The Travels of Mr NYC

Mr NYC in Kennebunkport, Maine

Recently I spent a night in Kennebunkport, Maine. It was my first time in the Pine Tree State and -- wow! -- it's beautiful.

Maine is much in the news these days for political reasons but most of the time it's a quiet, sleepy place up north.

In my mind it's The Place Beyond Boston, even more remote than Vermont and New Hampshire, basically a piece of Canada captured within the Lower 48. In Maine, the pace of life is slower, time is more important than money, and culturally it's actually more French-Canadian than American.

Several years ago the humorous write Drew Magary wrote a piece for GQ called "Maine: Do We Need It?" that dissects the vagaries of this odd place.

Unlike northern Maine -- where both its residents and geography have more common with the Wildings in the land beyond the Wall in Game of Thrones -- southern Maine is gorgeous tourist trap. Kennebunkport is its crown jewel, a beautiful seaside town with charming shops, great restaurants, and nice bed and breakfasts.

When we got there, we visited one of the beautiful private beaches (thanks to some family friends). Then we stayed at the Kings Point Inn which I highly recommend, is reasonably priced, gives you breakfast, and has a jacuzzi bathtub. The friendly guy at the front desk talked about how much he loves his town and state, and gave us a nice map -- even showing us directions to Walkers Point, summer home of the Bush family (don't worry, we didn't go). For dinner, we ate a place called Hurricaine -- while the service was slow and it was crowded, the food was amazing. After dinner we walked around the charming streets, getting ice cream, and enjoying the relaxed vibe of the place. I took lots of pictures which, you'll see here, and drank in its beauty.

A couple of interesting things: 1) Apparently the Bush family was in-residence on Walkers Point and good ol' George W. was there celebrating his 80th birthday. 2) Did you know that Maine used to be part of Massachusetts? It became independent in 1820 as part of the Missouri Compromise -- Maine joined as a free state, Missouri as a slave state. 3) There's actually two townd, Kennebunkport and Kennebunk that are divided/joined by a bridge and make us this area. 4) If you go to Maine, you better like seafood.  

Mr NYC in Legoland

Recently took the family to Legoland, a theme park up in Westchester that opened in 2021. We had a great time -- lots of rides, lots lego stuff to do, and it had a chill, nerdy vibe that we all enjoyed.

My favorite thing, as you might imagine, were the big outdoor Lego builds of American cities -- Philadelphia, Washington DC, Chicago, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles were featured amongst others. But the really big one, the really major one, was of New York City (no suprise there). Here I will provide you a short photographic tour of Legoland NYC -- it's really amazing to see and something that I encourage all city buffs to check out:

We start out to the north in ...

Da' Bronx

We zoom down into Lego Yankee's Stadium and then visit the Lego Bronx Zoo and the Lego New York Botanical Garden ...

Then we traverse into Manhattan and breeze by ...

The Upper East Side & Upper West Side

Here we see the Lego Guggenheim, the Lego Dakota and Lego Sam Remo as well as the Lego Central Park.

Now let's hop on ...

The Subway 

And go to ... 

Queens

And go through Lego Long Island City and Lego Flushing Meadows Park to a Lego Mets game at Lego Citi Field.

Let's go back into Manhattan and hit ...

Midtown

We pass by the Lego AT&T Building, the Lego St. Patrick's Cathedral, the Lego Times Square, the Lego United Nations, the Lego Empire State Building, the Lego Madison Square Garden and Lego Pennsylvania Hotel, and the Lego Flatiron Building.

Now we go ...

Downtown

We head south from the Lego Washington Square Arch and Lego City Hall to the Lego Castle Clinton and Lego 9/11 Memorial to the Lego One World Trade Center, Lego Lower Manhattan and, in the midst of the Lego New York Harbor pool, the Lego Statue of Liberty.

But what, dere's more! Let's dip into ...

Brooklyn

And we finish up our visit passing by the Lego Brooklyn Museum, the Lego Grand Army Plaza Arch, and Lego Coney Island.

As for ...

Staten Island 

It's not there (yet).

So that's my little tour of Legoland NYC -- but I highly, highly suggest that you go check it out, along with the whole park, yourself.

Mr NYC in Paris: Le Grande Finale

And so now we come to the end. This will be the last post about my Paris trip and my personal favorite -- pictures from the nighttime bus tour we took.

It whizzed us around the city as darkness fell and the city of lights began to shine. So many of the places we had seen looked different, and even more beautiful, in the evening lights (even my oldest kid, who likes to be grouchy all the time, broke out into a smile). 

In addition to all the famous sights we also saw places like the L'Olympia Theater (where the Velvet Underground reunited in 1993 and recorded their big double live album) and the original Moulin Rouge. An incredible, memorable night!