Friday, October 26th, 2007
Last night, Laura and I had the good fortune of visiting “The Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze at Van Cortlandt Manor.” I have seen this around and have always wanted to go, but never did.
I got some free tickets that allowed us in on either Thursday or Sunday nights. We chose Thursday because we thought things would be a little slower then. As it turned out, every half hour time slot was sold out, except for the 9PM one. You have to remember, they are marketing this event all the way down into Manhattan. With the tickets we had, it didn’t matter if the event was sold out, we were still able to go at any time.
We decided to try for the 7:30PM sliver. We drove down Rt.9 into Croton-on-Hudson. I have really only been in this area about six times in my life. It is all so foreign to me. Anyway, we made it to the event and parked in the Shoprite parking lot next door. We walked across the parking lot and entered the event. Things were busy, but not too much yet, which was nice.
So there we were, walking through the gates into about a million blazing pumpkins. I have to say, the setup was pretty nice. There were quite a few people, so the walking was kind of slow, but that gave us time to see what things were about. My nature is to bust through, take pictures and drive home. I was forced to relax. Also, I am not sure how Laura feels about her nights being rushed. She does know me well enough now to know what to expect. One word of warning to those people who want a less crowded evening…go to the later shows. The kids are probably in bed by that point.
I am just going to list the best pictures of the evening below. It was dark, so my camera didn’t do the best job, but Photoshop helped quite a bit.
This is the arch of pumpkins you walk through on your way up to the ticket people.
A pretty neat carving hanging from one of the trees.
These are both of the stone manor house at Van Cortlandt Manor. As you can see, the lights change color.
The rest of the photos are of what we saw during the walk through the grounds.
The whole walk probably takes between a half hour and forty five minutes. We had fun…just be careful, they funnel you through the gift shop at the end. So, if you have kids and you think they may want little trinkets that you aren’t interested in, be sure to shield their view.
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Posted in Autumn, Travels | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007
I have to say, I am getting a little sick of the drive to work. Perhaps I should say that I am getting a little sick from the drive to work.
The minute I get on Interstate 84, I see the diesel smoke pouring out of the trucks on the highway. I try to change lanes, so it doesn’t come into my car, but I can smell it anyway. There are so many trucks on the road, it gets difficult at times.
When I hit the toll booth, things get really bad. Everyone is giving their cars so much damn gas, the whole place stinks. I couldn’t even imagine working in one of those toll booths. Poor people. They probably all have asthma.
I don’t know what to do. There really is only one way to work. I try to breath as shallow as I can, but I still get headaches from all the pollution. It truly is disgusting.
I am not sure why I decided to write about this. Maybe a trucker will read this and realize how disgusting they are making my life. Maybe they can use biodiesel.
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Tuesday, September 18th, 2007
This morning’s drive was a mixed bag…sunny in some parts and foggy in the rest. I thought I got some really cool shots of the fog, but they ended up to be just gray.
If I was able to stop on the side of the road today, I think I would have been able to get some really interesting photos. There was cool fog mixed with the Newburgh/Beacon Bridge and some clouds were hanging about half way up Mount Beacon. Since I was on the highway, I thought I would look like a herb pulling over to take pictures. Also, I probably would’ve been killed by that one 85 pound woman driving that huge Suburban all alone. I thought it was a bus.
Anyway, to the pictures. One of them actually has some leaf change…
Ok, this isn’t the one with the leaf change. It’s a pretty picture of a field. Remember, this isn’t too easy to do while driving. I think whoever was driving behind me probably thought I was drunk.
Here is another good shot of some trees.
This is the one with some color change. Right in the center of the photo, you will notice a little something peeking out. Actually, there was some action today, but I didn’t get too much of it. I will have to make more of an effort next time.
I thought this was pretty neat. I was sitting on Rt.208 in Montgomery, waiting to turn left to get on Interstate 84, when I looked to the left. Up on the wires were some birds. Since it was cloudy, I was able to get a nice pic right into the sun.
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Tuesday, September 4th, 2007
On Sunday, Laura and I decided to hop in the car for a drive. We crossed over the ridge and jumped on Rt.209 heading North. We drove through a few back roads in the Stone Ridge, NY area, which was nice. I told Laura that I wanted to visit High Falls, NY, because we had driven through there before and I liked the area. It is tucked in the ridge, near some pretty historic things like the Depuy Canal House and the Old Stone Aqueduct.
Since I am a walking blog, I decided to take some photos…
This is one of those old signs that I love so much. Obviously, I like to take pictures of these things. This one desribes the “Old Depuy House.”
This is the Old Depuy House itself.
After walking around a little bit, we passed another old sign, the “Old Stone Aqueduct” one.
And this is the Old Stone Aqueduct, or part of it anyway. I am pretty organized aren’t I? I am not sure of the story behind this water system and the web didn’t offer too much. Perhaps someone can enlighten me.
We decided to eat because we were hungry. Laura knew of a Sushi place in the Depuy House because she had seen signs while passing by.
Here is the entrance to the restaurant. It was downstairs in the old wine cellar.
I secretly took some pictures from our table. This is what I love about the area…hidden little treasures like this as well as all the history. It’s not as historic as Europe, but I think it will do.
After we ate and left the restaurant, we walked around a bit. There was some sort of a yard sale going on with a bunch of tables. We strolled through. I kept thinking of my parents. They would’ve enjoyed it because they love browsing through these types of things. I also grabbed a few more pictures.
On the way out, we decided to take a road that is less traveled. We drove from High Falls to the entrance of the Mohonk Mountain House and then down to New Paltz. Above is a photo of the Catskill Mountains that I grabbed while driving up the hill.
I would say it was a pretty good day. Anything to get us out exploring the area when the sun is shining is a good day.
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Monday, August 13th, 2007
I am getting a little sick and tired of traveling through little towns that are desperate for income. You see the strangest people walking the sidewalks along with a whole row of stores on main street that are ready to close down. It’s almost like no one in the area has a good idea. Who the heck knows.
So, with that in mind, I have been on a little hunt. Where are Laura and I going to spend the next chunk of life? I think we have narrowed it down to either Woodstock, NY or Red Hook, NY. Both of those town are beautiful. We have been to Woodstock quite a bit lately and found it very relaxing. It is off the beaten path a bit though. I have been thinking of something a little closer to the middle…you know, near Massachusetts, Kingston and the Catskills. Two towns close to the middle are Red Hook and Rhinebeck, NY.
Here is what I like about these two towns -
1. Nice proximity to the Berkshires, Kingston, the Catskills and Albany
2. Close to the Hudson River
3.Close to Bard College
4. Nice history of both towns
5. Nice culture
6. Clean people
So, after thinking all these things, we decided to jump in the car yesterday to go for a ride. We drove up Rt.209 and crossed the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge. Our first order of business was to visit this campground that my family camped at when we were kids. It is called Interlake RV Park. After traveling through the woods for a while and getting kind of lost, I asked for directions, twice. We passed the coolest place. It is called Omega Institute. Check it out. It was nice to see something buried way back in the woods that was thriving. The parking lot was full. We kept on driving and finally found the campground. I talked to the lady in the office and she let us look around. The reason I remember this campground is because when we went on a boat ride in their lake, a snake slithered out from under the seat. We had just gotten out of the boat, so we were lucky.
I have to say, this campground was thriving too. It was a pretty nice place, very well kept and clean. The only thing that bugged me is that the individual camp sites were kind of close together. Also, there seemed to be a lot of permanent RVs. Otherwise, it was nice.
After that, we headed down Rt.19 and some other roads into Rhinebeck. I visited Rhinebeck a while ago, but really didn’t get a good look at it. We came in from the West, so I got a better look at it this time. I had no idea how nice it really is. I didn’t get any really nice pictures, but I did get a few.
The picture above is the sign of the Beekman Arms Inn. This was a really nice place. Who knows…maybe one day we will stay there. Ok, put this town on the “move to” list.
We drove North on Rt.9G out of town towards Red Hook. We drove through Red Hook and found that very nice as well. That went on the “move to” list too. It is a small town and a little more quiet, so I like it. It is also closer to the bridge and Bard College. That is good. Since it is less crowded, I think there might be more potential for that town. I can mold it into what I want.
The last thing I wanted to see was Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson. I was telling Laura that I find it amazing that I have lived in this area for such a long time and have never seen this school. I have heard that it is nice and I wanted to see for myself. Soooo, yeah, Bard College is really nice. There were little tours going on for the new students. Either that or students looking at colleges. I guess this is the time of year they do this stuff. The people looked very nice, even a little hippy-ish. I like that too. We drove through campus to see the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts. They have all sorts of shows there, which I will be bringing Laura to in a few months.
The end of the day was coming and we had some shopping to do on the other side of the river, so we headed out. During our drive back across the bridge, I handed the camera to Laura to see if she could get any good shots of the Catskill Mountians. That is a real perk…that view. Some of them were blurry because we were moving, but one came out the best. There was also the coolest little airport right off the highway on the Kingston side of the bridge. It’s called the Kingston-Ulster Airport and is for small aircraft.
We did our shopping and headed home to look on realtor.com. I will keep you informed. It may take a few years.
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Wednesday, July 25th, 2007
I took the day off yesterday to visit Cooperstown, NY with Laura. I woke up to discover that I really didn’t want to be in the car for all that long, so we decided to go up to the Catskill Mountains for a day trip.
We started out by driving up Rt.209 through Ellenville. Then, we made a left on to Rt.3 in Kerhonkson all the way up past the Ashokan Reservoir. I wanted to show Laura the New York State DEC on Rt.28a. We pulled into the park like thing next to the DEC and I grabbed a photo…
That was pretty cool. I think the hippies from Woodstock come down here with their kids to walk around.
Ok, we continued on our way. One of the main reasons for this trip was to go up to visit the fruit and veggie stand up on Rt.32. We go up there every year and stock up good. The eatin’ in nice after that…
Since it wasn’t really harvest season all that much, we just picked up corn, green beans, tomatoes (which are really good) and some other things. Oh, by the way, the fruit stand is called Story Farms Home Grown Produce. I am thinking they are located in Catskill, NY. If you make a left while heading up Rt.32, you can go up to Hunter Mountain.
Every time we drive around in this area, Laura always starts talking about her past with the Catskill Game Farm. She used to up there with her grandparents and pet the animals. Well, she wanted to show me what it was all about. She knew they already closed down, but still wanted me to see it.
It’s true…the Catskill Game Farm is closed down. It was quite depressing to look at the place. The parking lots were barren and not a soul was in sight, except for the girl who was tailgating me all the way up the road. At least Laura got to show me what the thing was about. It kind of reminded me of Binghamton’s Ross Park Zoo.
On the way back, we found a shortcut down Rt.33 into Woodstock. Of course we had to visit there. We are considering a move to that area in the future and are doing a little driving around to get used to it. It was pretty nice just hanging around.
Back in the day, I would’ve just driven through town and went home. These days, I am stopping and sitting around like a lazy fool. Laura was looking for a birthday present for her mother. It’s coming up fast. We even had lunch at Joshua’s Cafe in Woodstock. That was nice. We had a good vegetarian lunch.
Right after lunch, we walked up a few shops into Woodstock Wines and Liquors. I like to get crazy wine from that place. I think this time we got honey berry and rasberry wine. I don’t remember, but I know it was fruit wine. I got a blueberry wine from there last time I was visiting and it was really tasty.
The last part of our day was a bit of a mission. I wanted to cruise over to Phoenicia, NY. I am all about checking out campgrounds to possibly stay at in the future. The campground is called Phoenicia Black Bear Campground. Every time I passed by in the past, I always thought it was really cute. I just had to walk inside this time.
We took Rt.212 and then Rt.40 into Phoenicia and took a look around. This campground is situated really nicely right on the shore of the Esopus River and is across the street from Town Tinker Tube Rental. People like to float down the Esopus.
Well, I took a little stroll inside the campground and thought it was really cute. One thing I did notice was the smell of septic. I also noticed a few kind of “permanent campers” scattered around. I saw the flex pipe coming out of the sides of the campers. This is for the septic, I think. That kind of turned me off. They did have really nice tent sites right on the side of the river though.
I walked back to the car, where Laura was and decided to drive through, just to see how big it was. We got in and made a quick left and then another quick left and realized that we were on the way out. Ok, not that big. Laura also noticed the septic smell and we crossed that campground off our list.
Overall, we had a really good day driving through the Catskills.
Till next time…
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Friday, July 6th, 2007
Laura and I decided to go on a little trip. Well, actually, Laura’s sister Kim was getting married, so the trip was important. The marriage was to take place in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.
I took so many photos during this trip that I decided I am going to break them up into a bunch of little posts. The reason for this is to give some information. Before we left for this trip, we had so many questions. Now, we have some answers. I just hope I can remember everything.
Anyway, the first part of the trip to Punta Cana was the airplane ride from Stewart International Airport (SWF) to Philadelphia International Airport (PHL). The second part of getting there was the airplane ride from Philadelphia to Punta Cana Airport (PUJ).
Now, I know there aren’t too many people out there who care about our airplane ride, but I did see some pretty neat things. Here are some photos and descriptions below…
This photo is of our takeoff from Stewart. We took off on runway 27 heading West. We took off in a Dash 8 Turboprop. The flight was pretty short getting to Philadelphia, but I had my camera ready in my hand. I was a bit leary of the turboprop, but I really liked it once we were on. Those props are pretty damn strong. The plane has nice pull for takeoff.
After we had some altitude, we passed over Walden, NY. I remember this town, because during one of my flights, I passed over and asked what that cute little town on the river was.
After passing over the Shawangunk Ridge, I spotted Joseph Y Resnick Airport in Ellenville, NY. I just thought that was a pretty cool photo.
Remember the trip Laura and I took almost to Frost Valley? Along the way on that trip, we saw the Rondout Reservoir. Here is a photo of it from the air.
We also saw the Neversink Reservoir from the air as well.
This is really cool. I have been waiting to post this photo the whole trip. It is the first time I ever saw live wind turbines (from the air and from the ground). Towards the right, there was a whole row of them, but the second photo didn’t come out that great. I think this was in Pennsylvania somewhere.
This photo was taken during our approach to Philadelphia Airport. I am not sure of the runway, but the final approach went over the river.
We took off from Philadelphia on an Airbus 320a. This was a pretty good plane. It is smaller than some other jetliners but flew very well. After leaving Philadelphia, almost the whole flight was over the Atlantic Ocean, so there wan’t much point of taking photos of nothing. We had to re-route three times due to the weather. We didn’t hit much turbulence. The photo above is one over Punta Cana (inland a bit). I kept seeing these sticks coming out of the ground and later realized they were palm trees. Also, I saw a bunch of white animals that I learned were goats. Punta Cana is a different place.
I brought my laptop on this trip and hoped to use it. The first time I had a little time to take it out and turn it on was while waiting for our flight out of Stewart. I thought I connected to the internet, but was brought to a page asking for about $7 to use their internet access. I turned the computer off a little agitated. I thought airports had good internet, not something I was going to have to pay almost $7 to use for about ten minutes. Oh well.
We landed without incident in Punta Cana to only be welcomed by a blast of hot air…
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Sunday, June 10th, 2007
If you are reading this post, you have probably seen Mount Beacon (Beacon Mountain). Maybe you didn’t even know you were looking at it. Just doing a Google Search surprised me…there are so many people interested in this mountain. Here are some interesting links…
- Beauty atop Mount Beacon
- Gateway to Mount Beacon Park
- Save the Mount Beacon Fire Tower
- Mount Beacon Amateur Radio Club
- Mt. Beacon Incline Railway
I always knew there were a bunch of radio towers up on the moutain, but I was not aware of how many people love this place. I once new a guy…yeah, I knew a guy who used to ride a quad up Mount Beacon. Boy, he told me it sure was a difficult ride. The bottom was easy to get up, but once he hit the old ski slopes, it was nothing but huge rocks. That is pretty hard terrain for a quad.
I have heard many stories about Mount Beacon, but I really don’t know what to believe. Here is what I do know…the mountain offers a view over the City of Beacon, NY. There are radio towers, among other towers at the top of the mountain. There are also some old fire towers up there too. It offers some really great ATV riding as well, but you didn’t hear that from me.
Here are the rumors that I heard, which may very well be true. You can see New York City on a clear day. There used to be an old ski lodge at the top of the mountain with ski slopes going down the face. There was a trolly type thing that used to get pulled up the mountain. Who knows…
One of the most interesting things to me is the reservoir at the top of the mountain. I have some photos of that below. Well, what am I waiting for? Let’s see the photos…
See, I told you there was a reservoir on the mountain. This old broken down sign tells us that the reservoir holds 125 million gallons of water.
This is a view across the reservoir to one of the old fire towers. This particular one is towards the back/side of the mountain and is not as well known as the one people generally talk about at the front of the mountain.
This is a photo of the Mt. Beacon reservoir dam. Yeah, this holds all the water back, so don’t jump on it.
This photo is a view from the top of Mt. Beacon. This view overlooks the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge and the Hudson River.
This is a photo taken from the same spot as the last one, but looking more North up the Hudson River, towards Kingston, NY.
Do you have any fables, myths or truths about this mountain? I would love to hear them.
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Thursday, June 7th, 2007
A really nice guy, Jack White of “Segway of the Hudson Valley,” stopped by work today to show us some of his good stuff.
Jack owns a few companies that sell high-end mobility products. He is quite informative and really knows his stuff. Anyway, today was the day of the Segway.
When Paul and I were leaving to go to lunch, we noticed a truck in the parking lot. I ran over to the truck because there was a Segway sitting on a trailer type thing on the back of it. I was so excited…I have always wanted to ride one of those things. I kept looking around for the person the Segway belonged to, but couldn’t find them. We were getting hungry, so we hopped in the car and left.
So, we ate and had a nice lunch. We hung out on Main Street, Beacon. Then, we drove back to work and pulled in the parking lot. We saw a few people standing around the back of the truck with the Segway nearby…but wait, there were two!!! Man oh man, it was our lucky day. Jack kindly offered to let Paul and me take both Segways for a ride around the parking lot. I have to say, those things are quite handy. They can be quick or just stay slow and they turn on a dime. They are really easy to learn too. Within about 2 minutes, I was up and at ‘em.
Here are a few Segway pictures for you to enjoy…
Notice the two different Segways…one with the smaller tires and one with the bigger tires. I like the one with the bigger tires better. I would like to go on a ramp or hit a jump or something.
Here is a good plug for Jack - If you are interested in contacing Segway of the Hudson Valley, you can call them at 845-255-7867. Go for it…have some fun.
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Sunday, May 6th, 2007
Well, it’s another year for the Bear Mountain Dogs Walk for Cancer. I think it might be the “Dogswalk” for Cancer though. I did a post on this last year, so you already may have an idea of what goes on with the walk, but I may have better photos this time. Of course, I brought the camera with this in mind.
So basically what happens is this…you register for the walk and you go there and walk. Around the lake that is. Of course, there is the whole park to explore afterwards if you want, but the basic jist is the walk around the lake. If the Bear Mountain Inn is open, you can hang out in there too. Today, the Inn was closed for renovations.
So here goes…
This is the Bear Mountain Merry-Go-Round. This is where some radio personalities and vendors set up shop.
Ahh, the walk begins. The photo above is the first leg of the walk around Hessian Lake. The whole walk isn’t even that long…maybe 3/4 of a mile.
Who else but Holly and me? Laura took about five pictures of us on this bench, but this was the best one. Holly freaks out a little bit when the camera comes out.
These are just more pictures of Hessian Lake, from different angles. In the last one, you can see the top part of Bear Mountain Bridge.
This is a very important shot that Laura took. Doesn’t it look like I am standing on the edge of the picture?
Another important shot by Laura. Her whole family was impressed by my balancing skill.
Here we go down the last leg of the walk. This is a slight decline heading towards the canoe area and back to the big field.
Finally done. I don’t think we were as tired as the dog in the picture, but it’s a decent little workout.
After the walk is finished, some people come up to you and hand you a bag with little goodies in it. Mostly it is promotional items for dog food companies, but sometimes you get lucky with a frisbee or something. Also, the big thing is to walk around and visit all the tables giving out free stuff.
Another year down and a good tradition followed. Till next year!
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