2016: US North East

Thanksgiving 2016 Week-End Escape to the 'Catskill Mountains' , Albany, and 'America's Coolest City' - Providence (Capital State of Rhode Island)

November 24-27,2016

by Dr. A. K. Srivastava

E-mail: aks46@rediffmail.com

'Thanks giving is a way to express gratitude. Improve your attitude with Gratitude'......James Taylor, American Musician and singer.

Thanks Giving Day is celebrated as a national holiday in the United States, in Canada, Germany, Japan and in some of the Caribbean islands and in Liberia. It was originally celebrated in England as a religious occasion and subsequently as a day of giving thanks for the blessing of the harvest. It is celebrated on the second Monday of October in Canada and on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States, and around the same part of the year in other places. As President of the United States, George Washington proclaimed the first nationwide thanksgiving celebration in America marking November 26, 1789, "as a day of public thanksgiving and prayer .....to Almighty God".

In this time of the year, in New York and nearby places the weather is unpredictable and mostly pretty cold and windy. We have already visited most of the tourist-places in the area and were planning not to go on a long road-trip in the north being very cold and also a place which is calm & quiet, easily accessible but not very crowded with the tourists. Though, we had already been to the following selected two places earlier, but added a new dimension to the tour. In our group -- we were six persons, all in three generations of varied age-group having their own choices and priorities. We started on 24th Nov morning and reached Windham at about early noon times. The weather welcome us with small snow-balls floating in the sky and in no times we all were covered in snow. After checking-in in the rooms, we went for our lunch at Michael's Diner--a family restaurant at the heart of the town. As my wife is vegetarian and getting food of her

Fig.: 1,2,3 & 4 -- A view of skiing pad and our hotel at Windham town.

choice is really a Herculean task. But this is an awesome place with the nicest staff, personal attention and the best food in town. The waiter enquired repeatedly whether it was OK for us. It was amazing home cooked food that is cooked right, served fresh, and such large portions, with very reasonable prices. Though they are cash-only, it is well worth bringing out the cash to pay for the great food. Getting vegetarian-food exactly of your choice on a busy day like thanksgiving was simply wonderful. On top of it a free serving of freshly cooked Pumpkin / Coconut- pie for all was really a surprise, which prompted us to make an unusually large tip.

The Catskill Mountains is a large area spread to about 15,259Sq KM and spread to in most of the 5 county of New York state, with mountain peaks in the height-range of 4000-5000 feet. The Catskill Mountains at Windham are located approximately 100 miles (160 km) north-northwest of New York City and 40 miles (60 km) southwest of New York state capital : Albany.

Fig.: 5 & 6 -- At the Capitol of New York state: Albany.

The small town at Windham is famous for snow- sports in this time of the season, with about 1 1/2-2 feet snow cover at the top of the mountain and the valley, making it ideal place for skiing. We stayed at The Win Wood Inn & Condominium (Contact: Phone: +1-518-7343000, Fax : +1-518-7345900), in the heart of Windham town and about 1 mile from the base of skiing pad. The rooms were large, cozy, clean, nicely appointed and with the best of fittings & equipments. After a long time I played table tennis with my wife and other games with the children in the hotel Gym. The room-tariff included continental Breakfast, Free Parking, Free Wireless inter-net (it was poor at many times) and access to the Gym.

Next day on 25th Nov. after breakfast, we proceeded for Albany--the New York state capital. On the way, it started drizzling. After, roaming around the capitol, Empire state plaza and adjoining area, we had our lunch at a Mac Donald's restaurants .Apart being the political capital of New York state, Albany is the home of many big companies. Fortune 500 companies that have offices in Albany include American Express, J.P. Morgan and Chase, Merrill Lynch, General Electric, Verizon, Goldman Sachs, International Paper, and Key Bank.

Fig.: 7,8,9,10,11 & 12 -- At the Brown University Campus / Design Department.

We proceeded for Providence, the capital of state of Rhode Island. It was a long 265 KM road journey and we did it pretty fast in about 3 hours, keeping in view the long traffic-chokes at freeways in many places. We had been to Providence in 2008 and stayed there for 3 days, while on tour to Massachusetts and adjoining areas.

The New York Times named the city of Providence one of its " 52 places to go in 2016" list and GQ magazine as the " America's Coolest city". It is the home of one of famous ' Ivy league colleges'--Brown University. This time we stayed at 'Residence Inn Providence Warwick', on Kilvert Street, near to the Airport and the sea shore. All major 5-star and other big hotels were in this area. It took us some time to checking-in in hotel due to rush. In evening did some local shopping and dinner at a Mexican restaurant.

On 26th Nov., after breakfast, we stared for the nearest Atlantic sea shore Oak Land beach at Oak Land Road, had a morning walk and spent some time there. It was chilly 5 deg C

Fig.: 13& 14 -- At the Rhode Island Capitol, Providence.

temperature with 20 miles/hour wind velocity. We went to see the Capitol of Rhode Island at the Washington street. In our earlier trip, we did some casual sight-seeing at Brown University. This time we did visit and wanted to spend some more time here. Brown University, a private and 252 years old university, is 17th in ranking in the 2017 edition of Best US Colleges as National Universities and 49th worldwide. It has a campus of 143 acres, surrounded by greenery all around, UD $ 3.3 billion endowment and student strength of 9,073 (fall 2015) and 731 full time staff. Brown University tuition for regular full-time students in the 2016-2017 academic year varies from course to course but is generally US$50,224 ($6,278 per course).It is any body's dream to study in such famous and great university. Though there are 3 major libraries in the brown university, its 190 years old Anthenaem Library is the biggest with about 200,000 items consisting of some rare and contemporary material, including rare pre-Colombian map of the world. It is considered as the heart of intellectual and cultural life of Providence. We spent some time in the library , both in the mezzanine, ground floors. Like many other schools, the school of Design & Arts department are famous and adored. We made round of the department and adjoining cafeteria.

On 27th Nov., after breakfast, we stared for the return journey, via Yale University in the state of Connecticut. The day was sunny but occasionally cloudy. It was chilly 7 deg C temperature with 25 miles/hour wind velocity. In our earlier trip, we completely missed the Yale University.

Fig.: 15,16,17& 18 -- At the Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.

This time we wanted our children to see and spend some more time here. We strolled through the main campus and scanned many departments, student-halls, food-courts/cafeteria from outside as most of the Yale University was closed due to Thanksgiving holidays. Yale University, a private and 315 years old university, is 5 th in ranking in the 2017 edition of Best US Colleges as National Universities and 12 th worldwide. It has a campus of 1,015 acres, surrounded by greenery all around, UD $ 25.57 billion endowment and student strength of 12,312 (June 2015),including 1872 foreign students and 4,410 full time faculty . For the academic year 2016-2017, though Doctoral candidates receive a full tuition fellowship, the tuition-fees for full-time study at the Yale University differs from course to course. For example the tuition fees at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences is $39,800. Undergraduate in Public Health (for the 9 month academic year) it is US$ 41,800 and is US $ 64,208, after including Room & Board and other miscellaneous expenses.

It is any body's dream to study in such famous and great university. Yale has graduated many notable alumni, including five U.S. Presidents, 19 U.S. Supreme Court Justices, 13 living billionaires, and many heads of state. In addition, Yale has graduated hundreds of members of Congress and many high-level U.S. diplomats.52 Nobel laureates, 5 Fields Medalists, 243 Rhodes Scholars, and 118 Marshall Scholars have been affiliated with the University.

The museum at the Arts Department is famous for its very rare and vast collections. We spent some time scanning the Arts objects. In the afternoon, we had lunch at an Indian restaurant in the downtown , near the main University campus. Return journey was difficult and delayed due to crowded traffic conditions on the freeways.