Tuesday, July 27, 2010

First, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TOBY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We were in Hyde Park today. There are five different National Historic Sites here: the home of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt's home (Val-Kill), Top Cottage (FDR's cottage), FDR Presidential Museum, and the Vanderbilt's mansion. We made it to three of the five. Both the homes of Franklin and Eleanor were guided tours. To date, by the way, we have now been to 9 of the 12 official presidential libraries and a total of at least 69 national historical sites/parks (most this last year).

The two photos above represent the beginning and the end of FDR's life. The "beginning" because he was born in this house in 1882. The original house did not have the two story wings or the third story; these were added after FDR and Eleanor were married. The "end" because he was buried in the rose garden next to the house in 1945.

The above photo is the front of Val-Kill (kill means river). This was the private home of Eleanor. She had wanted to get away from her mother-in-law and remodeled this building as her private residence. The building was originally built by Eleanor as a factory for Val-Kill Industries, built in 1926 to make high quality furniture. The factory closed in 1936 and Eleanor converted it into her home. (FDR never spent the night at Val-Kill; he promised his mother that he would always stay at the family home. Do you think his mother, Sara, was dominating?)

The gentleman to the right of FDR and Eleanor is Louis Howe. Louis had a room at the White House, at Campobello, and at the family home. Louie was in the newspaper business and became the politial advisor for FDR very early in FDR's political career. FDR relied a lot on Louie's opinions. Louie convinced FDR to run for president even though FDR thought his polio would keep him out of the race.

Eleanor was quite a "First Lady." We have not had as strong a "First Lady" before or after. While we were at Val-Kill,one of the park rangers said that Ken Burns will be doing a special on the Roosevelts, maybe next year. The special will star Theodore, Franklin, and Eleanor!

The dog was FDR's and its name is Fala. FDR took him almost everywhere and when FDR died the dog became Eleanor's dog.

Here's an EXTRA for today: If you look very close at the photo above (double-click it), you will see that the name of the store is the Rhinebeck General Merchandise Co. This is in Rhinebeck, NY. If you have been following the upcoming marriage of Chelsea Clinton, the wedding is suspected to be at the Astor estate in Rhinebeck, NY. The wedding is estimated to cost $2,000,000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Go figure!

Monday, July 26, 2010

We just arrived in Saugerties, NY at another KOA campground. The past three days we spent at Nelson's Family Campground in East Hampton, CT.

Over the past several winters at Grace Epsicopal Church, in Weslaco, TX, we have had the pleasure of getting to know Nelson Gustine, the owner of Nelson's Family Campground. Nelson had given us a brochure on the campground and we tried to stay there last fall, but they were closed for the season. We called several weeks ago and made reservations for last weekend. When we got to the campground, the office people told us that we staying there for free! Thanks, Nelson! We spent a lot of time with Nelson; went to a benefit spagetti dinner for Nelson's granddaughter''s soccer team, to Christ Episcopal Church on Sunday, and to breakfast afterwards, and to coffee on Monday before we left.

The campground is huge; 300 sites and many are seasonal sites. There are many ammenities; it's a beautiful place!

We also met another couple from East Hampton; Floy and Gail Hodge, friends of Nelson's. We found we had many things in common. They have a home is Flordia, but travel to the RGV each March. They used to have a place in the Valley (South Texas).

Wednesday-Thursday, July 21, 22, 2010

(This photo is of the Wayside house and should be further down in the blog, but it's too difficult to get it where it belongs. )

Wednesday we drove toward Boston to the end of the "T", the subway, or MTA, and took it to the Kennedy/ UMASS stop. We then took the free shuttle to the Kennedy Library and Museum. The center has a nice film and has all of the displays of his campaign and presidency. One interesting display was of his winning the primary in West Virginia. Early in the presidential primary, he was leading in West Virginia, but then it became known that he was a Catholic. He then lost his lead and went to West Virginia and made several notable/historic speeches and ended winning the state in the primary.

The photo to the right is inside the south end of the museum and overlooks the harbor and Logan airport. We had lunch at the JFK Cafe and then got back on the "T" and went to the Quincy stop.

The Adams National Historic Park is in Quincy. The church pictured is where the second and sixth presidents are buried, along with their wives. We toured the church while we were waiting for the tour of the Adams' homes. We sat in the Adams' pew. It was the family pew of John Quincy Adams.

This is a statue of Abigail Adams in front of the visitor center.

This is the original Adams' home where John Adams was born.
They are right next door to each other.

This home was purchased by John and Abigail and is where John Quincy was born.












After John and Abigail returned from Europe in 1788 they moved into this home (not exactly as it looks today) which they called "Peace Field." This is where John Adams died on July 4, 1826. As you might know, this is the same day that Thomas Jefferson died.

This building is the "Stone Library" and was built by John Adam's grandson well after his death. It contains over 12,000 volumes of books belonging to the Adams family.

Thursday, we visited the Minute Man National Historic Park in Concord, MA. The picture at the right is of Paul Revere, who history tells us, was famous for his "midnight ride." "One if by land, two if by sea." Well, Paul Revere was captured by the British the night of his famous ride and one of the others in the group completed the ride. This was the night before the famous battle at North Bridge. The date of the battle was April 19, 1775.

This is Hartwell Tavern on the road from Lexington to Concord. It's important because it's still standing and pretty-much original.

The very top photo is of the "Wayside" house. This house is famous for all of the 1800's authors and their literature.
Louisa May Alcott grew up here and this home inspired her to write Little Women. Many other authors lived in this area

including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Thoreau (Waldon's Pond which is near here), Hawthorne and Margaret Sidney who wrote The five Little Peppers and How They Grew.

The end of the day was at North Bridge. "The shot heard 'round the world" was fired here. The statue is the Minute Man Statue placed here in 1836.

So much history!!!!

Monday, July 19, 2010

Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park are beautiful. One of our first stops was at the light house on the south side of the island. The other photo above is of one of several harbors near Bar Harbor. There are several huge yachts in this photo. This is an affluent area.





The park has a nice nature center and has many of the plants in the park on display with name tags.










When we asked our son, Andy, what we should do while at Acadia, he said, "The sunsets at Cadillac Mountain are really beautiful". What do you think? The park is listed as one of the top ten national parks in the country.





















On day two, we decided to hike one of the "moderate" trails, South Bubble Rock. This is a 2 mile trail, but it gains 700 feet in elevation going up. The trail is steep and rocky. We thought it was a good climb for a couple of old folks.

The photos are from the top. Great views!

The photo above is at Jordon Pond. We took a shot walk around the south end of the pond.
(We were just too tired after the tough hike up to Bubble Rock).

Here's a plaque on the top of Cadillac Mountain of Stephan Mather. If you have watched the Ken Burn's National Parks series on PBS, you would recognise Stephan Mather's name as one of the early people that promoted the National Parks system.

The photo below is of the shore line of Acadia National Park near what is call the "Thunder Hole." It was pretty amazing to watch the high tide roll in.

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Saturday, for our 45th wedding anniversary, we drove to Campobello Island, New Brunswick, to visit Roosevelt Campobello International Park. We had to drive into Maine, (the first in the USA since May 24th), and drive to the bridge that joins Campobello Island with the USA. We, of course, drove through Canadian Customs and on to the park. Interestingly, The Roosevelt Campobello International Park is owned by the United States and Canada. It is staffed by both Canadians and Americans and is funded by both countries. The park is 2,800 acres and includes the cottage, visitor center, and many nature areas.

The cottage was sold out of the Roosevelt family for a short period of time and then given to the federal governments of the US and Canada. It became a National Historic Site in 1964 and has been open and free since then.

Part of the park is the Eagle Hill bog. The photo below is of Eastern Larch. What I thought was interesting about this tree is that it is a deciduous conifer. I always thought trees were either conifers or deciduous. The Larch, though, loses its needles in the fall. This tree is, obviously, very water tolerant since it grows in a bog.

The other photo is of "old man's whiskers" and is a moss that attaches to dead plant material.

This is a photo of the roads in the park. Very dense withs lot of moss and ferns.

These two photos are of the several "points" around the park. The fog was very thick in some places and the temperatures were crazy. When we were at the cottage the temperature was over 80. When we drove through the woods and near the ocean, the temperature was 55. What a change in just a few miles!