Memorial Weekend in Dutchess County

For Memorial Weekend, my parents and I took a road trip north to Dutchess County and spent some time in the small towns of Rhinebeck and Red Hook, where we stayed over Friday night in a charming Victorian Bed and Breakfast called "The Grand Dutchess." I didn't feel like taking too many pictures on this excursion, so I didn't get a photo of the B&B, or of anything much. But as you'll see below, I got a couple photos of the lovely homes in the local neighborhood, and I got some pictures at Montgomery Place, a historic mansion which we toured. The grounds of Montgomery were vast, and my favorite part was a frog pond almost hidden within a shady grove of trees. The pond was seriously crawling with cute, fat green frogs! I used to be obsessed with frogs when I was little, and it's been so long since I've seen any, so that made my day.

We also ate at a few good restaurants while on this trip and drove around the beautiful neighborhoods, admiring all the cute houses, as I said before. But most of our trip was spent dragging me around while Mom went antique shopping, her favorite thing to do. Definitely not my favorite thing to do, unless it's Asian antiques we're talking about. I didn't have much fun with that, but dad was very patient with mom as usual.

But the part of the trip that made it worth it wasn't even at the destination. On the way up to our destination, something caught my eye by the freeway: I saw a building nestled high up on a cliff amongst the trees, and this striking structure was designed distinctly in the style of Japanese architecture! It got me so excited. On the way back home, to cheer me up, Dad pulled off the freeway and we found the entrance to this place! Turns out the building is "Mount Fuji" Japanese Restaurant, which doubles as a special events center thing for weddings and celebrations of sorts under the name of The Views at Mount Fuji. So, we parked our rental car and took a look around the place and I took some photos. It has a huge red Torii gate entrance, a koi pond and garden, a shinto-style shrine (not sure if it's legit) with a bunch of mini-torii leading up to it, and when you get inside the elegant main building, the views into the valley below are spectacular! It's basically the restaurant of my dreams. If you know me, you know I love things Japanese. And this was like BOOM! Japanese. I was like, "Okay, we are so coming to eat dinner here for my next birthday!" Wow, what a discovery for me.

Slideshow time! And please--comments, comments, people! They make me feel good about having this blog thangy.

New York Botanical Garden: Emily Dickinson's Garden

On this lovely Saturday before Mother's Day, I went with my parents to the New York Botanical Garden yet again! This time, the theme they had in their main conservatory thing was the "Emily Dickinson Garden." I guess the idea was to plant all sorts of Dickinson's favorite flowers that she had in her own garden, and celebrate the poems she wrote about some of them. It was a truly beautiful display of flowers, as you can see. We also took a look at some of the other sections of the Garden, including the "Children's Garden" because Mom loves all the cute stuff they have there, like a giant caterpillar made of flowering plants!

March Showers Bring April Flowers

On this weekend of April, I took a stroll with mom to Central Park to soak in the beautiful sights of spring in bloom! If a picture is worth a thousand words, then I have nothing more to type! Take a look:

Spring Break Vlog (March 29 - April 5)

**UPDATED 6/19/10: The audio is now in sync with the picture in the video, but it cuts off about 10 seconds at the end.**

In this video blog, I tell you about the fun and relaxing things I did during my spring break (March 29 - April 5): checking out Greenwich Village with Luis, the potluck at the QSU, and hanging out with Shirley and Shovana.

March Fun Times: Part 2 (Vlog)

In this edition of my Vlog, I tell you about seeing the anime film Summer Wars and the Broadway Musical Mamma Mia.

Related Links: Summer Wars on Wikipedia, Mamma Mia: Official Site


Sean's Vlog for March (Part 2)

Sean MySpace Video

March Fun Times: Part 1 (Vlog)

This is officially my first video blog! In this edition, I tell you about the fun times I had in March when my buddy Mike came to New York for a brief visit. Thanks for watching/listening!

Related Link: The Secret of Kells

Sean's Vlog for March (Part 1)

Sean MySpace Video

February Fun Times

Again, it's actually April at the time I'm typing this, but I like to keep my posts listed under their proper months.

------------------------------------------

Wednesday, February 3:

After my morning class, I headed over to the Queer Student Union (which I didn't really know existed before) to check out their open house thing. I had seen a flyer hanging in a hallway, and I thought it would be a good place to finally start making more friends. The open house consisted of a gathering of a fairly small group of people, and we all introduced ourselves. We then went over the calendar of scheduled activities for this semester at the QSU. So this pretty much marked the beginning of my social life at Hunter College. Good stuff.

Wednesday, February 10:

This was the first Snow Day of the semester. I cannot explain how happy this day made me (especially since it would mean I would not have to go to school for 6 six days, what with my having Thursdays off, and that following Friday and next Monday being scheduled holidays at Hunter). Although, it would have been nice if Hunter had posted the news that class was cancelled before I went to the school, only to discover that the place was deserted. Anyways, the snow was beautiful, covering the city and the parks in a white blanket. After I got some more sleep, Mom and went out to Riverside Park to enjoy the snow. We built a snowman by the 91st street garden. I don't know how long it had been since I made a snowman, or even played in the snow. Well, actually, it was probably about 11 years.

Thursday, February 11:

I went to the Valentines Party at the QSU! I had some fun conversation, ate some pizza, met a bunch of new friends, and danced the night away. Lady Gaga is always the music highlight. I think I can get used to this party thing. As long as it doesn't get too insane, haha. But I think these people have just the right amount of crazy. I like them!

Friday, February 26:

Snow Day number 2! Hell yeah. Mom and I went out to Riverside again to enjoy the snow. We made some snowballs and generally just strolled about leisurely, taking in all the gorgeous whiteness that surrounded us. I took lots of pictures this times. Pretty!

I took videos too!

Saturday, February 27:

I'm pretty sure it was on this day, but I'm not 100% positive. My parents took me to see a play on Broadway called Present Laughter, written by the great Noel Coward. It starred Victor Garber in the lead role, who has starred in many film, TV, and stage roles. I'll paste the basic plot summary from Wikipedia.org so I don't have to come up with my own:

• "The plot follows a few days in the life of the successful and self-obsessed actor Garry Essendine as he prepares to travel for a touring commitment in Africa. Amid a series of events bordering on farce, Garry has to deal with women who want to seduce him, placate both his long-suffering secretary and his estranged wife, cope with a crazed young playwright, and overcome his fear of his own approaching fortieth birthday and, by implication, his impending mid-life crisis. The story was described by Coward as 'a series of semi-autobiographical pyrotechnics'."

Basically, the play was hilarious. All the actors were fantastic. We loved it! What more can I say? We were sitting in the very back row but it wasn't bad at all since the theater was smaller.

Okay, I guess that's pretty much it for February!