this city. I was still so stuffed from lunch that I went back to the hotel to relax.
The beautiful historic buildings in Downtown Cortland, NY
The one thing about Downtown Cortland is that the City has put a lot of money into the Downtown area and renovated all those old buildings. They are all now new loft apartments and you can tell by all the new windows that they building have all been made new. Even the sidewalks downtown are all new and the whole area looks vibrant and rejuvenated. There will be a real future here in shopping and dining.
The historic buildings in the end of downtown
When I visited again in 2025, I stopped into a local college spot for a quick lunch, A Pizza & More at 104 Main Street for a late lunch. Since the cemetery closed at 4:00pm, I wanted to pay my respects first.
I had a slice of cheese pizza and a Meatball Hero and the food was really good. Their red sauce which was the base for both the sandwich and pizza was so well spiced.
The delicious Cheese pizza
The wonderful Meatball Hero
The next day it was off to Ithaca for the Alumni Reunion. The breakfast at the hotel could have used some work. The eggs tasted like plastic. It did not make much of a difference as we would be having brunch at the hotel school later that morning.
It is a quick trip to Ithaca from Cortland and a very scenic one as well as you pass all the farms and mountains covered with forest on the way between the two cities. Along the way down Route 13 you pass many depressed towns and villages reminding you that the economy is not so great up here. You can see it in downtown Cortland where if it were not for the college, the town would be in serious trouble.
All of this does not matter once you get to Ithaca and reach the Cornell University campus. Cornell has one of the most beautiful campuses in the country rivaling the Michigan State University campus by the Red Cedar River. Both are just so beautifully laid out but what makes Cornell so beautiful is all the gorges, lakes and rivers that flow through campus. Driving into the southern part of the campus, old campus, is breath taking especially when you look over the bluff into the city where you have a view below of Ithaca and Lake Cayuga. In the summer when everything is in bloom, there is no view like it. It is one of the most popular places on campus to take family pictures.
First off, the campus was loaded with Alumni for Alumni Weekend. Most of the students had gone home for the summer and the Summer Programs had not started yet so the campus was pretty much ours. When I got to Statler Hall, the home of the School Of Hotel Management, where I am an Alumni, the place was mobbed.
The Statler Hotel
The crazy part was that all the schools that ended in year seven were celebrating their reunions and I sat with a group of women from the Class of ’87. It really dawned on me that if I had gone there as an undergraduate instead of going to Michigan State University, these would have been my classmates. As a matter of fact, the two tables that surrounded us were Class of ’87. It really made me think of fate and what we choose in life (me, Class of ’04 and ’10).
Our breakfast was amazing but then anything the Hotel School does with food is amazing. We had a beautiful spread outside the main ballroom of the Statler Hotel and this was a breakfast that made the Quality Inn look like Burger King. We had from soup to nuts with pancakes, stuffed blintzes, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes, fresh fruit and pastries all so nicely displayed.
The topic our dean is always talking about is the merger with two other schools to form the new Johnson Business School which everyone of the Alumni are against. Everyone feels it will only benefit the other schools and weaken ours as we have most of the support and money coming in. Plus we have the strongest Alumni on and off campus. Everyone just grinned and bared through it. At least breakfast was nice.
Touring the hotel where we had breakfast when in The PDP program
We then took a tour of the building which had been renovated even since I went there and I left in 2010. It makes me feel proud of all the money that is poured into the college and how modern it all is and up to date. It reminds me of all the money being invested in the Culinary Institute of America when I go up there (also Alumni Class of ’98).
Statler Hall and Hotel
All the lecture halls and the library have all been renovated and update with all the latest equipment and the lucky part now is that Cornell has an agreement with the Culinary Institute that you can finish a two year at CIA and then finish with a BS at Cornell. That would have been nice when I was attending both schools. I could have saved some money. Even so our cooking labs are still impressive.
The school was meeting up with the other business colleges later that afternoon for a cocktail party, so it gave me a chance to walk the campus and surrounding areas. Even though the campus was busy, I thought it would be busier but I figured the other colleges would have their own events.
The Student Bookstore was mobbed with Alumni buying everything was not nailed down. I have not seen anything so busy since I went to MSU’s Bookstore after a game. You would never know that we were in the middle of a recession with the way people were buying. I have so much stuff from Homecoming Weekend that I did not need more.
Our college bookstore
I went off to explore the campus. College Town is always a place of extremes. A lot of the restaurants that I remembered when I was there have now closed. Collegetown Bagels is always mobbed and was mobbed that afternoon. You could not get a seat if you wanted to and Rulloff’s, which has now reopened was busy as well.
Collegetown has totally changed in 2025
The rest of Collegetown is either being rebuilt (Again) or the businesses have closed. I saw so many empty storefronts or they are going the revolving door of Asian restaurants that keep popping up. There are a few holdovers on the main drag but outside that, Collegetown looks so depressed. No wonder its being rebuilt again.
On my trip through Collegetown, I did not recognize it. The whole place including the old College Town Bagels (moved across the street) and been torn down and rebuilt. I did not recognize anything. All the old restaurants and bars were gone. It was all gleaming and new.
I walked down the hill from Collegetown to see the downtown Ithaca and the new ‘Commons’ that has since been rebuilt. All I have to say is that it looks so much better. The downtown was looking a little run down the last time I attended school there and the downtown was a revolving door of restaurants and shops. The Commons was totally rebuilt with new bricks and planters and new street furniture is all over the place.
The Commons was an 80’s concept to bring back people to downtown’s by bricking up sidewalks and adding planters. The key though is parking and good stores and restaurants and little crime. That is what didn’t work for most downtown’s in the 80’s. No one wanted to go because of those reasons. Somehow Ithaca is making it work.
Downtown Ithaca had not changed too much since my last visit
They have really spruced up the buildings and added better signage. I would have thought the area would have been more crowded with people but I don’t think anyone got the idea to get a shuttle bus from campus to the Commons for Alumni weekend. Plus most of us had meals with our colleges and I was not even hungry considering we had a cocktail party at 3:00pm.
The Commons in the summer
The entrance of the Commons in 2025
I walked around Common’s looking at the new buildings that have gone up, new hotels and restaurants that have opened while looking at old favorites and trying to figure out which ones I went to each of the summers that I attended school here. Simeon’s reopened since the fire there and their food was always great. Taste of Thai is one of the best Thai restaurants I have ever eaten at and the waffle place is still there as well.
I walked around the square in downtown off the Commons and the houses that surround it still need some work. They were falling apart then and they still are now. This is the sad part of Cortland as well. All these beautiful and graceful Victorian and early American homes just neglected or falling apart. Unlike Andes, Ithaca and Cortland are farther from the city and that form of reverse gentrification has not hit these cities yet.
There is one large Victorian home that faces the square and the church that I have admired for years and its still depressing to look at. If only the time and money. On 2025, the artists and hipsters have reached Ithaca and the homes have really been renovated and brought back to life.
The number of artists moving to Ithaca is becoming greater in numbers. There are several businesses that deal with local artists like Handicraft Cooperative (the Commons) and Made in Ithaca (Mooseville Mall) where you can find the unique. Take your time at the Made in Ithaca store as there is many creative items for sale at very reasonable prices and the sales people are great.
I was debating walking to the Farmers Market by the lake but then I was running out of time and would not be able to walk back to campus in time. So I took a deep breath and walked back up the hill. If any Cornell Alumni are reading this, you know what I am talking about when walking from the Commons back to campus through Collegetown. Just walking around Cornell’s campus is a workout.
When I returned in 2025, I braved the crowds and traffic and went to the Farmers Market. While it was fun to walk around, the place was mobbed and the parking was next to impossible so I parked outside the market.
The Ithaca Farmers Market at Steamboat Landing at 545 Third Street
I swear that the food there had gotten so overpriced and the lines were so long. It was not as much fun as when I went as a student. It was so much smaller.
The Farmers Market was packed on Saturday
Our cocktail party for the new Business School was very nice. Passed appetizers and small desserts along with drinks was the focus of the event while the various deans of the three colleges being merged were trying to assure annoyed alumni that their school identity was not being taken away. I thought the get-together would be busier but figured that people were on their way home by 3:00pm. It was more of the same speeches with the deans trying to convince us everything was great with the merger. there was a lot of eye-rolling that afternoon.
The entrance to Cornell from Collegetown
I just walked around campus and looked at the new Residence Halls that were being built when I was there and finally finished now. The school really put a lot of money in student living. Walking though the gorges and gardens all over campus brought back so many good memories of the seven summers I spent there and of dad’s visits to me on campus and the adventures we would have before our long trip home.
The Gorges by Collegetown
I finally decided on a Chinese restaurant for lunch that I had eaten in years ago, Hai Hong, 602 West State Street, Ithaca, NY in Collegetown (See TripAdvisor review). The Dim Sum there is good but not great and stick with the steamed items and stay away from the fried ones. Their soup dumplings are delicious.
I wanted a change from that when I returned in 2025 and ate at Gorgers at 116 West State Street. The unique sandwich shop bakes its own bread for the sandwiches and makes their own homemade lemonade and iced tea.
Gorgers at 116 West State Street in the Commons area
They had a great listing of sandwiches and I settled on the Shrimp Po Boy which was excellent. They bake all their bread for the rolls snd all their vegetable are locally sourced. You could taste it in every bite.(
The Shrimp Po Boy
A great decision
The trip home took about four hours and I reached the New Jersey border as it started to get dark. Thank God for Daylight Savings time.
The Commons during the summer of 2025
Going to Ithaca brings back so many great memories and special times in my life and the side trip to Bovina Center made it fun to visit and explore this part of New York State. Take time out to visit these small towns in upstate New York. You will never know what you can find.
Still going to Ithaca reminds me how I got there in the first place and I always thank my dad for that. His support and encourage meant a lot to me when I was there as a student.
As the leaves started to change colors and wanting to see the foliage around the state before all the leaves fall (they have since), I decided to revisit a place that I was exploring over the summer.
In 2021, a series of storms have knocked the foliage off the trees earlier than before so I got to see what was left before everything falls off the trees this week. In the summer of 2023, everything was in full bloom and sunny and warm. It is amazing how beautiful the area looks in the summer months.
Budd Lake in the summer of 2023
Budd Lake in the Fall of 2025
As I have said in previous blogs, I have never really gotten to know my own state and I was born and raised in New Jersey. I have wanted to see some of the far corners of the state and explore the back highways and roads and see some of the parks, beaches and historical sites that I have only read about but never visited (this has been very helpful in my blog “VisitingaMuseum.com).
Driving around Budd Lake on Shore Drive
.
The driving around Budd Lake in the Fall of 2025
Along the way, I have visited many beautiful parts of the state and formed my own opinion of the ‘Garden State’. There is much more to see of the state than what is on the opening of ‘The Soprano’s” and the description of the state in most TV sitcoms.
Driving around Budd Lake on Shore Drive
I made the trip to Budd Lake and the surrounding areas are off Route 80 and in a section of the state near the Delaware Water Gap, a scenic section of the Delaware River surrounding a mountain pass. During the summer, it is lush with trees but in the fall is when it shows its true beauty. The leaves change colors at different times due to the species of tree. The effect is trees at various hues of green, yellow, gold and red at different points during the months of September, October and early November. By the second week of November, the show is over for New Jersey as the leaves have fallen.
Driving around Shore Drive on Budd Lake
In 2016, I had never explored Budd Lake before and took a sunny, warm November afternoon after I had finished everything I needed to do at the house and took a road trip to the area. This is a section off the highway that most people do not venture unless they really want to see this section of the state or live or work here.
In 2021, the day was rather gloomy but still it was a nice day to get out of the house and explore the area in more detail. I missed not coming out here in all these years. On the trip to the area again in the summer of 2023, it was sunny, warm and clear, the perfect day to visit the lake and the surrounding farms.
In 2025, I had not noticed how fast the foliage had changed and I wanted to replace a lot of pictures where the foliage was not full. So I started the trip at 10:00am and made my first stop the Delaware Water Gap and then worked my way back down Route 46 East to Budd Lake and stopped at a lot of farms along the way. The whole trip was much nicer with all the colors on the trees.
Budd Lake is small but breathtaking in the summer of 2023
The road that lines the lake, Sand Shore Road, only takes you to a portion of the lake front, which is lined with beautiful homes and spectacular views. A lot of the homes reminded me of former summer homes that had been winterized while others were new and much more elaborate reflected the money that is moving into the area.
Since COVID and my first visit in 2020, I can see that many of these homes had been through a renovation since the last time I travelled out here. Still when I drove down the road, I felt like I was taking a step back into the 1970’s. It was a just the feel of the homes that I passed.
The view of Budd Lake from the pier.
It was a sunny day that reflected off the lake, which looks more like a catch bastion than a true lake. There were not the boat slips or yacht clubs that normally would line a lake but still there were some smaller boats lining the shoreline. There were small parks with views of the lake and as you entered the Budd Lake State Wildlife Management Area and Bog, the road moved away from the lake and it was mostly homes and woods and not much more to see unless you went into the park. Upon exiting, you are back on Route 46 West.
Budd Lake in the Summer of 2024
The Lake in the Fall of 2025
In 2021, I drove off Sand Shore Road and travelled down the back roads closer to the lake and drove past houses closer to the other shore line and even discovered an independent theater, the Pax Amicus Theater at 23 Lake Shore Road, that was performing that afternoon. You have to travel down Pine Grove Road and Manor House Road on the other side of the lake to see the beauty of the area and views of the lake.
The sun shining on the lake in the Fall of 2025
Route 46 West (I live off Route 46 East) is the highway that time forgot. It goes through many small towns being the main artery of the state until Route 80 was built many years later. It takes you through quaint small towns that had once seen better days but were improving in post COVID times or long stretches of woods.
Driving along the lake in the Fall months
The beauty of Budd Lake in the Fall of 2025
.
The sun blazing in the Fall of 2025
The sun simmering on the lake at Budd Lake
Looking across the lake in the Fall of 2024
You have to get to places like Budd Lake when the foliage is at its peak to appreciate it. In 2025, I lucked out and had the day off before a major storm was going to hit and I knew that would knock the foliage down. It had been so dry for the last several months, it really did affect the trees.
The first time I visited Budd Lake in 2016 and then again in 2024, I ate at a terrific pizzeria named Enzo’s Ristorante & Pizza at 382 Route 46 West, which I highly recommend (see review on TripAdvisor). The pizza there amazing and the service is excellent. They are very friendly and the pizza is just wonderful. Their sauce is full of flavor and is cooked perfectly. They also have a nice lunch dinner menu. I passed it on this trip unfortunately wanting to try another place.
Since my visit in 2016, the restaurant has grown three fold and now takes up three full parts of the strip mall it is located in. The pizza was fantastic.
The Cheese Pizza is delicious.
In 2021, I had spent my morning at the Knights of Columbus in Lodi, NJ monthly All you can Eat breakfast so I was hardly hungry. They had a buffet of pancakes, French Toast, Bacon, Sausage, Hash Brown Potatoes, Fresh rolls with butter and coffee, tea and juice that you could load up on. I personally love breakfast so I went back several times. Needless to say, I was not hungry for most of the road trip. So, by the time I got to Budd Lake that morning, food was the last thing on my mind. I had wanted to try the Budd Lake Diner 120 West Route 46 but that will be for another time.
In 2023, I got to try Budd Lake Diner for breakfast when I was hungry for another meal.
The food at the diner is really good and the service is excellent. It is a typical New Jersey diner with the long booths and the extensive menu. The service was excellent and very friendly.
The inside of the Budd Lake Diner
I ordered and ate my second breakfast of the day. I had the French Toast platter with scrambled eggs and sausage patties. The portion size was really big and the meal was delicious ( see my review on TripAdvisor). The prices were also very fair in comparison to its Bergen County counterparts.
The French Toast platter with scrambled eggs and sausage patties at the Budd Lake Diner.
When breakfast was over, I toured around the lake and took pictures from all angles. It was nice to see the lake finally with some activity around it. People were sitting on the beach and boating in the lake. As I toured Shore Drive that surrounds part of the lake, I could see the numerous signs asking people to stay off their property. Shore Drive only follows the lake for a short distance and then veers off and the rest of the lake is surrounded by parkland.
Exploring the edges of Budd Lake
After my tour up the lake, I doubled back to a small shore line on Budd Lake off Route 46 East and stopped and sat on a bench and just watched the day develop in the afternoon. It was something to just relax and look at the colors of the trees surrounding the lake. In the summer, this little park was filled with sun-bathers finishing their day but today I had it all to myself along with the birds who were looking for a handout. I could not believe that seagulls were in shore this far. In the summer of 2023, there were a few people sunbathing in the early morning not paying much attention to me taking pictures.
The small beach at Bud Lake
Before I left Budd Lake I stopped at RH Farm stand, a small farmstand at 500 Route 46 West. I would spend most of my day exploring various farmstands along to way to see the selection and prices of the items. For the most part, everyone was charging New York City farmers market prices for produce. Some stand were charging $6.99 a pound for peaches and $12.00 for a small pie. I guess many of these people were hoping people from Manhattan were coming out for the day. I did find some decent prices but for the most part most of the stands were pretty expensive.
This picturesque little farm stand has been in business since 2012 (I would have thought much longer) and offers an array of produce, gourmet products and flowers. I just thought it looked really nice. The prices are a little high though. Still quality does have a price tag to it.
The entrance of RH Farm Stand
The inside of RH Farms Farm Stand
The inside of RH Farms
The beautiful flower arrangement at RH Farms
The peaches and produce at RH Farms
4th of July display in Summer of 2024
4th of July display in the Summer of 2024. Uncle Sam looks on
Christmas display in the Summer of 2024
The plant display in the Summer of 2024
Their little cat welcome me with a couple of charming rubs to my legs
Visiting the farm in October of 2025
The sign welcoming you to the farm
I was out exploring the Route 46 corridor several years ago from Budd Lake to the Delaware Water Gap and I visited a series of small farm stands along the way. RH Farm at 590 US 46 was one of the standouts that I visited .
It was not just the selection of fresh produce I saw on each of my visits in both in the Spring and Fall, but it was the selection of the variety of goods there was to purchase and the way they were displayed.
There was also a nice selection of freshly baked goods, arts and crafts items and plants and flowers all beautifully displayed like a boutique.
The inside of the farm
The selection of pumpkins in the Fall
I love the way they decorate the farm for each holiday. They decorated not just the selling space but other parts of the farm as well like the grounds and the barn area.
The display of holiday crafts and pumpkins
The holiday display of pumpkins and flowers
The Halloween decorations
I continued down Route 46 West and made a stop in the historical town of Hackettstown, the home of M & M/Mars. You would never know this was a corporate town of anything as the downtown seemed somewhat depressed in 2016. A lot of the stores were empty or filled with some not great shops. This all changed when I visited in 2023.
Downtown Hackettstown NJ in 2023
The statue of the Minuteman greets you as you enter Hackettstown, NJ.
The sign welcoming you to Hackettstown, NJ studded with M & M’s.
In 2021, Downtown Hackettstown had changed a lot. Most of the buildings in the downtown had been renovated and there were lots of new restaurants and shops. There were new design stores, consignment shops, innovative restaurants that were not the cheap and several new antique shops. I guess the New Yorkers in their quest to leave the City discovered Hackettstown as well and started to renovate the town. Many of the Victorian structures in the downtown area as well as the homes on the outskirts of the town have been fixed up and brought back to their glory.
David’s Restaurant at the start of Downtown Hackettstown
When I returned in the Summer of 2023, the whole town seemed to be renovated and so much more vibrant since my last visit two years earlier. Admittingly it was right after everything opened up after COVID, but there was a new feeling here very active and spirited. The whole downtown had changed from the first time I visited back in 2016. The town looked like it came back to life.
The front of the church on a quiet Saturday in 2024
The church in the Fall of 2024
The beauty of the church in the Fall of 2024
There were two terrific places that I found walking around. One was Tracey’s Candy Shoppe at 210 Main Street (see TripAdvisor review), where the owner’s mother and talked when I walked in. They had set the shop up in one of the older buildings in town and the affect made it look like an old-fashioned shop from the turn of the last century.
They had all sorts of candy from the 60’s and 70’s at not such 60’s and 70’s prices. They also had a selection of penny candies that were more than a penny. I found a Charleston Chew, that are still the most amazing candy. More of nougat than a bar.
Tracey’s Candy Shoppe at 210 Main Street
I met the owner’s mother again on my visit this time and she let me sample some of the homemade chocolates that they made inhouse. At $6.00 a quarter pound I have to admit the cinnamon truffle she let me sample was delicious but hardly matched the price. I settled on a small bag of fruit slices ($1.99), which I like much more. I had not had them in years and loved biting into their sugary core.
The homemade chocolates at Tracy’s Candy Shop
The owner’s mother explained how they are trying to bring the downtown back with concerts and farmer’s markets. In its day, it must have been a nice downtown but some of these small towns off the beaten track have been affected by malls and the rerouting of the major highways. Still a classic little place like this, set up to look 1930’s has a place in the books. It had an interesting selection of candies and a very warm, welcoming feel to it and you should visit it when you are in the area.
Tracey’s Candy Shoppe selection is wonderful
Five years later in 2021, it looks like that strategy worked as the downtown is coming back to life. They will be having a traditional tree lighting ceremony and holiday fest the first weekend of December and all sorts of activities during the month of December. It looks like it will keep changing going forward.
Down the block, I found a Colombian bakery, Pan Rico Bakery at 183 Main Street, for a quick snack. They have the best version of an empanada that they serve with a chili hot sauce and for a $1.30 each, they are a steal.
I ordered one of the beef ones which I ate going back to the car and it was well worth the trip inside as the sauce had some kick to it. It is a good place to stock up on a long road trip.
The bakery selection at Ran Rico Bakery
I continued my trip out of Hackettstown and passed the rest of the downtown and the surrounding neighborhood that had many beautiful Victorian homes that lined the streets as you exited town. It showed the money that once was in this town and the influence it once had in the area. Unfortunately, unless you work for one of the major firms out here it must be a hard place to live.
Downtown Hackettstown, NJ and their stock of Victorian homes.
This is becoming quite the downtown in Central New Jersey
The Historical District of Hackettstown offers a treasure trove in Victorian architecture and you can see that new people are moving in and renovating this neighborhood surrounding downtown. The gingerbread architecture is being touched up and the colors of the homes reflect the care residents are putting into their property.
The historic Wilson House location where George Washington was entertained
One place I had missed on my previous trips was the Hackettstown Historical Society. The society is at 106 Church Street right off the downtown and is packed with local information on the town and the surrounding area.
The Hackettstown Historical Society at 106 Church Street.
I visited the Hackettstown Historical Society on a recent trip to Downtown Hackettstown and this small historical society is packed with interesting information on the history of the town and the local town of Mansfield, NJ that has more information but they do not have their own building for a society of their own.
The historical information on Mansfield Township, NJ
The other exhibits on the first floor are on the history and clothing of the “Gibson Girl”. It shows how women were progressing in society during the late 1800’s after the Civil War. It shows how women gained more independence after the war years and showed it in their clothing, physical activities and schooling.
The “Gibson Girl” exhibit
The first floor exhibition also had a display on the first Miss America from New Jersey, Bette Cooper, who was Miss Bertram Island. She won the award and then ran away from the award. She never wanted to participate in the Miss America Foundation and because of her, there was a contract put together for future winners to participate in activities for the organizations. The Cooper family resided in Hackettstown, NJ at the time of her being a winner.
Miss America winner Bette Cooper
Another exhibit explained the transportation for Hackettstown and its influence in the outside community.
The Transportation exhibit in Hackettstown, NJ.
The local toy manufacturers are displayed on the first floor as well.
The Toy Company exhibition on the first floor.
The Beton (Bergen Toy and Novelty) Manufacturing Company display. The company manufactured at the turn of the century in Hackettstown, NJ.
On the second floor, the museum has displays on the businesses of the community. There were many manufacturers of items such as carriages, farm equipment and of course the M & M/Mars Company.
The Business display on the second floor.
Another exhibit was on how a households were run at the turn of the last century and what went into keeping house in those days. From equipment to clothing you could see how a woman’s time was taken up on a daily basis.
The Household Exhibit on the second floor
The Kitchen exhibit on the second floor.
The museum is free but donations are accepted. It is a nice diversion when visiting the downtown area for shopping and eating out. I explored the edge of the downtown before I left the town and discovered that two new microbreweries had opened up. The hipsters found their way here. I even got to enjoy the music at the local Farmers Market.
As I left Downtown Hackettstown to continue my trip to the Delaware Water Gap, I had visited the Farmer’s Market in town before it closed for the day and then made a effort to visit a lot of the farm stands that dot Route 46 West on my way to the park.
Downtown Hackettstown in the Summer of 2024
.
Leaving downtown in the Fall of 2025
The foliage in Hackettstown, NJ in 2025
My first stop was right out of town at Best’s Farm Stand at 1 Russling Road. This small farm stand had all sorts of fruits and vegetables and I made a quick note of all the items they carried.
The small stand carries an array of fruits and vegetables.
The fresh peaches at Best’s Fruit Farm.
Best Fruit Farm in the Fall of 2024
Best Fruit Farm in the Fall of 2024
Pumpkins at Best Fruit Farm in the Fall of 2024
I stopped in Independence, NJ to a new farm stand that had just reopened to new owners. The family that reopened the Vienna Hill Farm & Market at 3 Asbury Road did a beautiful job not just renovating the farm stand but renovating the Victorian home that was adjacent to it.
In front of the farm was a large garden where a lot of the fresh fruits and vegetables are being grown and the owner was telling me how they are working with local artists and bakers to bring in new product. The farm stand was gearing down for the closing on Thanksgiving weekend so there was not that much in ways of items left. When I visited in 2023, the farm was stocked with products and was having very brisk business.
The inside of Vienna Hill Farm in summer of 2023
There were still freshly baked pies, cider doughnuts, greeting cards made locally and fresh produce still available for sale in a cheerful barn-like building that greeted passersby.
The farm stand is very modern and attractive
.
Vienna Farm would close for the season Halloween week
I followed Route 46 West along the section that lined the Pequest River, a tributary of the Delaware River, to my true lunch destination, Hot Dog Johnny’s. Hot Dog Johnny’s, located at 333 Route 46 West (see TripAdvisor and DiningonaShoeStringinNYC@Wordpress.com reviews) is like Rutt’s Hutt in Clifton.
It is an old roadside stand that people used to stop at on the way to view the Delaware Water Gap or needed to get into Pennsylvania. It must have been there since the 30’s and I had not eaten there since I was about ten when my parents took us kids there when viewing the Gap in the 70’s. The food has not changed.
Everyone must have had the same idea that I had because there was a line 20 deep after I got my food and sat at the outdoor picnic bench. What a view! The restaurant sits on the bank above the Pequest River and has the most beautiful view of the surrounding mountains where the foliage was a golden hue. The hot dogs have not changed in years.
Hot Dog Johnny’s had not changed my last visit in 1974
They are still deep fried in peanut oil and are every bit the crunch they were when I was a kid. Still crisp and full of flavor and still delicious with lots of mustard and pickles on them. The fries are still crisp and well-cooked and the birch beer is still ice cold. On a beautiful fall day overlooking the river and mountains, there is no place better to be.
The hotdogs and fries are the lunch of the day and are still extremely popular.
In 2016, It was one of those relaxing afternoons to watch the view and listen to the locals talk about the upcoming election (Yes, Trump did win). I still could not believe the number of Trump signs on the lawns in this area. Totally different from Bergen County.
The hot dogs and fries have not changed one bit
In 2021, some of the Trump signs are still up and it will be interesting to see what happens in 2024. Still the food has not changed a bit and I still ordered the same hot dog with mustard and pickle, French Fries and small birch beer ($5.72) and it still tasted the same as it had in 1975.
The view of the river from the back of Hot Dog Johnny’s
The river views of Hot Dog Johnny’s
The original stand still on the property
In the Fall of 2024, the restaurant was just amazing as it is in the summer.
The restaurant was celebrating its 80th birthday in the Fall of 2024
The hot dog restaurant in the fall
Fall at the restaurant
Fall at the restaurant
The end of the foliage across from the restaurant
The streams behind the restaurant in the Fall of 2024
The Foliage along Route 45 West was just breathtaking at the beginning of November of 2024. It was at its final stages but it was still amazing. I came back to the same farm in 2025 and was able to get more amazing pictures of the farm. The foliage was extremely colorful.
The fields were just being cut down for the end of the growing season
The farms along Route 45 West in 2025
The beauty of the farms
The same farm in the Spring
Their farmhouse in the Spring
Driving down Route 46 in the Fall is a real treat. The beauty of the foliage is just amazing. I had to keep stopping just to take pictures in the oddest spots just to get the right angles to share with readers.
It was such a beautiful path along Route 46 West in the Fall of 2024
What a spectacular day for a drive
The farms were so picturesque
What a beautiful day
When I traveled back in the Fall of 2025, the farm was just taking down the corn crops and plowing their fields.
The rolling hills of the farms around Route 46 West in Fall 2025
The farm in the Fall of 2025
I had never stopped to look at the river views but there was a real beauty in the them that I never noticed before. I had to stop in an obscure parking lot just to walk back a quarter mile just to take some pictures. It was just gorgeous site to see.
The river view
The river in the Fall of 2025 was just amazing
To add to the haunted pleasures of visiting the farms, the Ramsaysburg Cemetery lays just on the Marshall Farm Stand border. It adds to the spookiness of the Halloween holidays in the surrounding areas.
The cemetery is home to many veterans of the Revolutionary and Civil War
The lines of historic tombstones
Many of the tombstones date back to before the Revolutionary War
The grave of Revolutionary War veteran Private Barney Banghart
The back part of the cemetery has a spooky allure to it in the Fall
After my visit to the cemetery and walking amongst the historic tombstones of our brave veterans. I continued on my trip down Route 46 West and I made a few stops at some of the farm side stands. Talk about a step back in time when you could find fresh cider and doughnuts and freshly picked apples by the side of the road and not worry about germs. I stopped at Marshall’s Farm Stand at 114 Route 46 (see review on TripAdvisor) for fresh cider and cider doughnuts.
Talk about a step back in time. It reminded me of places I used to go to as a kid that have since disappeared with suburban sprawl. I toured around the stands with shelves of fresh jellies and honey, sauces and salsa and arts and crafts. I found a nearly empty shelf of pies and doughnuts and not a sweet roll in site. The girl working the register told me that everything sells out so quickly and they had baked a second batch of everything.
The signs leading to Marshall’s Farm Stand in the summer of 2023
There were three pies left and that was it of the baked good when I got there.
I did grab one of the last bags of cider doughnuts for the trip home and freshly made cider that you rarely see any more. Most of it is processed in big facilities now not at farms. Their doughnuts were outstanding ($4.75 for six). All but two got home with me as I munched on them on the trip through the Delaware Water Gap.
The Apple Cider doughnuts at Marshall’s Farm Market
The Apple Cider doughnuts are amazing here!
In 2021, I bought the same items again but after a big breakfast and then lunch, I only ate two of the doughnuts this time.
Marshall’s Farm Stand in the summer of 2023
The Fresh peaches and plums at Marshall’s Farm Stand.
I had a lively conversation about the upcoming election and trust me, this woman said a mouthful as most people were right before the election. In 2021, people were talking about the recent Governor’s election and Murphy seems in the doghouse with most of these residents. I said my good byes as quickly as possible. Politics is not something to talk about when buying food products.
Marshall’s Farm on a warm sunny afternoon.
The farm in October 2023 for Friday the 13th
The signs that Halloween is on its way
This chair must amuse people taking pictures at the farm.
The farm on Friday the 13th when I returned.
When I returned in October for Friday the 13th, all the farms were decorated for Halloween and all the fall festivals that were planned. It was supposed to rain over that weekend but on Friday October 13th, 2023, the weather was warm, clear and sunny.
Marshall’s Farm Market stand during the fall.
Decorated for Halloween 2024
The display was more elaborate in 2025
The Kiddie Corn Maze in the fall.
Just after Halloween, the farm prepared for Thanksgiving in Fall of 2024.
Marshall’s Farm on a warm November day
The front of the market in the Fall of 2024
They had delicious pies on sale when I visited
The delicious pies and pastries on sale at the farm
The homemade pies on sale
Get there early or they will run out of cider doughnuts
The fields in the Fall of 2024
For dessert, I decided to try another classic place to dine, Humpty Juniors at 72 Route 46 West in Columbia, NJ. This old fashioned sandwich and ice cream stand has been around for years and I wanted to stop for dessert.
Humpty Juniors at 72 Route 46 West in Columbia, NJ
I had passed Humpty Jr’s many times on my trips to the Delaware Water Gap and have never stopped before. I had stopped for lunch at Hot Dog Johnny’s up the road and I just needed a little dessert. I stopped for an ice cream sundae and while I waited I saw the sandwiches that were coming out of the kitchen. They looked amazing. The cheesesteak alone looked like it could feed two people and the hamburgers, that won awards, looked pretty good as well..
The full menu at Humpty Junior’s is really reasonable.
The Dessert menu at Humpty Junior’s
The Humpty Dumpty mascot at Humpty Juniors.
I just ordered a Vanilla Soft Serve with Strawberry sauce that hit the spot after a long ride down Route 46 West. It was a nice way to end my meal. The soft serve was rich and creamy and very reasonably priced. The strawberry sauce was the perfect topping to the sundae. It was nice to sit outside on the picnic benches and enjoy the sunshine. Humpty Juniors warrants another visit for lunch in the future.
The Strawberry Sundae with Strawberry topping.
That is exactly what I did in the Fall of 2024. I eyed the Cheesesteak with Wiz on my last visit and wanted to have it when I returned again. It was fantastic.
The Cheesesteak with French Fries at Humpty Jr.’s is amazing
The sandwich was really large and they put extra Cheese Wiz on it for me
Yum!
When I ate here in the Fall of 2025, I was in the mood for one of their Grass Fed Organic Cheeseburgers. It was really flavorful and juicy and perfectly cooked. The coupled with a soda was the perfect lunch.
The Organic Grass Fed Cheeseburger
The burger and fries were excellent
Yum!
Sometimes you need something sweet for dessert and I thought this is the perfect way to end a meal or just for a snack.
The delicious Cookies and Cream and Cotton Candy Ice Cream for dessert way to end a meal
My last part of the trip was Route 46 along the Delaware River which was still a blaze with color. In both 2016 and 2021, the leaves were still in the process of changing and it was awash with yellows, oranges, reds and gold. It was quite the site. As much as I wanted to venture further into the Gap, there was really no time to walk around as you seriously need time to walk the trails. Still the afternoon of foliage was impressive.
The entrance to Route 46 East from the Water Gap
In 2023, the trees were a sea of emerald as the last part of the summer was still in bloom. The park was still filled with hikers and kayakers who were just coming back from their journeys. The park was busy but the Visitors Center was still closed. I don’t think they will reopen this anytime soon. The paths were full of wildflowers and the views from the park were breath taking.
The Delaware River in the summer
The Delaware Water Gap at River Road off Route 209 in 2025
I was able to stop at the U turn on Route 80 West and park in the beginning of the trails that go through the park. Since it was so gloomy out and it was getting late in the afternoon, I stuck by the Visitors Center, which was closed for the season and walked along the river. Most of the foliage had been knocked off the trees by the two recent storms but there were still hues of gold and yellow with the trees that were left. It is a breathtaking view of the mountain range.
The foliage from the highway
When I returned in October of 2025, I timed it so that the trees would be at their peak and it was before a major rain storm the next day. I figured this would be the best time to come. Plus it was going to be the last nice day of that week. The trees were just past peak but because there had not been much rain that summer, the leaves changed earlier than in past years.
The mountains at the Delaware Water Gap from the Visitors Center in the Summer months
I had gotten to the park earlier than previous years and since I had time, I explored the park more than I had in the past. I looked at the map and decided to visit Turtle Beach , a small gap in the wood further up in the park. I could not believe how bad the roads were in the park. They were loaded with potholes and it made it very difficult to drive in the park. I thought it looked easy to get there but it took some time. My poor shock absorbers took a beating. I got there a half hour later and it was not worth it.
Turtle Beach is a small gap in the woods along the Delaware River for swimming and even with the signs that said that there was no swimming that day, people were in the water. I swear people do not want to listen as the algae count could have been high in the river.
Turtle Beach in the Delaware Water Gap Park in the summer
I originally want to venture further up the road but the roads were so bad and it would get dark by 8:00pm, that I did not want to risk it so I headed back to the main part of the park. That in its self was an adventur3e. At least there was no traffic heading back to the main road.
In 2016 and 2021, I did take one more stop through Hope and Blairstown. I wanted to visit The Toy Chest at 335 High Street, a toy store that is in the small downtown section of Hope, NJ. In 2023, I returned to hope to visit the Hope Historical Society which was supposed to be open and was closed during the hours of operation.
Downtown Hope, NJ in the Fall of 2023
Downtown Hope where Annie was dropped off and Ralph’s bike. Very Clever!
Plus, I wanted to see what the cemetery in Hope looked like this time of year. It is where the opening scene of the movie, “Friday the 13th” was shot. It looks more like the movie this time of year.
The Moravian Cemetery on High Street in Hope, NJ, where “Friday the 13th” was shot in 1979.
The location documentary on “Friday the 13th” in Blairstown and Hope, NJ
My interview with former Scout Master Donald Stein for the “35th Anniversary of the movie ‘Friday the 13th'”, who worked on the film with the Blairstown Fire Department.
The Blog on the Friends of the Lodi Memorial Library’s “35th Anniversary of the movie “Friday the 13th”:
After seeing the famous cemetery, I visited the stores in Hope. My first stop was the Hope Junction Antiques at 331 High Street. This unique little store was a combination of antiques, works from local artists and in the upstairs gallery was a display of art from a painter who lived in the area (this is where the famous diner scene from ‘Friday the 13th’ was shot).
The Hope Junction Antiques at 331 High Street in the fall of 2023.
The store windows for Halloween and Friday the 13th
The store already had their Christmas merchandise out and while I was admiring some handmade ornaments, the owner came out and we chatted for a while. Come to find out she was an expat from Bergen County and had lived in Ridgewood, NJ. Small world. What I did not know was that I later found out this store was used for the opening scene in the diner for the movie, “Friday the 13th”.
I ended up buying some of her handmade Christmas ornaments that she created when she was stuck at home during COVID. She created some interesting works. After my purchases, it was off to the toy store.
The merchandise at Hope Junction Antiques is one of a kind
On a recent trip back to Hope, NJ lead me back to Hope Junction Antiques and their beautiful Christmas windows and decorations. I went out for the ‘Hope Annual Moravian Christmas’ on December 11th, 2021, an event which included a Lantern tour of the Downtown buildings, a live Nativity and a Candlelight Service at the St. John’s Methodist Church at 7:30pm. The luminaries that had been planned had been canceled because of the upcoming rainstorm but they put some out for the tour on the edges of the streets.
My first stop when I went into town was to talk to the owner of the store, Lisa Iulo, to tell her that my mom loved here homemade Santa ornaments that I bought from her last month. She took pictures of the outside of her store for me before I started the tour. Talk about beautiful decorations!
Hope Junction Antiques at Christmas time is amazing!
These festive little sheep are available at Hope Junction Antiques
There are interesting items to peek in the window at Hope Junction Antiques
The Toy Chest toy store
The Toy Chest was still open at 4:00pm and I had a lively conversation with the owner, Kirk Perez, who funny enough was another expat from Little Ferry and had moved down to this section of New Jersey to be closer to his wife’s family. It is a great little store loaded with all sorts of games, plastic toys and action figures.
The Toy Chest has an interesting selection
What he has added since my last visit since 2016 is all sorts of interesting high-end collectables dealing with horror and fantasy films, a complete line of Playmobile and Lego products and creating a showcase on the second floor for wooden toys and board games. The main floor also has an extensive collection of action figures and memorabilia from the film “Friday the 13th”.
The front of the store
There are a few more unique little stores along the strip but otherwise I just walked around a little and then got to Blairstown down the road for a quick drive through the downtown at twilight. It was a nice little tour.
In 2021, I was chatting so much with the merchants in Hope, NJ that I never got to Blairstown. It has gotten so dark so early (I hate it when it gets dark at 5:00pm) and had been so gloomy outside, I decided to head home early. It was pitch black outside when I got to Route 80 East. When visiting in the summer, I wanted to see more of the park.
In 2023, on the beautiful fall afternoon, all these smart merchants embraced the original film and were either wearing ‘Friday the 13th’ shirts, carrying Friday the 13th merchandise or having photo shots as the real estate office did with the bicycle. The Moravian Church was even selling cemetery dirt for $10.00 for a donation to help the church.
The cemetery dirt on sale on Friday the 13th.
The afternoon was a step back to a quieter time where people are not on top of each other and there is a slower pace. It really is another part of New Jersey not touched by time as the other parts of the state have become. It still is the New Jersey of my childhood.
The Delaware Water Gap in all its glory in the summer of 2023.
Hope was just as beautiful in the Fall of 2024. The town had just finished a busy Halloween and was preparing for Christmas.
The Methodist Church
Where Annie was dropped off in the movie “Friday the 13th”
Open: Sunday & Monday 9:00am-4:00pm/Tuesday Closed/Wednesday 12:00pm-6:00pm/Thursday-Saturday 9:00am-6:00pm (Seasonal-will close after Thanksgiving and reopen by Easter. Please check their website).
Open: Sunday 2:00pm-4:00pm/Monday-Tuesday/Closed/Wednesday 2:00pm-4:00pm/Thursday/Closed/Friday 2:00pm-4:00pm/Saturday Closed (check the website for additional open hours)
mywalkinmanhattan 