Martin Van Buren NHS & Hyde Park (Vanderbilt Mansion NHS, Home of FDR NHS, Eleanor Roosevelt NHS)

April 24, 2004

Spring break of 2004 brought us down state. I was in Albany for a conference and we'd already missed my normal spring break, so we decided to try and hit the parks in the lower half of New York. We started by trying to get into the Martin Van Buren home, but as the sign says, they were closed.

After that, we kept heading down along the Hudson River to the Vanderbilt Mansion (forgot to get the main sign pic this time). This place is just HUGE no matter WHAT you're looking at, The house is huge, the GUEST house is huge, the SERVANT QUARTERS are huge…even the TREES on the property were the biggest things we've ever SEEN (hence the HUGE lettering!). This was just a shot as we were driving by on the main road, but the place just kept growing as we got closer.

This pic is just showing the road as we were driving up. We couldn't believe this all belonged to one person, especially since at this point, you really couldn't see the mansion at all.

 Here's what I'm talkin' about with the sheer SIZE of everything. You can't even SEE the top of this tree in this picture…and they actually had to cut some of the top OFF! Neither of us were used to seeing pines like this so big around…we're more familiar with the skinny ones used for telephone poles.

This was the view of more such trees right by the guest house. You can see the amazing size difference still…check out the park rangers right in the corner of this pic! Keep in mind, this is still only a CORNER of the main house…their SUMMER house! The pic below is me standing by the side of the main house (I’m the pink and blue thing on the steps!)

Later that week, I would send my parents this picture with the caption, “Check out the new house Kevin got me! It’s a little small, but we’ll make do somehow!” Again, the tiny shape by the door is me…and we STILL don’t have the whole house in the picture!

This pic is of the little walk between the guest house and the extensive garden. They had any number of plants and shrubs back there that would have impressed us both had we known more about any number of plants and shrubs…!

This trip’s “big hole in the ground” pic..the Hudson River Valley. Admittedly, this is a rather long and picturesque hole in the ground, but it counts. The Vanderbilt Mansion sits right on the __s of this beautiful area.

The house from the back….

Finally, a shot of the whole house (left)! This had to be taken a good 400 yard out to get everything in (which is where Kevin was standing in the pic below). Not much funny business at the Vanderbilts, but then, we still had two more places to visit! ;-)

Home of FDR NHS, Eleanor Roosevelt NHS

(April 24, 2004)

At last, something to scare the crap out of me and make the trip funny again! Part of the Hyde Park area is the Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt NHS. The property contains FDR’s home, his Presidential Library andTop Cottage, which was his own Camp David for entertaining dignitaries. The statue on the right sits pretty casually in the middle of this courtyard of the Henry Wallace Visitor Center (where you buy tickets for the home and the Presidential Library). They’re VERY lifelike, so needless to say, I was ALL excited…until I got within 10 feet of them and chickened out. So, I got Kevin in for the shot. “Rectum?” he says. “Dang near KILLED ‘em!”

(cough) Well, FDR and Ellie thought it was pretty funny…

This was a pretty cool, yet haunting thing, (although not as terrifying as the pic above for me). The giant cement pieces here were cut directly from the Berlin Wall. Offhand, I can’t recall the significance of them being on the property at FDR’s place, but I assume it was because of his statement “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

FDR’s gravesite is right on the property along with Eleanor’s. These marble tombs are right in the middle of the rose garden…makes for a nice, peaceful walk in this area.

Got a little glare on this one, but that’s me standing in front of FDR’s house. We didn’t realize we had to PAY to get into this area, so I ended up going partially in the back door and into a hallway before I realized I was passing people coming OUT. Luckily, I figured it out before the tour guide saw me and casually went back out the way I came!

We sped to Val-Kill, where Eleanor Roosevelt’s NHS was, but made it too late to get in and get a stamp. Since we missed Martin Van Buren’s place, too, we’ll have to make another trip for this one.. As far as pics, we took these next to the creek outside and I have to say, I really like the way they came out!

 Saratoga NHP

April 25, 2004

After staying overnight in Saratoga Springs, we woke up to head to Saratoga on the way home from this trip. Not much in the way of pics (since battlefields and cemeteries are NOT for playtime!), but I DID remember to get the sign this time. Most of the shots I took were at the actual cemetery, one of which is just STUNNING. Also, we were able to get another of the Erie Canalway NHC stamps while in the visitor’s center.

This was the GORGEOUS tree lined crive up to the visitor’s center. I couldn’t tell you how nice this really looked, so I took a pic intead. I’m a huge fan of evergreen trees lining a road, and these (while nothing compared to the ones at the Vanderbilt place) were beautiful

The rest of the site had a bunch of different stops where you could overlook the battlefields and important areas, but I didn’t get any shots of those at all because it started to rain AND stupid me forgot to bring more film! L

We made for the cemetery as quick as we could and got there just as the rain was heading over the area. These two plaques were there in the newer part of the cemetery. They were among many along a memorial walk that ended with a huge obelisk draped with a flag (see below). I took pics of these because one was for the actual fighters in the Battle of Saratoga, but the other was for soldiers in the “Forgotten War”, otherwise known as the Korean War. Kevin’s father was in it and we thought this was a nice way to memorialize those valiant men.

As I mentioned before, this memorial walkway ended with a huge monument draped with a flag:

Notice anything different about that flag? Look closer:

In case you’re still not seeing it (the way we didn’t until we got closer) that flag draped there was CARVED as part of the monument itself! It looked so real from a distance that we were both fooled into believing it was real! If you look, you can see the spatters of rain hitting it, which make it a little easier to tell the difference, but WOW! This was definitely worth spending our last bit of film on.