Tuesday, June 25, 2019

Adventures in Local History


Last week, T and I took some time for some regional historical site adventures.  We travelled to Oyster Bay, New York, to check out Teddy Roosevelt’s Sagamore Hill home.  Though the traffic in and out of Long Island was maddening, the visit was lovely.  The landscape of the estate was green and quiet; it was hard to believe we were less than 15 miles from NYC.




On Friday, we went to one of our favorite places, Jockey Hollow.  It’s the site where George Washington and his troops wintered over in 1778-1779 and it’s now a national park.  It’s beautiful all the time, but especially in June when the trees are leaved and the expanse of the fields can be admired.  It’s also the place where T and I had our first date so we always enjoy a visit to the familiar woods.


On Saturday, we continued the Washington theme and headed west to the Delaware River, where Washington made his famous crossing in December 1776.  On the New Jersey side of the review, the home of the ferry operator still stands.  We stepped inside the cool interior and thought of the conversations and decisions made on that fateful evening.  


We took a walk in the steps of the Patriot soldiers and wondered what they were thinking on that cold night.


We crossed over the river to the Pennsylvania side to admire their monument and while we were there spied a pretty medicinal herb garden planted by the historical buildings on the western bank of the Delaware River.



We had beautiful weather on Friday and Saturday.  The much-needed time off was a happy break in our scheduled life.  Adventures of this sort are just our cup of tea.  That’s happy!



No comments: