I thought that It would be great to come home all caught up with my blog posts. That didn’t happen–partly because it’s not as easy to work on the iPad as on my computer and partly because I spent time with my friends every evening and didn’t focus on other things.

On the second day in New York we drove to Hyde Park where there are three National Historic Sites we intended to visit. We started at this one.

We signed up for a tour of FDR’s house. This is the stable where we gathered.

FDR was born in this house in 1882. After he was married and the family grew there were additions to the house There are also adaptations for wheelchair access since he was unable to walk unaided after contracting polio in 1921. I was surprised to learn the extent to which that fact was hidden from the public throughout his life.

There is a ramp to this room, but when Roosevelt was alive the ramp would be concealed once he was in the room and awaiting his guests.

I took this photo because that desk is almost identical to the one that I used while I was a kid and through high school. It belonged to my grandmother who had lived in New York. I always liked the “secret” cubbyholes that were those fancy columns on either side of the door at the center of the upright part. My granddaughter has this desk now.

We had started at the FDR Presidential Library but had only a half hour before our tour of the house. There was so much to see here that we came back. I thought that a Presidential LIbrary would be full of books, but this is a museum. It is very well presented and there is an overwhelming amount of information here. This is the first Presidential Library and I assume that maybe others are modeled after this one. This one opened in 1941, and of course it would have been very different than what it is today.

I knew the bare basics of this era but this exhibit pulls it all together in a very informative and organized way. The exhibits are all set up in order so that you move through Roosevelt’s story from before he became President to his death during his fourth term.

It starts with the Depression when Hoover was President.

When Roosevelt was elected he jumped right in and tackled the major problems facing the country.

I am of course familiar with all of these programs now because they are part of our way of life, but I have never thought about the time when they were developed.

Eleanor is included in this museum as well. There is another National Historic Site at her home but we didn’t have time to go there. This letter is of interest to me because she recognized, way back in 1939, that California’s redwood forests were worthy of protection (second paragraph). There was a lot here about Eleanor’s influence and political activist. The FBI had quite a large file on her activities!

This is a working office used by Roosevelt during his presidency as is told in the photo below.

There was so much to see at this library that I could easily go back if I ever get to this part of the country again.

We drove to the Vanderbilt home only a few miles away. We would have had to wait a couple of hours for space in a tour so we decided to come back the next day.

We wandered through the gardens before we left to go “home”.

I don’t have many photos of the AirB&B where we stayed. This is from the driveway.

I stayed in this bedroom.

The bathroom that was shared by two bedrooms. The third upstairs bedroom had it’s own bathroom in a totally different style. We figured out with Google and other clues in the home that the owner is an architect with an office in Brooklyn.

This living room and the kitchen are where we spent most of the time. As much as we looked forward to exploring this part of the country and going to the fiber show, some of the most enjoyable time was spent sitting here and around the kitchen table.