5 Beekman Street in Manhattan

12 March 2024 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Hotels, New York City Reading Time:  7 minutes

Beekman Tower © Paul Hermans/cc-by-sa-4.0

Beekman Tower © Paul Hermans/cc-by-sa-4.0

5 Beekman Street is a building in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City, United States. It is composed of the 10-story, 150-foot-tall (46 m) Temple Court Building and Annex (also known as Temple Court) and a connected 51-story, 687-foot-tall (209 m) condominium tower called the Beekman Residences, which contains 68 residential units. The 287-unit The Beekman, a Thompson Hotel, also known as The Beekman Hotel, occupies all three structures.   read more…

Chelsea Hotel in Manhattan

25 February 2024 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Hotels, New York City, Shopping Reading Time:  9 minutes

Lobby © Historystuff2/cc-by-3.0Cc By 3.0

Lobby © Historystuff2/cc-by-3.0

The Hotel Chelsea (also the Chelsea Hotel; colloquially The Chelsea) is a hotel at 222 West 23rd Street in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Built between 1883 and 1884, the hotel was designed by Philip Hubert in a style described variously as Queen Anne Revival and Victorian Gothic. The 12-story Chelsea, originally a housing cooperative, has been the home of numerous writers, musicians, artists, and entertainers, some of whom still lived there in the 21st century. As of 2022, most of the Chelsea is used as a luxury hotel. The building is a New York City designated landmark and on the National Register of Historic Places.   read more…

The Road to Hana in Maui

16 January 2024 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

© Forest & Kim Starr/cc-by-3.0

© Forest & Kim Starr/cc-by-3.0

The Hana Highway (colloquially referred to as The Road to Hana) is a 64.4-mile-long (103.6 km) stretch of Hawaii Routes 36 and 360 which connects Kahului to the town of Hana in east Maui. To the east of Kalepa Bridge, the highway continues to Kipahulu as Hawaii Route 31 (the Piilani Highway). Although Hana is only about 52 miles (84 km) from Kahului, an uninterrupted car-trip takes about 2.5 hours to drive, since the highway is very winding, narrow, and passes over 59 bridges, of which 46 are only one lane wide. There are approximately 620 curves along Route 360 from just east of Kahului to Hana, almost all of it through lush, tropical rainforest. Many of the concrete and steel bridges date back to 1910 and all but one are still in use. That one bridge, badly damaged by erosion, has been replaced by a portable steel ACROW or Bailey bridge erected by the United States Army Corps of Engineers.   read more…

East Harlem in New York City

10 January 2024 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, New York City Reading Time:  7 minutes

1381 Madison Avenue © Beyond My Ken/cc-by-sa-4.0

1381 Madison Avenue © Beyond My Ken/cc-by-sa-4.0

East Harlem, also known as Spanish Harlem or El Barrio, is a neighborhood of Upper Manhattan in New York City, north of the Upper East Side and bounded by 96th Street to the south, Fifth Avenue to the west, and the East and Harlem Rivers to the east and north. Despite its name, it is generally not considered to be a part of Harlem proper, but it is one of the neighborhoods included in Greater Harlem.   read more…

USS Arizona Memorial

1 December 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, House of the Month Reading Time:  9 minutes

USS Arizona Memorial © Victor-ny/cc-by-sa-3.0

USS Arizona Memorial © Victor-ny/cc-by-sa-3.0

The USS Arizona Memorial, at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii, marks the resting place of 1,102 of the 1,177 sailors and Marines killed on USS Arizona during the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and commemorates the events of that day. The attack on Pearl Harbor led to the United States’ involvement in World War II.   read more…

Cathedral of Rum in Cataño

19 November 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Museums, Exhibitions Reading Time:  6 minutes

The Cathedral of Rum © panoramio.com - Jose L. Dominguez/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Cathedral of Rum © panoramio.com – Jose L. Dominguez/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Cathedral of Rum in Cataño, Puerto Rico, is the world’s largest rum distillery. The Bacardi Distillery is located on 137 acres and consists of forty-four buildings and structures, twenty-four of which contribute to its historical character. It can be accessed from and is located at the intersection of PR-165 and PR-888. For visitors, the most important buildings are the Casa BACARDI, the Bacardi Family Museum, the Bacardi Distillery and the Bacardi Pavilion.   read more…

Pearl Harbor on Oahu

7 November 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

Pearl Harbor and Ford Island © U.S. Navy - Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Dylan Lavin

Pearl Harbor and Ford Island © U.S. Navy – Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Dylan Lavin

Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Reciprocity Treaty of 1875. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands are now a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the United States Pacific Fleet. The U.S. government first obtained exclusive use of the inlet and the right to maintain a repair and coaling station for ships here in 1887. The surprise attack by the Imperial Japanese Navy on December 7, 1941, led the United States to declare war on the Empire of Japan, making the attack on Pearl Harbor the immediate cause of the United States’ entry into World War II.   read more…

Omaha Union Station

23 September 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Architecture Reading Time:  6 minutes

© Robertmoo40

© Robertmoo40

The Union Station, at 801 South 10th Street in Omaha, Nebraska, known also as Union Passenger Terminal, is “one of the finest examples of Art Deco architecture in the Midwest“. Designated an Omaha Landmark in 1978, it was listed as “Union Passenger Terminal” on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2016. The Union Station is also a contributing property to the Omaha Rail and Commerce Historic District. It was the Union Pacific’s first Art Deco railroad station, and the completion of the terminal “firmly established Omaha as an important railroad terminus in the Midwest”.   read more…

Mendocino in California

17 July 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  8 minutes

© flickr.com - Lee Coursey/cc-by-2.0

© flickr.com – Lee Coursey/cc-by-2.0

Mendocino (Spanish for “of Mendoza“) is an unincorporated community in Mendocino County, California, United States. The name comes from Cape Mendocino 85 miles (137 km) to the north, named by early Spanish navigators in honor of Antonio de Mendoza, Viceroy of New Spain. Despite its small size, the town’s scenic location on a headland surrounded by the Pacific Ocean has made it extremely popular as an artists’ colony and with vacationers. Mendocino is located 10 miles (16 km) south of Fort Bragg at an elevation of 154 feet (47 m).   read more…

Return to TopReturn to Top