 Tanya's Scoop Covering the West Coast & the World CURRENTLY IN: TOPEKA, KANSAS Good Day and Greetings from Kansas!  I've been making my way from SoCal to St. Louis this week and have landed in good ol' Kansas. For those of you who don't know this about me: Back in the day, I spent a summer living in Manhattan, Kansas - The Little Apple. While on location filming a movie. Fun times! Little did I know or realize that Kansas was home to Tornados and the biggest bugs I had ever seen... Attempting to avoid both - Walking around the set carrying around a fly swatter. And with my ears tuned into to any Tornado alarm. One had touched down and hit not too far from my apartment. YIKES!! Fast forward to the current era of my life. I spent yesterday in Denver hanging out with my friend Katie. We had a great time playing in the Trees at Treehouse Adventure Park in Bailey, Colorado.  Me and Katie wearing our stylish safety hats. (c)travelincousins.com  Ropes in the trees (c)travelincousins.com  Training course (c)travelincousins.com  In the treehouse (c)travelincousins.com  Full body workout in the trees (c)travelincousins.com  Balancing in the rope loops (c)travelincousins.com  4 out of 5 in our group (c)travelincousins.com Working up an appetite, our group of 5 went to lunch at Qdoba. It was my first time trying this fast food Mexican place out. I was thrilled to find out that they made custom salads, burritos, bowls, nachos, etc AND that they offered a few plant based (vegan) options. One even being Impossible "meat". After chowing down, we had gone over to Katie's place for a grand tour and to hang out with her and her hubby for a bit. Plenty of snow chatter going on there. With Lance and Katie both snowboarders and yours truly being an avid skier, we discussed equipment, past, future trips and so much more. It was pretty hot out yesterday and all this talk of the winter definitely watered the seed of my thoughts about this winters ski trips!!! Too bad that wasn't enough to cool me down. LOL Anyhow, I've gotta get on the phoone with Elisa here soon and I don't want to kill my battery so I'll bid you adieu for now and catch you back here tomorrow. Ciao, -Travelin' Tanya |  Elisa's Scoop Covering Long Island & NYC Boroughs CURRENTLY IN: LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK A BIG FRIDAY HELLO!! I certainly hope your week has been amazing! Mine has been busy, busy, busy!  We found out the status with back to school for both girls' high schools. As it turns out, my two daughters, who will be attending different high schools beginning next month, will go back to a full in-school program. While both respective high schools are offering the option of remote learning, I felt that the most advantageous way for them to get the most out of school would be to attend in person. I know people have mixed feelings about this, but I have faith that our schools have and are continuing to implement the right safety precautions with social distancing measures and ventilation. We have our fingers crossed and will take one day at a time. MOVING RIGHT ALONG... I thought I would kick the weekend off with an article about The Bronx's Belmont section - better known as Little Italy. As you know, a few weeks ago I visited The Bronx and spent the afternoon chatting with a few of the merchants for today's story. Our conversations centered on the challenges they faced with the COVID-19 pandemic and quarantine and how they were faring with New York officially moving into Phase 4 on July 20th. Not only was it thoroughly enjoyable saying hello and visiting with each small business owner in their respective establishments, but it was quite enlightening to hear first-hand the way in which they persevered through one of the most difficult times in New York history. Incidentally, with things up and running in this culturally rich outer borough, I strongly recommend you putting a visit to Arthur Avenue/Little Italy on your Daycation calendar this month!  (c) travelincousins.com Bronx Little Italy Businesses Share Their Thoughts About Covid-19 Pandemic As Belmont Business District Reopens | Commitment, Perseverance and Unity As we look back over the past four months, the Covid -19 pandemic of 2020 has affected all Americans in one way or another. Whether through profound personal tragedy and loss or a severe change to day to day living, our country’s effort to curtail and stop the spread of this virus has had a devastating impact on businesses large and small. In The Bronx, the historically vibrant and robust Belmont Business Improvement District/Bronx Little Italy has weathered the coronavirus pandemic and quarantine storm and is now in the early stages of reopening. During my recent visit to Arthur Avenue, I caught up with a few of the local merchants and gained some insight into the impact of Covid-19 on their businesses and how they have adjusted to the challenges of the “new normal” in a pre-vaccine environment. What I found was that in the face of this adversity many of the veteran businesses of Little Italy’s Arthur Avenue have persevered and were full of optimism about the future, This did not come as a surprise to me being well aware of the quintessential tenacious spirit among Bronxites and New Yorkers as a whole. Beginning of the Pandemic The challenges of the pandemic and mandated quarantine varied among the business owners with whom I spoke. For Anthony Agrisani, owner of Arthur Cantina Wine & Liquors, since 2004, whose upbeat spirit was only matched by his friendliness, conducting business during this period of time was very much a double edged sword. Negatively affected by the inability to proceed with business as usual in his small store was one of the issues with which he had to contend.“Due to limited spacing and limited square footage in our store, at the start of COVID-19, maintaining a safe distance was very tough.” He goes on to say, “we decided to move to curbside, delivery and shipping only for everyone’s safety.” Read more... Now I have to run to catch up with Tanya, who is currently in Topeka, Kansas, for a Cousins' Phone call about one of our upcoming projects! Stay tuned for some big news in the coming weeks!! Have a great one!! -Travelin' Elisa xoxo |
