Knocking Around at Shelburne, Vermont

Round barn exhibits the Denzel Carousel Horses

Looking for a museum that's into New England style Americana, art and history. Then, the Shelburne Museum is the place to go.
 We traveled here not knowing what to expect. Spending two days touring the grounds and had the feeling of being in an old New England village with all the different things you'd expect to see and more. 

Folkart Chest

Horse sleigh bells

Lilacs near a covered bridge

Apple blossoms being pollinated

There is a wonderful collection of American decorative, folk and fine art dispersed throughout in some seventeen historic buildings. But, what really makes the museum worth every cent are the knowledgeable and likable docents who were more than happy to enlighten visitors about the various buildings and displays.
 The grounds are superb with colorful gardens and landscaping.


There are exhibits which are rare and welcome to see: The three level round barn, the old Colchester Lighthouse,the covered bridge, the horseshoe barn with all sorts of wagons, snow sleighs, carriages,

the circus building with an operating carousel outside and a huge model of a circus parade and, of course, the steamship Ticonderoga ( the actual ship which plied the waters of Lake Champlain and after her retirement was eventually moved to the museum grounds).

Gotta Visit Sleepy Hollow, New York

During our journey to Upper New York State along the Hudson River Valley, we came across some surprises in the town of Sleepy Hollow. First, we made a visit to tour the Rockefeller estate. The hilltop paradise there known as Kykuit was home to four generations of the Rockefeller family, beginning with the philanthropist John D. Rockefeller, founder of Standard Oil. His business acumen made him, in his day, the richest man in America. Now a historic site of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, this extraordinary landmark has been continuously and meticulously maintained for almost 100 years. 

The 40-room house is six-stories, with a mansard roof, and has two basement floors, with many interconnecting underground passageways and service delivery tunnels.

The beaux arts gardens are terraced, with formal axes, and include a Morning Garden, Grand Staircase, Japanese Garden, an Italian Garden, a Japanese-style brook, a Japanese Tea-house, a huge Oceanus fountain, a Temple of Aphrodite, loggia and a semicircular rose garden.

The terraced gardens with views of the Tappan Zee and the Palisades, include fountains, ornamental structures, and a collection of contemporary sculptures.There is a contrast of Greek and Roman pieces along with Asians and modern art sculptures in the gardens.

Author Washington Irving graveist

Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, where Washington Irving the writer of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is buried along with Andrew Carnegie, Walter P. Chrysler, Brooke Astor, Elizabeth Arden, and many others, we went off tombstone hunting. Exploring through the old cemetery was rather cool in the fact that we found the actual bridge where Irving’s fictitious character Ichabod Crane saw the Headless Horseman come riding across.

Ever wonder which way the headless horseman rode?

Exploring Roosevelt History at Hyde Park

We’ve crossed the Poughkeepsie Bridge to Route 9W northward to Hyde Park in New York State. The weather was beautiful making for a perfect day to visit the FDR National Historic Site. The Presidential Library and Museum, Roosevelt Estate Home, and Top Cottage are fascinating places.The site contains Springwood known as the birthplace, residence, and “summer White House” of our 32nd president elected to four terms.

Roosevelt home place known as Springwood

Dogwood tree

The 300-acre estate owned and overlooked by his mother Sarah Delano Roosevelt includes the Rose Garden where the President and Eleanor and their beloved dog Fala are buried. Hyde Park along the Hudson River was the nucleus of FDR’s life and place of retreat when he wasn’t in New York or Campobello for the summers.

He had a life-long emotional connection to Hyde Park which provided him with a place for reflection, solitude, personal restoration, and ideas for world-changing decisions through the Great Depression and WWII. Touring the Roosevelt home place we’ve learned much about FDR’s public and private life.

FDR's den at Springwood

FDR and Eleanor's grave site at Springwood in Hyde Park

Springwood carriage house and barn

It has been great fun visiting all the Roosevelt home places. Both Springwood and FDR’s own personal private retreat at Top Cottage allowed us to better understand why FDR wrote, “All that is within me cries out to go back to my home on the Hudson River,” The grounds and estate of Springwood overlooking the Hudson River Valley are quite lovely.

FDR's private retreat called Top Cottage is isolated on the Springwood property

Roosevelt loved Top Cottage as his small private retreat. Here he used his wheelchair freely away from the public.

Top Cottage's back porch is delightful and peaceful to sit upon.

 Eleanor lived fulltime at her own little cottage of Val-Kill on the estate two miles to the east after FDR died. Here the First Lady had personal freedom to entertain world leaders informally, write a daily news column for years, draft many of her ideas on issues for humanitarian causes, and later further her efforts on civil rights and world peace with the United Nations.

Val-Kill was Eleanor's own sanctuary in Hyde Park

Churchill, Queen Elizabeth, Kruschev, Neru visited Val-Kill for picnics

Visiting The Great Estates along the Husdon River Valley in New York

Here perched upon the prettiest bluffs with tree-covered banks and majestic views of the Hudson River is some of America’s most astounding collection of great estates. Little did we know we'd stumble upon them. Many of these built in the 19th century by the rich and powerful were simply just high-status getaways. We could have easily spent three weeks here after touring seven of these historical mansions.

Vanderbilt Mansion in Hyde Park

Entrance to Vanderbilt's Italian Garden

Reflection pool

Among the area’s pleasure palaces, none was more showy than the beaux arts Vanderbilt Mansion in Hyde Park. Built in 1895 it was one of the Vanderbilts grand forty-four estates in the country, The families old world money came from their great shipping and railroad fortune.

Olana Estate

Olana is the enchanting Moorish fantasy palace where the famous artist Frederic Church made his home and took his inspiration for landscape paintings. The interior is like walking through a Persian bazzar with all its wares. All the inside windows, walls, ceilings have elaborate beautiful Moorish stenciled designs.

Bell Tower at Olana Mansion

Clermont Estate

A quintessential representation of old world money is the Livingston family. Seven generations, whose prominence began with free land grants to the first Lord Livingston from the King of England in the 18th century, later built over seventy great estate homes. Clermont (completely rebuilt after the British burned it to the ground in 1777) remains a glimpse into nearly three generations of wealth, impeccable taste, and political prominence.

Not far from Clermont, near Rhinebeck is Wilderstein where the drive takes us close to he Hudson River into a 40-acre Calvert Vaux designed landscape.
Strolling along a path through the damp mist toward the house, we cross the romantic grounds with red bud brushes in full bloom. Wedding guests were arriving onto the expansive porch.

We are able to tour inside Wilderstein. The recently painted reddish brown historic house with Tiffany windows and a dramatic five-story circular tower was home to three generations of Suckleys. Margaret Suckley known as “Daisy” was the sixth cousin removed from FDR whom he shared a close friendship and companionship. She was the last family member to live at Wilderstein. The house with its dark carved oak wood contains the original family personal effects and heirlooms, portraits of ancestors, photographs, books, china, and antique furnishings.

Bagpipes resound for the newlyweds at Wilderstein

Wilderstein Estate hosts a wedding during our visit

Red bud in bloom at Wilderstein

 A visit to Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie was the home of artist, educator, and telegraph inventor Samuel F.B. Morse from 1847-1872.The 150-acre historic site includes formal gardens and hiking trails, carriage and ice houses, and a picnic grove over looking the Hudson River. A former NY stage actress and playwright gave us a private and rather dramatic tour through the mansion.

Locust Grove has a great veranda wrap around porch and lovely gardens

More red bud flourishing

 Old and new money merge at Staatsburgh at a 23-room Greek Rivival house on 334 acres, inherited by Ruth Livingston Mills , who was married to investment capitalist Ogden Mills. They expanded it into a 65-room beaux arts extravaganza for entertaining guests in the fall. A private tour inside allows us to take photos without a flash for the first time of the interior’s imported 17th and 18th century imported furnishings, guilded ceilings, and Flemish tapestries.

A parlor room at the Livingston Staatsburgh Mansion

Fresco gilded ceiling and Flemish tapestry

Staatsburgh dining room looks out toward the Hudson River

Art deco and gilded ceilings at Staatsburgh

Ruth Livingston Mills bedroom...

While all the grandeur is fun to look at, its outside on the expansive grounds of these estates, viewing the scenic gardens, distant landscapes of the Hudson River, and strolling the hiking trails is where one finds solace and the true beauty often lies.

Catching  spectacular views of the Hudson River

You might spot a bumble bee on a flower

or perhaps just enjoy the sweet smell beneath a beautiful flowering dogwood tree