Category: New York State

A Mind-Altering Mansion Crawl

No matter how many houses of the rich and famous I visit (with the George Eastman house in Rochester, N.Y. probably being my favorite), I still feel a little strange traipsing through someone else’s home, no matter how long ago…

Dining Before the Revolution in North Salem

There’s just something alluring about having dinner in a low-ceilinged dining room with peanut shells on the floor and a fireplace and ancient-looking wooden beams holding everything in place and rippled views from the antique glass windows. That this place—Purdy’s…

How We Want Woodstock

Watching Peace, Love & Misunderstanding (2012), I remember how I’d like my ideal life to be, full of Jane Fonda as a hip grandmother, happily cluttered houses fostering free-range chickens, and women with whom to howl at the moon whenever…

Tis the Season for Reflection

Another year, not enough travel! I’d hit the road all the time if my checkbook would let me. But I am grateful for all of the places I have been so far and to have goals about where I want…

Visiting Mount Kisco’s Invisible Church

It’s easy to cruise right past the tiny little cemetery at the corner of St. Marks Place and Main Street in Mount Kisco without noticing the Revolutionary War-era grave markers. Situated just across and down a bit from Friendly’s at…

If Only All Truck Stops Were as Good for You as Bedford’s

Continuing my attempts to time travel, I stopped by Truck in Bedford Village, N.Y. on a hot, humid, too-bright-to-be-experienced-outside Sunday afternoon. Honestly, I wasn’t there for the healthful food—and there is plenty of that—but for the Mexican Cokes, margaritas, and…

Traveling to Remember

Sitting at an outdoor café three blocks from the Rome Termini one morning 24 years ago waiting for my friend Julie to arrive, I had no appreciation of the folly of our planning. In the days before cell phones, all…