Old town Kingston from the old canal channel.

Tonight it’s Rondout Yacht Basin in Kingston NY. It’s more a small marina than a “Yacht Basin” with our boat clearly larger than any other here. This was an old PT boat base in WWII. At least four 75’ long PT boat hulls are partially wrapped up on the opposite bank of the river waiting for…?

Here is a Wikipedia quote about this historic town: “It became New York’s first capital in 1777, and was burned by the British on October 13, 1777, after the Battles of Saratoga. In the 19th century, the city became an important transport hub after the discovery of natural cement in the region, and had both railroad and canal connections. Passenger rail service has since ceased, and many of the older buildings are part of three historic districts, such as the Stockade District uptown, the Midtown Neighborhood Broadway Corridor, and the Rondout-West Strand Historic District downtown.”

We were in the last of the three districts mentioned above. While it’s called a city, it seemed more like a small town to us. Our 1 mile trip up Rondout creek (part of the above mentioned canal) to get to the marina had woods on the left and historic buildings on the right. We crossed under a new highway bridge and an old single lane suspension bridge currently under repair.

We had decided to stay only the night, although I’m thinking maybe we should have taken another day here. I still want to get onto the Erie Canal by July 1, however.

The smallest of all Vanderbilt mansions. The only one owned by the national park service.

We did not get to tour through the town because we discovered one of the Vanderbilt Mansions open for tours in Hyde Park a few miles across the river. Franklin Roosevelt’s home was there also, but we had time for only one.

We toured a Vanderbilt home last year and this home leads me to the same conclusion: Whether the rich really are getting richer I don’t know, but for sure they don’t live now like the Vanderbilt’s did then. They were truly a class apart. This was one of the smaller houses by Vanderbilt standards but still plenty big.

We finished off the evening at a restaurant on the river. We ate by the rail overlooking the water in the old part of town. A scenic, beautiful setting. If only the food had measured up, but you can’t have everything.