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.