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Maritime Aquarium

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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...

Heights & Lights

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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...

New Rochelle Thanksgiving Parade

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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...

Muscoot Farm

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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...

The Capitol Theatre

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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...

Lasdon Park

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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...

Stamford Downtown Parade Spectacular

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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...