Monthly Archives: December 2011

Philadelphia

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In the next few days, I will post entries about places in Philadelphia. Philadelphia is one of the major cities in the northeast region of the United States. It’s located along one of the busiest interstate highways in the country, Interstate 95, in between two other big cities, Washington, DC, and New York City. The city was founded in 1682 by William Penn (who also founded the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania). It was an important city during the American Revolution, as it was the meeting place for the Founding Fathers of the United States who wrote and signed the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia on July 4th, 1776 and the US Constitution on September 17, 1787. The city also served as the temporary nation’s capital between 1790 and 1800 while the federal city of Washington, DC was under construction. Today, Philadelphia plays an important role as one of the major financial centers in the United States, and it’s also one of the largest health education and research centers in the country.

I first visited Philadelphia only to stop for lunch during a road trip between Washington, DC, and New York City. A few years ago, I spent almost a year traveling between Washington, DC and northern suburb of Philadelphia as I worked on a couple of projects for large healthcare companies in the area. I spent most of the time at work, however, so I didn’t get a chance to do touristy things until later after the projects were done. Since the location is not too far away from Washington, DC, area where I live (about 3.5 hour drive), it’s possible to do day trip to visit the city.

The photo below was taken when I visited the Independence National Historical Park in downtown Philadelphia a couple of years ago. It’s a statue of Philadelphia’s most famous resident, Benjamin Franklin, outside the American Philosophical Society building. Ben Franklin’s name is commemorated in many places in Philadelphia area — Ben Franklin Parkway, Franklin Institute — and rightly so, as he played an important role in the city and nation’s history. Franklin was instrumental in establishing some of the cities important services (e.g., its first fire department, library, and hospital). He also played important role in advancing science (he invented the lightning rod, bifocals, among others), and he also served as the Governor of Pennsylvania and as US Ambassador to France. Today you can also find his portrait on the US $100 bill.

Ben Franklin Statue

Christmas in New York

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Today is Christmas Day, and I thought it’s fitting to close my blog series on New York City (for this time around) with a post on Christmas in New York City.

Around the holiday season, in the United States you can pretty much tell that people are gearing towards Christmas with the lights, decorations, and advertisements for sales at stores everywhere. This experience is magnified to the next level, however, when you visit New York City around the holiday season, as you can visit many places that you’ve probably heard of associated to Christmas time — the Macy’s store on 34th Street (as featured in the classic movie Miracle on 34th Street), the large Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, the shops on Fifth Avenue, and many New York City landmarks that are associated with the big cities — lights, high rises, crowds. Even if you normally don’t care about these (I tend to avoid the shopping malls around the holiday season if I can; it can get pretty stressful dealing with crowds and traffic especially for someone who is not into shopping that much), I think it’s something worth experiencing as a visitor at least once – if anything, to observe this as an ‘American culture experience.’

I think it’s interesting to view this from two different perspectives. For visitors from out of town, they are very much looking forward to see all of these — experiencing in real life what they had seen in movies or TV shows. But for New Yorkers who have lived in the city for a while, they come to see these as normal and perhaps even try to avoid the popular places (e.g., Times Square) around this busy time. When I visited New York City around Christmas time with a couple of my cousins, we were pretty excited to go around and see the sites. But my brother who had been living in New York City for several years by then, politely excused himself from the sightseeing, and he just met us and joined us around meal time.

The photo below was taken during that sightseeing excursion I mentioned above. It’s taken at the Rockefeller Center where they have a large Christmas tree on display in front of the GE Building and the ice skating rink. It’s quite a beautiful display — what you don’t see here is the long line behind me for people who wanted to take this photo — I think we waited in line for at least half an hour for few seconds chance to take photos.

Christmas Tree

Plaza Hotel

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The Plaza Hotel is a luxury hotel located near the southeast corner of Central Park in Midtown Manhattan area of New York City. Built in 1907, it is among the most well-known hotel in the world as it symbolizes luxury and opulence and it has been featured in countless literatures, movies, and TV shows set in New York City. After a five-year, $450 million restoration between 2002-2007, the Plaza Hotel now houses 282 hotel rooms and 152 private condo suites. There are also luxury stores and gourmet food hall to check out, even if you’re not staying at the hotel. It is also the only hotel in New York City that has a National Historic Landmark designation.

Like most visitors to New York, I’ve walked past the hotel and went into the lobby just to peek in, but I had never stayed at this hotel. I do remember watching movies like Crocodile Dundee 2 and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York that were set in this hotel. A few years ago, I came to New York City with my cousin and his family. His two young daughters (around 10 years old at the time) immediately recognized the hotel as “the place where Kevin stayed” referring to the Home Alone 2 movie.

The photo below was outside the hotel few years ago when I went to New York City around Christmas time. I thought it’s a fitting post for today given it’s Christmas Eve tonight.

The Plaza Hotel

Guggenheim Museum

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The Guggenheim Museum in New York is a museum housing artwork from the collection of the Guggenheim Foundation. The collection includes paintings from old masters of various styles, but the most valuable part of the collection is the building itself. The building for the Guggenheim Museum in New York was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. It took him 16 years (1943-1959) to complete the design of this building (including 700 sketches and six sets of working drawings), and it was his last major work. The museum opened in 1959, six months after the death of Mr. Wright.

I visited the Guggenheim Museum with my cousin while doing walks towards Central Park from my brother’s apartment in Upper East Side of Manhattan several years ago. We went into the museum’s lobby and took some photos there, but ended up not spending the time to see the artwork because it was a little pricey to purchase the tickets for the museum, especially when we were more interested in the architecture than checking out the art. But we did get some great photos of the building from many different angles.

The photo below was taken outside the museum. I thought it provided an interesting perspective to see the distinctive cone part of the building.

Guggenheim Museum

Central Park

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Central Park is a large public park in the center of Manhattan in New York City. The park is 2.5 miles long by 0.5 miles wide. With approximately 35 million visitors annually, it is the most visited public park in the United States. It is yet another well-known New York City site that has been featured in countless movies set in Manhattan, and it features many familiar landmarks like the famous restaurant (now closed) Tavern on the Green, the Central Park Zoo, the Great Lawn, Strawberry Fields (a tribute to John Lennon), the Reservoir, and the large Metropolitan Museum of Art building.

I first visited the Central Park during my first sightseeing tour of New York City. I remembered going as a group to see the Strawberry Fields and took a group photo near the Imagine mosaic. We also went to the Tavern on the Green around sunset and seeing the lighting of the lights on the trees around the restaurant. It was definitely a memorable sight for someone visiting the Big Apple for the first time.

Several years later, my brother lived in the Upper East Side neighborhood east of the Central Park. Several times when I visited him, I went for a walk near the park. It’s quite interesting place to enjoy the scenery around the park, but also to people watch. As you get closer to the park on the east side, you can tell that the homes are getting higher in price. In fact, many of the upper-class New Yorkers live in this part of town.

The photo below was taken in late Spring afternoon during a walk in the eastern part of the Central Park. You can see the reservoir and the buildings on the west side of the park reflected on the water.

Central Park