Last Sunday, we awoke and peered out our bedroom window at the trees' glorious change of color!
We were excited about our River Cruise to Bear Mountain, departing from a pier in Manhattan in two hours!
Nothing beats a Fall weekend!
Nothing beats a Fall weekend!
Our neighborhood of Astoria looked especially pretty, adorned in autumnal splendor--with overhead leaves that gleamed like stained glass.
To my neighbor who complained about fallen leaves stuck to his new car (below), I reminded him that they were better than snowflakes. It made him smile.
Charging forward throughout November, the local rosebushes and camellias blossom beautifully.
Circle Line Cruises "shoves off" from Pier 83, at the end of NYC's world-famous Forty-Second Street. We are familiar with the area from our visits to the Consulate General (embassy) of China, in preparation of our trip to China.
*To see our glorious trip across China, please use this link:
Less organized than the Chinese, Circle Line behaved in typical NYC slack-jawed inefficiency.
The boat ride is only 46 miles, but each round-trip ticket costs $65.00. (That is outrageous because a train costs $26). We approached the pier and expected a superior experience, due to the high price. Not in NYC. The man at Reception failed to tell us which boat we needed to board. Then, the queue of passengers bottlenecked for a long time. The cause of the delay was a photographer who offered to take everyone's picture with a faux backdrop. Instead of asking whoever wanted a picture to stand to one side, he stupidly made everyone wait for anyone who wanted a photo. That delayed everyone who stood outside in the cold windy air. The next delay was a security "bag check". (They should've put that by the photographer to get all the delays accomplished at once). Finally getting aboard, we realized that the company oversold the trip (which is typical in greedy USA) so there weren't enough seats--causing passengers to stand for the 2.5 hour ride, each way! People paid for a seat, yet they were forced the stand... without any discount or refund. That is typical in NYC. Thankfully, our friend, Yvonne, arrived earlier than us and snagged seats. Her boyfriend and two colleagues that are NYC Park Rangers joined us.
We were thankful for the Park Rangers because they had an enthusiasm for Nature that matched ours. No, they didn't arrive wearing their uniforms...
Being keen hikers, we dressed in flannels and denim to anticipate our "nature hike" and lakeside bird-watching. Looking around us, however, we saw others attired fashionably to go "leaf peeping"!
Advertised as an Oktoberfest Cruise, Circle Line sold overpriced sausages... but they looked meager and unappetizing.
This is perfectly typical of NYC. Imitating an Ump-Pa-Pa band, their musicians played German waltzes... but only the same seven, over and over again. Eventually, they abandoned their half-hearted attempt and played Rock-and-Roll.
*To see our true German experience in Berlin, use this link:
Despite the price, the boat was outdated from 1934! It was not a lovingly preserved antique; it was neglected due to greed and cheapness. Relying on old engines, it was slow.
Passengers on the roof didn't hear the music that they paid for, and they didn't have heat to stay warm.
Everyone had a lovely view. Yet, the never-ending loudspeaker yammering of our "tour guide" was abrasive. Maybe he was an aspiring actor who never got a casting call, so he vented his vocal desires by talking nonstop. Alas, his voiceover competed with the music, which was bad coordination.
Our upriver ride entered Rockland County, which was founded in 1798.
As part of the Hudson Highlands, Bear Mountain rises to an elevation of 1,289 feet. It got its name because its profile supposedly resembles a bear lying down. In 1907, New York wanted to build a prison there, but robber-barons (Rockefeller and Morgan) stopped it because it was near their rustic estates at Lake Mohegon... so they built a highway.
We were happy to disembark... until we saw where they dropped us off! They used a flooded and unmaintained dock, and they uncaringly expected their customers to wade through it. Terrible!
Circle Line has bigger boats than NYC ferries, yet still uses tiny gangplanks that bottlenecked hundreds of passengers! Elderly people and parents with baby carriages encountered the next bottleneck of being forced to walk along a cement wall: the only dry part.
It's unsafe and illegal to release passengers like that, and the boat crew surely knew of the dock's poor condition, but they only care about making money.
A curvaceous tunnel led past two waterfalls to alpine trails. Like a group of mountaineers, we explored agilely.
Climbing up the rocks, we saw the Bear Mountain Bridge.
We neared the Bear Mountain Inn, via rusticated stone archways, walls, outbuildings, and unused stables.
Red trees welcomed us to Blood Lake!
Now called Hessian Lake, in honor of the dead Revolutionary enemies who were dumped there, the picturesque area smelled of barbecues.
Yet, indoor dining was our treat--thanks to Yvonne's reservations at a woodsy lodge named the Bear Mountain Inn.
Built in 1915, the lodge is a hotel, restaurant, and spa. It is on the National Register of Historic Places because it was the first example of rustic construction that became the standard in America's national parks. It was influenced by the "Great Camps" in the Adirondack Mountains--built as rustic estates by Manhattan's wealthy class. The era of Great Camps existed from the 1870s to the 1920s, and the style was named Adirondack Architecture. Seen below, some estates had grandiosity designed by America's best architectural firm, McKim, Mead & White.
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(Years ago, I visited some that were built by the man who spurred the trend, William West Durant, son of the corrupt financier who caused the Crédit Mobilier scandal).
The lodge features many fanciful uses of logs and stones. When built, it had its own electric generator and steam heat.
Much of the woodwork and flooring is made of chestnut wood.
The fire in the massive fireplace was just dying, as we arrived. Nobody kickstarted it again. Above the mantle is an illustration of Rip Van Winkle, a local legend written by Washington Irving.
The 1819 tale entails a Dutch-American in colonial times. Named Rip Van Winkle, he evades his nagging wife, goes to the mountains, encounters otherworldly beings, drinks their wine, and falls asleep for 20 years. Unrelated to that but similar, if you take a nap, it's called "taking 40 winks". To learn more about Irving, go here:
Despite the weekly cruises, the restaurant seemed startled by the arriving crowd... and overwhelmed. Correctly assuming that the TWO waitresses for the ENTIRE full dining room would delay any menu ordering, we opted for the "self-serve" brunch buffet. It was a grand surprise of selections!
We chose from an omelet station, carving station of ham and bloody roast beef, bacon, sausages, smoked salmon, cooked salmon, shrimp, shucked oysters, viennoiserie, oatmeal, roasted potatoes, hash-browns, broccoli rabe, barbecued chicken, skirt steak with mushroom gravy, cakes, cookies, Linzer tarts, and assorted fruit. It was a robust breakfast, and each got a complimentary Bloody Mary or Mimosa.
It took 20 minutes for the waitress to present our check. By then, we saw that the restaurant added a seemingly 10-year-old boy and his teenage brother into serving water and clearing tables! Downstairs, the overpriced gift shop occupied some of our time before we returned to the lake.
Lewis noted the percentage of Asian families enjoying the park... and dressed stylishly for photographs.
Folks rented paddleboats and went fishing.
Circle Line allots three hours for passengers to enjoy Bear Mountain before returning to the city. Savoring the sunshine, we sat upstairs for the voyage homeward.
This was the same route that Henry Hudson used in 1609 aboard the Halve Maen (Half Moon). Departing from Amsterdam, his mission for the Dutch East India Company was charting a path to Asia. Thinking that he found a passage, he sailed north, and his disillusionment ended at Albany. When he sailed back to the Atlantic Ocean, he was sad. Unlike him, as we went south again, we were content.
Nature's beauty cannot be overestimated. As others wrapped themselves tightly in shawls (seen above), we enjoyed the setting sun at 5 o'clock (thanks to Daylight Savings which occurred that day). In prior years, we toured upstate New York for apple-picking or country getaways. We travelled by car and train--and now by boat. Consequently, we saw things from a different perspective. It was so handsome!
At dusk, the boat entered New York Harbor. After coming ashore, Lewis and I gave kisses and hugs to our group and thanked them for uniting to make the trip worthwhile! Taking the subway from 42nd Street to my apartment, we spread out the colored leaves that we picked during our trip.
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