The Beautiful and Historic Hudson River Valley

The Mid-Hudson Bridge from the RR Bridge

This place was never on our radar screen 18 months ago.  But thanks to the serendipity of a casual conversation with a former business colleague in California and a delightful experience at the Tanglewood Festival in western Massachusetts last summer, here we are.  The Hudson River Valley is rich with beauty and history.  And we’re delighted to spend five (5!) whole nights in one place in a quiet wooded campground.

FDR's home in Hyde Park, NY

After the Ken Burns'' PBS documentary on the Roosevelts and listening to No Ordinary Time by Doris Kearns Goodwin, we wanted to make a pilgrimage to Hyde Park on the Hudson, home of FDR and Eleanor.

Through the vast open spaces of Montana and South Dakota, we listened George C. Daughan’s Revolution on the Hudson: New York City and the Hudson River Valley in the War of American Independence.  We’re glad we did, as it put all these places into perspective and made us want to learn more.

A most pleasant afternoon

FDR's desk from the Oval Office

Biking the former railroad
bridge over the Hudson

View of Phougkeepsie from the bridge

We biked and walked across the Hudson on a Rails to Trail path and toured the FDR presidential library, Eleanor’s home, some Revolutionary War sites, the Vanderbilt mansion, and the home of Frederic Church, the famous painter of the Hudson Valley School in the early-mid 19^th century.  

And being the foodies we are, we ate at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) twice.  Because of my Racine Car Wash Blues (see our July 7 blog), I still have no photo ID and thus couldn’t tour West Point—a very important part of the Revolutionary War.

The Culinary Institute in a
former Jesuit monastery

Cook (or Bart Simpson?)
crossing

The highlight of this segment has been the FDR and Eleanor homes.  After he died, Eleanor vacated the place and moved to her own residence at Val Kill, basically across the road.  She left their home exactly as it was, so we could see everything as it was back then.  We could see where he and Churchill smoked and drank in the living room, discussing the Lend Lease program and war strategies, where he made many fireside talks, or where FDR served King George VI and the Queen a hot dog state dinner/picnic.  All the homes we visited were so dark and poorly lit.  I guess people back then didn't need or want a lot of light.  

Vanderbilt Mansion from
the 'Gilded Age'

Washington's HQ at the end of the war

At New Windsor Cantonment, a large
Revolutionary War camp

Learning how
to amputate

Kathy’s strep throat is over and my cold is almost gone. Our temporary repairs seem to be holding.  Today (Friday) we head to Stockbridge, MA and the Tanglewood Festival, and are so excited to spend a week with Skyler, boyfriend Spencer, their dogs, and Shanti and Alan from London.  Above all, we’re looking forward to staying in a real rental cabin, not our beloved—but claustrophobic—trailer. 

Artist Frederick Church Esttate

View from the Church Estate Veranda

By the way, we find the East Coast with its dense forests and stifling humidity to be claustrophobic.  It’s hard in the haze to tell north from south, and we look forward to the occasional farm where we get just a glimpse of open land.  That’s probably why we love the vistas of the West so much and also the Hudson River Bridge.  (Also, the drivers in the West are much more courteous and not so aggressive.)

Taking care of business on the road