Native Summer: Boogie Down Bartow-Pell

Are we still in New York City?

Guests enter here

Usually, a trip off the City Island exit means red plastic, oval baskets lined with paper, filled with fried clams, calamari, and shrimp. But before you hit the seafood restaurants, make a pit stop at the well-preserved Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum. 

Now Pelham Bay Park, this piece of land, along the Long Island Sound, was once the home of the Siwanoy natives. After signing a treaty, the land (50,000 acres) was acquired by the Pell family. The Greek-Revival mansion we see today was built between 1836 and 1842 by Robert Bartow. He was a man of all trades: book publisher, paper manufacturer, banker, and farmer. It didn't hurt that he had married into a wealthy tobacco family by making Maria Lorillard his wife. The rooms give a glimpse of how the rich of the 1840's lived. 

Be warned, there is no air-conditioning in this house. True to the period, we suffered in the  heat, visiting on one of the hottest, humid days in the summer. 

http://www.bartowpellmansionmuseum.org/

Elliptical staircase is also the environmentally-friendly central air

Upstairs sitting room

The reporter at work

Lannuier Chamber

The formal gardens which face the Long Island Sound

Native Summer: Tram to Minnehanonck

Roosevelt Island from the tram

Whenever we would drive along the FDR, I always imagined a scene from One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest in what I thought were psychiatric hospitals across the river, at the skinny island under the 59th Street Bridge. Is that where they put all the crazy people?, I thought to myself. Yes, it was once filled with hospitals but was reinvented into residences that we see today, and in a few years, home to a graduate university center (Cornell Tech).

It's even had several name changes over the years: the Lenape referred to it as Minnehanonck, Varkens Eyelant by the Dutch, Blackwell's Island by the British, Welfare Island when hospitals were its main tenants, and finally in 1971, Roosevelt Island. 

We decided to begin the summer hopping on NYC's only tram and checking out the island. 

As soon as we got off the tram, the free red bus that loops around the island took us from the newer, modern high rises, passed the well-preserved Blackwell house, through the Soviet bloc style apartments that were built in the 70's, and ended at the newly renovated Octagon, a former lunatic asylum. Whether it's Main Street's pavers or the towering apartment buildings, you definitely feel that sense of being somewhere else. Alex was immediately struck by how quiet the streets were. My only experience has been in its 2  schools which appeared spacious, well-thought out, and filled with caring teachers and eager students. 

Blackwell House c. 1804 (Just like our house!)

Then we hiked to the portion south of the bridge along the western promenade. Here you have prime views of the Empire State, the Chrysler, and Niemeyer's/Le Corbusier's UN Secretariat.

The gothic, abandoned small-pox hospital next to Four Freedoms Park

Finally, you reach FDR's Four Freedoms Park, Louis I. Khan's vision in 1973. The project was resurrected after nearly 4 decades, and the park opened to the public in 2012. It's a garden whose apex brings you to a granite room, the southern most tip of Roosevelt Island. Aside from a few stray tourists, we were nearly the only ones there. It's a peaceful place designed for reflection. His 1941 state of the union speech rings truer today more than ever, a message calling for human rights. 

Perfectly-lined Linden trees

Jo Davidson's 1933 sculpted bust, a WPA work.

 

FDR's favorite pup: a Scottie named Fala

Natives Exploring The City

I know it's been a while since I've posted on this site. We've definitely traveled since the big trip, only not as extensively. I finally got Marc and Alex to the Philippines (twice!) and the previously postponed trip to Japan was realized. All of our other plane rides have landed us in the Spanish speaking Americas: an easy plane ride, more or less the same time zone, mouthwatering food, warm weather, and even warmer people.

This summer we have decided to stay local. Why you ask? Has the wanderlust fizzled? 

With my sister arriving from Germany to celebrate a milestone birthday, Marc wanting to work, Alex's protest to camps (other than her 2 week sleep away to farm camp), and me lacking the desire to plan anything, we are here in New York, ready to take on the hot, humid, urban landscape.

I've forgotten what it is like to be here, always trying to escape when I get my 8 weeks of freedom. But a NYC summer vacation schedule can fill up as quickly as a Michelin starred restaurant.  There are beaches for swimming and tanning, theater and dance to catch up on, museums to linger and cool off in, touristy places native New Yorkers never visit, and lots of FREE movies, concerts, and theater in the park. This is the summer that I have decided to get to know NYC (and surroundings) again and my little NYC native is coming along with me to explore. 

Here's what we have on our list, so far: 

1. The Cloisters/Fort Tryon Park
2. Wave Hill
3. Roosevelt Island 
4. Snug Harbor
5. Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum
6. Shakespeare in the Park: Twelfth Night
7. Louis Armstrong House 

We are open to lots of other ideas, especially places that are less explored! What are your favorite NYC summer spots? 

Live in Brooklyn This Summer!

We will be away from July 24 to September 01, 2015. If anyone is interested in renting our home, please go through the One Fine Stay website: http://www.onefinestay.com/new-york/south-oxford-street/images/

The Last Time

This Wednesday, October 17 would have been my father's 73rd birthday. These images are from his visit to South Africa last May 2011 during my birthday. He died on August 15, two weeks before we were scheduled to return home.

Spirit in the House

Although most Thai are Buddhists, spirit worship takes its place beside the dominant religion. In front of homes and businesses are spirit houses, made to appease the spirits by providing it both shelter and votive offerings. Often the larger the home or business, the larger the spirit house. Here are some in the Sukhumvit area of Bangkok, home to big boutique hotels and Bangkok's expat community.

Hits from the Bomb

2 million metric tons of explosives =

10 tons/square kilometer = 

1/2 ton explosives/inhabitant = 

the most bombed country per capita on earth = 

Laos

According to the Mines Advisory Group (MAG), 2 million tons or 4,409,200 pounds of explosives, particularly cluster bombs, were dropped on Laos by US forces between 1964 and 1973 during the Secret War. However, 30% of these explosives did not detonate on impact leaving 80 million unexploded ordinances (UXOs) scattered throughout the country. When disturbed, these UXOs, locally known as "bombies" have the potential to maim or even kill a person. Each day in Laos, this is exactly what is happening. Not only do they injure and kill, but they prevent the Lao from using their land for their livelihood, stifling development and the potential for the country to grow out of poverty. In addition, since the scrap metal from the bombs can be used, many try to collect it to make money that they normally would be making from farming the land. Not only do adults realize the potential money to be made from the metal, so do the many children who die harvesting instead many of the tennis ball-like bombies. 

A cluster bomb or bombie from the documentary Bombies.

MAG has some phenomenal films about the aftermath of the Secret War and details some of the work that they do to remove the UXOs.

A bomb remover from the documentary Bombies.

 Visit a Hmong village and instead of seeing wood or bamboo to stilt the houses or build a fence, many of the leftover bombs are used. Once used to kill, the people now use the bombshells as planters to for herbs and vegetables to eat.

Not only do the craters left by the bomb make the landscape surreal, but the sites where many of the UXOs exist are scattered with enormous stone jars also known as the Plain of Jars. Some theorize that the jars are a burial site with evidence of human bone, pottery fragments, iron and bronze objects, glass and stone beads, ceramic weights and charcoal around the sites. In Site 1 alone are 334 jars, each 2.5m by 2.5m. Although much of Site 1 has been cleared, to this day the Laos government and NGOs continue to search for and remove ordinances.

Plain of Jars

Learn more about MAG's work and the Secret War by clicking here.

The Dish

Sometimes, there's no running water, but there's always satellite TV! Who needs a flushing toilet when you can watch Thailand's Got Talent? Here's evidence that even in the hills of Laos, the tube rules. 

 

Just can't get enough