The World Trade Center

On our way to the train to spend our first full day in New York.

No trip to New York can ignore the memories of Sept. 11, 2001. We took an audio tour of the visitor’s center and across the enclosed bridges that connect the remaining buildings. The audio was narrated by people who were in or near the WTC and by family members of the fire brigades. This was a solemn and moving moment for all of us. The image above is of a bronze wall memorial on the side of the Firehouse that is directly across the street from where the WTC stood.


Leaving the WTC Visitor’s Center, we set out in various groups to see the city. With our CitySights pass we hopped to the top of double decker busses. From our perches we had a bird’s eye view of Lower Manhattan, Midtown, and Brooklyn.

New York, New York

We had an uneventful relocation to New Jersey, right across from NYC and we spent our first evening aboard the boat. The Spirit of New Jersey cruised up and down the Hudson River giving us the opportunity to admire one of the greatest cities in the world. We again enjoyed a buffet dinner, one that also included crowning our caravan mates Jerry and Jackie king and queen of the cruise for their 55 years of marriage. Jim and Nancy came in second with 52 years.



Dinner was nice but totally outshone by the setting, NYC viewed at dusk and evening from the Hudson River. Clear skies and warm weather provided us a delightful setting for enjoying one of the greatest views in the world. We rode under bridges, in front of Ellis Island, and up close to the Statue of Liberty. The thesaurus went back to work to provide the right words to describe our panorama, glittering, shimmering, sparkling, glistening, dazzling, brilliant. This evening is on the list for best moments of our Hudson River Caravan.

Rainy Day

A combination of Hurricane Danny, and storms from the north and west cancelled our plans for the day so we did what we do so well, we ate. Starting with a team breakfast of omelettes boiled in ziploc bags, fruit, and some of Brenda’s tasty muffins.

We took advantage of the day to do chores, relax and play games. It was rather nice to take time off.


Our reward for the quiet day was dinner at the 1766 Beekman Arms, the oldest inn in the US. We entered through the flower lined walkway into rooms paneled with rich mahogany. There we dined well on steak, tilapia or duck followed by a difficult choice between cheesecake and chocolate explosion cake. We happily rolled out feeling the day was a success no matter what we did or did not do. We had dined.

West Point

Our ride to West Point along the mountainous shoreline of the Hudson was marred only by the increasing rain. After proving our identities with security, we took a narrated bus tour around the Point learning about its military position in the Revolutionary War. Washington built the fort to block the British from dividing the colonies.



The Cadet Chapel was described as military gothic with its vaulted ceilings and stained glass windows donated by graduating classes. A candle in a front pew burns to honor MIAs and POWs. It has the world’s largest pipe organ in a religious building with 23,500 pipes. The Lutheran Chapel has plaques honoring historical West Point graduates with George Washington the most prominent. Both Benedict Arnold’s name and date of death were rubbed out by a cadet who wanted to remove the traitor from a place of honor. We drove past both the Catholic and Jewish Chapels.




The cemetery is primarily for graduates, their spouse and one child. Among the names are Abner Doubleday of baseball fame, Sylvanius Thayer who made West Point the educational institution it is today, and Thaddeus Kosciuszko the Polish fortification engineer during the Revolutionary War. The most visited site in the cemetery is of Mickey Marcus, the West Point graduate who helped create the Israeli Army. The grave markers frequently have small stones atop them indicating that someone has come to pay respect. This is a custom borrowed from a Jewish tradition. A monument stands over the river with canons bearing the names of the battles the Army has fought.

After another delicious buffet luncheon at the Thayer Hotel (founded by former graduates), we spent time touring the West Point Museum with its displays of ancient and modern weaponry and wars.





It’s difficult to believe, but we had to eat again. This time it was pizza at the campground and cakes to honor birthdays and anniversaries celebrated during the caravan. Some people got a bit “physical” during the celebration.

Farmers Market

You’d think with all the eating we have done that we would be sated. No, we were just out of food, so we headed to a couple of local farmer’s markets. There we loaded up with tomatoes, melons, corn, eggplant, and, most important of all, pies.


Those pies were destined as dessert after our fabulous bbq ribs dinner prepared by Chef Mitch and his crew. With side dishes of special potato salad, beans and local corn, we had to be careful to save room for the pies filled with apples, peaches, cherries or raspberries. Debates about which were better went on late into the night.

The Culinary Institute of America

The CIA (New York not Washington, DC) is delicious, savory, mouthwatering, delectable, heavenly, luscious, scrumptious, toothsome, yummy, etc. It took a thesaurus of words to describe the luncheon we enjoyed after our tour of the CIA. Founded in 1946, it is dedicated to providing the world with outstanding chefs. The school has two sections, culinary arts and baking and pastry. Students specialize in one or the other. Then they go on to restaurants and hotels or get further degrees in the field.



Some of us just could not wait for the tour or the lunch. We had to try something now and the Apple Pie Bakery just fit the bill.



Our tour took us in front of large windows of demonstration kitchens that let us see students in action and past lecture halls where note taking alternated with wine tastings. The class that appealed most was chocolate because the students had to take home their creations at the end of the day.





Walking the halls of the CIA caused us to build up quite an appetite. This was sated at Catrina de Medici where we started with crepes with spinach and ricotta followed by pork loin. Our Torta di Cioccolato con Panna Montata was a plate-licking flourless chocolate cake.

With satisfied palates, we then raided the gift store buying cookbooks and utensils.

Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site

The Vanderbilt’s, starting with “The Commodore,” rose from modest means to the very richest of the very richest. Making most of his money in shipping and railroads, the Commodore was the one who standardized track gauge, created a continuous track from New York to Chicago and made the trains run on time. He and his descendants built forty-three mansions, with the one we saw in Hyde Park being the smallest.

Built in 1895 by Frederick and Louise for $2.25 million, the mansion has fifty-four rooms and is a modest 56,000 square feet. It has central heating, flush toilets, and was the first to have electricity (even before neighbor FDR). The couple had no children and their niece tried to sell the property in the late ‘30s for as little as $250,000. With no buyers, she donated it to the National Park Service where today it is a prime example of the Gilded Age.