Travels in the 2nd half

In the hills of Van Cortlandt Park Living in new York City, person o ften looks for a place to outside, find some open space, and get a taste of n ature. In the Bronx, the Van Cortlandt Par k is a great place to do this. The Van Cortlandt Park occupies land in the northwest corner of the city, that was part of the estate of Adriaen van der Donk, one of the original Dutch settlers of New Amsterdam. After his death, the land was bought by Frederick Philipse, whose land holdings grew to over 81 square miles in what today is Yonkers and The Bronx. When Philipse’s wife died, he married the daughter of the Van Cortlandt family, and his daughter eventually married his brother-in-law. The land in the Bronx was transferred to the Van Cortlandt family in 1699. It was farmed for corn and other grains. Tibbett Brook was dammed to form a mill pond, and that pond still exists today as Van Cortlandt Lake. The family built a house on the land, although the spent most of their time in the home in Manha...

Many people visit New York City, and never leave the island of Manhattan, except when they fly into or out of one of our airports. That is a shame. The four other boroughs of the city offer a treasure trove of museums and galleries to enjoy. One great place to visit is Flushing Meadows - Corona Park in Queens. Flushing Meadows is near the eastern border of Queens, and it takes about half-an-hour to get there from mid-town. It is a trip worth taking. The park was created in the early 1930’s to provide Queens with a park to rival Central Park, and it is a beautiful place. It is most famous for hosting two world’s fairs, in 1939-40 and in 1964-65. Today it is home to the USTA National Tennis Center, home to the U.S. Open, a small zoo, a botanical garden, and to two museums, both with ties to those world’s Fairs. The Unisphere The Unisphere and the NY State Pavilion The Queens Museum is an art museum that occupies the New York City Pavilion, built for the 1939 fair. From ...

The Vista Dome Car There are many fun ways to spend a day in the country. One that I enjoy is finding a “Heritage Railway” for a ride. A heritage railway uses classic cars and engines to take passengers on a trip through the countryside. On a trip to the western Catskills last fall I found the Delaware and Ulster Railroad. The Delaware and Ulster Railroad (DURR) operates out of the town of Arkville NY. Its track is part of a rail line that has its roots in the 1860’s. In 1868 Thomas Cornell, founder of the Cornell Steamboat Company chartered the Roundout and Qswego Railroad to bring supplies and goods from towns in Central and Western New York to his pier in Kingston, along the Hudson River. While he never completed his plans to build all the way to Lake Erie, his railway began to carry passengers for the nascent summer holiday businesses in the Catskill Mountains. The passenger and freight service continued through several incarnations until passenger service ended in 1954....