We spent a few days in Half Moon Bay, taking a bike ride to the Croton Dam and a road trip to West Point on the 4th of July! Then we took a short Cruise north on the Hudson River to Poughkeepsie.
Day 38 – Sunday, 7/2 – In Croton-on-Hudson – 00 miles, Travel Time: 0hrs 0min
On Sunday, the weather was a bit rainy, so we hung around the boat in the morning, then went for a walk to the county park on the other side of Half Moon Bay. On the way back, I took the “long way back” past the Railroad Maintenance Yard, which was pretty impressive. I stopped at a little convenience store, grabbed some whipped cream, then found a great little bakery, “Baked by Susan!” where I picked up some chocolate croissants and cinnamon rolls (with cream cheese frosting) for both boats.
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In the evening and overnight, we got a few waves of thunderstorms with wind gusts of around 40 mph! I’m glad we were in a protected marina. A marina that we will be going to in a few days lost a dock, boats and all! No damage to boats, but we heard there was some scrambling to get boats back into the marina.
Day 39 – Monday, 7/3 – In Croton-on-Hudson – 00 miles, Travel Time: 0hrs 0min
Monday morning, the weather had cleared, and the rain had pulled a lot of the smoke haze out of the air. We unloaded the bikes and rode about 2.5 miles to the Croton Dam. It’s a hidden gem that we found on our last loop trip, and we wanted to share it with Brenda & Tim. The dam is at the top of a hill, and we were very thankful for the power assist that our electric bikes gave us.
It was hot in the mid 80’s, but the breeze riding the bikes kept it tolerable.
Brenda & Tim were suitably impressed with the dam! We parked the bikes and walked across the top of the dam, taking in the view. When we got back to the bikes, we rode the short distance to the county park at the bottom of the dam. Brenda and Tim went wading to cool off their feet, and Brenda and I walked to the outfall and took some pictures.
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It was getting close to lunchtime (Tim gets grumpy when he gets hungry), so we rode back down the hill into town and found a burger bar for some lunch. After lunch, we stopped at a small Super Market for a few supplies, then went back to the boat.
Tim and I took back off on the bikes to drop off some packages I had at the Post Office and UPS store. We also made another stop at the “Baked by Susan!” bakery to stock up!
Day 40 – Tuesday, 7/4 – In Croton-on-Hudson – 00 miles, Travel Time: 0hrs 0min
On The 4th of July, we decided to go and visit West Point Military Academy. They have a large museum and do a guided bus tour of the campus. We took an Uber 18 miles to the museum.
We had seen West Point from the Hudson River when we came through on our first Loop trip and were pretty impressed with it, but seeing it up close was even more impressive. We visited the museum first, which has a great collection of militaria from the Revolutionary War up through the present time. They also have a number of displays honoring famous graduates of West Point, like Ulysses S. Grant, George A. Custer, Douglas MacArthur, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Buzz Aldrin, John J. Pershing, and H. Norman Schwarzkopf, to name but a few!
After walking through the museum, we boarded a bus for a tour of the campus. The stone buildings are spectacular. It was interesting how much focus is put on sports at the school. Every cadet is required to participate in at least one team sport, and there are sports fields and facilities all around the campus.
We visited the famous West Point Cathedral (officially a Chapel since it’s on a military base) with its spectacular stained glass windows and massive pipe organ.
From there, we went to the parade grounds and walked along the cliffs overlooking the Hudson River and saw a part of the chain that George Washington had made and stretched across the river to keep the British from passing the narrow channel that West Point overlooks.
As we were leaving to return to the visitor center, we saw they were preparing for a parade up the local main street. They were closing the roads for the parade, so we figured that our Uber back to the marina would not be able to get through and decided to have some lunch instead.
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Our lunch plans were foiled. It seems that West Point pretty much rolls up the sidewalks for the 4th of July. The only things open were a few bars that were not serving food. We killed time having a beer until the parade came past and watched it for a bit. We kept trying to get an Uber, but there were no drivers available. West Point is not in a very populated area. It’s basically West Point and another Army training base, with the town pretty much catering to the bases.
After about 30 minutes, we were finally able to get a LYFT driver to come and pick us up. There was nothing open in Croton-on-Hudson either; even the Pizza places were closed for the 4th, so we put together a quick dinner on the boats.
Day 41 – Wednesday, 7/5 – Croton-on-Hudson, NY to Poughkeepsie, NY – 40 miles, Travel Time: 3hrs 53min
Our next stop on the Hudson River was Poughkeepsie. Poughkeepsie is the CIA’s (Culinary Institute of America) home and has the “Singing Bridge” and the “Walkway over the Hudson” bridge and bike trail. Both of which were on our must-see list for this trip.
This section of the trip has lots to see. First, there were a couple of larger ships to maneuver around. Next was the Bear Mountain Bridge, with the roadway cut into the cliff face high above and the train tracks going through a tunnel below the bridge!
Next came the Narrows past West Point. We had a large ship behind us going pretty fast, so we moved through the narrows quickly to get out of its way. Still, we were able to get some good shots of West Point from the water side.
As we approached Poughkeepsie, we got a view of the “Singing Bridge” and, behind it, the “Walkway over the Hudson,” a huge railroad trestle that has been converted into a bike and footpath. The current was running at close to 3 knots when we docked, making docking quite challenging!
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Our marina in Poughkeepsie was the “Shadows Marina,” which is part of a large restaurant and event center. We were right on the river with a great view of the bridges. Unfortunately, we were also in the wake path of the passing ships! We got rocked pretty hard a few times while we were there.
That evening we went to Shadows Restaurant, which is famous in the area. We had a fantastic dinner. After which, we watched the lights come on on the Singing Bridge.
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Thanks for visiting! –Tom & Brenda
1 Comment
Love reliving the Loop with you!