July 16, 2018 - Elisa's ReCap of The Phillips Museum on Long Island AND Tanya goes to the MLB FanFest in D.C.

Elisa's Daily Scoop
Covering Long Island & NYC Boroughs 
NEXT TRIP DEPARTS IN: 13 DAYS:
​SCRANTON, PENNSYLVANIA

Re-Cap of Sunday Afternoon at The Phillips Museum on L.I.

Happy Monday!!
Lovely and sunny here on Long Island, although we have been experiencing a great deal of humidity!

I had a lovely and busy day yesterday.  First a visit to the Phillips House Museum in Rockville Center in Nassau County; and then some eating and shopping with my best girl, Kelsey at the Roosevelt Field Mall.

My Museum visit was more than I had anticipated in terms of what I saw and then the one-on-one tour I received, as I was the only visitor yesterday.

In a word - it was FANTASTIC!! So enjoyable was my experience of taking a walk back in history to the late 1800's in this charming Victorian-era home and the knowledge I garnered from my tour guide, Mrs. Reagan!

I've assembled a picture story below of the museum and I am currently working on a full article about my visit with more details and information.  

The museum is open from 1-4 on Saturday and Sundays, however, they are available at any time to accommodate individual and group needs, with advanced scheduling.

Exterior of The Phillips House Museum located in Rockville Centre, Nassau County Long Island (c) travelincousins.com

Below is a short video by Your's Truly outside the museum.

The Guest Parlor at the front of the house near the entrance, filled with Victorian-era furnishings. These are not original to the house, nor are they reproductions, however, they represent what was typical in homes during this period. (c) travelincousins.com

The homes fireplaces, like this one, which is in the Family Parlor (behind the Guest Parlor) is a Canal Coal Fireplace which burned coal instead of requiring an owner to chop wood. It was state of the art at the time. (c) travelincousins.com

Dining Room, with the kitchen behind (c) travelincousins.com

This stove was very modern for its time with both the ability for coal burning burners on the left (for use in the winter as it would give heat to the home) and gas burners on the right for the summer to minimize any additional heat (c) travelincousins.com

The kitchen was great fun, as I learned all about the gadgets that were used for cooking and meal preparation.  Many of these items had the patent number engraved on them.

All of these items have been cataloged for the museum. This tedious job was the work of Christopher Mackey, a local boy scout working on his Eagle Scout badge, roughly 20 years ago.

The collection, which has been called the "finest collection of kitchen gadgets" originally belonged to Lillian Blumberg, who donated it to the museum, even though she was offered a great deal from Sotheby's for her collection.

Some of the many kitchen gadgets found in The Phillips House Museum. (c) travelincousins.com

One of three bedrooms, which has on display ladies' wedding gowns from the era (c) travelincousins.com

The original wide plank wood floors on the second floor of the house (c) travelincousins.com

In the upstairs sitting area, there is a Victrola from 1882.  I had to let you hear it play!  

Requiring the use of a crank, the needles were originally bamboo (which were on display) and then  later with the use of metal needles.

When building chimney's during this period, the superstition was that a twisted chimney would prevent the evil spirits from entering the home.

Builders would make the chimney straight on the exterior and "twisted" on the interior, like this one that is in the attic of The Phillips House Museum.

Twisted Chimney to prevent evil spirits from entering the home (c) travelincousins.com

Listed with the Rockville Centre Historical Society (c) travelincousins.com

(c) travelincousins.com

Revolutionary War Bloodshed in Rockville Centre
One of the wealthiest men living in the area in the 1700's was Michael DeMott, who owned three mills in the area along with his son Anthony. 

One the land of one of his mills was the first blood shed on Long Island during the Revolutionary War in 1776. 

Known as the Squirmish at Hempstead Swamp or the Squirmish at DeMott Mills, which took place  a full month before General Howe’s troops arrived in New York.

Some loyalists had tried to subvert the cause of independence by attempting to poison George Washington by planting Paris green into his soup. The attempt failed because it made the soup taste terrible, but it certainly got the attention of our nation's first present.

It was determined that the scheme had been hatched by loyalists from Long Island and so Washington promptly dispatched troops to Hempstead to arrest the perpetrators.

The DeMotts were also loyalists and they agreed to hang a white sheet in the window of their mill as a signal to warn the fugitives of the troops’ impending arrival.  With the loyalists warned, they took shelter in the swamps south of Hempstead village.

For my history buff followers, I found this great recount from Onderdonk Jr., of the incidents that occurred on Saturday July 3, 1776 from  westhempsteadnowandthen.blogspot.com:

“...a party of Whig soldiers went to Hempstead Swamp at the head of DeMott's mill pond to take
up some Tories who were hiding there. ... A party of nine of them in two sedge boats were concealed in the swamp at the head of the mill pond. Stephen Rider climbed an oak tree to reconnoiter, when a ball whistled by his head. He saw the smoke whence it came and, a loaded gun being handed him, he fired, and the ball passed through the body of George Smith.”  

Certainly not a huge battle, but, a meaningful part of our nation's fight for independence.

The wheel pictured below on the right of the marker, in The Phillip's House Museum Garden is an original one from one of the DeMott mills.

The Phillips Museum Garden - an original wheel from one of DeMott's Mills on the right above and below (c) travelincousins.com

(c) travelincousins.com

Marker on the front yard designating the museum as a Rockville Centre Historical Museum. (c) travelincousins.com

Who knew all this history existed 10 minutes from where I live!!!

Kelsey and I made our way to the mall later in the afternoon and before doing some shopping damage, we had an enjoyable late lunch at Le Pain Quotidien in Neiman Marcus.

At Le Pain Quotidien in Neiman Marcus (c) travelincousins.com

Sorry folks, we were so famished and I didn't get pics of the DEE-licious food.  Kelsey had mini pancakes and I had a yummy grain bowl with quinoa and farro, brussel sprouts and more!!
​

Hudson Valley Hot Air Balloon Festival 2018 (c) travelincousins.com

As you may have noticed, I never posted my new article last week (yikes) 25 Great Things About The Hudson Valley Hot Air Balloon Festival

But, alas, here is the finished article!!
CLICK HERE

Off to enjoy another sunny, summer day!!
-E
xoxo

Tanya's Daily Scoop 
Covering the West Coast & the World
CURRENTLY TRAVELING IN: 
WASHINGTON DC/VIRGINIA

MLB FanFest

Hello hello!
Greetings once again from Washington D.C., this years home to the 89th MLB All Star Game and that is precisely why we are here this time around.

Yesterday was such an awesome day!!!

We started our day out with a lovely Sunday Brunch at Fare Well. Fare Well is a local vegan diner that was opened by the same peeps who have been successfully running Sticky Fingers bakery since 1999.
One of our faves for many many years to go indulge in vegan goodies while in D.C.  I've been taking these kiddos there since they were just tiny little buggers.

So you can imagine how happy we were to find out that they now had a diner!!!
Well we definitely out did ourselves at the table and then even still ordered goodies from the bakery case to indulge in later in the day!!

After our stomachs were quite full we then got into full Baseball fan mode and were on our way to the Walter E. Washington Convention Center and spent the first half of our day having a complete 
​blast-a-roo at the MLB Fan Fest, which is the largest interactive baseball theme park in the world!
​

My dear Cousin, Travelin' Tanya will be popping in shortly!! - E

​Not to mention walking away with lots of really cool super fun souvenirs!!​

And then after a short break and some lunch back at our hotel we were off once again and heading to to the Legends and Celebrity Softball game, while also checking out Nationals Park for the very first time!!

There is a bit of Washington baseball history as you approach the entrance...From 1859 - 2005 -

Once inside, we had plenty of time to tour around and to shop some more before heading to our seats to watch the rather interesting and entertaining game of mishaps!!

And to keep the crowd bopping around there is even a DJ playing fun hip tunes that just make ya want to sing along - which we of course did!

​By the way do you happen to recognize the DJ?

That's DJ Diesel or better known as ​the huge man himself - Shaquille O'Neal.

Hall of Famers, Olympians and celebrities from Bill Nye the Science Guy to Mike ‘The Miz’ Mizanin to Celebrity Softball game annual funny guy repeat celeb Jaime Foxx and lots lots more played six innings with the American League playing stonger for most of the game and the National League fighting back in the 6th inning but eventually losing with a final score of 14-10. 

It was an awesome day and we had really had some much fun!

Today is a new day and we are heading out to have some grub and then to head over to the National Postal Museum - Dave cannot wait!!!

Later tonight we are going to the Home Run Derby which is always super exciting.

Alright guys, I'll add captions when I get a chance. I hope that you've enjoyed.

Come on back tomorrow for more,
-Travelin' Tanya