Originally Posted by
stravels
Mahalo for all the suggestions. We ended up doing the following:
1) Had a pleasant breakfast at Georgia's Diner ... There really weren't many Diners or eating establishments on the route.
3) Shopping wasn't that great at WC--too many winter things, but did find cute kid stuff.
5) Drove to Bear Mt but opted to not have dinner there. Only the cafe was open (never was able to get anyone on the phone) and it was $8 to park. The carousel would have been open for 30 min, but it was getting dark and cold...another trip.
6) Stopped at a look-out and saw bald eagles and a neat sunset. Had yummy pizza and soup at Cosimos Brick Oven in Central Valley (close to WC). There was a 10% discount for Hampton Inn guests. It's actually a small chain restaurant.
7) Took advantage of the no tax on food and clothing in NJ and shopped at Bergen Center and the large mall close by ... Edgewater is an area worth more time.
Welcome to the Big Apple - no snow, wind, blizzard or storm for arrival and departure in the middle of winter, yeah !!
Daytime temperature reaching low 50's later today, wow
a. Great, glad to hear the recommendation for GD worked out & you managed to find it and enjoyed breakfast, etc. Thanks for thinking about extending the invite, out-of-town myself since yesterday but managed to eat at (
FYI only) Kane's Diner late Friday afternoon (haven't been there in 5+ years since we've moved out of area) with an old friend, coffee was actually okay and prices still very reasonable - colorful menu with pasted picture cutouts.
b. Three season layered jacket for the Big Island, comes in handy at the 10,000 ft. summit for sunset/sunrise or that next Alaska cruise - LOL. Yeah, you are right about not finding much useful bargains to "drag" back on your return flight. Timberlands, maybe, although you don't really need to do a 12,000 miles run to do this - and I wasn't impressed with their prices & offerings when we're up there last year.
c. Sorry to hear that Bear Mountain didn't really quite work out in the winter, it is a great place for family trips & picnic, and boating in warm weather - the area's Fall foileage is excellent.
d. Was it one of the Lookout Points along the Parlisades Parkway, now that you mentioned it - I do recall eagles being mentioned in the news a while back.
e. As Landing Gear mentioned, the unique Mitsuma supermarket/food court and mini-mall along the waterfront in Edgewater is an interesting place to checkout, the food court has, you guess it - Japanese food being offered by about half a dozen stores, including an on-site bakery, desserts, rice dishes, noodles and of course, sushi ... All self-serviced, plenty of indoor courtyard seating and priced a bit lower than those back home in HNL - if you want to wander around for maybe 90 minutes to 2 hours before crossing the Hudson back to NY. There's a high-end fine Japanese dining facing the River looking toward the Upper West Side of Manhattan.