Dutchess County Tour

Although I did spend much time at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, my Dutchess County tour consisted of more. I took Metro North from Grand Central Station to Poughkeepsie. Nancy Lutz from Dutchess County tourism met up with me and we were off to lunch at a restaurant called Shadows on the Hudson. The restaurant looks over the Hudson River where you can see the bridge that goes from Poughkeepsie to whatever is on the other side of the Hudson. In fact they recently built a walkway for the same. It was too farkin' cold to do the walking and so I'll wait until the late spring to do that. I had a Cobb Salad and Sweet Potato Fries that were covered in cinnamon and sugar. Didn't need dessert. Of course, Esther came along and was quite thirsty from the 2 hour ride plus the hour or so for me to get to GCS.

After lunch I was able to check into the Grand Hotel. Actually, the Grand Hotel and Shadows on the Hudson are owned by the same company. Hotel room was large and had a refrigerator and microwave, but only needed the refrigerator to house the desserts that I had gotten from the CIA.

From there we went to the FDR Library as FDR's Home was closed due to some filming. Esther enjoyed many of the exhibits. After that we went to the Vanderbilt home to remind me of how much money I don't have.

The day after the boot camp, we went to Vassar College to tour their art museum and talk with someone about their theatre. I will visit the theatre during the summer. Esther almost lost her balance and would have fallen onto the Picasso painting.

We had lunch at a nearby place called Babycakes Cafe. Had desserts to go. Best was a carrot cake cookie with the cream cheese frosting in the middle.