Our wedding (both the ceremony and party) will take place at the East Meadow Jewish Center in East Meadow, New York on Saturday, November 25, 2006. Bedeken will start at 7:30, Ceremony at 8:00.

Long Island is easily accessible:

  • If you are flying, the easiest airports are La Guardia, JFK, and Islip. You can take a cab or rent a car from any of these.
  • If you take a train to Penn Station the Long Island Railroad (also in Penn Station) will take you to a town nearby from which you can take a cab to either East Meadow Jewish Center or a hotel nearby. The closest station is Merrick (on the Babylon line).
  • If you are driving, directions to East Meadow Jewish Center can be found on their website: http://www.eastmeadowjc.org/directions.htm.

Hotel rooms for out of town guests are available at the Westbury Hilton Garden Inn for $125 for a standard room and $135 for a junior suite (bedroom plus living room with sofa bed). To get these rates, call the hotel and mention the code SHWP. The hotel's phone number is (516) 683-8200. The Hilton will not allow us to block rooms, so if you plan to stay there, there is no guarantee there will be rooms available as it gets closer to the date, so please book soon. This hotel is going to be our wedding headquarters, but there are also other hotels in the area if you want to stay somewhere less expensive.

There is also a Days Inn in the area. If you call it, the prices are $99 plus taxes for a room with one queen bed and $109 for a room with 2 queen beds, and 10% off with a AAA card. However, the hotel is significantly cheaper on the internet if you want to pre-pay for the room (no refunds available).


Things to do in New York and Long Island:

If you are coming to New York for Thanksgiving weekend there are plenty of things to do. East Meadow is about 40 minutes from New York City by Long Island Rail Road. The closest stations are Bellmore and Merrick. It costs $13.50 round-trip if you buy your tickets from the ticket machine (on the train they cost about $5 more). For more information or better directions for any of these excursions, email Helene (puzzler2@aol.com) or Kevin (khechtkopf@alumni.virginia.edu).

  • On Thanksgiving day there is the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade, easily accessible from Penn Station. http://www.nyctourist.com/macys_map.htm
  • There are plenty of Broadway shows, about a 20 minute walk from Penn Station or a 5 minute cab ride or a 2 minute subway ride. If you don’t have tickets in advance you can stand on line at the TKTS booth in Times Square to buy them at a discount.
  • Of course there are all of the famous New York museums to visit—the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the 42nd Street Library, the New York Historical Society, the Jewish Museum, the American Museum of Natural History, etc.
  • While you’re in the city, don’t forget to check out Central Park, the location of the NYC Marathon finish line, and one of Helene’s favorite places to go running (along with the parks on the east side of the city).
  • If you want to go downtown, it is just one subway ride from Penn Station to get to Battery Park City, where you can take a ferry ride to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.
  • For more information about things to do in New York City, try http://manhattan.about.com/.

If you have a car and you’d rather stay on Long Island, there are plenty of interesting things to do there as well.

  • There are plenty of state parks on Long Island, where you can go for a walk on a boardwalk or in the woods. Jones Beach State Park and Sunken Meadow State Park and Bethpage State Park all have nice facilities. http://nysparks.state.ny.us/
  • Old Bethpage Village Restoration has a historical Thanksgiving program. More information on their website: http://www.oldbethpage.org.
  • The Hilton is very close to Roosevelt Field Mall (one of the biggest malls in the country) and the Source Mall (home of Fortunoff), some of the best shopping on Long Island.
  • Nassau Coliseum is also in the area and you can check to see if there are any hockey games or shows playing that weekend.
  • Sagamore Hill, Theodore Roosevelt’s home: http://www.nps.gov/sahi/home.htm.
  • The Cradle of Aviation Museum (very close to the Hilton hotel): http://www.cradleofaviation.org/.
  • Fruit and vegetable picking season lasts until November on the east end of Long Island, so you may be able to find some places to do some self-picking. http://longisland.about.com/cs/seasonalevents/a/apples.htm
  • Vanderbilt Planetarium and Museum. If the weather is bad it might be fun to go to a show at the planetarium and then walk around the museum and grounds. http://www.vanderbiltmuseum.org/home.php
  • For more information on things to do on Long Island, try http://www.longislandtourism.com/.