Category Archives: New York

September 11, 2001: Never Forget

  By Anne Patrone | September 9, 2011 - 7:22 am | , , ,
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World Trade Towers, circa 1996

I’ll never forget what I was doing on September 11, 2001. 

I was taking my oldest son and the younger sister of one of his friends out for a walk around our neighborhood in a double stroller to calm them down. As I started off, a neighbor poked her head out of her house and told me a plane had hit the World Trade Center. 
I honestly thought it was some poor soul in a twin-engine or small plane and how horrific and then kept walking. 
When I returned from a 15-20 minute stroll, my immediate next-door neighbor saw me walking back to my house and ran out into the street shouting “He’s okay, Anne. He’s okay. John just called and he’s okay.”
She disappeared inside with a final shout – “Turn on your television!”
I had no idea what she was talking about.
Until I came inside and turned on the TV – and watched the Twin Towers come down. And realized I had missed the frantic phone messages from my husband who worked in Times Square telling me he was okay and they had evacuated his building, but that he was okay. 
The rest of the day was a surreal experience with my friend coming over to pick up her daughter seconds after the first tower fell. We watched the second come down together – not crying because we couldn’t quite grasp what was going on. 
She left to wait for her husband, who also worked in Manhattan, to come home. 
I turned the TV off and tried to play outside with my 1 1/2 year old son because despite the horrors, it was a beautiful sunny day. I fielded phone calls from our relatives around the country reassuring them that although his company had a main office in one of the towers, he didn’t work there . . . and he was safe.
Unlike the over 3000 others who weren’t.
September 11, 2001
Never Forget
Photo Friday – sponsored by DeliciousBaby.com 

FDR’s Home on the Hudson – A Presidential Landmark

  By Anne Patrone | July 26, 2011 - 11:23 am | , , , ,
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FDR’s Home in Hyde Park, NY

With FDR’s home and presidential library so close to New York City as well as listed in Frommer’s 500 Places to Take Your Kids Before They Grow Up, I was bound to visit with the kids sooner or later. Fortunately, I have great parents willing to indulge my “500″ habit while they visit their grandchildren and our visit to FDR’s home in Hyde Park, NY, occurred a few weeks ago.

Located a few miles north of Poughkeepsie, the home and presidential library of Franklin D. Roosevelt (our 32nd President and only four-term President) is a great place for kids who are just learning about American history. We booked our tour of FDR’s home ahead of time on www.recreation.gov, but tours of his home as well as the nearby Vanderbilt Mansion are available throughout the day.

We started off in the main visitor center, learning the history of the Roosevelt family and their influence in the Hyde Park region.

Giant map showing Hyde Park region

A quick walk through the grounds had us passing the FDR Presidential Library. This was the first Presidential library created (and the only one used by a sitting President), but more about that later on . . .

Twitter Travel Trivia: As we walked to FDR’s home, our guide explained how FDR always intended for his childhood home to be donated to the American public – but with two rather unique conditions. One, the farm had to be maintained as an active farm, and two, FDR’s favorite animal was to be protected and never harmed on the property. His favorite animal? A woodchuck!

We had a brief stop at FDR’s gravesite. Roosevelt, as well as his wife, Eleanor and his famous dog, Fala, are buried in his mother’s rose garden beside a granite memorial the size of his desk in the White House.
 

FDR Gravesite

Walking into the house where Roosevelt was born, you get a sense of the man who led our country through a Great Depression and a World War. He was a hobbyist – collections of political cartoons, stuffed birds, and ship pictures line the main hallway. He had an intense fear of fire (from witnessing an aunt burn before his eyes when he was a young child) – glass bulbs filled with a chemical fire extinguisher are attached to each doorframe. And he was deeply loved by his mother.

FDR’s Presidential Library, our next stop, offered a different perspective of the man. From the leg braces he used after contracting polio . . . 
FDR’s leg braces

. . . to the office he used while in residence at Hyde Park . . .

 FDR’s office

. . .  to the specially designed car FDR used to motor around his farm when in residence . . . 

Car outfitted with hand controls

. . . everything offered my children and myself insight into the man who shaped our nation during its darkest times. And for my parents who lived through that period? It was a walk down memory lane and reminder of what a leader can do when he isn’t worried about his poll numbers . . . 

 Fifty-eight places visited, 442 to go.

Dreaming about the Vanderbilt Mansion

  By Anne Patrone | July 25, 2011 - 9:00 am | , , ,
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Today I’m dreaming about how neat it would be to live in a “summer cottage” like the Vanderbilt Mansion in Hyde Park, NY, assuming I didn’t have to cook or clean or garden . . .

Vanderbilt Mansion in Hyde Park, NY

The kids and I recently visited this beautiful mansion (one of the smallest of the Vanderbilt estates) and I marveled at the “live-ability” of this home.

If you overlook the four (five if you include the basement) floors, the ladies’ living room decorated with gold-leaf, and the priceless art and tapestries scattered throughout, it’s really quite cozy. . .

. . . especially when you compare it with some of the other estates owned by the Vanderbilts . . . like the Biltmore Estate down in North Carolina . . .

Biltmore Estate in North Carolina

The Vanderbilt Mansion is now a part of the National Park System (bought for $1 by the National government back in the 1930s thanks to the craftiness of a nearby neighbor – Franklin D. Roosevelt), but it was originally built by Frederick Vanderbilt as an intimate home on the Hudson where they and some of their close friends could relax. We enjoyed our tour of this elegant home, especially for its insight into how the other half lived in the early part of the twentieth century.

Please be sure to check out other wonderful dreams at Mondays are for Dreaming, sponsored by The Mother of All Trips.

Photo of Vanderbilt Mansion courtesy of tiarescott via Flickr.
Photo of Biltmore Estate courtesy of Kamoteus via Flickr

Shakespeare and Summertime Picnics

  By Anne Patrone | July 22, 2011 - 9:00 am | , , , ,
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In our family, “summer” means a picnic -

A summertime picnic

Our family favorite is to head up to Garrison, NY and visit the Boscobel Mansion which overlooks the Hudson River . . .

View from Boscobel Mansion

 Across the Hudson River, we have excellent views of West Point . . .

Marshland across from West Point, NY

. . . and on our side, we enjoy performances by the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival (celebrating its 25th year) . . .

Tent for the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival

With the idea that Shakespeare is best enjoyed and understood when it’s performed, and the earlier you start, the better, my boys have enjoyed watching a rap adaptation of “The Comedy of Errors,” “The Taming of the Shrew” set in 1960s, and most recently a hysterical adaptation of Jules Verne’s “Around the World in 80 Days.”

Up next for my guys is “Hamlet” – a weighty play, but I think they’re up for it – I told them lots of people die!

“Cool” Spots in the Bronx Zoo

  By Anne Patrone | July 21, 2011 - 1:25 pm | , , , , , ,
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With the Northeast in the middle of another heat wave, I thought I’d comment on a recent field trip my son’s class took to New York City’s Bronx Zoo – when the “real feel” temperature was around 100 degrees!

The Bronx Zoo is one of our family’s favorites and listed in Frommer’s 500 Places To Take Your Kids Before They Grow Up. It’s a big zoo and great for kids, but when it’s hot, the last thing you want is to be miserable. You need shade – and preferable air conditioning . . . so where are the “cool” spots in the Bronx Zoo?

One top pick is a visit to Madagascar!

Madagascar! at the Bronx Zoo

Besides being indoors (and therefore, air-conditioned), there are plenty of dark areas where you can wait out the worst of the heat and the lemurs are really cute.

A new 4-D experience entitled Dora and Diego’s 4D Adventure is another “cool” way to beat the heat.
If you have an urge to be outdoors, consider the Congo Gorilla Forest. It’s an extra fee if you don’t get the Total Experience Package, but well worth the money when you walk through shaded paths and a water-misted trail on the hunt for gorillas and monkeys.
Gorilla in the Congo Gorilla Forest

Last, but not least, if the shaded paths along the Children’s Zoo and the darkness of the Mouse House are still too hot for you, try visiting the one place in the Bronx Zoo where the air-conditioning is always blasting . . .

Gift shop at the Bronx Zoo

. . . the gift shop!