It feels so good to be home at last! The Sunday before I left Carol and I drove to the Hudson River Valley area of New York. We toured FDR’s home in Hyde Park, which was very interesting, and I learned a lot about him and Eleanor. I did not know that they were fifth cousins! Nearby was a home of one of the Vanderbilts, so we also stopped there. I found this one to be much more beautiful and grand. I thought it was huge, but the guide told us this was one of the smallest Vanderbilt mansions and everyone used to refer to it as “uncle’s cottage”; however, I certainly did not think it was a cottage. The view of the Hudson River was amazing, something that was lacking from FDR’s property. We stopped for some drinks and desert in Rinebeck at Beekman Arms Inn, the oldest inn in America. The dining area was very cozy and the man who sat us said last year when Chelsea Clinton was getting married nearby, they had a cocktail party there. He also gave a sheet of the history of the inn. Here are some interesting facts: opened in 1704, during the Revolutionary War George Washington and Alexander Hamilton stopped there, and it was frequented by the Roosevelts.
On Wednesday I met up wit my friend Bethanie that I met at the University of South Carolina, who lives in New Jersey. I woke up early, drove over an hour to Waterbury, CT, and took a train to Grand Central Station. It has been a dream of mine to arrive in the city via Grand Central, so I was so glad I could do it since I do not know if I’ll have a chance again. The first thing we did was take the subway to the lower east side to try and watch Gossip Girl (one of my and Bethanie’s favorite TV shows) being filmed. We found the trailers and the building, but unfortunately they were filming interior shots, so we knew there was a good chance we wouldn’t see anything. We found a restaurant nearby and both had delicious pizza. After lunch we decided to go back to the building they were filming at and wait and see if we could see something. There were about five other girls also waiting. After being there about 20 minutes we saw one of the actors, Chase Crawford, walk into the building. Unfortunately he did not stop and he was walking so fast I barely recognized him and did not have time to take a picture. Nevertheless I was so excited, since it was one of my goals to see Gossip Girl filming, even though I didn’t actually see any filming. We waited about another 30 minutes to see if he came back out or if we saw someone else. After that we walked along Bleecker Street, then took a train to a coffee shop in Long Island City, called Communitea. We went out of our way to this coffee shop because it is where they filmed a few episodes of Gossip Girl (for those of you who watch the show, it is the coffee shop where Vanessa worked). We both got seasonal drinks that were delicious! After that we took the subway to Rockefeller Center and saw the Christmas tree, 30 Rockefeller (visited the NBC store inside), and saw the ice skaters. It was so packed and it was only a Wednesday! I cannot imagine how busy it is on the weekend! We then walked along 5th Avenue and looked at the holiday window displays, which were so amazing! When we reached 60th we walked over to Dylan’s Candy Bar and split a frozen hot chocolate at the café upstairs. We then had said goodbye in the Lexington Ave subway station, so I could catch my train at Grand Central and Bethanie hers at Penn Station.
After my two finals on Thursday I packed up and Friday morning I left to go pick up my mom at the Albany airport and head home. Friday night we had dinner at the Hard Rock Café in Cleveland. It was my first time eating at one and it was so loud! Saturday we stopped in Chicago at the Christkindlmarket, a little market that had lots of Christmas decorations and ornaments from mostly European countries, especially Germany. We also passed Macy’s window displays and they were really cool!
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