June 25, Sunday, Kingston NY at Rondout Creek
This morning we relaxed, as we needed to wait for the tide to come in before we could leave the shallow inlet of the marina. I made french toast, Ruth and I walked, Dirk and Geoff chatted with the the dock master, and we watched river rowers. Lucky for us, Geoff and Ruth decided to come with us to Kingston before going back to get their car in Croton-on-Hudson.
As we traveled up the Hudson we small some of the small island light houses on the river that actually look like small stone houses with a tall top. Families lived in these, some until the mid-1900s.
We reached Rondout Creek inlet of Kingston NY about an hour before Ruth and Jeff’s taxi arrived to take them back to their car. Fortunately there was time to enjoy ice cream, see some of the boats on display have some fun in front of the Maritime Museum.
We sadly waved good-bye to them, and relaxed back at the boat a while. After supper we took a long walk down the riverwalk, appreciating how much work has gone into making it welcoming. The tall sailboat is the actual Clearwater – Pete Seeger’s environment awareness ship, which a great influence on cleaning up the Hudson River.
We ran into another looper and chatted a bit, and at the end of the river walk, headed up to a neighborhood street to walk back to town another way. I saw a man watering a nicely landscaped garden at the corner of a street, complimented him and he invited us over so he could tell us the story of his unusual house.
Many years ago he and his wife bought a circus storage barn; half of it was stables and the other half storage, and they turned the brick barn into a unique home for their family over the years. They also restored a small house next door into an Airbnb and seemed to have a small apartment building as well. He was very friendly and I think there are many in Kingston that have done well buying run down buildings and bring them back. Our dock master told some similar stories. It made for a very interesting walk and was nice to talk to someone that lives in the town.
Wandering Star 