NYC to the Erie Canal

We awoke Sunday morning to overcast skies with plans to leave early to miss all the ferry boat traffic. We pulled out at 6:15am and what no ferry boats just  two cruise ships, and a tow to contend with.  Wow. NYC is big and it  seemed to take hours to get past it.  

Intrepid with the Space Shuttle Enterprise aboard.

When we  passed under the Tappan Zee Bridge and  we were back in Great Lake waters and their tributaries as far as marine insurance is concerned.  This means are insurance rates go down, and that is a good thing.   Another milestone on our trip back to Michigan.

Even though it was overcast the scenery was beautiful, what a big change from the all the buildings in NYC.  There were large cliffs (some over 700 feet high) and lots of trees on the wide and deep river.  We decided to push on  to Kingston today and stay two nights, rent a car and  see FDR’s home and hopefully have lunch at the Culinary Institute of America.

As we approached Kingston we could see the Catskill mountains in the distance.  We are now officially out of salt water.  Once tied up we gave the boat a thorough washing, hoping to get all the salt off her.  It will be so nice to pull into a port and not have to immediately wash down the boat.  We have been in salt water for six months.  It’s hard to believe we have been in it that long.   Except for the beautiful waters in the Bahamas and the lack of spiders, as we have said before we are not fans of the salt water.    We will need to change all the zincs now that we are in fresh water, not to mention dealing with the other effects from the salt.

On Monday we rented a car and set off to Hyde Park.  We first stopped at the Culinary Institute of America for a wonderful lunch.  We spoke with our waiter who will graduate in Sept. and we were really impressed with all that these students learn in the two years that they are with the Institute.  

 We were then off to the home of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, we toured his home, which was very informative.  It is left just as it was when he died in 1945 with all the original furnishings.  

Both  Franklin and Elanor are buried here.

We then decided to do a tour of Top Cottage, a personal retreat that he built in 1938 to get away from everything at the main house.  The tour was a very unique and interesting.  The house mainly has one big family room, a bedroom (which he never slept in) a small kitchen and a huge porch which before the trees grew had a view of the Hudson River.   This is what he wanted and he used it to relax and get away from all the formalities at his mansion and the White House.

 The guide took us out to the porch, gave us some cushions for the chairs and we just sat and chatted about FDR.  This was the same porch he had martini's on with Churchill during WWII and discussed strategy.  We sure felt like we were part of history.  It was truly awe inspiring. 

The road he used to drive on between Top Cottage and the main house.

The train station FDR used on his trips between Hyde Park and DC.

As long as we had a car we stopped at a grocery store on our way back and then had a great dinner at Ship to Shore just a block away from the marina.

Neat looking museum that we did not have time to see, maybe next time if we go for  Platinum?

Tuesday we had to return the car before we could leave so we did not pull away from the dock until after 8am.  It was another overcast day with some following seas for the first half of the day.  Passport does not do well in a following sea and it was a bit of a challenge to keep her on course.  The river smoothed out later in the day and she handled much better.  We saw many lighthouse's along the way.  We pushed on all the way to the first lock of the Erie Canal.  We did go through one lock at Troy, NY which now means we are out of tidal waters. 

The Troy Lock which stops the tidal flow on the Hudson. 

Some of the remants of Irene.

Where every Looper choose which way to go.

Tomorrow we begin our journey through the Erie Canal, we hope to be in Oswego, NY on Saturday which will entail 29 locks.   Weather permitting will leave Owsego and head up Lake Ontario to the Thousand Islands on Sunday to meet up with Kelly and family early next week.

Good Night,

John & Mary