Things To Do Near You

As many of you have probably noticed, many of the places that I have recently written about have been malls and shopping centers. The reason for this is because when I was younger, I enjoyed going to various shopping centers and towns and seeing all the businesses they had there. This has led to a fascination with me trying to figure out what businesses are at these shopping centers currently, what businesses have closed, what businesses have opened there since the last time I was there, and what businesses are going to open there in the future. All the shopping centers that I will be writing about in this post are ones that I have been to in the past, as these are the ones that I have the most connections with. As always, I am making this blog post in hopes that it convinces all of you reading to check out any or all of the places that I write about.  The first shopping mall that I am going to talk about is one that does not exist anymore, but is one that I have nostalgic memories...

This past weekend was one that I look forward to year after year, the Stamford Downtown Parade Spectacular, and the Inflation Party the day before! I have been going to this event my entire life, and I was looking forward to doing so again this year. What makes this event even more special to me is the fact that many cousins who live in Connecticut and Long Island that I don’t see very often were also at the parade, and it was great to see them.  When I got to the Inflation Party, I started off by doing what I always do when I first get there, look at the uninflated balloons that are laying on the road and then figuring out who they are, and for balloons that are still in their bags, look to see if I can find any words on the bag that will tell me which balloon is inside. I was a little worried at this time though, as not only was it going to be windy during the parade, but it was also windy at that time, and I saw what the wind could do to some of the balloons while they were stil...

As many of you probably remember, I wrote about the Danbury Fair Mall a while back. While I’m sure that all of you reading already knew about the mall, you might not know that there are several other shopping centers in Danbury that have many unique businesses. In this blog post, I will be writing about these shopping centers and talking about the businesses at them in hopes that it might encourage all of you reading to go visit them. As I have been to almost all these shopping centers when I was younger, I will also share with you some of the businesses that used to be at the shopping centers. The first shopping center that I am going to talk about is Airport Plaza. It’s a small shopping center that has a total of 32,663 square feet and six businesses with one empty space. Some of the businesses they have had there in the past include Chuck E. Cheese’s, Fortunoff furniture store, and GameStop, all of which are businesses that have had financial troubles and closed many or all location...

As we are currently approaching the holiday season, I felt that it was appropriate to write about another iconic holiday event in New York State! Today, I am going to be talking about the Holiday Train Show at the New York Botanical Gardens. This is an event that first started in 1992 and has since become one of the most famous events of the holiday season. In this post, I will be discussing its history and its many features in hopes that it will encourage all of you reading to want to go. Its history dates back to 1991, one year before it actually started, when a man named Paul Busse founded a company called Applied Imagination. This company was described as an artistic convergence of his work with landscaping, garden railroads, and his creative use of plant material to create “botanical architecture.” In 1992, he brought his landscapes of trains and plant-based structures to the first Holiday Train Show, and they have been one of the main features of it ever since. The company is now...

As many of you probably know, there are many fun events to go to in Westchester and Fairfield County during the Christmas season. While it might seem too soon to write about Christmas events, I know that there are some people who start celebrating Christmas as soon as November starts, and some of these events that I will be writing about start in November, so I feel that it’s the perfect time to write about it. My goal of this blog post is that any one or all these events are intriguing enough for all of you reading to want to go! The first holiday event is one that I wrote about last year, Holiday Lane at American Christmas in Mount Vernon. This event starts on November 9 and goes until December 26 and is from the people behind the New York City holiday decorations. This event is also a walk-through that has over 100,000 lights, animatronics, and nine themed areas. The themed areas include the Holiday Lane mailbox, Stable Express, a place where you can Make a Wish, the Elves’ Quarters...

As many of you are probably aware from my various posts to social media, we are getting close to my favorite event of the year, the Stamford Downtown Parade Spectacular! For those of you who are unaware, this is an event that happens every year the Sunday before Thanksgiving, and features marching bands, dance troupes, floats that are on flatbeds pulled by trucks, and giant helium balloons of animals, objects, and famous characters from books, TV shows, and movies. In this post, I will be sharing all the information that I can about the parade in the past and this year in hopes that it will encourage all of you reading to go to it. This event first started in 1993, and I remember seeing that it used to be on the day after Thanksgiving, and that they didn’t have balloons at first. In fact, I recently found an article that said that it began as a Christmas-themed event with the purpose of getting Santa Claus to the Stamford Town Center, while also including a petting zoo and what the art...

It’s always fascinating how research about one topic can cause you to research another topic, and then lead to research about another topic. As you all remember, I wrote about the Greenburgh Nature Center, which led me to write a blog post about the road it’s next to, Central Park Avenue, which has led me to write about one of the attractions on that road, Cross County Shopping Center. This is an open-air shopping mall that is located at the junction of the NYS Thruway and Cross County Parkway, has a total of 1,000,000 square feet, has over 100 stores and restaurants, two anchor tenants, and has a shopping center adjacent to it. In this post, I will be discussing its history and the businesses there in hopes that it might encourage all of you reading to check it out! The Cross County Center first opened in 1954, and it was also one of the nation’s first open-air shopping destinations. It was originally home to the Cross County Hospital, which had a rooftop helipad and closed in the ear...