Quirky Attractions

The Secrets of Grand Central Terminal

Tour Grand Central Terminal
Grand Central Terminal
Photo Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Join the Electric Railroaders’ Association on the afternoon of Saturday April 5, 2014 for their 32nd annual guided tour of Grand Central Terminal.

Grand Central Terminal is one of New York City’s most iconic landmarks, and it turns 101 years old this year.

 This majestic terminal, officially dedicated on February 2, 1913 at the pinnacle of American long-distance rail travel, originally served as the crown jewel for New York Central Railroad. Today, it services Metro-North Railroad passengers and over 20 million visitors annually. After extensive renovations in recent years leading up to its recent 100th anniversary, Grand Central Terminal is better than ever.

The tour will cover architectural and structural features of the station, including  a plethora of platforms, corridors, concourses, rooms and secret passages, as well as various types of locomotives and car equipment.

Participants will learn about upcoming plans for the terminal, such the major ongoing East Side Access Project connecting it to the Long Island Rail Road.

The tour is led by Dan Brucker, Metro-North’s official Grand Central historian.  Check out some You Tube videos of Brucker.  This guy is colorful and demonstrative! 

Tickets for the Tour of Grand Central Terminal

Tickets are $25 per person, and entries must be mailed in by March 1, 2014.

Click here for the Ticket Order Form.

Discounted Admission to the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC

Discount Tickets to International Spy MuseumWith so many free museums in Washington DC, it is easy to overlook those attractions that charge admission.

That’s why the International Spy Museum, which has one of the most creative marketing departments out there, has partnered with Metro to provide transit users a discount on admission.

Spy Museum Discount Admission

Just show your Metro SmarTrip® card and receive $7 off  the normal admission price of $21.

The offer is valid through March 21, 2014, and cannot be combined with other promotions.

Metro Smart Spy Twitter Contest

While you’re at it:

Every week @intlspymuseum and @wmata will tweet a clue about a cloak and dagger site on the rail system.Spy Museum Tweet Up Contest

Once you find the secret site, tweet a selfie with the photo clue and #metrosmartspy.

This will officially enter you in a contest, with a chance to win an unspecified spy prize.

Hey folks, I could not find any actual entrants into this contest.  It sounds like fun and it looks like you’d have a great chance at winning!

Family Days at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum

Open House at the Udvar-Hazy Center
Open House at the Udvar-Hazy Center

Residents of  Washington, DC and visitors alike have access to the vast cultural opportunities of the Smithsonian Institution, most of which are free.  Last month, we took part in the first ever open house of the restoration hangar at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center.

This was a really fun event that is likely to be repeated every January henceforth.  Not only did we get to see areas of the museum that are normally off-limits to visitors, but we also got to catch up on newer features of the museum like the space hangar.

My favorite part was going up in the control tower, which offers a fantastic view of the runways at Dulles International Airport (IAD).  It was a blast!

The second Saturday of each month at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center from 10 am – 3 pm. is Super Science Saturday!

African American Pioneers in Aviation Family Day

 

The museum has also scheduled a series of Heritage Family Days at their downtown location on the National Mall, as well as at the Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia.   Family Days offer a wide variety of hands-on activities, presentations, and opportunities to meet pilots, astronauts, and scientists.

Here is the line-up of upcoming programs:

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Behind-the-Scenes at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum: The Udvar-Hazy Open House

Smithsonian Air and Space Museum
Smithsonian Air and Space Museum

I love behind-the-scenes tours at museums and was lucky enough to visit the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum’s Paul E. Garber Preservation, Restoration, and Storage Facility in Silver Hill, Maryland many years ago.

Specialists were in the process of preparing the Enola Gay for exhibit and it was really fascinating to hear their take on the controversial exhibit and to observe them working.

Much of the museum’s restoration work has now moved to the Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia, near Dulles International Airport.

This Saturday, January 25, 2014, in honor of the tenth anniversary of the Udvar-Hazy Center of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, there will be the first ever open house.

The highlight of the open house will be a tour of the Mary Baker Engen Restoration Hanger, where the Curtiss SB2C-5 Helldiver, flown in World War II, is undergoing restoration.

Mary Baker Engen Restoration Hangar
Mary Baker Engen Restoration Hangar

Museum curators and other specialists will offer a behind-the scenes look at the Udvar-Hazy Center through presentations, hands-on activities, stories, and special tours about the collection and restoration projects.

The open house will showcase historic artifacts, documents, and works of art that are not on public display.  You will have the chance to see what it takes to collect, preserve, and restore historic aircraft and spaceships.

Here are the details:

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Busting the Myths: New York City at Holiday Time

2013 Thanksgiving Day Parade
2013 Thanksgiving Day Parade

The holidays are the best time of the year to visit New York.  There’s extra energy in the city, and the holiday lights and decorations can be magical.  Not to mention the shopping!

We visited our family in New York over Thanksgiving — and took in the best of the holiday season.

Over the course of our visit, we managed to bust several pervasive myths about holiday time in New York City.

1.  You have to arrive at 6 a.m. to see the Thanksgiving Day parade

Everyone warned us that the parade route would be packed and if we wanted to get a spot we’d have to arrive very early.  We sauntered over to 6th avenue at 50th Street at 10 a.m. and had a great vantage point with Radio City Music Hall in the background.  We weren’t in the front row, but back where there was space to move around.

2.  The best shopping deals are on Black Friday

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Free Spielberg Films at the National Archives; Plus: Guastavino Vaulting

Steven Spielberg Film FestivalOne of the things I love best about living in Washington is easy access to cultural institutions — museums, embassies, parks, monuments, and libraries — all of which offer a plethora of free programs.In many Smithsonian museums and government buildings, there are beautiful auditoriums that present concerts, lectures, and film — often free to the public.

The William G. McGowen Theater, deep inside the National Archives building on Constitution Ave., is a leading venue for the screening of documentary films.

This coming weekend, the National Archives will screen a number of Steven Spielberg films in a mini film festival honoring the director’s work, that runs November 15-18, 2013.  This free, public film festival will showcase four of Spielberg’s critically acclaimed films.

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Keene Pumpkin Fest a Smashing Success

Pumpkin Festival Keene NH 2013
2013 Pumpkin Festival Keene New Hampshire
Joel Shprentz Photo

The “highlight” of our trip to Vermont last weekend was the Pumpkin Festival in Keene, New Hampshire.

The community was competing to win the Guinness World Record for the largest collection of simultaneously lit Jack-o-Lanterns.

2013 Pumpkin Festival Keene New Hampshire
Joel Shprentz Photo

Thousands of people hauled their carved pumpkins to the town square.

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Planning a Trip to Vermont on Points and Miles

Vermont Academy, Saxton's River, Vermont
Vermont Academy, Saxton’s River, VT
Image by M. McCardle

We are headed up to southern Vermont this weekend for a family get together.

The leaves should be at their peak, and we are looking forward to visiting rural New England.

This is an costly trip for us, so we will try to use points and miles to mitigate the expense.

We are using a Southwest Visa credit card for most of our expenses because we are participating in a holiday promotion to earn bonus points.

The major elements of the trip are:  

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Point Lookout — Trystworthy?

Stateline Point Lookout
Stateline Point Lookout

If you are having an illicit affair, I can think of no better place to meet your lover than Point Lookout on the Palisades Parkway. It’s beautiful, romantic, easily accessible from New York City, yet quite isolated (at least on a weekday.)

We drove to New England one Tuesday in early September, to drop our daughter at  school.  Traveling north on I-95, the New Jersey Turnpike ends in Fort Lee, New Jersey.  You can continue on I-95 to New York City and beyond by taking the George Washington Bridge, or you can travel north above the Hudson River via the Palisades Parkway.

We wanted to avoid traveling through New York City because our car was loaded with stuff.

I couldn’t believe the natural beauty that awaited us just minutes from Manhattan!

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Five Fun Things to Do with Teens and Tweens in Salt Lake City

Tracy AviaryTeens and tweens can be tough customers to please on a family vacation.  We are back from a week in Salt Lake City where we discovered some fun attractions that appeal to this age set.

Salt Lake City and Utah in general are an outdoor lover’s paradise — but these suggestions mostly focus on quirky attractions of the urban variety.

The Tracy Aviary  

We enjoyed a stroll through this bird zoo at the southeast corner of Liberty Park.  Liberty Park is an 80 acre retreat  in Salt Lake City that offers all manner of outdoor recreation.  The Tracy Aviary displays 400 birds representing about 135 different species in a tranquil wooded setting.

The Aviary is an old-time zoo with large, attractive enclosures.  Our teen was captivated by the strange, beautiful and diverse birds on display.  Plan about an hour for a visit.  If your family includes younger children, they might enjoy the retro amusement rides,including a ferris wheel, adjacent to the aviary.

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