New York State

Traveling Through Each State’s Quarter

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Are you a coin collector? Do you practice numismatists, the study of coins? Or maybe you just like to collect United States quarters, you know, the ones made for each state?

Though we started collecting quarters when our kids were little, not long after the U.S. Mint started the State Quarters Program in 1999, I still enjoy looking at them and wondering about the place, object, or person which was chosen to represent each state.

State Quarters

I haven’t been to every state, nor have I seen everything depicted on each state’s quarter, but I have seen Oregon’s Crater Lake and hiked up Vermont’s Camel’s Hump, I’ve driven by Nebraska’s Chimney Rock and climbed California’s Half Dome. I’ve seen New Hampshire’s Old Man of the Mountain, walked around New York’s Statue of Liberty, and even seen a grizzly bear in Alaska. But I haven’t been to Kentucky’s Bardstown Mansion nor have I eaten a peach in Georgia. I’ve seen many American bison but never in North Dakota or Kansas. I haven’t crossed West Virginia’s New River Gorge Bridge nor been to the Indy 500 in Indiana.

SD Quarter

Here’s a list of states with the elements depicted in each of their designs. Where have you been and where do you need to go?

How to Get Across the GW Bridge

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The road was red on the tiny screen of my phone. The directions said “rerouting.” We followed blindly, exiting 95 to avoid a congested highway stretch just before the southern entrance to the George Washington Bridge.

traffic jamOff Route 95 and onto Route 46 then right on North Avenue, one small road led to another equally small road but not a through street. Other cars merged in front of us and suddenly our detour was as congested (well, almost) as the GW Bridge. And we realized that we weren’t the only cars being rerouted by Siri!

Detour

Getting off the well traveled route around New York City always makes me a little nervous. I think of Tom Wolfe’s Bonfire of the Vanities and the fateful wrong turn the main character, Sherman McCoy, makes.

Slowly we made our way to the traffic light and back onto 95 where all lanes crawled across the bridge, and our view was marred (or enhanced) by the fog.

Foggy bridge

Are we better off with Google Maps? Showing us traffic and detours, updating our routes with ETAs? Or we were better off in the old days with just maps and AAA TripTiks to show us the way?

Touring NBC Studios

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Have you ever wondered what it was like to go back stage at NBC? To be in the studios of the “Today Show” or “Saturday Night Live?”

In 2012, I toured NBC Studios for the second time (the first time was in 1988) and thought of my mother guiding people through the studios back in 1952, the year she arrived in New York City, before she embarked on The Tucker -Tyler Adventure.

Although you can’t tour the studio now (it’s being renovated and won’t be open to the public until mid 2015), you can book tickets to be part of the audience on “Late Night with Seth Meyers” and the “Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.”

Trip taken February 2012.

Photo from Eddie-S licensed by CC 2.0.

Where to Eat Brunch on the Upper West Side

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Although Yelp and Trip Advisor do a good job of helping the tourist discover those out-of-the-way and less touristy places, sometimes it’s nice trusting a native.

I looked in the window at Cafe Lalo where Meg Ryan waits for Tom Hanks in “You’ve Got Mail.” but decided to eat at Good Enough to Eat, just a short walk away. Both serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner and include a plethora of yummy looking baked goods.

Good Enough to Eat

What to Eat? There were apple pancakes, waffles, omelettes, and French toast. After much debate, I chose the Gramercy Park omelette – slices of Granny Smith apple and Vermont sharp white cheddar cheese served with buttermilk biscuits. Mmmmmmm.

Trips taken July 2008 and July 2012.

How to Style Your American Girl Doll’s Hair

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When your daughter, niece, or granddaughter’s favorite doll is injured, it’s time for a visit to one of the American Girl Places.

Kaya’s hair was a wreck. So matted and snarled that we thought she would need to go to the American Girl Doll Hospital (to get a new head!). Instead, I was assured that an appointment with the American Girl Doll Hair Salon on 5th Avenue in New York City ($25) just might do the trick.

Kaya (the doll!) sat on a stool while her hairdresser worked patiently and carefully on her hair. My daughter and I watched as her hair was unsnarled, unmatted, and braided. Although she wanted to get her ears pierced, we decided that she was too young. Instead, for an additional $5, we gave her the pampering plus manicure and facial.

To celebrate Kaya’s recovery, we ate lunch at the American Girl Place restaurant. Kaya was seated in her own attached high chair. She was served in tiny tea cups while my daughter and I ate a gluten-free lunch and gluten-free birthday cake.

We skipped the show, electing instead to see Mary Poppins on Broadway.

Trip taken 2008.

Walking Across the Brooklyn Bridge

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I’d never walked across the Brooklyn Bridge until I met up with some California friends in Manhattan. They were on a mission to see and take in as much of New York as possible in the few days they were there. I tagged along as they ventured to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge.

We found the entrance to the bridge announced by a hand painted sign,

Brooklyn Bridge 4

and discovered that we weren’t the only tourists with the idea for a walk.

Brooklyn Bridge 1

We gazed up at the tower,

Brooklyn Bridge 5

and played the ukelele in the middle of the bridge.

Brooklyn Bridge 7

We paused along the way to enjoy the view.

Brooklyn Bridge 3

We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, then turned around, saving the exploration of Brooklyn for another day.

Brooklyn Bridge 6

 Trip taken June 2012.

Single in New York in 1954

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When you want to be an actress, living in New York City is a dream, especially for a girl from the midwest. For Marialyce Tyler, moving from South Dakota to the Big City in 1954 was exciting. With a couple of college friends, she lived in two different apartments on the Upper West Side of New York, right near Central Park, on West 74th Street and West 68th Street.

West 74th Street

Rusty described the apartment on West 74th Street as the old Borden Mansion. According to Rusty, they lived in what was the old library.

We were on the first floor, a 14-foot ceilinged room with a huge marble fireplace, tall windows draped in dark red velvet and then beyond a huge room that had three twin-sized beds, a very large and long dark mahogany dining table, chairs, etc., a small one-person-at-a-time kitchen, and beyond that a bathroom that had been made out of a closet.

From The Tucker – Tyler Adventure, written by Katherine Tucker and Marialyce Tyler and edited by Nancy Cowan and Tara Taft.

When Traveling, Remember the Moscow Rule

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While traveling in Paris many years ago, my American friends introduced me to the Moscow Rule. Not to be confused with the Moscow Rules, this rule has to do with shopping and souvenirs and is fairly simple. If you see something, buy it, because you may never see it again.

My friends told me that this rule originates from people standing in line in Moscow. If you lived in Moscow under Communist rule and saw people standing in line, you joined them, because whatever they were waiting for you most likely needed or would need and you may not have the opportunity to buy it another time.

Although I try to remember this rule when I travel, the times I forget are the times I regret. Like the time I didn’t buy the metal toy truck in Cape Town because I knew we’d see several more during our trip (we didn’t).

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Or when I didn’t buy a drum and then had to resort to the airport gift shop. Or when I passed up a pretty necklace at a price I saw quadrupled in future stores.

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Sometimes it’s easy to remember, like buying Lindt chocolates in Zurich, wool scarves with the family clan in Edinburgh, or maple syrup in Vermont. I find it more difficult to remember when I see something different. Is it something I truly want? Is the price a good one? Will I see it again?

Maple Syrup

To prevent those post traveling blues, remember the Moscow Rule: if you see something unique, something you’re unlikely to find online or anywhere else, snatch it up, because you may never see it again. Most likely, you won’t regret the purchase, and the memories it holds will bring smiles for a lifetime.

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Horizon

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Horizon. The space or line where the sky meets the earth. 

On the road near Royal Natal National Park, South Africa.

On the road near Royal Natal National Park, South Africa.

According to Franklin Roosevelt, “We have always held to the hope, the belief, the conviction that there is a better life, a better world, beyond the horizon.”

Cahoon Hollow Beach, Wellfleet, Massachusetts.

Cahoon Hollow Beach, Wellfleet, Massachusetts.

Emigrant Wilderness, near Yosemite National Park, California.

Emigrant Wilderness, near Yosemite National Park, California.

Perhaps that’s why I love to travel. To see beyond my own boundaries, to meet new people and encounter new places, to experience life from a different angle.

Badlands National Park, South Dakota.

Badlands National Park, South Dakota.

Upper West Side, New York City.

Upper West Side, New York City.