Things To Do Near You

If you are looking for a fun place to go with your whole family in Connecticut, head over to the Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk! This is an aquarium that is 140,000 square feet, has more than 177,000 gallons of water in its habitats, has 300 different species, and 2,700 animals. Some of the animals include harbor seals, river otters, sharks, and jellyfish. The aquarium also has several touch tanks for some of their animals and a 4-D movie theater. They have many exhibits throughout the aquarium featuring many different animals that you can learn a variety of facts about. One of these exhibits is a sturgeon touch tank that is 32 feet long, contains 7,000 gallons of water, and informs people about what the Earth was like 200 million years ago. There is also a meerkat exhibit that used to be on the first floor of the aquarium, but recently moved to the second floor. This new exhibit is twice the size of the original one, replicates their native habitat of the African desert, and has three v...

If you are looking for a fun event for the whole family this holiday season, just head over to Stamford! On December 3, they will be holding their annual holiday event called Heights & Lights. This is an event that takes place in Downtown Stamford that starts at Landmark Square, which is a 22-story building. Santa, Rudolph, the Grinch, and other holiday characters will rappel down the side of the building. In previous years, general manager of the New York Yankees Brian Cashman has also participated in rappelling down the building. Following the rappelling, there is going to be what the website describes as a festive fireworks show.  After that part of the event is over, Santa and the other holiday characters will march up Bedford Street for the second part of the event at Latham Park. There will be live holiday music there, but they have not yet said who will be providing it. In previous years, the music has been provided by kids’ music group Swingset Mamas, and a holiday grou...

If you are looking for a Thanksgiving parade you can go to with the entire family, head over to New Rochelle! On Saturday, November 18, the city of New Rochelle will hold its 59th annual Thanksgiving Day Parade. Much like the Macy’s Parade and the Stamford parade, it features clowns, fire trucks, marching bands, floats, and giant helium balloons of famous characters. This year’s parade will also feature vintage cars, characters from Paw Patrol, superheroes, and many other things.  While there isn’t much information about this year’s parade that has been made public, from looking at articles about previous years, it can be assumed that some elements of the parade will carry over into this year. It seems that each year there is a theme to the parade. The theme of the 2021 parade was “Thankful for Essential Workers,” which honored frontline workers during the pandemic. For the 2022 parade, the theme was “Celebrating a Century of Service,” which was a salute to the 100th anniversary of...

If you are looking for a place in Westchester County that is fun for the whole family, teaches you about its history, and has animals, just head over to Muscoot Farm in Katonah! The farm itself has a variety of animals, such as cows, horses, donkeys, sheep, goats, chickens, turkeys, ducks, and pigs. As it is also a historic property, they have left up many of the old buildings that people can walk into. These buildings include a milk house, an icehouse, a brooder house, and a carriage house. There is also a farm museum in one of the barns, and the main house is typically used to exhibit art shows from local artists. The farm also hosts a variety of events throughout the year. One of the most popular events is the farmer’s market, which is every Sunday, and this year goes from April 2 to November 19. They also have a total of 32 vendors this year, some of which are only there on specific days. Another popular event is a guided tour of the farm, which comes in many different forms. These...

If you want to go a legendary music venue that has equally legendary performers, just head over to the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester! The Capitol Theatre was originally built as a movie theater in 1926, and it stayed that way until 1970, when it was renovated to become a concert venue. It hosted many shows in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, the most popular of which being the Grateful Dead, who played a total of 13 shows there from 1970 to 1971. After these decades were over, the venue became a catering and special events facility from October 2001 to December 2011, mostly for weddings and Bar and Bat Mitzvahs. In December 2011, it was announced that the venue would be reopening to have shows again. The venue had a massive renovation, which included acquiring the adjacent Capitol Jewelers store and turning it into a bar named Garcia’s in honor of Jerry Garcia. The venue itself had its official reopening on September 4, 2012, and its first performer was Bob Dylan. It has since featured m...

If you want to see one of the most beautiful places in Northern Westchester, just head over to Lasdon Park in Katonah! Lasdon Park was originally purchased by the Lasdon family in 1939, who had an interest in horticulture and brought many tree specimens to the estate. The property was later purchased by Westchester County in 1986.  Today, the park contains many gardens and an arboretum. The arboretum is 30 acres and has woodlands, grass meadows, and gardens that have trees, shrubs, and flowers from all around the world. The gardens there include an azalea garden, a dwarf conifer collection, many types of magnolias, historic trees, hedges, American chestnut trees, and dogwood trees. The park also has a Chinese friendship garden that features a pavilion, and a dinosaur garden for kids that features models of various types of dinosaurs. The park also has a variety of events coming up. One of these events is one that happens every Tuesday called Gardening Tuesdays. This is where you wi...

If you enjoy watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade but think it’s too much of a challenge to go down to the city to see it, just head on over to Stamford! On November 19, the Sunday before Thanksgiving, the city of Stamford will be holding its 30th annual Stamford Downtown Parade Spectacular. This is another Thanksgiving helium balloon parade that will bring in the holiday season. It is easier to get to this parade than it is to get to the Macy’s parade, and you also don’t have to arrive as early.  The parade itself features several marching bands from nearby high schools, many local dance groups, several floats that are on flatbeds pulled by trucks, and giant helium balloons of famous characters.  The marching bands that they will have this year are from Stamford, Uniondale, Brentwood, Trumbull, Port Chester, Hartford, and Waterbury. While six of these marching bands are from high schools, and two are from Stamford, the marching band from Port Chester is the Saints Brig...

If you are looking for one of the most beautiful places in Westchester County, just head over to Untermyer Gardens in Yonkers! Untermyer Gardens is a 43-acre public garden overlooking the Hudson River. It contains nine different gardens among all its acres. There is a walled garden that takes inspiration from the Indo-Persian gardens of antiquity, a vista that is modeled after a series of descending stairs at the Villa D’Este in Italy, color gardens that are a series of six terraced gardens each planted in a single color, a vegetable garden that was planted for the first time this year, a rhododendron walk that recalls the famous rhododendron collection that formed part of the original gardens, a ruin garden that is located in an old gatehouse that is meant to evoke a feeling of being in a ruined and abandoned house, a temple of love, which is described as a “rocky fantasy capped with a round temple” that also has small waterfalls, a rock and stream garden, and a sundial garden. There ...

If you are looking for a fascinating historic building to tour, just head over to Irvington in Westchester County! There is a preserved home in Irvington called the Armour-Stiner Octagon House. It was built in 1872, and it is currently offering three different tours for guests. It has also received five awards, a 1990 Victorian Society in America Preservation Award, a 1991 Preservation League of New York State Achievement Award, a 1993 New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission Certificate of Merit, a 1993 City of New York, Department of General Services Professional Service Award, and a 1995 Municipal Art Society of New York Preservation Award. The first tour that they are offering is a simple guided tour of the house. The house itself still has all its original ornamentation and furnishings, as well as the only remaining Egyptian Revival Room in America. The tour is presented by tour guides that are all highly trained, and covers the garden, the Lord and Burnham Greenhouse, and ...

If you are looking for some fun Halloween events in Westchester County, then Sleepy Hollow is the place for you! Throughout the month of October, Sleepy Hollow will be offering many Halloween inspired events that honor its spooky legacy. Some of these events revolve around the legend of the Headless Horseman, and he is apparently known to show up at some of them. One of these events is a Sleepy Hollow Cemetery tour. There will be daytime guided tours, one of them being a one-hour tour that talks about Washington Irving and his story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” and a two-hour tour where you will learn about all the people resting there. These same tours will also be offered in the evening, presumably for people who want to be scared. These tours will also keep going until Thanksgiving weekend. Sleepy Hollow will also be offering a new haunted house this year. It takes place in a nightmarish hospital where the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse will descend upon visitors.  There will...

If you are looking for the perfect place to celebrate Halloween in Westchester, it looks like Tarrytown might be the place to be! On October 28 at 5:30 PM, get ready for the 21st annual Tarrytown Halloween Parade! This event will go through the village of Tarrytown, starting south on Route 9 and then turning onto Main Street towards the YMCA. If it rains on the day of the parade, it will be moved to the next day, October 29. Anybody can register to be in the parade in four different ways. The first way is if you plan on marching by yourself. The second way is if you plan on marching as part of a group. The third way is if you plan on making a float by decorating a truck or a trailer being pulled by a truck. The fourth way is if you plan on making a neighborhood float. There will also be a few dance groups and marching bands in the parade.  Once the parade is over, Main Street will be closed for the block party that always follows. It will feature a DJ and a performance from Clare M...