Travel Adventures in Upstate New York, Part 10: Hyde Park to Woodbury

This is my tenth post about our travel through upstate New York. I recommend reading the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth posts from the trip before this one. Because I blog about educational travel, I received admission tickets and other benefits for some of the places we visited during our trip. Other places are free for everyone; we paid full price for the rest. This has no bearing on my reviews. If you see any gaps in my narrative, it is because I didn't love a particular attraction, restaurant, or hotel enough to recommend it, regardless of how much I paid or didn't pay.

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Hyde Park to Woodbury, New York

We left Albany on Thursday, September 11 and drove 90 minutes south to Hyde Park. Our first destination for the day was the Presidential Library of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. 

FDR himself came up with the idea for a Presidential Library. During his second term, he became concerned that the huge numbers of papers and other materials that had accumulated during his presidency would be lost or destroyed, as had happened to many materials from his predecessors. He sought out historians, who advised a public repository for presidential materials to preserve and display them for future generations. He used private funds to build this facility next to his home. It is run by the US government through the National Archives. 

This was the third Presidential Library we've visited. The first was the Johnson Library in Texas and the second was the Clinton Library in Arkansas. We really enjoyed all three, but if you can only make it to one, choose FDR. It is the first-ever Presidential Library, the only one to be built while the President was still in office, the only one that was actually used by the President it honors, and the only one built at the home the President was occupying. 

This photo is of the lobby of the Visitor Center, located to the right of where my feet are in the picture above. 

The Library is packed with interesting exhibits. 

  

I enjoyed sitting at the kitchen table and listening to the Fireside Chats, just as people would have done between 1933 and 1944. 

This is as far as we got before we had to leave the FDR Library for our lunch reservation. Fortunately, I knew that was going to happen and budgeted time to return to the Library later. 

Any guesses where we ate lunch? 

This is the Culinary Institute of America, located in Hyde Park. It's widely considered one of the top culinary schools in the world. 

It's commonly known as the CIA. 

We had lunch at American Bounty, one of three fine dining restaurants on campus. It focuses on seasonal, regional food from the Hudson Valley. It was outstanding. 

  

We ordered four dishes to split: a soup, a salad, and two pastas. Then we shared a dessert. It was a wonderful meal and a delight to talk with the students who were serving us. 

We would have loved to have taken a campus tour, but we were there on the wrong day of week. So we poked around on our own, first in the building where the restaurant is. 

You could see students at work in the kitchens and in classrooms. There were signs saying not to photograph the students, so we photographed their bread instead. Everything they were doing was so interesting and looked fantastic. 

This is Les Halles d' Anthony Bourdain. He graduated from the CIA in 1978 and he is deeply missed. He is honored with a large piece of artwork on one of the buildings as well. 

The campus is small, but absolutely stunning.  

It is located along the Hudson River - such a beautiful setting. 

The Egg is the student commons. 

 We learned that the CIA has a few sports teams. They are the Steels. 

I love the gate featuring asparagus and an artichoke. And this cute t-shirt. 

  

Visit the CIA campus if you ever get the chance. In the meantime, enjoy the CIA alma mater. 

Rather than returning directly to the FDR Library, we headed to Eleanor Roosevelt State Historic Park. It is known as Val-Kill (Valley Stream, in Dutch) and was Eleanor's private sanctuary and her permanent home after her husband's death.

There is an interesting orientation film to watch, plus exhibits to see. We opted not to do the house tour due to time, preferring instead to enjoy the grounds. It's a beautiful place. 

Back to the FDR Library!

At all other Presidential Libraries, you see a replica of their offices. At the FDR library, it's not a replica. It's his actual office with the stuff he used still in it. The Library and Museum opened in 1941 while FDR was still President and still using this space for government business. He spent over 250 days at his home in Hyde Park during WWII and conducted several Fireside Chats from this office. 

  

This is FDR's home, located steps away from the Library and Museum. 

This is the Roosevelts' gravesite. 

We enjoyed these busts of FDR and Churchill facing each other. 

  

Did you notice this artwork behind them? The figures were cut from a section of the Berlin Wall by the granddaughter of Winston Churchill. The remaining part is on display America's National Churchill Museum. 

We stayed until closing, enjoying all there is to do at this beautiful place. Then we headed down the road a bit to Walkway Over the Hudson State Park. 

In 1889, the longest bridge in the world opened in New York. It connected Poughkeepsie and Highland with a double track railroad bridge, 212 feet over the Hudson River. The bridge stayed in service until 1974. Since 2009, it has been a pedestrian walkway and a 1.28 mile linear state park.  

You can start at ground level from either end and take stairs up to the walkway, then stroll from end to end. Or, you can do like we did and take the elevator near the eastern bank of the Hudson. It goes up the equivalent of 21 flights to take you to the top. 

  

The view from the elevator: 

The view from the top: 

Unfortunately, I had misunderstood that the elevator has different operating hours than the park itself. We arrived at 5:20, thinking the state park closed at 7:00 (true) and that we had tons of time to walk and enjoy the span. What we didn't know was that the elevator closed at 5:30. If we hadn't taken the next elevator down, we would have had to walk a mile to the end of the bridge, then make our way back a mile to where our car was parked near the elevator. While we don't mind a nice walk, that was a bit much considering the drive we still had ahead of us. So we took the next elevator down and spent some time admiring the bridge and the waterfront from ground level. 

Then it was back in the car. We drove an hour and checked into the Hampton Inn Harriman Woodbury, the final hotel for this epic trip. 

After we got unpacked and settled, we were overdue for dinner. We headed to the nearby Bareburger, a New York chain that started in Queens. Their classic smashburger is outstanding. 

It had been a great day, but we were exhausted. It was time to rest up for the next day's adventures. I'll tell you all about it tomorrow.