Tag: #stamford

From Stamford By Train

I drove to JFK Airport recently on a Saturday. I was hoping it wouldn’t be a long and stressful drive. It was over 90 minutes coming and going and there were a lot of dangerous drivers.

I mention this because this summer I am going to take the train for day trips  as much as possible. You too can take the train from Stamford. There are many interesting trips you can take and many of them can be day trips.

Here is a list of some of the trips.

Greenwich and New Canaan; both are less than 20 minutes, and both are very walk-able from the train station. Heck New Canaan drops you right into the town.

Westport is less than 30 Minutes and the walk to the beach is historic and nice. Definitely worth a train ride.  A little tip: take the train that leaves around the half-hour. There are three less stops.

Bridgeport is about a 30-to-40-minute ride. You can walk to the Port Jefferson Ferry and take the ferry to Long Island. The town of Port Jefferson is a nice town to explore and have lunch. The ferry ride is about an hour long.

At the hour mark for travel is New York City and New Haven.

New Haven has three free museums the Yale Art Museum, The Peabody Museum and the British Museum of Art. There is also a nice selection of restaurants in New Haven.

What can I say about New York City, there are a million things to explore in the city.

Lately I have been getting off the train in Fordham in the Bronx.  You must take the local to NYC. A short walk from the station will take you to Arthur Avenue, The Bronx Zoo and the Bronx Botanical Garden

The two-hour mark brings you to either New London or Mystic. Mystic is only available by using Amtrak. New London can be either Amtrak or Metro North and Shoreline East.

I have taken the train to Mystic. The seaport is around a fifteen-minute walk from the station.

New London has ferry service to Long Island, Block Island in the summer and Fishers Island.

Amtrak tickets cost more. However, if you buy your tickets at least a month earlier you can get a decent price.

So, take the train and enjoy the state of CT and New York.

Hidden in Plain Sight

I often write about the many sights in plain sight in Stamford, that are hidden unless you are looking for them or walking

One of the many sights is art and sculpture in Stamford and especially in the downtown area.

Have you seen this sculpture. It is located right next to main Street east and the train tracks. It is really hidden well.

I wonder why they have all these bushes hiding the sculpture

Here is another sculpture right off Tresser Blvd.

Stamford has art all over the town.

A few years back I walked from Stamford to Stoning ton CT. One of my goals was to count all the artwork along the way.  I soon gave up on that plan. There was little public artwork compared to what Stamford has

Our two nature centers, The Stamford Museum and Nature Center and the Bartlett Arboretum both have a nice collection of sculptures between them.

You can walk from one place to the other through the forest.

Stamford may not have a dedicated Art Museum; however, it has art all over the town.

One of My Favorite Places in Stamford

One of my favorite places in Stamford

I have a lot of favorite places in Stamford. One of my favorite places is Interlaken Road.

Interlaken Road is off High Ridge just north of the Merritt Parkway.

Going north of the Merritt you transition quickly from commercial to suburban to countryside. The thing that draws me to Interlaken is noise. Not the roar of the city but the roar of water.

As you can see the spillway for Laurel Reservoir has a lot of water spilling over. The roar of the water is just spectacular. I can usually hear it when I am over 300 feet from it. There are other rapids in Stamford, however this is the easiest one to reach.

I love the sights of Halloween and this one on Interlaken is one the better ones.

Just down the road from the spillway is Designs by Lee. They have a nice selection of plants, and the two American Flags are a nice greeting.

I usually take the bus up to Interlaken and walk back.

Walking under the Merrit Parkway Bridge is one of my least favorite places in Stamford.

  It is dangerous for pedestrians, and I would add all forms of transportation. I call the underpass Chokepoint Charlie

Fall

Fall is Coming

We are just a few days away from Fall. Fall is one of my favorite times to walk. The summer heat is gone. There is a crispness in the air that makes for good walking.

The changes in the season are just spectacular.

This picture is my neighbors Japanese Maple.  These leaves will become a brilliant red, especially when the sun shines on them.

Hopefully the maples will also have brilliant fall colors. There is so much joy walking around a bend and seeing those lovely oranges and reds of the maple trees.

Finally, the green curtain descends, and I can see all the sights that were hidden by the leaves.

Enjoy the Fall

On The Train Again

This summer in addition to walking I took the train a lot. I find taking Metro North to the Fordham Station is quite nice. You have Arthur Avenue, The Bronx Zoo and the Bronx Botanical Garden.

I also took Amtrak three times this summer. One was to Mystic. You know about that. Another time was to Rhode Island on a Friday. My grandson did not want to be in traffic for three hours. We took the train, and it was very easy.  I do think the train going along the Connecticut Coast is one of the best sightseeing trips.

The last trip was taking the Amtrak Acela to Philadelphia, PA. The Acela is the fast train and is usually too expensive to take. They had a sale, and I went to Philadelphia for the day. The train ride is a little over two hours each way. I left at nine in the morning and took a 4:30 pm train home.  I had over five hours to walk all over the town.

A word of advice don’t go to Philadelphia on Tuesday or Wednesday.  Most of the art museums are closed those two days.

I went to the Mutter Museum. It is an interesting museum.  It is a medical museum that shows lots of skulls and body parts. If you are in Philadelphia, it is worthwhile going.  I would not go out of my way to see the museum.

I had lunch at the Reading Food Court.  It is well worth the visit. 

I walked all the way to the Delaware River and could see the Battleship New Jersey on the other side of the river.

I ended up at the Rodin Museum.  It was closed. The thinker is on display outside.

Philadelphia is definitely a nice day trip from Stamford.  The cost for the Train was $106.00.  You almost have to take the Acela. The regular trains don’t get you to Philadelphia until early afternoon.

I will be reporting on other two train trips.

THEM

I don’t like them. They scare me.  I try to avoid them. However, it is impossible to avoid them when I walk around Stamford. Worse they are growing in numbers. One of them came close to hurting me badly.

What I am talking about are cars with tinted windows.  I cannot see the driver with the heavily tinted windows. Hence, them. Now, they are even adhering the tint to the front window.

The scary part is walking in front of a car at an intersection. It is difficult enough when you can see the driver.  Will they see you? Are they on the phone?  When you cannot see them, every issue is magnified.

The time I almost got hit I was crossing the road.  Them was not even close to the stop sign When I started. I made the mistake of assuming them would at least slow down. Of course, I couldn’t see them. Front Window was totally tinted. I know this drill very well as I see it happen all the time.  Them was turning right and I assume them made a quick look to the left saw no traffic and floored it totally ignoring the stop sign. Of course, them didn’t see me at all. I missed being hit by one inch.

The kicker. Them had to stop at the next intersection for a red light.  Them gained nothing by running the stop sign

The worst part is it is illegal to have heavily tinted windows on your car in Connecticut.

Them, one of trials when you walk the streets of Stamford

By the way “Them” is also a name of a 1950s Science Fiction Movie. I grew up on those movies when I was a child.  Channel 7 had the 4:30pm movie every weekday.  Each week was a different format.  WWII was one-week, teenage movies one week and then the SciFi movies. Them was a pretty good movie