I am in New York City on a day when politicians ride the subways to reassure people that there’s no threat posed by terror. I pass through Grand Central Station at a time when there seem to be a lot of police around and other enforcement personnel –not sure whether they’re federal, state, or possibly…
Search Results for: manhattan
On Lake Vacations
If I live on a lake, do I really need to vacation at a different one?, I wonder as the Brawny Sherpa, the Bonus Adventurers, and I jump into the car and head north toward Lake George, N.Y. I laughed when a Manhattan-based editor asked me whether, as a resident of a more rural part…
Graffiti: Little Italy
I don’t quite adhere to the philosophy that graffiti in a neighborhood is a sign that residents don’t care about where they live. Graffiti is art to me. Yes, sometimes graffiti is destructive. Many times, though, graffiti enhances a neighborhood’s look, adds meaning to a tourist’s visit. What I see in this graffiti in Little…
Welcome to St. Petersburg!
Need an eye-opener after a long night’s flight from JFK to St. Petersburg? Just look out the window as you head into the city. I have a “was that what I think it was?” reaction as I head to our cruise ship. My mind immediately flashes back to what new arrivals to New York might…
Saving Lily Bart in San Francisco?
Watching Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine on DVD, I am once again, and surprisingly so, drawn to San Francisco. An unlikely tourism vehicle, the film focuses on a selfish and largely unlikeable society woman played by Cate Blanchett who married up and desperately needs to do so again to save herself after her husband, played by…
Want to Visit Old Penn Station? Watch 1942’s ‘The Palm Beach Story’
I picked up a copy of the 1942 film The Palm Beach Story, starring Claudette Colbert and Joel McCrea, hoping to see some of old Florida, but I got something better instead: a view of the original Penn Station in Manhattan. I’d always heard that the Beaux Arts station, built in 1910 but bulldozed in…
Remember the Plaza?
After a carriage ride through Central Park, crossing 59th Street for a cocktail at the Plaza Hotel seemed a logical next step. There in the land of Eloise, though, the reality was not quite as perfect as my memories of the place. The Oak Bar is closed, the result of some apparent arrears in rent…
Are Historical Sites Honest about Slavery?
The global tumult of the last week—the killing of the U.S. ambassador to Libya and global unrest stemming, allegedly, from disgust with a video about Muslims made by a film maker in the United States—makes the celebration of the U.S. Constitution just a little more poignant. Travel, for me, has always made history lessons come…