July 8-11, Rensselaer, NY

We moved another 35 miles north on the Hudson River and passed the famous Middle Ground Lighthouse guarding one of the shoal areas in the river. This was the scene of a famous wreck, the SWALLOW, which ran aground and caught fire on this spot with the loss of 50 of the 300 passengers in 1845.

Middle Ground Light in the early morning.

We pass close to the Middle Ground Light.

The river is industrial as we approach Albany, and we see the NORD TRADITION unloading sand and gravel.

NORD TRADITION passed us yesterday in the channel
between Newburgh and Catskill.

Approaching Albany Yacht Club.

We are spending a few days in Albany to see the sights and are staying at the Albany Yacht Club in Rensselaer, NY, which is right across the Hudson River from downtown Albany.

Hot again today. We went into Albany to see the Nelson Rockefeller Empire Plaza, home of the New York Museum, which houses a very eclectic group of exhibits from archeology and paleontology to sections on NYC and upstate New York. The newest and largest exhibit is about the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center in NYC and the attack on the Pentagon in Washington.

Fire truck from the 9/11 NYC World Trade Center site.

Linda with a fancy carriage from the 1800's.

Owen with an early New York Stock Exchange stock trading station where the specialists could be found to make a market in stocks. Owen remembers these being is use when he was on the floor for Merrill Lynch as a trainee.
Now very obsolete.

Carousel carved about 1895 by Charles Dare of Brooklyn.

Quite a collection of exhibits.

The Nelson Rockefeller Empire Plaza was built in 1973 as the focal point of the State Capitol Building, the Museum and several newer office buildings which were built at that time. Quite a public space. Big. Not warm. Just big.

NY State Capitol Building is on one end of the Empire Plaza.

NY State Museum is on the other end of the Empire Plaza.
Quite a contrast.

After the tour of the Empire Plaza, we walked in downtown Albany and had dinner at Jack's Oyster Bar, a nice restaurant founded in 1913 that is still in the same location and is owned by the third generation of the same family.

Seward Johnson has another sculpture here in Albany.

Fancy building now the NY Education Association.

Beautiful weather vane of a sailing ship.
Must be large to be seen so well from this far away.

Rick and Connie Bischoff, friends from Florida, are traveling on their boat and we crossed paths with them here at the Albany Yacht Club. They have just completed the part of the trip that we are doing next so we exchanged lots of valuable information. We had dinner together at Oscars in Rensselaer. Excellent. Rick knew about Oscar's from his stay here on his way north.

Rick and Connie are on their way back down the Hudson to NYC and then to their summer home to Newport, RI.

Next day we headed off to see Saratoga Springs, famous for the local springs thought to contain healing waters and a resort area since the 1800's.

Downtown Saratoga Springs.

One of the famous springs.
We thought the water tasted fine.

Saratoga Springs is also famous for horse racing and has a racing season from Mid July until early September. They chose the 'horse' for their artist project and still have a few around town. The horses are life size.

'Spirit of Life', memorial to Spencer Trask, in Congress Park, Saratoga Springs, NY. Sculpured by Henry Bacon who did the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC.

We took a driving tour along the main street just north of town and found some homes built in the late 1800's. There were about 30 that were really outstanding. Here are a few.





All of the landscaping was done as well as the homes. All were on an acre or more of property. The trees, flowers and grass seemed just about perfect, too.