OTHER SIGHTS AROUND NEW YORK CITY--Trips to the City

OTHER SIGHTS AROUND NEW YORK CITY--
Day and Weekend Trips to the Big Apple

A family day in the city is special when
we view it from top of the Irish Memorial.

Living close to the Big Apple has travel advantages.  It's easy and inexpensive to take the train into the city to absorb the sights and sounds of non-stop action. I've run into acquaintances and friends on the streets of New York, and I've never been fearful... except about getting lost!  I've watched students stare up wide-eyed at the monstrous skyscrapers, and I've thrilled to the applause of standing ovations at some of the best theater in the world.  From museums to restaurants to parades to historical sites, New York City has it all.  At least once a year, Andy and I try to plan a family day in the city.  Most of those trips are a flurry of walking the streets to see the sights of the holidays. But in between those crazy Big Apple family excursions, the two of us schedule days to take in a Broadway show or check out an art exhibit.  New York City... the heart of the world.
I LOVE NEW YORK!

Regardless of the weather, Rockefeller Center
is alive with spirit and holiday joy.



One World Trade Center rises
tall in the financial district




The 9/11 Memorial at the base
of One World Trade is now
a place of peace and respect.

Central Park in the winter is the site of
J.D. Salinger's famous novel
Catcher in the Rye,
a picture necessary for teaching.

The final resting place of 18th President
Ulysses S. Grant on the Hudson River
in Morningside Heights near Columbia
is funded by individual citizens.

The oldest bar in the city becomes a family gathering place
as we stop at McSorley's for a "light" or "dark." No other choice.



Broadway is often crammed
with tourists. The area makes
for interesting people-watching. 

Tours go on as St. Patrick's
Cathedral undergoes a $150
million dollar renovation,
inside and out.

"I spare no cost," announces Andy as we board the ferry across
the water from lower Manhattan to Staten Island.
This boat ride is free to commuters.

Strolling along the shoreline at Battery Park affords beautiful
views of the Staten Island skyline across the bay.

 














ALONG THE HUDSON RIVER--Summer 2015

ALONG THE HUDSON RIVER
SUMMER TRAVELS-- New York 2015

Hiking to the lighthouse offered beautiful views of the
wild flowers along the Hudson Riverbank in New York.

In between days of working around Tara's house while we cat-sat, Andy and I visited New York vacation spots. One such tourist mecca is the Saugerties Lighthouse on the Hudson River near Kingston.

Stepping carefully from one dry sand
patch to the next, Andy checks out the
birds that gather along the shore. 

Now a bed and breakfast available on a limited basis to the public, the lighthouse was first operated in 1869 to guide river traffic up and down the Hudson River.  It was automated in 1954.  Vacant for decades, the building fell into disrepair.  Preserved from demolition, the lighthouse was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.  Renovations began in 1986, and the navigational beacon was restored to operation in 1990.

Picnic tables allow visitors
to relax and enjoy the
atmosphere of the river.

The lighthouse is owned and maintained by the Saugerties Lighthouse Conservancy, a private non-profit organization dedicated to preserving this historic landmark, that is part of our maritime heritage.  The Saugerties Lighthouse Conservancy receives no local, state or federal funding.
Tour are conducted on Saturdays and Sundays, from noon to 3 p.m., Memorial Day through Labor Day, by appointment only.  Two second-floor bedrooms are offered for overnight stays to fund the preservation of the lighthouse and the attached property.
When we inquired about reservations, we learned that reservations for the lighthouse overnight stays were booked a year in advance. Obviously a popular place, the lighthouse and grounds included a circular deck with six or eight picnic tables and a surrounding pebble and sand beach.

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Many of the visitors who had hiked the quarter-mile trail out to the lighthouse on this pleasant August day relaxed at picnic tables or stepped carefully along the drier spots of beach.
Andy had planned our next stop at Pratt's Rock, a high cliff face near Schoharie Creek outside of Prattsville.

Carvings like this one cover
the face of the rock cliff
along the trail to the summit.

              This park, featuring huge stone reliefs, dates back into the mid-1800's when Zadock Pratt owned the land and served as a United States Congressman. Pratt represented the Prattsville area of New York from 1837 to 1839 and again from 1843 to 1845.

Spectacular pastoral views in every direction await
our leisure stops at the summit of Pratt's Rock. 

                                  
    The stone cliffs had been carved starting in 1845 by Andrew W. Pearse, an itinerant stone mason, at Pratt's request.  It memorialized this unknown Congressman and credited Prattsville Tannery, that was ultimately closed in 1845, as the leading tannery in the United States before that time.  A million dollars in sales of leather a year had been recorded at the tannery.  The hides were tanned with hemlock.
We climbed to the summit for the views of the surrounding countryside.  They were spectacular in this out-of-the-way and little known area of New York State.
Our final tourist destination for the day was a visit to the John Burroughs Memorial Field and Boyhood Rock near Roxbury, New York.
A nature writer from the late 1800's and early 1900's, Burroughs was close friends with Theodore Roosevelt. Burroughs, Harvey Firestone, Henry Ford and Thomas Edison earned the nickname of "The Four Vagabonds" as they traveled and vacationed together.
Burroughs was laid to rest here, his favorite place of contemplation, near the Woodchuck Lodge, which he called his writing nook.

Hidden in the woods overlooking a field is the rock that
John Burroughs, American nature writer, called his own.

Andy and I climbed up on the Boyhood Rock and read the nearby inscription: John Burroughs (1837-1921) "I stand amid the eternal ways and what is mine shall know my face."  We could detect the smell of mint wafting from the wild patch below us.
In an essay called "The Gospel of Nature" from the book Time and Change, 1912, Burroughs wrote, "How the contemplation of Nature as a whole does take the conceit out of us!"  It seemed appropriate for the setting.  I wondered if Burroughs had written that line as he sat on his Boyhood Rock and looked out over the scene in front of us.

From this site, John Burroughs viewed the Catskill Mountains
and the world. And here he remains. 

Another quote that caught my attention was from the Burroughs essay "Still Small Voice." This appeared in Under the Apple Trees, 1916. Andy and I could see the apple trees in the distance as we leaned again the glacial erratic boulder that had been Burroughs' favorite spot.  And how pertinent the quote seemed at this time of political unrest and media scrutiny.
"The unknown, the inaudible forces that make for good in every state and community--the gentle word, the kind act, the forgiving look, the quiet demeanor, the silent thinkers and workers, the cheerful and unwearied toilers, the scholar in his study, the scientist in his laboratory--how much more we owe to these than to the clamorous and discordant voices of the world of politics and the newspaper.  Art, literature, philosophy all speak with the still small voice."

With placid but powerful elegance,
the Hudson River winds through the
eastern part of the state.

The highway to and from Tara's house
shows New York in a
peaceful and rural light.

Even our drives home in the different seasons     offered beautiful,  albeit low key, scenery.  And the Hudson River never ceases to be the focus of spectacular views.

DAY TRIPPING IN NEW JERSEY--Summer 2015

DAY TRIPPING IN NEW JERSEY
SUMMER TRAVELS-- New York 2015
When it came time to take Tara to Newark Airport for a flight south, we had another opportunity to do some sightseeing.  Andy had planned our trip to New Jersey as a day of touring once we left the terminals. With Tara safely ushered inside, it was on to Thomas Edison's library and complex in West Orange, New Jersey for us.

The factory Library is a place of intellectual magnificence.

Nestled between shelves of rare books
in the library is Edison's bed.

The spacious and elegant library was attached to the main factory building. Thomas Edison maintained a research library that was immediately accessible to him and his workers.  Besides rare texts of all shapes and sizes, it included art and sculpture, as well as a bed for him to use at any time of the day or night.

In this lab Thomas Edison perfected the light bulb.

In 1887, this laboratory building was one of the best-equipped chemistry laboratories in the world. Within its walls, Thomas Edison and his chemists experimented on everything from phonograph records to rubber.
"Grand science--chemistry," Edison once said. "I like it best of all the sciences."
Beginning in the late 1890's, Edison and his staff worked for more than a decade to develop a practical storage battery for electric automobiles.  After thousands of experiments, they produced a nickel-iron-alkaline battery by 1909.  Although not practical for electric autos, Edison's durable battery was used for industry, mining and railroad applications.  And it was actually invented in this lab more than a hundred years ago.


The old factory was clean and polished.

Andy and I walked slowly through the clean, old machines, reading the interpretive signs and trying to imagine what it would have been like to work for Thomas Edison.  "This would have been very noisy and very dirty," explained Andy.  "But it would also have been exciting to be in such a stimulating atmosphere."
Three complete floors of memorabilia filled every inch of the old lab building, with moving displays and sound bites. We could have spent days just reading all the information.
The adjoining buildings gave us peaks into life on Thomas Edison's "campus."
Metals were vital to Thomas Edison--from iron, copper and various alloys used in new inventions to gold for plating phonograph record molds.  In the adjoining metallurgical laboratory, workers collected, assayed and evaluated the metals used for Edison's projects.
In the late 1890's Edison employees experimented with the magnetic extraction of iron from low-grade ore.  But by 1900, discovery of high-grade ore deposits dashed Edison's hope of making a profit from milling New Jersey's low-grade ores.  After losing millions, Edison stated, "Well, it's all gone, but we had a good time spending it!"

In excellent condition, Edison's main factory stands as a
tribute to scientific experimentation and industrial development.

Building 4 was put to non-metallurgical uses--experiments in sound recording and phonograph record duplication were conducted in this building before 1903.  By 1912, much of the experimental work concentrated on the diamond disc phonograph.  At that time Edison and his assistants were known as the Insomnia Squad.
Finally we reached the outdoor pavilion adjoining the Black Maria.  It was set up with a large tent for outdoor entertainment.  In 1893 the Black Maria became the world's first building constructed as a motion picture studio.  The odd-shaped structure was designed to keep sunlight on the stage while Edison's pioneers made kinetoscope films.

The first ever movie studio, The Black Maria
rotates to capture sunlight during filming.

Although most filming took place around noon, the Black Maria could use available sunlight at all hours. During filming, the angled roof was opened using pulleys to allow sunlight in the studio.  The entire building rested on a pivot and wood track.  As the sun's angle changed during the day, Edison's movie makers periodically stopped filming to push the Black Maria around a few feet to keep sunlight on its stage. 
An early sound picture from 1894 showed Edison's chief motion picture assistant playing violin while two men danced.  The kinetophone, a "talking pictures" system, was introduced by Edison in 1912, but it proved unreliable and was soon abandoned.  Practical sound film was not achieved until the late 1920's.

Edison's parlor offers understated
elegance of upper class living.

The Thomas Edison mansion of West Orange, New Jersey
offers spacious lawns and gardens at the top of the hill.

Because we signed up early, we also had an opportunity to drive to the nearby mansion home of Edison and his family for a private small group tour.  Comfortable and spacious, the home allowed Thomas Edison and his family to live in style in northern New Jersey.  "I could easily move in here," said Andy.  I certainly had to agree. The scientist and inventor had all the conveniences of the time, but it certainly was not gaudy or extravagant.

Following Andy's map and my own GPS know-how, we found our way to Paterson, New Jersey to the Paterson Great Falls.

Even in a dry summer, Paterson Great Falls puts on a display.



Located downtown, the park is
currently being upgraded.

What eventually will be a beautiful walk along the river currently leaves a great deal to be done. Obvious efforts to upgrade the area are underway, and what was probably an industrial mess is now an improved park for Paterson residents.


Trails follow both sides of the waterway.

No swimming allowed here, but the scenery is lovely.

VISITING IN NEW YORK STATE--Summer 2015

VISITING IN NEW YORK STATE
SUMMER TRAVELS--New York 2015


Walking Figure (2003-2004)
by Donald Baechler
towers over our heads as
we stroll the grounds.

On another day of cat-sitting in July, we headed up County Route #22 to Ghent, New York and five hours of leisurely strolling around The Fields Sculpture Park and Architecture Omi. This exhibition center features the Omi International Arts Center and a busy day camp for elementary school students.  Groups of young children dashed here and there in small clusters, led by enthusiastic teens and young adults.

Andy leans on It Up
(2008) by Robert Mellee.

Their activities varied from etching information about sculptures to playing active guessing games about the various pieces to crafting their own mini sculpture mobiles at the tent art center and hanging them from tree branches near the actual sculpted creations.
We watched the activity, chatted with a few of the children and browsed from sculpture to sculpture, following paths through the nine major areas of outdoor display.  These included: Grounds of Architecture Omi, Back Woods, Wheat Field, Pond Woods, Little Field, Far Afield, Poplar Grove, Clover Meadow and Residency Road.  Gorgeous summer weather made the day all the more relaxing and enjoyable. 

Victoria, (1991-2000) by Philip
Grausman, one of three huge
heads of women, looks with
authority at the nearby woods.

An earlier trip to Omi some years ago had been sweltering with temperatures near 100 degrees.  Today was just beautiful with flowers in bloom, butterflies floating above the art pieces and smells of new-mown grass drifting above the cut fields.

Sue finds a special niche to sit for a moment at
Species Niches 2 (2014) by Harrison Atelier.

Arcs in Disorder: 4 Arcs x 5 (2000) by
Bernar Venet invites inspection from
all different angles and perspectives.

Smoke (2009) by Richard Nonas
spreads evenly like a
cloud over a secluded field.

                 
               
                  


Queen Anne's Lace dots the landscape.

Black-eyed Susans nod lazily in the sun.

Tiny butterflies light at our feet.

On the way back to Tara's house, we stopped to see the gravesite of Martin VanBuren (1782-1862),  a New York State governor and the eighth President of the United States.  His nickname, Old Kinderhook, reflected his Dutch heritage.

A simple stone obelisk marks the tomb
of the country's eighth President.

The cemetery, quiet and low key, seemed oddly out-of-place for someone so important in world affairs during his lifetime. The stone obelisk simply gave the following information about the man and his wife: Martin Van Buren, VIIIth President of the United States, Born Dec. 5, 1782, Died July 24, 1862... Hannah Van Buren, His wife, Born March 8, 1788, Died at Albany, N.Y., Feb. 5, 1819.

TRAVEL BENEFITS OF CAT-SITTING--Summer 2015

TRAVEL BENEFITS OF CAT-SITTING
SUMMER TRAVELS--New York 2015


The Halls Mills Covered Bridge in
rural Grahamsville had undergone
recent repairs.

Cat-sitting for Tara at her house in New York State has its benefits. Never before would we have believed that New York had so many "travel" and historic sites. And never would we have dreamed that we would see so much of our neighboring state.  Because of our summer cat-sitting stints, Andy and I have traveled to many of these obscure and quiet places of interest.  And because of our chaperoning for FFA state competitions, we have also seen many of the rural towns and agricultural interests so unknown to those outside of New York. What a treasure house of travel this state has to offer!

Willowemoc is actually
half a covered bridge.

This year we explored more than ever before. One day-trip took us to a series of bridges.  The Halls Mills Covered Bridge on Hunter Road Spur in Grahamsville was built in 1912.  Following the directions in the New York Guide Book of interesting places, we had no trouble locating this old wooden creek crossing.

The Vantran Covered
Bridge accents the
entrance to a local park.

The Covered Bridge in Willowemoc wasn't so easy to find. It was built in Livingston Manor in 1860 and cut in half. One half that survived was moved to its present location in Willowemoc by the Doodledoo Camp Ground in 1913.
In Livingston Manor a little searching helped us find the Vantran Covered Bridge. It was built in 1860 and is one of four towne-lattice-truss and queen post style covered bridges in the Catskills.  It was originally called Motts Flat Bridge and later renamed.

The beautiful Roeblings Suspension Bridge, oldest of its
kind in this country, connects two states.

             We walked across the Roeblings Suspension Bridge and Aqueduct. Although not a covered bridge, this river crossing also has a claim to fame. It was built in 1823 by Roeblings, the designer of the Brooklyn Bridge, and is the oldest of its kind still standing.

Andy reads the history
of the Minisink Memorial.

It spans the Delaware River in upstate New York. The bridge connects Lackawaxen, Pennsylvania and Minisink Ford, New York.

A mansion by modern standards, the
Deyo House of 1692
dominates Huguenot Street.

On another day-trip Andy and I drove to the Minisink Battlefield Memorial Park.  This little remembered Revolutionary War battleground commemorates the sacrifice of 50 American rebels who were ambushed in a woodland skirmish and massacred by Mohawk Indians in July of 1779. The Native American warriors were led by Chief Joseph Bryant.
That day we also stopped in New Paltz.  Here Huguenot Street features stone homes that date back to 1692, the oldest authentic museum street in America.


The Abraham Hasbrouck House
hosted cock fights in early days.

In 1677, twelve Huguenot men had secured a land contract of 40,000 acres in the New Paltz vicinity from the Esopus Indians.  The religious immigrants from France settled in the area soon after the land purchase, and by the early  1690's they were constructing more permanent dwellings of natural stone.  Six homes built before 1720 still stand.  These include the home of Louis Bevier, a 1698 patentee; the Deyo house, home of Pierre Deyo from 1692 as one of the 12 original patentees; and the home of Jean Hasbrouck, built in 1712.

A monument marks the
center of the old town
where North Front Street
meets Huguenot Street.

Another patentee, Abraham Hasbrouck, once a soldier in the English army, died in 1717, but his wife Virginia, lived in their house until her death in 1741. It is said that their kitchen was the scene of local cock fights.
We walked the street and meandered through the old cemetery at Our French Church, a beautiful old stone church built in 1717. The city of New Paltz itself was founded in 1678 and was governed by La Dusine, a body of 12 men who were elected by the whole town. The Dusine existed as a governing body for the next 100 years.

The old French Church shows the beautiful stone
architecture of the early Huguenot immigrants.

The culturally diverse group of early settlers came together to build an enduring community. Nestled between the Shawangunk Mountains and the Wallkill River, this National Historic Landmark in the heart of the Hudson Valley is one of National Geographic's top 100 worldwide destinations.