Click the map to get started exploring!
Search
Benji Sills
- Mar 30, 2020
- 3 min
Blockhouse No. 1
Paige was confident that an early 1800’s war fort stood resolutely on the sloping hills of Morningside Park. “I’ve seen it!” she proclaimed with complete certainty, as we scaled the blistering terrain of the park. Eventually we arrived at the Google Maps location landmarked as Blockhouse Number 2, only to find a quaint green pasture - one that was definitively empty. “You’re confident that what you saw was definitely a totally real and not made up fort?” I pressed. After conf
17 views0 comments
Benji Sills
- Mar 21, 2020
- 2 min
Sisyphus Stones
One of Manhattan’s most under-appreciated displays of public art, the Sisyphus Stones are gravity-defying stacks of rocks that seem to bend all laws of physics. Part of the reason they might be less commonly known is because of their placement - the stones are situated quite far up the island, near the entrance to the George Washington bridge. The walk there is long and periodically somewhat alarming. At first we wandered through blocks of well-lit streets, but eventually Goo
30 views0 comments
Benji Sills
- Mar 19, 2020
- 3 min
Times Square’s Mysterious Hum
Paige and I had heard tell of a mysterious hum that’s allegedly been droning underneath one of the world’s busiest intersections for decades, almost entirely unnoticed. Nothing is more intriguing than a hidden secret in a familiar spot and as we’d spent the afternoon unearthing a hidden cave in Central Park, we were in the mood for exploration. We arrived in Times Square after dark, when the plaza is lit by advertisements and you’re in the greatest danger of being hunted down
150 views0 comments
Benji Sills
- Mar 10, 2020
- 3 min
Vintage Train Airbnb
Paige and I have long advocated that adventure does not have to stop when you check in to a room and unpack your bags. When we visit new towns, we will typically try to stay in the most obscure (and occasionally uninhabitable) types of rentals available. This has lead us to overnighting in a triple-decker treehouse, a converted prison and a school bus deep in the New Hampshire woods. There is something charming about all the comforts of home jumbled inside an impossible shell
30 views0 comments
Benji Sills
- Mar 1, 2020
- 2 min
USS Enterprise Stern Plate
We’d just had lunch at a local garlic knot themed restaurant (read more about that here) and were approached by some local youth, curious about our photography equipment. In a brief chat with them it was revealed that their area was famous for only two things: having a Wendy’s and being a hotspot for kidnapping. Determined that the town must have more than these two dismal qualities, we set out on a quest to find a third sight. What we discovered was a fascinating historic re
19 views0 comments
Benji Sills
- Mar 1, 2020
- 2 min
Cat Alley
After a quick (and very cold) overnight to northern New Hampshire, we were midway through the long trek back home when we decided to make one last pilgrimage for adventure and drove slightly off the beaten path into the city of Manchester, New Hampshire. There we snagged street parking and toddled around, semi-lost, for a few minutes. We were looking for Cat Alley, a narrow passageway that we’d heard was plastered in murals of every imaginable cat variation. Eventually we fou
31 views0 comments
Benji Sills
- Feb 25, 2020
- 3 min
Randyland
Back in September, when it was still comfortable enough to travel by rental bike, we spent a mad evening pedaling around Pittsburgh and trying to see it all during our short stay. Of course, this was also long before we had any plans for a travel blog on the horizon and thus we wasted no time on quality photography, even when we visited one of Instagram’s most photographed locations: Randyland. We parked our bikes nearby and wandered over, tapping our GPS to recalibrate, conv
14 views0 comments
Benji Sills
- Feb 16, 2020
- 4 min
Hold My Knots
There are lots of things that would be considered conventionally romantic: flowers, chocolates and a nice meal out, for example. Not typically lumped into that group is smelling like garlic on Valentine’s Day, but Paige and I decided to switch up romantic convention by brunching at Hold My Knots - New Jersey’s premiere spot for all things garlic bread. Set up like a typical pizza parlor, Hold My Knots appears unremarkable at first glance, until a closer look reveals that almo
41 views0 comments
Benji Sills
- Feb 14, 2020
- 9 min
AIRE Ancient Baths
Paige and I spent an entire year taking pictures of us pretending to be fast asleep at every major attraction we attended. We found this endlessly amusing and it really became the start of our desire to document everything we see and do together. To celebrate our year of naps, last Christmas I bought Paige a neatly printed photo album of every single sleeping picture we took. It is worth noting that Paige’s gifts to me have historically been equally ridiculous. We once joked
42 views0 comments
Benji Sills
- Feb 12, 2020
- 6 min
American Visionary Art Museum
“This is the best museum we’ve ever been to” Paige exclaimed multiple times as we explored Baltimore’s American Visionary Art Museum. Visionary Art aims to “transcend the physical world and portray a wider vision of awareness” according to my quick Wikipedia search - whether or not the museum achieves this is better left to wiser explorers. But I can vouch that it has some ultra weird shit. The museum sits nestled next to the steep slopes of Federal Hill Park, hidden cosily i
61 views0 comments
Benji Sills
- Feb 5, 2020
- 3 min
PaperMoon Diner
If you’ve ever been to a garage sale late in the day, when all that’s left are assorted Barbie limbs or a party pack of fridge magnet letters, you’ve probably wondered who on Earth is buying this garbage. For your answer, all you have to do is visit Baltimore’s PaperMoon Diner. An otherwise standard diner is wrapped in a bizarre skin of colorful decoration that encourages boundless exploration. Paige was beyond excited about the PaperMoon - it was her main reason for wanting
93 views0 comments
Benji Sills
- Jan 17, 2020
- 3 min
Dolby SoHo Pop-Up: Netflix Film Experiences
Paige and I rarely catch a day off at the same time, so when we do, we make sure to waste it as thoroughly as possible. With no prior planning (and certainly without the necessary physical stamina), we decided to scale all of Manhattan in a day-long walk. This stroll took us along the entirety of Broadway from the Financial District’s Battery Park to the upper crest of the island at Inwood Hill Park - a 13 mile long stroll in it’s entirety. Without any real plan, we were open
26 views0 comments
Benji Sills
- Jan 10, 2020
- 3 min
Room for Tea
During the winter chill, many of our favorite activities to flee indoors for are pop-ups: bubbly, colorful, interactive and fleeting. Pop-ups are great ways to continually enjoy the shifting landscape of your city. As New Yorkers, Paige and I have a never-ending supply of temporary entertainment and today we want to flash back on one of our favorites: Room for Tea. This TriBeCa pop-up started with a twist on a traditional feature. Most pop-ups feature a ball pit of some sort,
28 views0 comments
Benji Sills
- Jan 7, 2020
- 2 min
Seesaws on Broadway - “Impulse” Art Installation
As Paige and I made our way to a friend’s house for a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie marathon, we passed by a brand new interactive installation on Broadway. Between 37th and 38th streets, 12 gigantic light-up seesaws have been installed under the title “Impulse”. Despite already being 40 minutes late for our movie night, we decided to take a brief detour to try these jubilant playground throwbacks. “I wonder if anyone has gotten hurt yet” I foreshadowed ignorantly. Seesa
31 views0 comments
Benji Sills
- Jan 1, 2020
- 3 min
Christmas Light Show at Skylands Stadium
With the holidays rapidly waning around us, Paige and I wanted to share a festive event before the inevitable gloom of January sets in. After an admittedly brief search for local holiday displays, we decided to take a drive an hour from my home in Newark up north to the town of Augusta, New Jersey. This town is host to one of New Jersey's most festive events - a mile long holiday lights drive-through. Enticed by the promise of adventure without having to stand up at all, we h
36 views0 comments
Benji Sills
- Dec 28, 2019
- 4 min
Dyker Heights Christmas Lights
Manhattan is famous for its overwhelming midtown lights displays - department stores duke it out via their festive windows and grand attractions like the Rockefeller Tree draw thousands. However these famous winter landmarks pail in comparison to the relatively unknown neighborhood of Dyker Heights, which is Paige and my personal favorite holiday haven. We’ve been two years in a row and will likely drag everyone we know there over future years as well, so this post here will
42 views0 comments
Benji Sills
- Dec 26, 2019
- 3 min
Turtle Back Zoo Holiday Light Spectacular
As New York based explorers, Paige and I have a wealth of options open to us during the holiday season. Spectacles such as the Rockefeller Center Tree and Radio City Christmas Spectacular draw thousands of visitors from around the world, so naturally we decided to spend our evening off at the random Turtle Back Zoo’s holiday lights showcase. Turtle Back is a mid-size New Jersey zoo and they celebrate the holidays with a free lights display spread throughout. Coated in a blank
14 views0 comments
Benji Sills
- Dec 25, 2019
- 7 min
Kaaterskill Falls
Paige and I had never been to a waterfall, except a rather unremarkable one in her New Jersey hometown that was man-made, perhaps three feet high and really more a drainage ditch than anything else. With the obvious exception of Niagara Falls, the northeast appears rather drained of spectacular waterfalls, most relegated to the West Coast. Because of this, we decided to hike the Kaaterskill Falls trail to see one of the Northeast’s best falls. Keep in mind that we get winded
17 views0 comments
Benji Sills
- Dec 23, 2019
- 3 min
Burlington Earth Clock
Our final pitstop in Burlington proved surprisingly elusive - the initial coordinates we tried had Paige and I wandering aimlessly around inside a gated development. All I could remember from earlier research was that the Earth Clock sat serenely on a waterfront and apart from the occasional puddle, the neighborhood was notably not underwater. It is fruitless to try GPS coordinates - Google has the location landmarked at 35 Island Line Trail which takes you squarely to some
25 views0 comments