Things To Do Near You

Today, I am going to talk about one of the most fascinating places in the area, Harbor Point in Stamford! This is a redevelopment located in the South End of Stamford, has approximately 2,750 new housing units as of January 2021, with plans to bring that number up to 4,000 total housing units, and includes office buildings, restaurants, parks, and a boardwalk. It is also made up of five distinct areas that are each centered on a park or waterfront feature. In this blog post, I will be discussing its history, its current features, and restaurants that are located there.  Harbor Point was historically used for industrial purposes, and it was dominated by the Yale & Towne Lock Works, which first located to the area in 1868. The company helped fuel the area’s economic growth, dominated the economy of Stamford, employing 25% of its population at one point, and it would hold this position for over 50 years, which also gave Stamford the nickname “Lock City.”  Starting in 2005, a ...

In today’s blog post, I will be discussing one of the most historic places not only in Connecticut, but also the United States, Lake Compounce Amusement Park! This is the oldest continuously operating amusement park in the United States, spans 365 acres, has 44 attractions, and includes a beach and a water park. In this blog post, I will be discussing the park’s history, the attractions there, and the many other features there in hopes that it will encourage all of you reading to visit it. The park’s history goes all the way back to 1846, when a man named Gad Norton hired a scientist to perform an experiment using explosives on the property, which ended up failing. However, the experiment brought in large crowds, and inspired Norton to open an amusement park, which had public swimming and rowing on the lake, a gazebo for lakeside band concerts, and several rides. In 1895, a casino was built on the property, which was the first permanent building at the site. Later that same year, the B...

Last June, Westchester County experienced the introduction of a new event, the Sleepy Hollow Music Festival! This is an event that takes place in early June at Kingsland Point Park on the banks of the Hudson River, and features food trucks, beer gardens, craft vendors, a VIP area, a kids zone, and of course, live music from both local and well known artists. In this blog post, I will be talking about what the event featured in its inaugural year, and what it’s going to feature this year, in hopes that it will encourage all of you reading to go check it out.  When the event kicked off last year, there were two stages, one which was for local music, and one which was for the headliner performers.  The first local artist to perform there last year was an alternative country rock band called Divining Rod.  The next local artist to perform there was a roots rock and eclectic Americana band called The Barn Vultures.  The next local artist to perform there was an indie rock...

  In today’s blog post, I am going to write about one of the most fascinating places in the East Coast, The American Dream Mall in East Rutherford, New Jersey! I was initially unsure if I wanted to write about it, as I didn’t know how far away it was, but after seeing that it’s less than an hour away on the quickest routes there, I knew that I had to write about it. It is the second largest mall in the United States, and it has so many big features that it had to open in stages, with an indoor amusement park and ice rink opening on October 25, 2019, an indoor skiing and snowboarding park opening on December 5, 2019, and an indoor water park and all the retail stores and dining establishments opening on October 1, 2020. The history of the mall is almost too long to get into, and if I try writing about all the businesses there, I will never finish writing about it anytime soon, so I will instead focus on the restaurants here, the entertainment businesses, and the indoor amusement par...

On May 29, 2021, the state of New York saw an exciting new addition with the opening of Legoland New York in Goshen! This is an amusement park that consists of 150 acres of seven Lego themed lands on a property of 500 acres, and it contains several structures and attractions made of Lego or designed to resemble Lego. In this blog post, I will be discussing the history of the park and the many things you can do there, in hopes that it will encourage all of you reading to go check it out.  Plans for a Legoland New York began in 2015, with Haverstraw in Rockland County being chosen as the location, and a theme park, water park, and hotel being part of the proposal. Plans were immediately withdrawn due to resident concerns, but a year later, Legoland New York was proposed again for Goshen with the hotel and theme park but no water park, and the plans were approved in October 2017. Plans were for the park to open on July 4, 2020 to coincide with Independence Day, but construction on the...

A while back, I wrote about the Stamford Downtown Winter Restaurant Weeks, and today I am going to do something similar. Today, I am going to write about the upcoming Hudson Valley Restaurant Week! This event goes from March 31 to April 13, and features restaurants from all over the Hudson Valley participating, including Columbia County, Dutchess County, Greene County, Orange County, Putnam County, Rockland County, Sullivan County, Ulster County, and Westchester County. To ensure that this blog post doesn’t go on forever, I will mostly be focusing on restaurants in Westchester County and Putnam County, as those are the closest to me, and I will be going over the interesting foods on their menus in hopes that you will want to go and check them out and support them.  The first restaurant is 179 Bar & Grill in New Rochelle. Some of the interesting foods on their menu include crispy fried calamari, shrimp dumplings, homemade veal meatballs, prosciutto and fresh burrata, panko fried...

Today, I am going to write about a place that some of you might not even know about, Southport, Connecticut! This is a census-designated place that is located in the town of Fairfield along the Long Island Sound and borders Westport. In this post, I will be discussing some of the interesting places in Southport in hopes that it will encourage all of you reading to go check it out. One notable thing about Southport is that it is home to a collection of historic residences and institutional buildings in New England. Southport Village was also selected as a Connecticut Historical District in 1966, and a National Historic District in 1971. These buildings were made from the 1760s to the 1890s, and some of the architectural styles that were used to build them include Greek Revival, Federal, Queen Anne, Italianate, Stick Style, and more.  One of the main features of Southport is the Pequot Library, which is a public association and special corrections library. It also has robust special ...