Any New Yorker who can afford it, leaves NYC for as long as they can during the summer. NYC in July and August is hot and steamy. Since New Yorkers walk, walk, walk everywhere in the city the hot summer and the concrete heat sink makes living here miserable. Last year we took a family vacation to Long Island. We were pleasantly surprised when Sarah negotiated another house in the middle of the Hudson Valley for ten days in July. It was a big sprawling place with bedrooms for all of us. Drake and I scored a full floor suite with a bathroom, sitting area, fridge and microwave.
Who was so amazing was Fiona Lynn. She was six weeks old, and she went everywhere. Strapped on the front of either Jay or Sarah, she went berry picking, hiking, shopping, and train riding. I think she just loved being constantly held. Surrounded by three grandparents, two parents, and a three year old brother who pronounces her 'my baby' and stops playing to circle around to pet her, let's just say it's a good thing she is baby number two, so nobody came to blows about who got to hold her 'next'. She just got passed around.
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| Fiona Lynn and Sarah Lynn on a hike |
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| Cedric & Fiona |
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| Matthew Vassar, Founder of Vassar College |
When we weren't with the family, Drake and I did some trips on our own. First, we sent to see Vassar College. I absolutely had to see this place. In 1968 I was a senior in high school and I wanted to go to Vassar. Looking back, I now realize how truly ridiculous that pipe dream must have seemed to my blue collar parents. I didn't even know WHERE Vassar was located. I just knew about it. It just seemed to me to be the place where everybody liked books, art, theater and ballet rather than baseball, football and church. Sigh..... You can see why I had to see this place.
Vassar was actually founded by Matthew Vassar, a very successful brewer right. Vassar was the second college to admit women. (Elmira was first.) It was founded in 1861. The first building built on the campus was designed so it could be converted into a brewery if the college went bust. Well, it didn't go bust. Women were starved for education at the college level. And the coincidence of the Civil War and resulting high numbers of Union casualties meant there were unattached women of college age.
One of Matthew Vassar's innovations was he donated his entire art collection and created an art museum. This was the first college in the USA to have an art museum attached to the campus. Vassar hired Dutch landscape painter Henry Van Ingen as the first professor of art and the curator of the Vassar Museum. He was a reasonably well known painter of his day.
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| Henry Van Ingen |
Vassar was lovely. It was built around a courtyard as were so many early American colleges. Their pictures were nice - lots of Hudson Valley pictures, of course. However, they had a really exciting Tibetan art exhibition. You can check out the pictures if you're interested by clicking on the link below.
In New Palz, New York, across the Hudson River from Poughkeepsie, and the location of this year's house, there's a recently built college, SUNY, which is still doing the same thing Matthew Vassar was doing in the 1860's. An interesting man called Samuel Dorsey, who made his money in Garment District in Manhattan, funded a museum for the college. It's a lovely museum which introduced me to a new artist: Mary Frank. She was the leading exhibition in the museum. The other pictures and sculptures which are part of the permanent collection were quite good. Here's my favorite Mary Frank piece. The medium is clay. This place is definitely worth a visit.
Reclining Woman
I guess the two pieces from the permanent collection that resonated with me were these two:
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"Still Happy Together"
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| "Wildness of Blackbird" |
There were two family hikes in the Minnewaska State Park. I was very pleased I could keep up with the three year old and the 36 year olds carrying the 10 lb. baby. I'm pretty sure the other two grandparents felt pretty much the same. One of the hikes was in the fog, which made it coolish. Cedric, however, was very uncertain about this weather phenomena. I tried to explain fog was just a cloud on the ground, but there was something about 'vanishing' which unsettled him. The second hike was to a waterfall and had playing in the creek. I pride myself on always being prepared, but for some reason I didn't realize there would be hiking. Duh! It's the biggest thing to do in the Catskills. I was handicapped by not having my hiking boots and two sticks.
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| On the bridge in the fog |
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| The water fall |
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Cedric and Sarah finding the right stones
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We all agreed we just didn't have enough time in this area of the Hudson Valley. We barely scratched the surface of things to do. Cedric was so enchanted with the gigantic back yard surrounded by trees we had trouble prying him away for outings. He could run and run and run, and he had access to a hose, a slide, and mud.
Initially, we were all a bit hesitant about how Fiona was going to react to the pick up and go lifestyle we evolved into. However, as we tried to venture out more and more including eating out, Fiona was quickly awarded the "Family Trooper" medal. She never cried. She just ate and slept and pooped as she was carried around in her basket carrier or in the body carrier. Some days were a bit sweatier than others, but she never complained.
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Drake on the Deck at the house - his turn to hold Fiona
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We all agreed our time in the Mid Hudson Valley went by too fast. When we got back to town, Drake and I revisited the NYC Transit Museum with Cedric. Riding subways, and changing trains is one of his faves. This way he got to see how the tunnels were dug, and he ran from car to car sitting in subway cars from the early 20th century forward. It's really interesting to see how the cars/turnstiles/payment methods have changed in over 100 years of operation of the subway system.
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| New York City just prior to the subway system |
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| Early Brooklyn subway lines |
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| Cedric sitting on rattan seats in an early subway car |
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| Jan, being silly in front of a graphics corner |
We decided to end our time in Brooklyn by re-visiting the Brooklyn Museum. The very first time we saw this museum, we were so surprised at the quality of the museum. We thoroughly enjoyed the visit. If you want to see more pictures, well, we all know I take too many, but I have such fun doing it. Here's a list. Just click on the link.
I have very mixed feelings about leaving Brooklyn. The pandemic screwed up 1/3rd of our time up here, but because of it, we got to spend real time with Sarah, Jay and Cedric. Drake has struggled with being up here. He doesn't like the noise, the density, and the dirt (mostly dog dirt, to be frank). I've been struggling more and more to be able to do the walking necessary to live here. Plus, even if Drake wanted to stay up here, there's the financial angle, as well as my health issues. It's taken me a year to agree, but we need to be retired again. I'm looking forward to sleepy Sun City. I'm thrilled with the idea of being able to pop in and out of Brooklyn to take advantage of the NYC cultural events and be the fun grandparents. We already have tickets for the NY Ballet Nutcracker. It will be Cedric's first ballet. Finally, aren't we all ready for the Jan and Drake Vagabond Show again? That will be our summer enjoyment as we escape the 110+ temps in Arizona. Stay tuned. More fun to come.
J
