Travelrific® Travel Journal
Picture postcards in prose.™ Check out the blogroll on the front page for official merchandise and other resources!Archive for new york
Between the Forks
By Linda Tancs
Nestled between the North Fork and South Fork of Long Island, New York, is Shelter Island. Approximately 27 square miles, it’s accessible only by ferry from either Greenport on the North Fork or North Haven on the South Fork. Known for its natural beauty, it boasts Mashomack Preserve, a coastal nature reserve featuring over 2,000 acres of woodlands, marshes and creeks. Enjoy a hike along the many trails, which are open daily from dawn to dusk.
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New York’s Research Forest
By Linda Tancs
Black Rock Forest is a 3,920-acre forest and biological field station in Cornwall, New York. Named for the black magnetite in the forest’s bedrock, the nature preserve is as much a gem for hikers as it is for researchers. The site boasts 26 miles of trails and 17 miles of forest roads which are open to the public year-round. From there you can experience the area’s rich biodiversity in trees, mammals, birds and reptiles owing to the forest’s location at the intersection of two ecological systems: the New York-New Jersey Highlands and the Hudson River Basin. On a clear day, you might even see Manhattan.
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Tranquility at the Hammond
By Linda Tancs
Founded by American artist Natalie Hays Hammond, the Hammond Museum and Japanese Stroll Garden in North Salem, New York, is a museum with Japanese art and a 3.5-acre Japanese stroll garden. A peaceful oasis amidst the hustle and bustle of Westchester County, the garden is centered around its pond and includes numerous rare Japanese plants and trees as well as species native to the area. Also on the grounds is a traditional Japanese tea room, which was imported from Kyoto and is used for tea ceremony events. The Hammond will open seasonally in April until November.
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A Founder’s House in New York
By Linda Tancs
Born in New York in 1745, John Jay was descended from French Huguenot refugees. One of America’s most influential Founding Fathers, he was a lawyer, framer of the Constitution and the first chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, among other accomplishments. In Katonah, New York, the John Jay Homestead State Historic Site interprets his life and legacy. The 62-acre site features his home (which remained in the family through several generations until 1959), several gardens and farm buildings.
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A Chapel of Ease in New York City
By Linda Tancs
Built in 1766, St. Paul’s Chapel, located at Broadway and Fulton Street, is part of the Parish of Trinity Church Wall Street in New York City. It was known as a “chapel-of-ease” for those who did not want to walk a few blocks south along unpaved streets to Trinity Church. Its famous worshippers include George Washington, who made his way there after taking the oath of office to become the first president of the United States. His pew remains in the church.
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Billed as the Great North American Eclipse, a total solar eclipse will cross North America on April 8, 2024, passing over Mexico, the United States and Canada. The path of the eclipse begins in Mexico, entering the United States in Texas, and traveling through Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. The eclipse will enter Canada in Southern Ontario, and continue through Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Cape Breton. This will be the last time any solar eclipse will be visible within the United States until 2045.
Be prepared! So long as supplies last, you can purchase eclipse glasses and other accessories, like a phone app and photo filter, from American Paper Optics, a NASA-approved manufacturer. The link in the preceding sentence is an affiliate link, which means that if you click on the link and purchase merchandise from the page, then I may receive a small commission.
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Planting Fields on Long Island
By Linda Tancs
Located in Oyster Bay, New York, Planting Fields is one of only a few surviving estates on Long Island. It includes Coe Hall, a 65-room Tudor Revival mansion purchased in 1913 by English immigrant William Robertson Coe and Mai Rogers Coe, heiress and daughter of Standard Oil partner Henry Huttleston Rogers. Guided tours provide visits to select rooms on the first and second floors; self-guided tours are also available, with docents available for questions throughout the manor. Equally as stunning are the gardens designed by the Olmsted Brothers Firm (sons of the famed landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, designer of New York’s Central Park). Maintaining its original 409 acres, the garden complex includes an Italian garden, cloister garden and circular pool, rose garden and perennial garden together with two greenhouses.
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Brewing in Utica
By Linda Tancs
The FX Matt Brewing Company in Utica, New York, derives from a legacy of brewing tradition that began in Germany. Founded in 1888, it’s the third-oldest family-owned and operated brewery in the country. It’s also distinctive because it survived Prohibition, one of few breweries to do so, owing largely to transitioning to the making of soft drinks. Once Prohibition ended, it became the first brewery in the nation to acquire a license to sell beer. The outdoor Biergarten serves beer and food through late fall.
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Billed as the Great North American Eclipse, a total solar eclipse will cross North America on April 8, 2024, passing over Mexico, the United States and Canada. The path of the eclipse begins in Mexico, entering the United States in Texas, and traveling through Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. The eclipse will enter Canada in Southern Ontario, and continue through Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Cape Breton. This will be the last time any solar eclipse will be visible within the United States until 2045.
Be prepared! So long as supplies last, you can purchase eclipse glasses and other accessories, like a phone app and photo filter, from American Paper Optics, a NASA-approved manufacturer. The link in the preceding sentence is an affiliate link, which means that if you click on the link and purchase merchandise from the page, then I may receive a small commission.
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Spooked in Staten Island
By Linda Tancs
It seems fitting that an allegedly haunted mansion in Staten Island, New York, should be located on Arthur Kill Road, particularly considering that the house was an actual murder scene. The property in question is what remains of Kreischer Mansion, a wood-frame house in the American Queen Anne style built by German immigrant and brick magnate Balthasar Kreischer circa 1885. The home’s ghostly vibe could be attributed to one or more unfortunate events taking place there: a suicide of one of Kreischer’s sons in the late 1800s and a killing for hire in 2005. The eeriness lends itself to an annual horror fest around Halloween as well as haunt tours.
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Dark Island
By Linda Tancs
Straddling the border between the U.S. and Canada, the Thousand Islands are a group of more than 1,800 islands in the St. Lawrence River. It’s a place with elaborate island mansions, like Singer Castle on Dark Island, so named because the number of evergreens on the island gave it a “dark” look. The castle is named for Frederick Bourne, who was the fifth president of the Singer Sewing Machine Company, and it remained in the family’s possession from its establishment in the early 1900s until the 1960s. A 45-minute guided tour of the 28-room castle includes the Great Hall, library, dining room, breakfast room, terrace, drawing room, loggia, wicker room, bedrooms, and guest rooms. The opening hours are seasonal, from April to October.
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The Red Fox of Kinderhook
By Linda Tancs
Born on December 5, 1782, Martin Van Buren was the first future president born a citizen of the United States. He was known as “the Red Fox of Kinderhook,” an acknowledgment of his red hair and his birthplace in Kinderhook, New York. That’s where you’ll find his post-presidency home, Lindenwald, a National Historic Site. Guided tours of the home are offered seasonally. In the formal parlor, you’ll learn of the countless meetings he hosted there. In addition to the home’s interior, a cell phone tour of the outside Wayside Loop Trail hosted by a park ranger shares a bit about the president and those who worked in the house and on the 220-acre farm.
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