We entered the Hudson River on Sunday morning. We cruised past Liberty State Park and the Empire State Building and then we were passing by the little red lighthouse as we went under the George Washington Bridge - Jeffrey’s Hook Lighthouse.
It’s always amazing to us how quickly we leave the buildings and busy-ness of the City behind to find forested rolling hills and cliffs. The Hudson River valley just gets prettier and prettier the farther north you travel. We found an anchorage labeled “End of Con Hook” in a bend of the river on the New Jersey side and dropped anchor there for the night. Trains run along the shore on both sides - Amtrak on the New York side and freight trains on the NJ side. Freight trains are much louder. It took several of them passing before we stopped jumping up to see if a large boat was bearing down on us.
On Monday (Memorial Day - May 29) we had a destination: Hyde Park, a little north of Poughkeepsie. I have a cousin who lives here, whom I haven’t seen in many years. Jean had recommended a couple of marinas and we chose the one in the Mills Norrie State Park, called Norrie Point. It’s a bargain at $1.25/foot, and though it doesn’t offer much beyond a restroom building with showers, it is nestled in a large state park that has miles of trails and it’s only a short cab ride into Hyde Park. We didn’t need the cab, Jean came to pick us up for a reacquaintance Memorial Day barbecue at her home. We met Jean’s husband Andy, and their four cats before settling on the back porch. Over hamburgers, hotdogs, potato salad and watermelon, we reminisced about our families and extended families, catching up on our lives.
On Tuesday, Jean took us to tour the FDR Presidential Library, Museum, and family home. It was really impressive to walk through the displays of his life and his four terms of the presidency. We’d learned a lot about him when we toured the summer home in Campobello last August, but he and Eleanor both have so much history between them, you really need to spend a lot of time in both places to learn it all. Jean and Andy both love history. He builds intricate dioramas, specializing in Revolutionary War scenes, and Jean had a lot of extra knowledge that augmented our FDR tour. She drove us around the town to show us the Top Cottage where FDR met with foreign leaders, and Stone Cottage where Eleanor lived. We also saw the Vanderbilt mansion and were treated to river vistas and many local stories. Hyde Park was fun stop, and it was wonderful to reconnect with a member of my family that I haven't seen for so long.
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| FDR's Study |
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| View from the Vanderbilt property |
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