June 18, 2018 - USA Today's Top 10 New York Beaches and A Day in LA with Travelin' Tanya

Elisa's Daily Scoop
Covering Long Island & NYC Boroughs
NEXT EVENT IN: 10 DAYS: 
​MEAN GIRLS ON BROADWAY

USA-Today's Top 10 New York Beaches

Hello! Welcome to a new week.

Wow! What a weekend on this end.  I hope you enjoyed your's!  Here on Long Island, the weather could not have been more lovely the past few days.
Great beach weather! 

But, alas, me and my gang were way too busy with graduation festivities to hit the shore. Yesterday, the day following Gianna's graduation, the three of us were pretty wiped out.

Kelsey and I managed to do a much needed food shopping at Trader Joe's and then spent most of the afternoon outdoors in the yard.  Last night we binge watched Jane The Virgin, which is our newest Netflix addiction.

With all of this gorgeous weather, finally feeling like Summer is here - I read a great article that was published in USA Today: 
USA Today's 10 Best New York Beaches.

What was super cool is that 7 of these beaches are on Long Island!! How did they determine this ranking, you may be asking.  

Well, the publications's 10Best editors and local experts partnered with Dr. Stephen Leatherman (a.k.a. "Dr. Beach") to pick the initial 20 nominees. From that point, the top 10 winners were determined by popular vote.  

Let's take a look below at the full list by 
USA Today: 

​1. Fire Island National Seashore
Patchogue
​
2. Jones Beach State Park
Wantagh

3. Robert Moses State Park
Babylon

4. Tiana Beach
Hampton Bays

5. Coney Island Beach & Boardwalk
Brooklyn

Coney Island, Brooklyn (c) travelincousins.com

Cupsogue Beach
Westhampton Beach

Million Dollar Beach (Lake George Beach)
Lake George
​
Coopers Beach
Southampton

Hither Hills State Park
Montauk

Green Lakes State Park
Fayetteville

I have been to all of these with the exception of Million Dollar Beach in Lake George and Green Lakes State Park in Fayetteville.  Not bad. LOL, but considering that seven of the ten are on Long Island, that is not really a huge reach on my part.

This week's feature article:

​With today being Monday, I have a new article posted in my column, Elisa's Long Island, Outer NYC Boroughs & Travelin' 25.  

I've been on a bit of a Bronx roll, and this week, I have a List-based article:

​25 Historic & Facts About The Bronx (read more) 

#17, Lincoln Memorial carved right here in the Bronx by the Picirilli brothers (Wkimedia Commons)

And if you haven't as yet read last week's feature, here is the link:
15 Reasons to Visit The Bronx

Since Gianna is finished with school, I'll be carpooling her and her friends around this week, as they enjoy the week off before summer vacation officially starts at their "former" school. 

Kelsey has school until Friday. At this point, we have plans (Kelsey and I) to go to Adventureland on Friday, since dismissal is at 10am.  Yay!!!

That's it for today!! Hope it's a good one for you!
-E
xoxo

Tanya's Daily Scoop​​
Covering the West Coast & the World
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​​WASHINGTON DC/VIRGINIA

A Day in LA with Tanya

It's amazing how much I could fit in a single day...

Hi there and welcome back!

I hope that you had a fine weekend, whatever it was that you were doing. 

As I mentioned, it was my third consecutive day spent in LA (I was still coming home every night). Although I spent Friday and Saturday also in the City of Angels, once you see the photo recap from yesterday, you might think that all of these pictures were taken over the course of three days.
They were not. This was all done in a single day!

We woke up to an overcast day, which for taking pictures was a bit disappointing, but for weather, not baking in the sun and enjoyment it was PERFECT.

Our day started with a quick stop at Jamba Juice and to purchase advanced tickets to see The Incredibles II later in that night. 

Then up to LA we went, luckily traffic was fairly light and moving along as we drove up to the Getty Center which sits atop a hill in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles and with views over looking Santa Monica, the Pacific Ocean and even out to Catalina Island.

Upon arrival at the Getty Center there is a tram that takes you from the parking garage to the campus grounds.

Arriving at the campus grounds (c)travelincousins.com

Surrounded by Travertine (c)travelincousins.com

Definitely not the best lighting for all the Travertine (c)travelincousins.com

We made our way to the museum and entrance hall, examined the schedule of events and tours, eventually deciding on the Exhibition Tour: Beyond the Nile: Egypt and the Classical World - exploring the art resulting from cultural exchange between ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome.

Obelisk honoring Emperor Domitian and the Goddess Isis (c)travelincousins.com

Sphinx of Pharaoh Amasis II (c)travelincousins.com

Form finely crafted vessels to striking portraits, and luxury objects fashioned for a clientele obsessed with all things Egyptian. We were able to see how these ancient civilizations influenced each other.

Head of Alexander the Great (c)travelincousins.com

Head of Cleopatra (c)travelincousins.com

Magical Text (c)travelincousins.com

After the tour it was Dave C's wish to explore the exhibition: Rembrandt and the Inspiration of India
So we headed from the Exhibitions pavilion to The West Pavilion.

Fun pic (c)travelincousins.com

Getty Center Museum Courtyard (c)travelincousins.com

Central Gardens (c)travelincousins.com

This exhibition features studies by Rembrandt drawn from Mughal Empire portraiture, artworks that were newly available in Amsterdam through trade which connected East and West.

The entrance and description of the exhibit (c)travelincousins.com

Rembrandt on the left (c)travelincousins.com

Examining the fine detail (c)travelincousins.com

The museum was busy, but luckily not overly crowded (c)travelincousins.com

We had then stepped outside before moving on to Impression Paintings Gallery, only to find that it got just a tad windy!

Cosette holding her skirt down and cracking up in laughter (c)travelincousins.com

Monet's Rouen Cathedral (c)travelincousins.com

Van Gogh's Irises (c)travelincousins.com

And quite honestly we were all a bit starving by this point and off we went to finally eat lunch - a late lunch...

Leaving the Getty (c)travelincousins.com

I've been looking forward to trying out Krimsey's Cajun Kitchen in North Hollywood - vegan of course!

Where Cajun Vegan is no longer an oxymoron! (c)travelincousins.com

It's been years and years since we visited New Orleans and boy oh boy do they know food!!!!
My mouth waters just thinking about all the deliciousness that we indulged in during our visit. 

And now we finally have a Vegan Cajun restaurant fairly nearby. 

Ready for lunch (c)travelincousins.com

The kids and Dave C. had all ordered Po'Boys, I had a Po'boy Salad, with all the sides from Hushpuppies to Fried Pickles and everything was quite good. Dave B. had Red Beans and Rice which is not something that I would typically ever order but holy cow it was freakin DELISH!!!

Red Beans and Rice (c)travelincousins.com

And while I did take pics of everything, I only pick and choose which pics to post because I have so much to post - so I'm sorry that I am not posting more food pics today.

Then it was time for dessert - lunch dessert. And there was no way that we could resist Beignets!!!

I don't actually think that I've ever had a Beignet before. But all I have for you in two words - FRIED DOUGH and then it is topped with powdered sugar.

​Take a LOOK...and try not to drool all over your computer/mobile device.

Beignets (c)travelincousins.com

Going to try this for the very first time (c)travelincousins.com

Fried Dough Heaven (c)travelincousins.com

After lunch it was time for our next stop - to check out the street art at The Pasadena Chalk Festival.

Not Cosette's favorite event (c)travelincousins.com

Sights at the Pasadena Chalk Festival (c)travelincousins.com

The Pasadena Chalk Festival began in 1993 after a summer intern at the Light Bringer Project attended a street painting festival in Paris and brought back her amazing pictures and observations. 
​
In 2010, The Pasadena Chalk Festival was officially named the largest street painting festival by the Guinness World Record, welcoming more than 600 artists using over 25,000 sticks of chalk and drawing a crowd of more than 100,000 visitors in one weekend.

Elvis (c)travelincousins.com

A Sea Dragon (c)travelincousins.com

Winner of The Most Humorous award (c)travelincousins.com

Bothe interesting and beautiful (c)travelincousins.com

It's Groot! (c)travelincousins.com

Street Art (c)travelincousins.com

Aww, I love Sea turtles (c)travelincousins.com

Inspiration and result (c)travelincousins.com

After walking about the festival and listening to the live upbeat music, it was time for another of Dave's requests - to go see a friend of his...Donut Friend

While everyone else got donuts, I have been quite curious to try their ice cream, so for the first time I went donut-less and I walked out with some Mint Chip in hand!

Ice Cream for me today (c)travelincousins.com

It was finally time to start heading back to Orange County. But it certainly wasn't time to call it a day.

Dave B. and I dropped everyone else back at the house while we went to do a bit of shopping over at our local Mother's Market. Then upon returning it we had about a half an hour to hang out with family and catch up about how they spent their day. Then it was time for us to head to the theatre and go see The Incredibles II.

It was a lot of fun and we all enjoyed it. You'll find no spoilers here, but I will say go and see it!

Nom Nom Cookie. Nom Nom Cookie.

Time to wrap this up, it was a long one!
-Travelin' Tanya