More Frost to come

Trust the paper map...

We found ourselves here at the top of a very steep and narrow 1/2 mile one lane road.

We had to make this fun turn around because my phone was taking us to the middle of a vast park, not to the entrance! (Yes, I know, I should have looked to see where it was taking us before following blindly!)

Tre paper map got us there! (:

Covered bridge! - this is Vermont

And we made it!

So fun to find Robert Frost poems all over the park and in the perfect setting every time.

Our poetry study comes to life.

So we started and ended our day with Robert Frost. I couldn't have planned it better myself.

Junior rangers oath.

Stewardship, not worship...

This park was interesting because it was born out of the desire to conserve Vermont's natural landscape. Though the three men may not be on the same page as our current president, their vision has been further accomplished through Obama's "Every Kid in a Park" program. Funny how conservation and conservative come from the same root but liberals are huge on environmental conservation and ... (still thinking on this.)

We finished the day with Sy asking me to ride in the very back with him to help him write a poem on the way to our campsite. He would tell me a sentence or thought about some part of nature he  saw and I would give him a rhyming word so he could make a second line. 

In the land of Robert Frost

Our day started and ended with Robert Frost. Silent Cal filled the space between.

Frost home

We made it to the foliage. We met several bus tours today so we must be in the right place! (:

President Coolidge's birthplace

The church where the Coolidge family worshipped.

Kitchen in Coolidge birthplace

And next door to the Coolidge Homestead was the business they started from their farm.

We watched cheese be made and tasted many flavors and ages.

Such pretty drives today!

...to be continued...

Albany and the New York State Museum

The drive into Albany was pretty rural.

But once we got there, it was so urban it was our craziest parking adventure yet!

We tried the 4 options the Capitol has for RV's with no luck - 1. full, 2. the circus is in town, 3. the city says no, and 4. there's construction. Option 5: drop the trailer in the employee lot miles away and drive in with just the car. Easy! Yay!

And we learned that downtown employees park miles away and are shuttled to and from their workplaces on big busses that run every 8 minutes for 1 1/2 hours every morning. Huh. 

After it taking 1 1/2 hours just to park the car...

We decided to do the New York Stare Museum first because they close at 5 and the Capitol is open til 7pm right now because in October they offer "Haunted Tours" (where one is guided through the building and told ghost stories.) we planned to do a self-guided iPhone audio tour. (:

So museum...

Minerals of New York

Wildlife of New York

Bones of New York

History of New York

Native peoples of New York

Old carousels of New York

Ok - Hand carved horses with real horse hair tails from the 1800s!

Cars of New York

And an emotional exhibit about 9/11 that barely scratched the surface of what we know we'll experience when we get to the actual site.

After this, we realized we probably need a day at the actual World Trade Center site without kids. Will be thinking on how to make that happen.

Albany, NY - Capitol #16

The Capitol that looks like a castle.

We walked from the museum across Empire Plaza to the Capitol.

4 different architects created a conglomeration of styles.

The great western staircase

Jo found Frederick Douglass, recently of Challenge I fame.

The library, of course

The senate chamber

If you look carefully at the archway, you see the decorative carving is unfinished. You find this all over the Capitol. When Teddy Roosevelt became governor he put a stop to all construction saying they'd spent enough time and money and it was time to stop. This is also why there is no dome! It was in the plans and partially built but never finished and finally the part that has been constructed was deconstructed. 

The press have their own offices here.

The assembly

These murals were painted with plans to remove the floor directly below so you'd be viewing them from another floor down. They're kinda big when you're directly under them. But the floor was never removed once construction was halted.

Such an interesting Capitol construction story! (Who needs a haunted tour?!)