Hyde Park on the Hudson

This past Sunday, I took a trip with my aunt and grandmother up to Hyde Park, NY. Located on the Hudson River, the town is the home of Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt as well as one of the many Vanderbilt mansions.

I love checking out presidential sites, so we went directly to FDR's home.

He was born in this very bed. (Hopefully with different sheets).

This was his bedroom. That handset wired into the wall was his special Commander-in-Chief direct line to Washington, which was especially important during the war.

He is also buried at Hyde Park, with his wife and two of his dogs, including the famous Fala.

The grounds also include a beautiful rose garden...

 

and a gorgeous, tree-lined drive (which I totally want one day, when I become the super-rich leader of the free world).

The presidential library & museum were closed for renovations, which was disappointing but also a great excuse to go back. They do have a sculpture outside that is made from a chunk of the Berlin wall and has the famous "four freedoms" at its base. It was done by Churchill's granddaughter.

By that point in the day, it was humid & looked ready to rain, so we headed home. But Hyde Park has a surprising number of interesting things going on; in addition to the FDR site, there's Eleanor's cottage ValKill, the Vanderbilt Mansion, the restaurants at the Culinary Institute of America, and pedestrian bridge across the Hudson. Which I'm sure will be gorgeous in the fall, or whenever I finally make it back.