Burr, Hamilton, Chase Bank and the Wooden Water Pipes

What do wooden water pipes buried beneath Manhattan and the formation of a bank have to do with the duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr? Truth is stranger than fiction…

Climbing Blue Mountain: The NYSDEC Trail

Oh, my aching muscles…. Blue Mountain is in the central Adirondacks. Located in Hamilton County, the peak of the mountain reaches 3750 feet (1143 meters) and elevation gain from the trail head is 1559 feet. The trail is approximately 2 miles up- you can do the math to see how steep the trail is! A [...]

Trinity Church, New York, NY: Part 2

This is the second installment of our tour through Trinity Church on Wall Street in lower Manhattan. See Part 1 here. It’s an experience of extremes. The streets are hot and smelly and loud, filled with honking horns and diesel traffic and the deafening noises of subway trains moving below our feet, of millions of [...]

Federal Hall: John Peter Zenger and The Bill of Rights

When we visited Federal Hall National Memorial on Wall Street in lower Manhattan, we saw a display dedicated to John Peter Zenger, a New York newspaper publisher from the early 18th century. Zenger went to jail for a sensational “freedom of speech” case. His trial was held here at the site of Federal Hall, in [...]

Federal Hall National Memorial, Wall Street, New York City

The very first capitol building of the United States of America was here on this site, on Wall Street in lower Manhattan. The building was called Federal Hall and was constructed in 1700. It was where President George Washington was inaugurated as the first President of the United States. Unfortunately, the building was demolished in [...]

Olana State Historic Site, Hudson, NY

The Hudson River School of art has been my favorite fine art genre since I studied founder Thomas Cole’s stunning Voyage of Life paintings as a young art major in school. Such deep, dramatic, and luminous paintings these artists produced in the mid to late 19th century! As a matter of fact, their paintings were [...]

The Joseph Smith Historic Site, Palmyra, NY

Just south of the small town of Palmyra, in Wayne County, NY, is the small site dedicated to Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon religion. The site was very barren and foreboding on a blustery February when we visited. We decided to stop so that I could take a few photos of the reproduction log [...]

Women’s Rights National Park, Seneca Falls, NY

Not too far from the National Women’s Hall of Fame on Falls Street in Seneca Falls, NY, is the Women’s Rights National Park. I wrote about the rich history of the women’s movement that began here in my post National Women’s Hall of Fame, Seneca Falls, NY. While the National Women’s Rights Hall of Fame [...]

Seneca Lake, Home of the Lake Farts

OK, I will state that I do not like the word “fart.” It’s crude and vulgar, and I never use the word. But golly gee whillikers, it’s a hilarious description for the booming sounds that burp out of Seneca Lake! LOL. I’ll get to that odd phenomenon in a minute. Seneca Lake is one of [...]

The FX Matt Brewing Company, Utica, NY

The FX Matt Brewery is the second-longest running brewery in the nation, based in Utica, NY. It’s somewhat of a landmark here in this immigrant city, supplying jobs for many workers (even during th Prohibition Era). We took a guided tour of the building and the inner workings of the brewery, where all the stuff happens! Then we were treated to a Saranac beer in the elegant Matt saloon.

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