Tuesday morning it was time to leave Rhode Island and head back into NY for the end of our trip. We routed ourselves through New Haven, CT, figuring it would be a good stopping point to stretch our legs, and to check out the Yale University campus. We saw Brown, so why not see another Ivy League school on this trip? It’s another beauty, full of interesting architecture. The library was particularly impressive – we assumed it was originally a church given the nave, altar, etc…but it has always been a library. It was just built with many of the same characteristics as a church. We especially enjoyed the large room that had a wall lined with card catalog drawers, alongside the computers that have replaced them. Mark and I were talking about the card catalogs and Connor was just looking at us, completely puzzled. “What’s a card catalog?”  Unfortunately, the drawers were all empty so there were no examples to show him, but we explained it as best we could. Thanks, once again, for making us feel so old!

As we were walking around, I was struck by how beautiful and unique all of the doorways were, so please enjoy this slideshow that I call “The Doors of Yale”

We arrived at our destination in Poughkeepsie, NY late afternoon…it’s along the Hudson River about midway between Albany and NYC. We found a local BBQ place for dinner – total dive, but delicious food! We really love having reviews and menus online – it’s so easy to try a place like this and feel pretty confident that it’ll be good!

We started our morning on Wednesday with a trip to the Walkway over the Hudson. It’s an old railroad bridge that was converted into a pedestrian walkway that literally crosses over the Hudson River, not far from the Mid-Hudson Bridge for cars. It’s 1.3 miles long, making it the longest elevated pedestrian bridge in the world. It sits 212 feet above the river and has some pretty impressive views of the river and the Catskill Mountains. I’m sure it would be particularly beautiful in the Fall when the leaves are changing (in fact, Mark and I had planned to be there last October, but some RoVer issues forced us to cancel that trip!). We didn’t quite walk the full bridge, but we did cover about 1.7 miles total out and back. The weather was perfect.

After our walk, we found a nice park with a view of the bridge to sit and have lunch by the Hudson River.

Our next stop was a few miles away, to the CIA. No, not that CIA. The Culinary Institute of America and their Hyde Park NY campus. What a beautiful place! With views of the Hudson and a main building that used to be a Jesuit school, it’s so impressive! We checked out “The Egg”, the student union and dining center. We’re guessing the food choices there are a bit better than most campus dining halls! Then we headed to the main building which houses several restaurants, classrooms, and kitchens where you can watch the chefs at work. We couldn’t pass up some sweet treats at the Apple Pie Bakery Café!

As a marketer, I was especially impressed by the signage throughout the campus…it’s so clever and punny!

Next stop, Val-Kill Cottage, the home of Eleanor Roosevelt. The home itself is closed to tours (has been since COVID started), but we wandered the grounds and the visitor center. Sadly, this was the only place she ever really felt at home because her home with FDR had been his mother’s and Eleanor always felt like a guest there, even after living there for many years. She was never allowed to make any changes or decorate it to her taste, so Val-Kill gave her a space that was comfortable and welcoming for her. After FDR’s death, she lived there full time.

We made a trip to Rhinebeck and visited Samuels Sweet Shop, which is co-owned by actor (and People Magazine’s sexiest man alive) Paul Rudd. Sadly, he was not there, but we did get some treats for dessert later on. We found a local Italian restaurant and enjoyed a delicious 26^th anniversary dinner there.

Thursday was another busy day in the Hudson Valley. We headed to the Franklin Delano Roosevelt historic site, which includes his home (run by the National Park Service) and his library and museum (run by the National Archives). It’s a bit confusing to have two different government agencies running facilities on the same site, and you need separate tickets purchased from different agencies. Oh well, we managed. We reserved an 11am house tour; that gave us some time to watch the intro movie in the visitor center, and see a little bit of the library/museum. The house tour was very interesting. FDR was actually born in this home and lived there for his entire life. He made some major modifications to it as his family grew (6 surviving children) and to accommodate his wheelchair. Our favorite story was about some wall decorations that included caricatures of King George VI; when the King came to visit, FDR was very concerned that the King would be offended by these. The King’s response…”don’t worry…we have similar pictures of you at Buckingham Palace!”

We took a lunch break and then went back into the museum/library. It was the first Presidential Library and is unique in that it is the only one that was an actual working library. FDR had it built during his presidency and worked there when he was in Hyde Park. One thing we hadn’t accounted for…a museum that covers FOUR terms / 12 years is much larger than the other ones we’ve been to where the president didn’t serve as long. But it was so interesting and really well done. It was broken up into each of his terms and what his focus was (the Depression, WWII, etc.). I always enjoy presidential libraries and have learned so much more about American history from visiting them. Hopefully we’ll get to the rest of them (there really aren’t very many – only 15 of them; before FDR, presidential documents were rarely saved/archived).

From FDR’s place, we visited one of his neighbors – the Vanderbilt Mansion in Hyde Park. It’s a National Historic Site, operated by the National Park Service site (unlike Biltmore, Marble House, and The Breakers). Our timing was bad for an interior tour, but we walked the grounds, enjoyed the views of the Hudson River, and took photos of the stately mansion which was a seasonal residence for Frederick and Louise Vanderbilt. In the visitor center, I really appreciated the family tree that helped to explain all of the Vanderbilts and their homes. And I found Anderson Cooper on the family tree, too!

We stopped for ice cream at a cute little local shop where the portions were HUGE for a very reasonable price. Yum! We were pretty exhausted after all that museum walking (much harder on the back than regular walking!) so back to the hotel! We ordered pizza for dinner and ate at the hotel…time to start thinking about the journey back home on Friday! We were all pretty impressed at how much history there is in the Hyde Park/Poughkeepsie area and very glad we included this as part of our trip!

Our drive home on Friday went well; we stopped for a photo op at one of the rest areas…

Now that vacation is over, we get to shift gears and focus on Connor’s upcoming big move to Chicago – we leave in 12 days – very excited about more car time…yay. So hard to believe…and so glad we were able to take this vacation around New England and New York before he heads west (and we follow a few months later)!