splendid isolation: Quick Trip to Upstate New York

Nov 13-17

Michael here, our last day of work at Roadside was Nov. 11th. My Father takes a quick trip up to New York at least a few times a year to see family and friends. He invited us to hop in his car since we had just finished work. We thought it'd be a nice change of scenery for a couple of days. I was born in Poughkeepsie, New York and also attended college at The Culinary Institute of America which is right up the road in Hyde Park. A lot of our family and friends still live along the Hudson River in Newburgh. We also took Claire to the CIA for a tour of my campus. that post will be coming up next.

Newburgh is very historical and loaded with Victorian houses and old factories. It prospered when my father was growing up in this area. About an hour's train ride north of The City, a lot of big money used to go into the area.

This is the house on grand street that i lived in when i was an infant. my parents bought this victorian house when they were newly weds in the early 80's. we moved to kitty hawk, north carolina in 1990 when i was about 18 months old. Sadly, downtown Newburgh has fallen to quite a dangerous, drug, violent, dirty area. Which is why they chose to move south to NC. There are still some upscale areas in town, and the Victorian houses are also slowly starting to be bought up and restored again.

My dad's childhood friend Shawn "mugsy" has worked at West Point pretty much all his life. We spent a morning touring the grounds of this beautiful fortress turned campus.

click here for some brief history on West Point

looking up the Hudson river where Washington ran the river chain. click to read more.

This area of the state is loaded with history.

we've watched concerts in this park.

training courses through out the campus

they run up these stairs every morning

the tracks we just rode on to the city and where this just happened 2 weeks later!

dining hall. they cram in, seat, feed, and remove 4,000 cadets in 25 minutes!

looking down on west point

crossing the chesapeake bay bridge early morning light

headed to sea

sorry the pictures are out of order

coming into new jersey you can see the city! the new tower!

the princess

you've never had sicilian like this

my dad's old time friend jacquie sculley owns/runs this joint

historic waterfront of newburgh on the hudson

cobblestone streets

the house across the street from my parents old house on grand street

more training at west point

this room was crazy. couldn't get a picture. it was a dark room with a big wave pool that was turned up to extremely choppy conditions, fog machines, flashing lights, cadets were in their full gear with weapons practicing training exercises in harsh conditions, pretty cool.

where washington ran his chain across the river to stop the british. info link is above at other photo.

claire modeling her new pants

West Point is stunning

My father's younger brother Joey is a private contractor/handy-man for a wealthy couple in the area. he has been meticulously restoring their victorian mansion looking over the hudson river for many years! these photos do no justice to the amount of detail and work my uncle has put into their restoration.

view from their back patio. luckily they were out of town... at one of their other homes in london, northern california, or nyc penthouse. i only snapped a few photos of their massive home, not wanting to intrude their privacy too much.

front parlor

front library

library

dining room

kitchen

front stairwell

hard roll with home made sausage!

i think this is the house my father was born in.

him and shawn drove us all over reminiscing of their child hood days growing up together in the kenny apartments (aka the government funded homes, aka the projects)