Things To Do Near You

As many of you probably know, I recently wrote about Mystic Aquarium. What some of you might not know is that it is not the only unique place in Mystic, Connecticut. This village is also home to Mystic Seaport Museum, which is the largest maritime museum in the United States, is a total of 19 acres, has a large collection of ships and boats, and a recreation of a 19th-century seaport village. In this post, I will be talking about its history and its many features in hopes that it will convince all of you reading to go check it out! The museum was first established in 1929, when it was called the Marine Historical Association. One of the founders was Mary Stillman Harkness, who was the daughter of the only surviving child of Mystic shipbuilder Thomas Stillman Greenman. Harkness originally donated land that belonged to her grandfather, and in 1945, she donated his house to the museum as well. The museum was also one of the first living history museums in the United States, as it has a co...

As you are all aware, I have written about the Stamford Downtown Parade Spectacular recently and the city of Stamford many times, and I am going to do so again today! In this blog post I am going to be talking about the three streets that are along the parade route and the businesses that are located along them, in hopes that it will encourage all of you reading to check out any or all of the highlights on them.  I will be starting at the beginning of the parade route on Summer Street.  The first business on this street is AFC Urgent Care Stamford.  Right after that is a bank that has many other locations in Stamford called First County Bank.  A little further down is a small shopping plaza that has a few businesses. These include a convenience store called Convenience Plus and a deli called Enzo’s Old Greenwich Deli. Right after that is another small shopping plaza that has a few businesses. They are an appliance store called County TV & Appliance, Tiger Schulma...

One of the most fascinating places in Connecticut is Mystic Aquarium! This is an aquarium that has a total of 10,000 animals, is a member of the Alliance of Marine Mammal Parks and Aquariums and is an accredited member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. In this post, I will be discussing its history, its various features, and the many animals they have there in hopes that it will convince all of you reading to want to go there someday.  Mystic Aquarium first opened on October 6, 1973, as a privately owned corporation. The main shareholder was industrialist and philanthropist Kelvin Smith, who chose Mystic as the site of the aquarium due to the area’s scenic shoreline and rich maritime history. The aquarium has also seen several changes over the years. The first of these changes was in 1999, which was a $52 million expansion that saw the introduction of a 760,000-water gallon display that is home to beluga whales. Many other exhibits opened in the years that followed, includi...

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...