Blogs from New York, United States, North America - page 15

Aaron & Patrick’s Surprise Tour today was a real surprise, as it was something I did not expect to see in New York City! Construction began in 1892, of The Cathedral of St. John The Divine in the then-popular Byzantine-Romanesque style of architecture, it was designed to rival St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Fifth Avenue. By 1909 the cathedral’s plan was updated to the more fashionable Gothic style, and today although officially “unfinished”, the structure is considered to be one of the largest cathedrals in the world. Located next to the Cathedral was the Peace Fountain, built in 1985 by Greg Wyatt to depict the struggle of good and evil. The 40 foot-high bronze sculpture weaves together representations of the conflict between good and evil. Around the fountain base there are a series of small bronze animal ... read more

Check out my prior blog entryfor more information my decision to resume limited and cautious travel, and why we chose New York. We planned to spend only 2.5 days at our destination because we weren't comfortable leaving our elderly cat alone for too long. Looking at hotel prices, I found a surprisingly reasonable rate at the Holiday Inn near Wall Street. The hotels that cater to business travelers must really be hurting with business travel not trending upwards anytime soon. Since we were staying in Lower Manhattan, we decided to focus our activities in that area. For the entirety of our trip, we never ventured north of 31st St except in transit to and from LaGuardia Airport. My first pandemic flight was a little nerve wracking. We flew via Charlotte both ways, and we paid a ... read more

Where do I start? How do you cover the amount of time we have been back in the US? Yes, we left Tsamaya in Turkey and flew back to the US on October 29, 2019. Yes, it is now July 2021 and we are still here. This is definitely not what was planned, but that seems to be the rule for all due to the outbreak of covid. To start, when we first arrived back in the US, we found that we were definitely not too late to participate in the annual ritual of raking leaves. That was one of the first tasks we did as we are fortunate that our Village picks up the leaves each year if you get them out to road in time. This is so much better than bagging them all! ... read more

I’m willing to bet that many, if not most, travel writers from the US have been to Niagara Falls, at least once. This was my third trip, though it’s the first time I can remember seeing the American side of the Falls. But I’ll only get to my experience of the Falls later. Instead, I started out my journey in the northern areas of the Niagara region: Youngstown and Lewiston. Youngstown might just be my favorite little town in New York now. I had done a little research before going on this trip, and I discovered that there’s a FREE tourist bus that goes between the Falls in the south and Fort Niagara in the north, making stops at most of the touristy locations in between. My intention was to use that bus to get to ... read more

Saratoga Springs with https://www.heygo.com/aaronandpatrick The British built Fort Saratoga in 1691 on the west bank of the Hudson River. Shortly thereafter, British colonists settled the current village about a mile south; it was known as Saratoga. In 1910, woodcarver Marcus Charles Illions carved 28 horses to craft a carousel with the intention of "wowing" children of all ages. Illions is widely considered to be one of the greatest carousel carvers in the world, and his ponies are most known for their dazzling heads (each one carved by Illions himself) and well-decorated bodies. These 28 horses even featured real horsehair tails! For 77 years, children of all ages enjoyed riding Illions' carousel. In 1987, the future looked pretty unpromising for these gorgeous horses. At t... read more