The Classic Catalog

If you’re of a certain age there’s a pretty good chance you grew up with a copy of The Vermont Country Store catalog in the house, or maybe you discovered it as an adult.  Either way, the catalog is filled with pages of wondrous treasures that find one happily reminiscing and thinking, “Oh, I remember those!”

The best testimonial I can offer about visiting Vermont, in the autumn, is that I’m already planning our next visit. That’s how much we enjoyed ourselves. Heck, I’m betting Vermont is beautiful pretty much year round, but there is just something amazing special about autumn.  Maybe because it’s my absolute favorite time of the year, or maybe because it’s the glorious colors of the fall foliage, or maybe because it’s just Vermont.

“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.”
― Albert Camus

Our fourth and final stay with the Library Hotel Collection was at the Hotel Giraffe; a sleek, tall, and beautiful hotel, just like a Giraffe!

I’m not sure there is a better way to see the New York skyline than from the deck of a boat slowly cruising along on the Hudson and East Rivers.  An even better view of the skyline is at sunset, on a cruise, on the rivers; it’s really pretty.  And, it’s something quite special to pass by Lady Liberty with the sun slowly setting behind her.

It’s a tricky business to write a hotel review. I mean, think about it.  How much can one say?  There is a room, a bed, bath and hopefully, it’s clean and comfortable with a sense of style. That about wraps it up, don’t you think? But every now and then we come across a hotel(s) with a little something extra that makes us sit up and take notice.  And that’s the case when it comes to the 4 boutique hotels in the Library Hotel Collection in New York City; each offering the finest in accommodations. 

Meandering through the One World Trade Center, 9/11 Memorial Museum, I had a moment of realization that there is now a generation of children who were not alive on 9/11, and as such had no real concept of what they were looking at in the museum, other than was was told to them by their parents.  Amazingly, it has been 15 years.

Just over the bridge from the sleepy seaside village of Brigantine Beach, New Jersey, lies the shore of Atlantic City’s Beach and Boardwalk.  It’s an American classic, Atlantic City, one of those places that most everyone has either visited, or is curious about doing so.  I can now say we’ve done both.  We’ve been curious and we’ve been there.  We’re good.

Books.  In a day and age when electronics reign supreme, it’s good to know people still pick up a book.  A real book, possibly even a library book, and not just open their Kindle or device of preference, but rather hold an actual book.  The smell of the pages.  The feel of a faded dog-eared page marking a stopping point. And illustrations. Old-school illustrations with captions.