It was cool this morning – so cool that the Hudson was steaming.

There was a group of rowboats tied up near the ship, and liked the way they looked in the early morning light.

There was only one excursion planned for this morning, a tour of the Home of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. It was sold out weeks ago, but Hannah, our cruise director, suggested that we go out to the bus in case anyone didn’t show up. Six of us were out there, and there was space for all of us. Forty-five minutes later, we were outside FDR’s house, Springwood.

We had a guided tour of the mansion; the room which impressed me the most was FDR’s library. I wish we had the space for a library like it!

After the tour, we had a little under an hour to explore the rest of the park, including the gravesite and the Presidential Library and Museum.

There was far too much to see in the Museum in the time we had available – we got as far as the end of FDR’s second term before we had to go back to the bus. There was just enough time to look at the foliage.

We returned to the ship and had a quick lunch, then got back on the bus to go to the Vanderbilt Mansion. Again, there were a lot of wonderful trees to enjoy.

The mansion had a wonderful view of the Hudson.

The mansion has 80 rooms – but most of the time, the only inhabitants were the owners (Frederick and Louise Vanderbilt; he was the grandson of Commodore Vanderbilt, the founder of the New York Central Railroad) and their servants.

Vanderbilt ran the estate and the farm from his office/den. He had a “real” office at Grand Central where he took care of business; he was a director of twenty-two railroads when he died (can you say conflict of interest?). Unlike most of the rest of his generation, he actually increased his fortune instead of spending it.

He and Louise were childless; he left the bulk of his estate, including the mansion, to a favorite niece. She didn’t want the mansion and sold it to the US for one dollar so it could become a park, complete with many nice trees.

The drive back to the ship took us past some interesting geology.

We returned to the ship and I took a few final photos before we sailed away into the evening.

We left Troy bright and early (well, early) at 6:30am. It was easy to tell, because the American Star‘s side thrusters make themselves known very effectively throughout the ship.

Our guest lecturer, Mike Link, spoke about John Burroughs, an American naturalist who traveled with notables like Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and Harvey Firestone. He was a prolific writer who has almost vanished from the public eye, though quotes like “the smallest deed is better than the greatest intention” are still current.

The trees were putting on their usual October show along the riverbank, but there were a couple of human-made objects that caught my eye, like the Hudson-Athens Lighthouse, which would have been a very interesting place to live!

A drone from the cruise line accompanied us to get footage for their commercials.

Just before we reached Kingston, we passed the Sojourner Truth/Ulster Landing Park.

The Rondout Lighthouse, which is part of the Hudson River Maritime Museum, guards the entrance to Rondout Creek; the museum is located on the creek, and we’re moored there.

After lunch, we traveled to the Mills Mansion (Staatsburgh), on the other side of the river. It was one of five homes owned by the Mills family; the others were in New York City, Paris, Newport, and San Francisco. The San Francisco mansion was known as “Millbrae” and is now the site of San Francisco International Airport!

Mrs. Livingston Mills had inherited the house from her father; it was a nice, cosy 25-room mansion, but she wanted something larger so she could entertain in proper style. She hired Stanford White to remodel and wound up with 80 rooms and 15 bathrooms!

The dining room was quite impressive; our guide called it a “house-sized room” (about 1800 square feet). It has a great view of the Hudson.

There’s only one public restroom in the mansion – but it’s impressive!

The back yard has a beautiful view down to the river.

The front of the mansion isn’t as impressive as the inside, but it’s not bad.

And then we drove back to the ship for dinner and evening entertainment. We’ll be docked here until tomorrow afternoon.

We started today with a trip to a part of the Capital District I’d never visited – Altamont. Our destination was mildly historical, but mostly agricultural: Indian Ladder Farms, a pick-your-own farm founded in 1916 (they also have a cidery, a brewery, and a farm store with apples they’ve picked).

We started our time there with a walk on their nature trail. We had a great view of the fall color on the Helderberg Escarpment.

The nature trail took us by some apple trees which are yet to be picked.

We enjoyed apple cider doughnuts and hot apple cider at the store, then we picked some apples to bring back to the ship. There were three varieties available: Jonagold, Mutsu, and Empire, and we picked some of each – so many, we gave most of them to the ship’s hospitality manager to distribute.

This afternoon, we took the Troy Lock and Dam cruise, which, of course, started with a bus ride to Albany to board the Dutch Apple II for a narrated cruise back to Troy.

The dock is next to the Albany U-Haul location, which has found an interesting use for a spare truck.

Our guide, Peter, told us about the sights we passed, like the one-fifth scale model of Henry Hudson’s Half Moon atop the old Delaware and Hudson building (now the SUNY Administration Building).

There were a few birds flying near the ship, including this Blue Heron.

After sailing through downtown Troy, we reached the Troy Federal Lock, which marks the northern end of the Hudson River estuary.

We sailed through the lock and could see the very beginning of the Erie Canal to our left – but we turned around and retraced our course.

We had to wait for an Amtrak train to clear the Livingston Avenue Bridge before we could return to the dock.

Then it was back on the bus to Troy and the American Star.

This evening, we were entertained by the gypsy jazz of the Hot Club of Saratoga; it was a very enjoyable evening.

We leave Troy early tomorrow morning without having set foot on the RPI campus, but Reunion is only three years away.

We started our day with the “Catskill Active” excursion, which began with a bus ride to Kaaterskill Falls. Our guide, Matt, was a “retired comedian” (his description, not mine); he kept us entertained and informed on the drive through the beautiful fall colors.

The road took us by Kaaterskill Creek and lower Kaaterskill Falls; the bus wasn’t allowed to stop for photos, but the driver drove very slowly.

We “hiked” the Kaaterskill Falls trail for half-a-mile (out and back).

The Kaaterskill Falls Viewing Platform was the highlight of this part of the excursion; Kaaterskill Falls is higher than Niagara Falls, but has a lot less water.

On the way back to the bus, our ship entertainer, Mike, pointed out some interesting things, including this Witches’ Butter fungus.

The more “active” part of the excursion took us to the Rip Van Winkle Bridge, where we walked across the Hudson River Skyway (well, only partway due to time) and enjoyed the views of the river and yet more fall color.

Two of the leaders of the Hudson River School, Thomas Cole and Frederic Church had built houses on either side of the river. The ship offered excursions to each of them, but they were at the same time as this trip, but we did get to see Church’s house, Olana, from the bridge.

Of course, our ship wasn’t the only ship we saw from the bridge; there was a good bit of commercial and recreational traffic, too.

We returned to the ship for lunch and a lecture during our short cruise upstream to Troy.

We crossed under I-90 and I saw a familiar road sign pointing the way to Troy.

The Troy-Menands Bridge looked very different from the river than it did when driving on it.

There were some interesting buildings along the river, like the Hudson River Terminal Warehouse.

As we approached Troy, I was hoping to see RPI, and I wasn’t disappointed.

We went to an old favorite for dinner, the Red Front, about half a mile from the Troy Downtown Marina where the ship had docked.

The Red Front hadn’t changed much since the last time we visited (probably 7 years ago) and the pizza was still very good. We got back to the ship just in time to see the last little bit of sunset from the sun deck.

The only excursion available today was the “West Point Experience”, a guided tour of West Point. We chose the early departure, so we were on the bus at 8am and were at West Point just before 9am, where our guide, Bill, met us.

Our first stop was the Cadet Chapel, which is the largest of the nine chapels on post. It dates from 1911 and is built, like most of the other buildings on post, in the “Military Gothic” style.

When we entered the building, the first thing that struck me was the meticulous arrangement of the prayer books in the pews.

One pew was roped off and marked with a candle. It is in honor of missing POW/MIA service members.

The chapel has the largest church organ in the world, with 23,511 pipes. The control panel is intimidating.

We didn’t visit any of the other chapels on post, even the Orthodox Chapel of Saint Martin, which is in the basement of the Cadet Chapel. I would have liked to have seen the Jewish Chapel, of course.

We got back on our bus and were dropped at the parking lot near The Plain, where I saw a most unusual sign. I wonder how they enforce it?

We crossed the road to get a better understanding of why West Point was so important during the Revolution. The view from Sherburne’s Redoubt tells the story – West Point is in a commanding position to control the Hudson River. The view wasn’t bad, either!

The Americans were worried that the British might come up the Hudson and cut off the New England colonies, so they built the “Great Chain” to prevent British ships from doing so – it was made of 100-pound links of iron, connected by pieces of wood, so that no ship could get through. And the British never tried.

The area we were exploring is also called “Trophy Point” and is decorated by cannons captured by the Army over the years.

Trees were turning bright colors, making for a nice view, even on a rainy day.

We didn’t get to see Bannerman’s Castle when we sailed past it last night, but it was clearly visible from West Point.

We walked back to The Plain (the main parade ground), which is in front of the barracks and the Washington Mess. Washington, of course, has a monument in front of the Mess.

The trees around The Plain were turning beautiful colors.

The Superintendent of the Academy lives in the oldest building on the Post, Superindentent’s Quarters.

The two barracks are named after Douglas MacArthur and Dwight Eisenhower.

George Patton took five years to graduate from West Point – he claimed it was because he couldn’t find the library. His statue is in front of the library, but with his back turned on the building.

We had a few minutes at the Visitor Center, and then it was back on the bus for the drive back to the ship. I set my camera to 1/3200 of a second and tried to get some interesting photos.

The road took us above West Point.

We returned to the ship just in time to see food for the next day or two being delivered. Like the army, a cruise ship travels on its stomach!

We had to cross busy railroad tracks to get back to the ship, but we were there between trains. There are no gates on the crossing, which surprised me.

After lunch, Diane and I took a walk up to the town of Milton.

There was a pond (Marlboro Water) on the way with an interesting pattern of algae on it.

Milton itself is rather small, but there were a few nice trees to enjoy (and Diane found flowers to post).

The streets leading to the town didn’t have sidewalks or much in the way of shoulders, so I was happy to find a real pedestrian path to take us down the last block or two. I didn’t expect to find a waterfall, but there it was!

We got back to the ship just before the rain really started, in plenty of time for cocktail hour and dinner, followed by a magic show – you never know what to expect in the way of entertainment on a cruise!