#3-Navigating New York

We decided to create this separate journal just for our adventures in New York. Karen Leffler lives in Connecticut and went to lots of trouble to make our visit memorable. She set up reservations and drove us to our various adventures in and around the ‘Big Apple’ despite the fact that she had never driven in New York before!! It may have taken her several weeks to recover her sanity and calm nerves after all she went through. I know I would never even have tried to drive around that area, so we will be eternally grateful to her for her kindness and courage!


Our first adventure was to take a boat trip up the Hudson River. We embarked from Peekskill along with Karen’s two friends, Lisa and her Mother, Carol. Captain Smith pointed the bow of the 1917 passenger ferry, Commander, up river and off we chugged after leaving a very lively Ecuadorian festival taking place in the park on the shore.






We passed spectacular homes and shorelines with a plenty of fall foliage. I could imagine how rich in natural beauty this area must have been back before the influx of millionaires and working stiffs. There are innumerable mansions and private preserves along these shores, all works of love by people who had the means to preserve the richness - Rockefellers, Roosevelts, Vanderbilts and even Ossie Osborne! There are quaint, sweet small homes that show the same reverence for nature and gardening. It all adds up to a rich and varied landscape that was a feast for the senses!

















Then in the midst of all of this beauty rear up the military reminders like Camp Smith Military Reserve, a prestigious boys’ school that was actually used as a girls’ school in the TV series “Facts of Life”. And, of course, the famous and iconic West Point. The granite architecture is perfect for underscoring the starkness and discipline of the place while adding its own kind of solid beauty to the shoreline.




The Hudson River remains one of the busiest waterways in the nation, affording us a parade of passing vessels from tugs and freighters, cruise liners and private yachts to grand sailing ships and rich kids playing boat tag.








A day or two later we were ready for the Big Apple and the Statue of Liberty. We departed from New Jersey’s Liberty State Park on the ferry out to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty National Monument along with a wondrous mixture of visitors.









Once we arrived on Liberty Island we spent hours and hours just walking, observing and feeling the wonder of this majestic symbol of our Nation. We all photographed her until we were weary and still she could illicit pure awe when you just stopped and looked up at her. She is fragile now and access is somewhat limited as they try to stabilize her infrastructure and slow down the corrosive effects of pollution and weather. Still, she is an experience that can move any one to tears of gratitude and reverence. Statue of Liberty



















Ellis Island has been a major undertaking of restoration and exhibition as it was empty and abandoned for decades. So many people felt that the story of our immigrant inheritance needed to be told and only Ellis Island could tell that story. Today more than one hundred million Americans can claim ancestors who came through Ellis Island. From 1892 to 1954 nearly 12 million immigrants were processed through the island. Truly, this is where the Old World met the New, time and time again.













Truth is we had not planned on driving through the Holland Tunnel or into New York City but through a series of almost comical miscommunications and misunderstandings, our fellow travelers, Lisa and Carol, got separated from Karen, Cokie and me, ending up across the water in Manhattan! Despite their being natives of the area and residents of nearby Stamford, Conn., it was decided they needed to be rescued. The courageous Karen, the knowledgeable GPS system and the calm Cokie got us to the edge of Little Italy in Manhattan after the sun went down and the NY nightlife was beginning. Of course, we simply had to stay for dinner. We sniffed around and decided on De Gennaro Ristorante on Mulberry Street. Lisa spoke fairly fluent Italian so we were able to order a wide selection of sharable entrees for a very fun and fabulous feast!



















It took a day or two to recoup from our adventure in NYC but we were soon more than ready to begin traveling east to Cap Cod. Our next journey will take you with us across Connecticut and Rhode Island to our first stop at Scusset Beach State Reservation campground near the Cape Cod Canal.