Hey yall! Here we are with another trip’s travel journal and I’ve debated on what to title these since it’s a series. I just take too many pics I want to share and have too many details. Anyway, this trip is a New York/New Jersey trip with a cruise from Manhattan thrown in there. It was a 12 day trip in total. Let’s go ahead and jump in!
Day 0 is our travel day. We worked on Friday and headed to the Atlanta airport right after work.
Our normal routine when we fly is stop at PF Chang’s for a meal before getting on our flight. We did that and sat in a pretty warm restaurant. Apparently the entire airport AC was having issues.
With all the delays that have been talked about all summer, I was quite nervous that we had the last flight of the day to Newark, NJ, which was to land after midnight. Thank goodness our flight had no issues and we took off just a few minutes late.
As we got close to landing, I started looking out the window. I spotted the Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, and one other that I can’t identify.
We arrived at Newark and as we made our way to baggage claim, we couldn’t help but noticed people exhaustedly draped over every piece of furniture as well as lining the walls on the floor. Rob and I commented that we prayed that wouldn’t be us trying to get home at the end of the trip. It was just like what we had been seeing on the news about canceled and delayed flights effecting much of the country.
That night we got to our hotel in East Rutherford, NJ Meadowlands by 1am.
Day 1 was a super full day to explore. We got up early, ate breakfast at the hotel, and drove over to the Meadowlands Sports Complex. This area is home to Metlife Stadium where both New York NFL teams (Giants & Jets) play as well as the Meadowlands Racetrack; a horse racing track that hosts thoroughbred racing. We just did a quick drive by for a few pictures.
From there we drove towards West Point using the Palisades Scenic Parkway.
We got to West Point a little early, parked, and walked down the street to explore a bit.
It was recommended that we do one of the West Point tours. We ended up doing the History and Tradition Cemetery Tour,which is a 2 hour bus tour that includes everything that the 1 and half hour West Point Story tour does (Trophy Point, Battle Monument, the Plain and the Cadet Chapel) plus the West Point Cemetery and Old Cadet Chapel.
Cadet Chapel
Trophy Point
Old Cadet Chapel
West Point Cemetery
We really enjoyed the tour. You do get to hop off the bus several times and get out and hear more about different areas of yard (campus).
When the tour was over, we walked down Main Street and ended up eating at Schade’s for lunch. It was all nice and dandy until they told us their internet was down so we couldn’t pay with credit card. Sadly that wiped out our cash for the trip on Day 1. We just don’t like to carry cash.
After leaving there we continued our roadtrip.
We wanted to check out Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site. We didn’t want to stay long, so we didn’t go inside of the Library or anything. We walked over to FDR’s house, which they call the Springwood Estate. On the short walk over from the parking lot, you walk through the gardens and the burial site of both FDR and his wife.
From there as we were driving to a Cidery, we knew that Rhinebeck is known for their airshows, but we had looked and noticed we had missed the airshow for that day. Or so we thought. As we drove, we saw an old airplane fly above us and were like, “Wait! What?!?!” We quickly punched in the address for the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome. We parked and jogged over to the field where they were doing a Dare Devil Air Show. They did several different tricks, like one plane dropped yellow balloons and the pilots tried to hit the balloons with their planes and at the end a plane did dive bombing with the smoke on. Really cool! Glad we happened up on this.
One of the things on my must do list while in this area was to do to a Cidery. Ever heard of it? I was like Rob loves cider! This will be cool. I looked for one that was on the way to where we were headed. I found Rose Hill Farm.
We stopped there and while I was a bit disappointed that they didn’t do Cidery flights (where you get to try several at one time), they did allow us to try a few before purchasing a glass. We learned that these Ciders are alcoholic. Ok!
Next stop was Kingston, NY, where we walked around and found dinner.
We ended up eating at Savona’s Trattoria & Bar – Kingston. We got lucky that there we 2 seats at the bar because they were booked up with reservations. The bartender was our waitress. She was really friendly and talked with us a good bit before our food got there.
Walkway over the Hudson was top on my list of things to do. Built as a railroad bridge in the late 1800’s that ran from Poughkeepsie, NY to Highland, NY on the west bank. It was taken out of service in 1974 after it was damaged by fire. It reopened as a pedestrian only bridge in 2009 as part of the new Walkway Over the Hudson State Historic Park. The park connects the Hudson Valley Rail Trail in Highland to the Dutchess Rail Trail, and forms part of the Empire State Trail. It’s currently the the world’s 2nd longest pedestrian footbridge at 6,768 feet (2,063 m).
We parked on the Highland side and walked about half way across.
After that we just made our way to our hotel, which was the Poughkeepsie-Courtyard by Marriot.
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My gosh that Italian food looks divine. I am hungry!! Need to fix lunch before I take a bite out of my laptop monitor trying to sample your plate.
We have folks draped all over our airport but they are immigrants. It is frustrating because there is very little available seating. And the bathrooms are being used more like washrooms.
What a full day you enjoyed. West Point looks very pretty. That chapel!! And a cidery visit would be great fun.
That sounds like such a wonderful start to your trip. I’m surprised the restaurant wouldn’t warn you about their internet being down BEFORE you ordered– what would they have done if you didn’t have any cash on you at all?
Oh, I don’t know that I’ve ever flown into New York (except maybe on our honeymoon — I don’t remember!). And I LOVED doing Walkway Over the Hudson. We pass it all the time on our drives there and one time I said, “We HAVE to do this” and it was so good!