Hudson Valley

Practice camping ... definitely something one should do before heading out on a cross-country road trip. In the end, though, what we thought would just be a functional dry-run ended up being a magical weekend! More than anything else, it made us even more excited for our trip out west.

We left the city right after Tim got off work and headed over to Paramus, NJ to stop by Campmor and pick up a few supplies (ie: bed rolls, a ground cover, camping pillows, etc.) We were in a hurry because we wanted to get up to our campsite before dark, but I wish we could have spent an hour or so in there. It is a great spot, with amazingly knowledgeable workers, to pick up camping gear.

Friday Night
We made it to our campsite around 8:30/9:00. Setting up the tent was a breeze. Then we tried to put the rain fly on ... oh my! It started to drizzle, was getting very dark, and (most importantly) we hadn't eaten dinner yet! After several failed attempts we decided we just needed to eat and get to bed. So, we left the rain fly as we had it, got some pizza at a town nearby, and then went to bed. The next morning we had the rain fly on correctly in less than 5 minutes - apparently we just needed food and rest for our brains to think clearly.

Saturday
We woke up to the sound of birds, the weather was perfect, our neighbors offered us coffee, the
showers at the campsite were warm, and the diner where we had breakfast was a great find! From there, our day only kept getting better.

We drove to a local craft distillery - Tuthilltown Spirits. The location of the distillery is picturesque. There are two old buildings on the property used to be part of an old gristmill operation. One of the buildings is now a restaurant and the other is where they sell their liquor. (a new building has been added on the property for them to distill). We took a tour of the distillery; it was so neat to hear the process and know what they were talking about. The process before distillation is exactly the same as making beer. After the tour we had a tasting session. We weren't quite ready to leave, so we bought a bottle of hard cider, borrowed two glasses, sat on the porch swing, and enjoyed the weather and view.

Then we drove up to Poughkeepsie to walk across the Hudson River on a footbridge. The views from the bridge are phenomenal.

Next on our list to visit was Hyde Park, FDR's home. We took a guided tour of the house and then explored the Presidential Library. This was the first presidential library that either Tim or I had been in and it was fascinating. We weren't expecting it to be like a museum (we wonder if they are all like that). The whole museum was curated fabulously - we need to go back because we didn't have enough time to see it all before it closed for the day.

For dinner, Tim had found a craft brewery, Peekskill Brewery, that he wanted to check out, so we made our way down the Hudson to Peekskill. The city is right along the river and has a beautiful waterfront park. After eating and drinking we decided to spend some time in the park.



Sunday
Sunday morning was equally as gorgeous. After packing up the campsite, we made our way back down to Peekskill. We had breakfast outside at a quaint cafe right along the park. Then we spent some time exploring Peekskill. They have a fantastic used bookstore, Bruised Apple Books, where we spent a lot of time.



From Peekskill we started making our way back to NYC. Our last stop before heading home was Croton Point, the widest part of the Hudson River. Tim and I climbed down a mini-cliff to dip our toes in the Hudson River.