Day Trip - Mohawk Meets Hudson

We did these on different days, but together they'd make a perfect daytrip. To get a lay of the land, this aerial view on the Tug 44 site is worth a look.

The new Falls View Park at Cohoes Falls is fantastic [N. Mohawk St, Cohoes]. (Check the Cohoes Falls Webcam to see if there's water - the image is only updated three times a day - can't imagine why.)


The Waterford Locks are very interesting [park near Broad St. and 5th]. Their Tugboat Roundup is coming up on Sept. 11-13, 2009. I like the views in these old postcards: Images of the Erie Canal in Cohoes - especially this Birdseye View of Cohoes in 1859.

















We walked over the bridge from Waterford to Peebles Island State Park [Peebles Island Drive] and did a hike around the island (saw dragonflies, deer, chipmunks, and fish). New York State's Historic Preservation & Conservation Headquarters is on Peebles Island, and they're having an Open House on Sept. 12.

Any suggestions for a good, casual lunch place in Waterford (or Cohoes) would be appreciated - we're tired of the pizza place.

Kent's Sugar House

It's maple syrup season, and I highly recommend a drive out to Kent's Sugar House [2529 Plank Rd., Berlin, NY] to taste the local product.

Kent's is Rensselaer County's lone participant in the New York State Maple Producers Association "Maple Weekend" festivities, which are happening this weekend and next (Mar. 21-22, Mar. 28-29, 2009).

(The folks at Kent's say if you drive by during the week and see by the clouds of steam that they're boiling syrup, you can always stop in anyway.)


Most of Kent's trees are far from the road, but the sugar house is easily accessible. They tapped a nearby tree to show the sap, which comes out in a fast drip and looks like water (tastes like water too - barely sweet at all).

Trees are at least 30 years old before they can be tapped. The dark scars on the face of this maple tree cross-section are old tap marks from many decades. (Click images to zoom in.)

It takes about 45 gallons of sap to make a gallon of maple syrup. The wood-fired evaporator senses when the syrup is ready, and automatically fills buckets full of steaming syrup. The sugar house smells amazing.

The hot, fresh syrup was the best I'd ever tasted. We bought lots of Dark Amber syrup, and wish we'd bought more.

You can try these Maple Recipes, or learn about Replacing Table Sugar with Maple Sugar.

I plan to make lots of real Buttermilk Pancakes and Waffles- from scratch - it doesn't seem right to pour something this amazing on box-mix pancakes or frozen grocery waffles!

Take a Daytrip: Historic Huguenot Street

The QuadUpdates Blog ["Insightful and interesting news about the Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial"] alerted me to an interesting lecture in New Paltz this coming Sunday.

"Once Adorned With Quaint Dutch Tiles", a discussion of Delft Tiles found in the Hudson Valley, Sunday, February 22nd, 1 to 3pm, Historic Huguenot Street, 18 Broadhead Avenue, New Paltz, NY.

Delft Tiles are the iconic Dutch ceramic tiles known to many... They were an important decorative item not only in the Netherlands, but also in colonial New Netherlands and New York as well.
...
Walter R. Wheeler, the Senior Architectural Historian at Hartgen Archeological Associates, is the featured speaker. Hartgen Archeological Associates is a cultural resource management firm headquartered in Rensselaer, New York, and with offices in Albany and Putney, Vermont.

Historic Hugenot Street is a National Historic Landmark District featuring seven unique stone houses dating to the early 1700s, a burial ground and a reconstructed 1717 stone church, all in their original setting on six landscaped acres surrounded by a nature preserve, yet just steps from the shopping and dining of downtown New Paltz.

Take a Daytrip: Salisbury Ski Jumps

If you're looking for a cool daytrip, next weekend (Feb. 7th & 8th) is 83rd Annual Salisbury Invitational Ski Jumps - "Jump Fest 2009". Salisbury, CT is about an hour and a half away, just over the border into Connecticut. Cost is $10 for adults, 12 and under are free.

I went to this event last year, and its great. You get to see the Eastern National ski jump competition up-close and personal (they come soaring right down toward the crowd). I was amazed at how large their skis are - you can't tell that on the television. And these folks walk up a very, very tall stairway to the top of the jump, carrying their own skis - wow!

Bring a cowbell, a lawn chair, and wear layers and good boots (you'll have to walk a few minutes from the parking area to the ski jump). They do have warming barrels burning at the jump site.

Later you can hop the horse-drawn wagon for a free ride to the town green to see the ice sculptures and warm up at the White Hart Inn. Be aware that the horses go home soon after the skiing ends. Last year they ended competition early because of snow conditions and we had to walk several blocks back to the parking lot (like I said - wear good boots).

Drive a little further south to Lakeville, CT for a good selection of restaurants. The Boathouse was very nice last year (scan the prices before you go - it is the Berk$hire$...)

Daytrip: The Hyde Collection

The Hyde Collection [161 Warren St., Glens Falls, NY] is currently running a beautiful art exhibit with enough warm, sunny landscapes to help you forget the snow, ice, and cold (for a little while...)

California Impressionism: Paintings from The Irvine Museum will include nearly sixty stunning paintings of California Impressionist art. Impressionism found fertile ground in California in the early twentieth century. Known as the "The Land of Sunshine" with its temperate climate and remarkable landscape, California was a popular locale for painters who worked en plein air, or out of doors, seeking to infuse their work with intense light and color.
...
“Rarely are paintings of early twentieth-century California scenery exhibited at museums in the Northeast. This exhibition is an unparalleled opportunity for our region to view a selection of the finest examples of California Impressionist art from the largest collection of these works in the world,” said Erin B. Coe, chief curator at The Hyde.

There are fields of wildflowers, scenes of trees, gardens and mission yards, vivid ocean views. We arrived so snow-dazzled that we couldn't appreciate the colors, and had to wander around the historic house museum until our eyes adjusted.

This exhibit is well worth the one-hour drive. It's running through January 18th.

While you're in Glens Falls, I highly recommend Davidson Brothers Brewpub [184 Glen St.]. But be aware that they'll be closed from Jan. 4-11.

Daytrip to Olana

It was a beautiful weekend for a fall daytrip. Just an hour south of our frost-bitten gardens, Olana State Historic Site still had a flower garden in full bloom, even as the trees were starting to turn.

Olana was built by Hudson River School painter Frederic Church, and was inspired by his travels in the Middle East.

The house tour guide never explained what "Olana" meant, but Wikipedia's Olana entry explains that it means "our church on high" in Arabic.