Central Perk coffeehouse opens in Times Square, bringing 'Friends' nostalgia to NYC

Bryant Park transforms into a winter village for the holidays

Tony-winning actress Kara Young on her new play & why she loves being a New Yorker

Take a wagon ride to see inner workings of a 150-year-old Suffolk farm

Road Trip Close to Home: Yorktown Heights farm delivers holiday magic

Road Trip Close to Home: Norwalk's Lockwood Mathews Mansion Museum shines with holiday magic

newyork

Brian Heyman

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These temperatures, they're great for a road trip close to home to explore a little nature too. And Chelseaquita Ramos is taking us around a very unique village in Westchester County. Old in history, young in spirit, it's the character etched in the essence of Ossining. From its vibrant main street to its iconic past, there's so much to explore on this road trip close to home. Let's start here at the Sing Sing Kill Greenway. This area is known to many as the double arches, where these two historic bridges span the Sing Sing Kill, one right on top of the other, and as you walk on this peaceful path, you're not only looking at nature but also back in history to the late 1830s. Oftening is brimming with history and culture. First Village Coffee is a community hub for all things creative and caffeinated. The walls are adorned with constant rotating work from local artists, and all the pastries are made fresh in-house at the bakery downstairs. Down the road is another space to let your imagination flow. Hudson Valley Books for Humanity sells an eclectic collection of good reads. Most are donated and some are new under the. of social justice, the environment, diverse voices, and more. There's even a shelf of some banned books. We want people to know that this is a place where they can find books that speak to them about some of the hard issues that we're dealing with today. And this bookstore goes beyond the binding from vinyl records, local pottery, art, and more. You'll find more than memories of Ossing to bring back with you from this road trip close to home. Nikita Ramos, News 12. Beautiful images and obviously plenty of places to check out and enjoy and that goes not only for there but other places across the area Lisa, of course, and we're gonna check them all out in tonight's half hour show. We're going to head to New Rochelle and go to We Rock the Spectrum, a place where fun knows no bounds. It is an indoor sensory playground where kids of all abilities can play, explore, and unwind. See what it has to offer tonight at 7 and again at 9:30 only right here on News 12.

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where you can escape the cold weather and feel like you're on the beach. Yeah, this road trip close to home, news tells Antoinette Bordi kicks off her shoes and has a ball while serving up this story from Oceanside. On this road trip close to home, I'm taking you to endless summer indoor beach volleyball in Oceanside, where it's summer, 365 days a year, and you can play volleyball on the sand. The spirit of summer never fades here as players of all levels come together to bump, set, and spike their way through some thrilling matches. When it's below freezing outside, it's always comfortable in here. Rob Phillips says he opened endless summer indoor beach volleyball nine years ago because he didn't want his fond memories of summer volleyball to end, so he filled this 6000 square foot warehouse with soft sand and towering nets, and he says it's been scoring ever since. It doesn't matter how old you are. It doesn't matter how athletic you are. You can always have a good time playing. In addition to volleyball tournaments, leagues, and clinics, he offers open play where friends and family can team up and play volleyball on Friday nights. We do parties with children. We do adult parties. So it's kind of a lot of different things that we do here. Whether you're competing in a league or just playing for fun, this is a great way to keep the summer vibes going all year long on this road trip close to home at endless summer indoor beach volleyball, Antoinette Bor News 12, Long Island.

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New this morning, we take you on a road trip to Bushwick for an artsy spin on sweet treats. News Twelve's Caitlin Ulrich takes takes us to Saint Michel Cafe, a place for creatives, coffee lovers, and those with a sweet tooth. Who knew a cookie could be a canvas? Well, we have Madonna, Steve Jobs, Daffodan, Saint Michelle Cafe owners Benny and Carolina did long before they opened this spot. He kind of pitched his idea of like creating like a really cool food art brand like back then, you know, trying to make kind of like a. Fashion brand but with desserts back then was a little more than a decade ago and since then the two have been creating art on sweet treats and some big names have noticed one of the first being model Cara De Levine. Paparazzi starts flashing cameras and everything. She can't even see. And I was just like, I don't know what to do. So I just threw my hand up with the cupcake, and I don't even know how she even saw it. And she turned around and she said, What the f is that? And she comes over, she says, like, can I take a picture with it? And I was like, More big names got their sweet treats and 2 years ago, they opened here on Irving Street. This is like our love letter back to our community. We're creating a space that we're opening like all the things that we love and giving people access to all the things that we know and everything and the, you know, the connections we have, the relationships we have. You may know the two for their artistic baked goods, but this space is designed to inspire you. I want like the 10 year old Benny to come in here and just be like, Oh my God, they have like vintage magazines I can go and learn from. I can go learn about people like Basquiat and people that look like me. Benny and Carolina have spent their lives hustling to make their dreams come true, and here at St. Michelle Cafe, you can too. In Bushwick, Caitlin Ulbrich, News 12. So cool. Caitlin, thank you for that.

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Ever want to connect with nature while also getting crafty with one of the world's oldest plants and this week's road trip close to home, newswells Amanda Esta is taking a closer look at moss. Welcome to Moss Acres here in Total, New Jersey. Originally we started out as a company where we actually harvest moss out in Pennsylvania and we sell it to garden centers all around the country, direct to consumer through our website and actually we supply moss to almost every zoo in the country. We do live moss walls, we do preserve moss walls, we do installations we opened the studio to as a showroom for that and then we turned it into an education space people can come learn about moss and work with moss and create terrariums, create moss art. So we are going to be making one of our classic moss panels that we do for our workshops. We use reindeer moss and we also do some accents. We use our water-based blue. And we put some in the panel and then we use the brush and just sort of thin it out a little bit and you just wanna do a nice thin layer and you sort of work on it in sections. People have overlooked this plant for probably, you know, our, our entire time on Earth. People just overlooked it, but it's importance to our planet is tremendous. One thing that's really great about moss is you don't need a green thumb, and it's a plant that's almost impossible to kill. Anybody can make moss art 100%. 0 my gosh, this looks so pretty. There's a lot going on in Moss, and there's there's I, I, what I've learned over the years is there's nothing you can't do with moss. All right, I think that's it and that's the masterpiece. I mean, I think it's an amazing place to come. It's something you're gonna experience you've not experienced before. When you walk into here you have a sense of calming. It's definitely unique. There's nothing like it. And with so many ways to create your own mossome masterpiece, now it's your turn to come and take a road trip close to home in Totowa, I'm Amanda.

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Our Hudson Valley Main Street series does continue today with a trip to a small but very special riverfront town in Duchess County News. 12 Lisa takes us to some popular businesses in began. The locals here in Beacon will tell you there was a time when there wasn't much here but times have definitely changed. Visit the City of Beacon and you can pretty much expect a warm welcome from pretty much everyone you meet. We sure did. Our first stop was Bob's Corner store. It's a family owned community staple. They're right across from Mount Beacon where people come to hike. So stop in for the specially made trail wrap or their famous homemade potato and macaroni salads go through vas of it. We have a lot of tourists. A lot of hikers come from the city all over. It's got a lot of character, a lot of characters come in and to me it's, it might be an old building, but it's full of a lot of memories up until about the mid to late nineties. Beacon's main street was filled with mostly empty stores and buildings, but a resurgence of this Duchess County community brought in all kinds of fun shops like glazed over doughnuts. The heavenly smell hit you before you even get inside. Husband and wife. Team Ron and Lisa Thompkins created this made to order treat. You start with a scrumptious doughnut. Pick your glaze topping and drizzle for hundreds of mouthwatering combinations. A chocolate glaze with green pepper and marshmallow. Oh, maple with bacon with bacon. Oh, yeah, maple bacon pickle is one of like our little secret menu. Really? Caramel with pretzel after a long hike up Mount Beacon. The Yankee Clipper diner is a great place to refuel right in the middle of town. It's been serving folks in these parts since the 19 fifties. They just treat you like family. You have your regulars. They come in all the time. We've seen the whole Change of Beacon and we're happy for, we're here for it and it just has that small town feeling and there are so many wonderful spots to check out here. But if you ask me, this city's biggest asset are the people who live here come visit. It is worth the trip. We're in Beacon, Lisa. Lara News 12. All right, Lisa. Thank you so much. Our Hudson Valley Main Street series does continue tomorrow. Lisa is going to be live in Mount Vernon talking about why that community is so great.

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In the heart of Norwalk, an old church has become a hub for the arts more than just a gallery. It was created with a vision to inspire and transform lives. In this week's road trip close to home, photojournalist Laurie Goliath takes us to the Norwalk art space. It is a hub for free arts education, a community space, and a place where magic happens. This is the Norark Art Space Norwalk, Connecticut. It's a really special place that people walk in and they're like this is just so cool. People love to be in the space. Alexandra Corey was our founder. She'd be amazed to see how far we've come and how many students we've served. She had the inspiration of buying this old beautiful church converting it into a gallery space for the community and offering free uh studio spaces to emerging artists with the intention of having those same artists teach our free art education to high school kids. We've served over 3000 kids, which is absolutely incredible and welcomed over 60,000 visitors. I think what we're really teaching the kids is mainly uh self-expression. By having free classes you get that access to arts and music, allowing the kids to really uh explore who they are and giving themselves a voice and that's been really fun to watch to see them uh explore their own individuality. It's really amazing to see young kids. Cut for the first time, draw, use their brains in different parts and looking at it. Our current exhibition is called Mask. It's uh redefining male masculinity in the black community. We have amazing food. This is the Art Space cafe. It just kind of culminates the experience when you step in here we offer essentially breakfast and lunch. We do all sorts of cookies, cakes, bars, muffins. It's always changing. The cafe is owned by the art space, so all of the proceeds go back into the space itself and kind of following through with our mission of providing free art, free classes, so it's kind of something for everyone. Changes every day every week. I, I think that what makes us so unique is that we are free. We are a sun drenched space. We have artwork that changes every 8 to 10 weeks and once you step into the space and and get a sense of what we do, you'll you'll fall in love with it because of the intention that was made with Alexandra gave us an amazing gift to to the artists of the region, but also the the city of Norwa. Well, classes and admission are free. The cafes open Wednesday through Sunday, and all proceeds support the center's programs. For more information, go to news twelve.com.

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Here's a look at all the great spots to hit from this week's episode of Road Trip Close to Home.

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