New York 2016

July 14, 2015

Decided to take it easy and just goof around the coach.  Did laundry, had some ice cream and took naps...relaxing day

July 13, 2016

Martin Van Burien, our 8th President, home is in Kinderhook, NY so we headed there.   It's interesting to see the style and how they've match the wall paper, furnishing, etc. to that time period.   It was also fun to see the modern touches they had (obviously money can buy things?), like electricity, running water, flush toilets, etc.

Our next stop was the Vanderbuilt home in Hyde Park.  This is a National Park facility representing the Gilded Age.  It's one of the most stunning homes we've seen, very comparable to the Hurst Castle.  The home cost 2.25 million to build, which included the furnishings.   It's amazing that this was their summer home and only used for a few weeks each year, I would have used it much more!!!!

July 12, 2016

Internet service is horribly slow so will add the pics at a later date, sorry!

Drove into Albany, NY to tour the capital building.   It's a stunning building that took 32 years to complete.  Actually, it was not completed when Governor Theodore Roosevelt (whom later became Pres) fired all the workers and declared it finished.  

Our guided pointed out the minor areas that were not finalized.   The exterior is striking and looks like a castle.   There is no dome, as it was one of the items not finished, so has a square look.   The interior is the most intrigue designed sandstone that you'll ever see, you see faces, vegetables, fruits, plants, etc.   It was just remarkable the work that these craftsman did back in 1876.   Most of the Sandstone was brought over from Scotland, can't imagine that!   The granite is the most remarkable colors you've ever seen, you must see this capital if you ever get to Albany.

We also toured the plaza area, our next guide showed us the "egg".  It's a performing arts area, more than anything.   It was built in 1978.   When we drove into town, it looks more like a spaceship than an egg! 

It's lunch time so we catch a bite at a local food truck and then head back into the Capital look at the artwork, etc that we didn't have time to admire on the tour.   

We are 1 1/2 hrs from coach, so at around 2, we head home, stopping in Kingston, NY at the Camping World Store.

July 11, 2016 

Played golf at the local golf course called Rondout Golf Club.   Nice little course, played horrible but had fun! 

We then drove to Mohonk Golf Course to check it out.  It's a resort up on a hill, only nine holes but looked very nice.   We had hoped to see the lodge but must have a room or dinner reservation to even get on the property, strange! 

Came back to coach and caught up on some much need paper work.

July 10, 2016

Bobby found this museum called Motorcyclepedia, located in Newburgh, NY.  It houses over 500 motorcycles, cars, etc. in this building.    You won't believe this collection, it was stunning!!!!   Bobby was in hog heaven, even took almost 300 pics, which he never does!!

The motorcycles run from 1900's to the present.   They have lots of one off's plus some that were used in movies.   You can sit and take pics on several and if you're lucky, one of the staff member's (Peter) will come out and give you a tour of certain areas!   He told us all about the moped's!

Orange County Choppers (OCC) is just around the corner, so that was our next stop.  This is Paul Senior's place, juniors is close by but it was closed.   He has several of his bikes on display plus you can buy merchandise, if you like.

George Washington's headquarters' is nearby, so we went to take a look.  They have a nice visitors center plus the house that he stated in while commanding the troops in this area, which was about 8 months.

West Point Army Academy is about 30 min away, so we drove down to see it.  Of all the three military academy's we seen, this is my least favorite.   Probably because you actually get to see very little here. 

It's a bus tour, but you do see the museum, the main Chapel, parade grounds and the memorial area, which overlooks the Hudson River.   Only the museum can you want around, everything else is done with a guide.   You are NOT allowed to walk anywhere except to the museum, unlike the other academy's.    

We did learn that the cadets have to be between 17-22, can't be married and get married until they finish their 4 yrs.   You also learn about the infamous people that attended here:  George Washington, Eisenhower, Patten and McArthur.     They have one statue of General Sedgwick, he thought he was invisible (apparently not) and got killed in Civil War, but apparently if a cadet is struggling with a class, he supposedly (if he can) come out after curfew and spin his spurs, it will bring him luck and he'll pass that class.   Our guided did not know if any ever got caught trying this!!  LOL. 

The  bus took us to the chapel, where we were able to go inside and learn of its history.   is beautiful, I must say.   Attending services is no longer required, but most still do at this academy.  

On the way home, we stopped at the overlook to take a pic of the academy from hwy 9, it is beautiful.   Drive took us 75 min to get home.  Long day, but so worth it!

July 9, 2016

Another history day today!!  Yes, I do love history.   This time it was to visit President Roosevelt's Home and Presidential Library.   They are located in Hyde Park, NY, which is about 45 min east of us.   Had to cross the might Hudson River to get there! 

This is the first Presidential Library and was designed by Pres. Roosevelt .   It's located on land that his mother owned.   She wasn't thrilled about having it located there, but he usually got wanted he wanted from her.  

The museum tells the story of his four terms in office plus the challenges he had during the great depression, WWI and WWII plus his failing health.  It has lots of pics, letters, speeches, etc. of both him and Eleanor.   She was such an influential part of his career.   You also learn a little about his affair with  Lucy Mercer.  I especially like the portion about the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the speech he wrote to inform America that we were now at war with Japan. 

It's an amazing library and everyone should take the opportunity to see. 

His family home is next door, so we took the tour (part of the entrance fee into the park).   You get to see the majority of the home.   You certainly realize that Eleanor and his mother Sally didn't particular care for each other and no wonder she wanted her own home (Val-Kill, we ran out of time and will have to see this on another day).  Eleanor room is more the size of a bathroom than a bedroom.

The house itself was quite small until President Roosevelt added two additional wings to house his family.  They had six kids, so need lots of rooms, especially bedrooms!   There are not wheelchair ramps, he didn't want to show his disability!  You do get to see the hand pulled lift (he had tremendous upper body strength), his wheel chair, leg braces, etc.    He had a terrible fear of fire, so we he remodeled the home, he installed state of the art fire doors, extinguishers, etc.   They are explained in the tour, really cool for that era.   

On the way back to the visitors center  you see the stables and the gravesites.   At the gravesites is a huge memorial with both his and Eleanor's names.  They are buried right in front of the marker, inside the family rose garden.    Also in this area are statues of him and Winston Churchill, who played a very important part in settling the war!   In fact, he came to the house for two separate meetings.

Top Cottage was our last stop of the day.   This was supposed to the house where he was going to retire after his 4th term, but died four months into his 4th term.   It's an extremely plain house, but here he didn't have to worry about hiding his disability, etc.  

July 8, 2016

Travel day, heading to Accord, NY, which is approx 1 hour south of Albany.   This is farming area and there are vegetable and fruit farms everywhere.  Most of them have u-pick stuff, which I really like. 

We got settled in and decided to go find a movie to watch, as the cable here at the park is being replaced and air system on coach doesn't pick up in this area.   Went to a town about 15 miles south of us.  On the way back, stopped at one of the farmers markets, got to see the world's largest Gnome!!!

July 7, 2016

Second day in NYC, this time however we got a much earlier departure and arrived in NYC around 8:30.   Found a place to have breakfast and then caught the Hop On Hop Off bus.  Today we decided to take the Upper Town Loop, which takes you around Central Park. 

On this tour we got to see where many of the Hollywood Stars live while they are in NYC, including Michael Douglas, Madona, Lady Gaga, Billy Joel, etc.  We also saw the building that  Donald Trump lives in, he occupies 3 entire floors!  One of the buildings they pointed out is the most expensive apartment building in the world, someone just paid $100 Million for an apartment.   Think that should have bought the entire building vs. just one apartment!

Central Park is huge.   Next time we get into NYC we'll try spending more than 20 minutes in the park.  It's beautiful and filled with many activities.

On the east side of the park, it's called museum row, this street has many museums' including the Guggenheim, which we didn't get to see because it's closed on Thursday!  On the West side is Grant's Tomb, which we did tour.   Amazing that his grave site is right inside NYC.

Once we finished the tour which took about 3 hrs do to traffic, we headed to Times Sq.  We were going to stop at Carnegie Deli for lunch, but one sandwich was $29.99 (later learned it's huge).   Should be for that price!

Time Square is not exactly what you think, it's basically a city street with all the buildings with billboards on them.  Lots of restaurants, stores, etc. for you to look at, which we did go into.  We finally found a deli and tried one of their sandwiches, it was excellent.

 Went into Macy's, had to see their signature store!   Believe me, it's nothing like you've ever seen before.   First off the building is huge, I think Portland's entire store could fit on one of these floors.  The women's shoe dept takes up one ENTIRE floor, obviously women like SHOES!!!!  We counted 8 escalators on each floor!

Caught the train home around 4,went to the elks and had a few drinks and talked to the locals about our trip.  Amazing how many don't go into the city!

July 6, 2016

Got a late start going into NYC because Bobby was trying to figure out why our inverter won't allow us to plug into a 15 AMP circuit.   Dave Parish gave Bobby some suggestions, but they still didn't work but we were able to learn how to by pass the inverter and use the AC without starting gen....yeah!!!!

Got on the train around 10 and arrived in NYC around 11:30, normally it would take 60 min, but they had problems in the tunnel which delayed us.

We arrived at NYC Penn Station, which honestly is a zoo....very intimidating for a new comer to NYC.  Took us a little bit to find our way to the street, but once we got there, it was shocking to see all those people and how crowded it was.

Found a place to buy a Hop on Hop off bus, got our tickets and then had to walk to the first stop for us (#7 on map).   While walking we found Al's Deli and had a wonderful club sandwiches, YUM.

Got on the bus and headed out to learn about NYC, traffic is a nightmare and it takes us over an hour to get to the 911 Memorial where we decide to get off and tour the area.   The new One World Tower and memorial area are so impressive.   We located the plaque that has my co-worker (Kathryn Blair Lee) on it, very sad to see her name on the plaque, truly a very eerie feeling to realize she died on the tragic day.  After looking at the reflections pools (very impressive) we walked over to the new One World Tower (Freedom Tower) and went to the observation deck on the 102 floor.  They done a great job and the view are so impressive.  

Per our tour guide, this building has been built so that it will never collapse like the two towers on 911 did.

Our tour bus stops running at 6 and we know it will take us over an hr to get back so we decided to skip the museum and try and catch it tomorrow. 

Thankfully we did get on the bus as it took us almost 2 hrs to get back to Penn Station, traffic was horrible.   At least on the bus we learned about many sites, who lives where, etc.

July 5th, 2016

We left Marlton around 8 and arrived here in Warren, NJ around 9:30.   Realized that they only have 15 AMPs so we went to the Eagles Lodge about 6 miles away, as we were told they had 30 AMPS, nope, so we decided to stay at Elks.

Once we settle in and got coach set up, we headed to Liberty Harbor, where we could hopefully catch a glimpse of the State of Liberty.   While going to the Visitor's Center, we found the NJ memorial to 911.  Very impressive and gives you this eerie feeling about what should be visible across the way in NY.   Bobby said, he can't imagine what went through NJ residents as they saw those two structures come down.  So hard to visualize.

Once through with this area, we went to the visitor's center and I decided we should take the tour, so got on the boat that took us to Ellis Island.  Since we did not get there until 3:00, we decided we could only spend 1 hr, so we'd have enough time to look over Liberty Island.

When you get to Ellis Island you can take a ranger lead tour or a self guided tour, which we did since we had limited time.  Honestly we could have spent 2-3 hours there, learning about the history of the immigrants that passed through this area.   It was so interesting.

Got back on the boat and headed to Liberty Island.   Since we got there so late in the day, all the tickets to walk up the statue were sold out, so all we could do was take a self guided tour and walk around the outside.  We should have stayed on Ellis for 2 hrs, as this only took us about 45 min, but the boat won't take you back.

Got back to our car around 6:00 PM, thought it would be a nightmare getting home but once we got across the bridge it was a breeze get home.  Thankfully we didn't get into any BAD NYC traffic.