The hotel had a western themed speakeasy in the lower level that you could only access through a fake painting...had a drink that was marinated duck fat mixed with mezcal...was actually incredible.

On 8/31/2025 at 10:48 AM, DrPhilly said:

nice, where are you Di?

End of the Elk River where it goes out to the Chesapeake Bay. The strip of land you see is Elk Neck State Park-Turkey Point light house is around the other side (which is the North East River).

26 minutes ago, DiPros said:

End of the Elk River where it goes out to the Chesapeake Bay. The strip of land you see is Elk Neck State Park-Turkey Point light house is around the other side (which is the North East River).

Ahh nice! I used to go there with family friends from Kennett. They were very close to where you describe.

On 9/1/2025 at 9:58 PM, eagle45 said:

Weather finally turned...definitely enjoyed it out here.

Did you go in that lake?

24 minutes ago, xzmattzx said:

Did you go in that lake?

Jenny Lake…I did go in for a swim, shockingly warm for a mountain lake.

NYC at christmas time. Do or dont?

Is 1 day enough time?

Thinking, Rockefeller center, Bryant Park, 5th avenue, carriage ride.

Anything else not to miss? And can it all be done in 1 nights stay? I dont know the layout of the city and how spread apart attractions are, or how long it takes to travel between them.

I remember going as a kid. Saw the Christmas Spectacular on Broadway. Remember seeing the stores on 5th avenue, and FAO Schwarz, and Rockefeller center. I dont remember exactly how crowded it all was. And, that was decades ago.

2 hours ago, HazletonEagle said:

NYC at christmas time. Do or dont?

Is 1 day enough time?

Thinking, Rockefeller center, Bryant Park, 5th avenue, carriage ride.

Anything else not to miss? And can it all be done in 1 nights stay? I dont know the layout of the city and how spread apart attractions are, or how long it takes to travel between them.

I remember going as a kid. Saw the Christmas Spectacular on Broadway. Remember seeing the stores on 5th avenue, and FAO Schwarz, and Rockefeller center. I dont remember exactly how crowded it all was. And, that was decades ago.

You are close enough that you can drive down first thing in the morning, be in the city by like 9-10a, and probably fit in a 10-12hour day and still drive back home if you didn't want to pay for a hotel that night.

21 minutes ago, Agent23 said:

You are close enough that you can drive down first thing in the morning, be in the city by like 9-10a, and probably fit in a 10-12hour day and still drive back home if you didn't want to pay for a hotel that night.

Yeah. Im considering that option too. Some hotels that time of year are like 800-over 1000 a night. I did find one somewhat reasonably in the 450 range...

My thinking is that most this stuff is a bit better at night when you can see it all lit up. So Im not sure getting there that early will be ideal although late December itll be getting dark by 4.

I am finding that most of the best Christmastime attractions do seem to be very walkable in relation to each other. So leaning towards 1 day being enough.

Im thinking late morning and early afternoon activities might include finding a place to eat lunch. Grand Central terminal decorations and train display. St Patricks Cathedral. Radio City (probably just looking not seeing a show), The Penninsula hotel and Lobby.

As it begins to get dark, maybe a carriage ride. Window displays on 5th avenue, and Macy's and Bloomingdales, Pulitzer Fountain, Bryant Park, and Rockefeller Center.

Any NYC experts welcomed to suggest additions or subtractions from that list of attractions.

Just did Positano and Corfu. Went to Positano many times in the past, but I wanted to see it with minimal tourists in the offseason. It's one of my favorite places on Earth...but I'd probably just recommend going when it's hot, even if a bit more crowded. Corfu was great, slightly different flavor from the Greek islands I've been to before. Traveling to multiple stops in Europe with 2 kids under 4 is...not for the faint of heart. It may be a while before I manage to bring the whole family on an ambitious vacation. But the food at both spots was, as expected, amazing. This also enabled me to miss both the Denver and NYG games.

Great pics!

14 hours ago, eagle45 said:

Just did Positano and Corfu

Great spots! Great pics!

I'll definitely go back to Positano when I get the chance. We stayed up above Sorrento and then drove everywhere and it was low season so the traffic wasn't too bad.

Met my wife in Corfu many moons ago when we were both doing the backpacking Europass thingy. What part of the Island did you visit?

On 10/13/2025 at 2:56 AM, DrPhilly said:

Great spots! Great pics!

I'll definitely go back to Positano when I get the chance. We stayed up above Sorrento and then drove everywhere and it was low season so the traffic wasn't too bad.

Met my wife in Corfu many moons ago when we were both doing the backpacking Europass thingy. What part of the Island did you visit?

We were on the sheltered northeastern part of the island, which was nice considering it was October. We did go into Corfu town, which I thought was a great surprise. Lots of neat places there.

My brother is a park ranger at Crater Lake N.P. in Oregon, but got a promotion and will be taking a job at Sequoia N.P. next month. I'm going to do a trip in central California next summer and see him and the park!

My NYC Christmastime trip is coming up next week.

I dont remember if I ever updated here. We are no longer planning an overnight stay. After talking with people familiar with NYC we will be catching NJ Transit from Harrison NJ and getting in to the city that way.

Here is a list of planned places to see. I kind of feel it may be too ambitious, so we will see if we can actually hit it all or if some things get cut.

Radio City Rockettes Christmas Spectacular

Nordstrom

Macy's

Empire State Building

Bryant Park

Summit One

Saks 5th Ave

Rockefeller Center

FAO Schwarz

Nintendo Store

St Patrick's Cathedral

Lotte Hotel Lobby christmas display

The Penninsula Lobby christmas display

Trump Tower

Tiffany's

Louis Vuitton

Bergdorf Goodman

Apple Store

Pulitzer Fountain

In to Central Park for Wollman Ice Rink

The Plaza Hotel (seems they wont let you in to see the lobby in december unless you are a guest)

Times Square

Walk Through Christmas Tree at 1221 Avenue of the Americas

Fox Square Christmas Tree

One Times Square (where the New Years Ball drops)

Bryant Park Christmas Village

Greeley Square Park 2 level Christmas Carousel

If by chance theres still time, maybe Hudson Yards. Highly doubtful there will be time left to get all the way over there.

As for food, not planning on any fancy sit down meals. Probably a fast food or fast casual place. Maybe a NY Slice of pizza. Possibly a food cart on the sidewalk. Definitely will try some things from Byrant Park Christmas Village.

At one point, I was worried we zip through too quick and not really enough to spend a whole day there. Now that I have finally had enough time to map everything out, this can easily be an overnight trip to allow a more leisurely pace, and Id probably add in Hudson Yards and also the Occulus. Maybe even a trip to Dyker Heights in Brooklyn. But, we will certainly make the most of the time we have with no shortage of things to see.

2 hours ago, HazletonEagle said:

My NYC Christmastime trip is coming up next week.

I dont remember if I ever updated here. We are no longer planning an overnight stay. After talking with people familiar with NYC we will be catching NJ Transit from Harrison NJ and getting in to the city that way.

Here is a list of planned places to see. I kind of feel it may be too ambitious, so we will see if we can actually hit it all or if some things get cut.

Radio City Rockettes Christmas Spectacular

Nordstrom

Macy's

Empire State Building

Bryant Park

Summit One

Saks 5th Ave

Rockefeller Center

FAO Schwarz

Nintendo Store

St Patrick's Cathedral

Lotte Hotel Lobby christmas display

The Penninsula Lobby christmas display

Trump Tower

Tiffany's

Louis Vuitton

Bergdorf Goodman

Apple Store

Pulitzer Fountain

In to Central Park for Wollman Ice Rink

The Plaza Hotel (seems they wont let you in to see the lobby in december unless you are a guest)

Times Square

Walk Through Christmas Tree at 1221 Avenue of the Americas

Fox Square Christmas Tree

One Times Square (where the New Years Ball drops)

Bryant Park Christmas Village

Greeley Square Park 2 level Christmas Carousel

If by chance theres still time, maybe Hudson Yards. Highly doubtful there will be time left to get all the way over there.

As for food, not planning on any fancy sit down meals. Probably a fast food or fast casual place. Maybe a NY Slice of pizza. Possibly a food cart on the sidewalk. Definitely will try some things from Byrant Park Christmas Village.

At one point, I was worried we zip through too quick and not really enough to spend a whole day there. Now that I have finally had enough time to map everything out, this can easily be an overnight trip to allow a more leisurely pace, and Id probably add in Hudson Yards and also the Occulus. Maybe even a trip to Dyker Heights in Brooklyn. But, we will certainly make the most of the time we have with no shortage of things to see.

I bet you could trim down some of those stores. Do you really need to go to an Apple store in Manhattan? You could trim Nordstrom's, Nintendo, and a couple others as well. Macy's and Tiffany's seem like the two to not miss, in my opinion.

7 hours ago, xzmattzx said:

I bet you could trim down some of those stores. Do you really need to go to an Apple store in Manhattan? You could trim Nordstrom's, Nintendo, and a couple others as well. Macy's and Tiffany's seem like the two to not miss, in my opinion.

For sure. Some things we will literally just walk past rather than going in.

As for Nordstrom, our path station where we will arrive in the city is right outside it on 33rd street.

However, Im not sure that's even the main big Nordstrom in the city.

But, it's right there so we will see if it has any Christmas window displays.

I also read last night that you really should give hours to empire state building or summit One. So, those will be walk by things for this trip. There wont be time to spend going to the top.

On 12/5/2025 at 10:07 PM, HazletonEagle said:

My NYC Christmastime trip is coming up next week.

I dont remember if I ever updated here. We are no longer planning an overnight stay. After talking with people familiar with NYC we will be catching NJ Transit from Harrison NJ and getting in to the city that way.

Here is a list of planned places to see. I kind of feel it may be too ambitious, so we will see if we can actually hit it all or if some things get cut.

Radio City Rockettes Christmas Spectacular

Nordstrom

Macy's

Empire State Building

Bryant Park

Summit One

Saks 5th Ave

Rockefeller Center

FAO Schwarz

Nintendo Store

St Patrick's Cathedral

Lotte Hotel Lobby christmas display

The Penninsula Lobby christmas display

Trump Tower

Tiffany's

Louis Vuitton

Bergdorf Goodman

Apple Store

Pulitzer Fountain

In to Central Park for Wollman Ice Rink

The Plaza Hotel (seems they wont let you in to see the lobby in december unless you are a guest)

Times Square

Walk Through Christmas Tree at 1221 Avenue of the Americas

Fox Square Christmas Tree

One Times Square (where the New Years Ball drops)

Bryant Park Christmas Village

Greeley Square Park 2 level Christmas Carousel

If by chance theres still time, maybe Hudson Yards. Highly doubtful there will be time left to get all the way over there.

As for food, not planning on any fancy sit down meals. Probably a fast food or fast casual place. Maybe a NY Slice of pizza. Possibly a food cart on the sidewalk. Definitely will try some things from Byrant Park Christmas Village.

At one point, I was worried we zip through too quick and not really enough to spend a whole day there. Now that I have finally had enough time to map everything out, this can easily be an overnight trip to allow a more leisurely pace, and Id probably add in Hudson Yards and also the Occulus. Maybe even a trip to Dyker Heights in Brooklyn. But, we will certainly make the most of the time we have with no shortage of things to see.

I don't want to screw with your plan but I love Hudson Yards. They decorate it really well for Christmas, have the best rooftop viewing in the city, and have some excellent restaurants that are actually attainable reservations. It's a 7 minute walk from Penn Station so it's really easy. Also if you want a bar with city views...Nubeluz at the Ritz Flatiron.

6 minutes ago, eagle45 said:

I don't want to screw with your plan but I love Hudson Yards. They decorate it really well for Christmas, have the best rooftop viewing in the city, and have some excellent restaurants that are actually attainable reservations. It's a 7 minute walk from Penn Station so it's really easy. Also if you want a bar with city views...Nubeluz at the Ritz Flatiron.

We took the kids and had a big list of things to see, so didnt plan on any nice sit down meals.

We got there a little close to our reservation for the emipre state building and had not had breakfast yet. We got out of the empire state building right around the time the Herald Square christmas market was opening so our "breakfast" was the viral bucket of chocolate chip cookes from Ian's at 11:00.

Although we did get some mini doughnuts on the 86h floor, we got a 12 pack, so 3 each. Those were like our appetizer.

From there, we went to our 1pm Radio City show. From 2:30 after that ended, we knocked out the Fox Tree, Tunnel Tree, Candy canes and big red balls, Central Park Wollan Rink, and all the big spots between Central Park and Rockefeller Center heading down 5th avenue.

No lunch. By this time, we were all starving and being only 6:30 with the bulk of our planned activities already done, we decided to eat in Bills Bar and Burgers near Rockefeller.

Thats basically all we ate. Though I did get myself a cup of hot chocolate from No Chewing Allowed in Bryant Park winter village.

Im sure will go back again at some point. Hudson Yards will be on the list. Id cut out the Wollman Rink. I dont even care for Rockefeller center either. That was the one place where the crowd was pretty unbearable. The tree is just big, but Id say not as nice as any other tree we saw all day.

Headed to Tampa for New Years. Thought I’d give the Wilmington airport Avelo airlines a try. I’m cracking up at the sign that says restrooms available outside. There’s literally 2 gates and it’s a modular building.

Had a great time. New Year’s Eve day was snowing here-had to de ice. FL high was like 40. New Years Day was 67. I would fly Avelo again. Convenient.

On 12/31/2025 at 5:27 AM, DiPros said:

Headed to Tampa for New Years. Thought I’d give the Wilmington airport Avelo airlines a try. I’m cracking up at the sign that says restrooms available outside. There’s literally 2 gates and it’s a modular building.

I actually have not used Avelo at Wilmington yet. I am disappointed that they now charge for parking. It used to be free. But I guess I could park across the highway at the 24/7 Planet Fitness.