Kingston, NY

We spent the morning of Friday, June 15 visiting West Point.  Thank goodness for Uber which is so convenient to use everywhere these days. Just three short years ago when we did our Down East cruise, Uber wasn’t an option.  This time Uber got us there in no time.  Driving through the little town of Highland Falls, we arrived at our destination in time for the first tour of the day. 

The United States Military Academy, also known as West Point is an impressive place to visit.  The beautiful campus is strategically located on the banks of the Hudson which has been so instrumental in our country’s history and especially its military victories (and defeats). This is the view of the Hudson from the Visitors Center.

The campus of West Point is beautiful with its Gothic architecture and grey granite buildings.  A consistent architectural theme is reflected throughout the campus with even the newer buildings complementing the historic ones. The campus also had many fine sports facilities.

We learned a lot about the school, its history and famous alumni.  Lynn was particularly impressed by its leadership philosophy which emphasizes that graduates should “live honorably, treat people with dignity and respect, and demonstrate the character, competence, and commitment that builds trust.”  It’s too bad that our current leadership in Washington is not living out this philosophy.

We got back to Zendo by noon and resumed our voyage up the Hudson passing the Culinary Institute of America, Hyde Park, and a Vanderbilt Mansion. We are spending less time visiting sites this time because we want to get up to Canada to spend more time there during its short summer.

The day was supposed to be quite warm but in fact it was so chilly that we closed all the stratoglass for the bulk of the day which we never do unless it’s raining.  But Georgio managed to make himself quite comfortable. 

Overall, we had a comfortable cruise with little boat traffic and beautiful scenery.  We’ve been enjoying our anchorages and decided to choose one near Kingston at Port Ewan rather than staying in a marina in Kingston which we did last time. On our way there we passed the Port Ewan Lighthouse.

We arrived at 6 pm and settled in for the evening at a beautiful calm anchorage next to the stately Rondout Lighthouse in Kingston. 

There we had leftover Chinese food from our last night in NYC. We ate on the aft deck with a gorgeous sunset as our back drop.