Vacation day 7, October 14th

Friday, October 14th, I had an appointment at 3PM to meet with Bill from Kol-Rocklea at his shop to examine the urn vault and the urn I had purchased online from a company in Colorado and had shipped to him in Red Hook. I also had to pay for the service. To spare myself the pain of having to deal with TSA and having then perform a physical examination of my mother's remains before I could board the plane, I shipped those to Bill, too, the night before I left for Seattle.

It was a rainy day on and off all day just as forecasted. I left my hotel in Fishkill early to do something touristy before my somber appointment.

On the way, traveling north on Interstate 9E, in Hyde Park, there is the FDR Presidential Museum, Library and his former residence/family compound. You can only view the interiors of the home if you participate in a decent lead tour which costs $14. The grounds are beautiful. Full of trees, vast areas of open space and decent parking. In the large green space in front of the reception area of the park, there were Canadian Geese doing what birds do. It was a change for me to see them instead of seagulls, pigeons, mallards or the random crane like in California.  Anyway, there is some major renovations going on and so... I didn't think I got my money's worth out of the visit.

To the right is a photo of the sign on the path that takes you to the Presidential Library. Note the construction. The contents of entire library was moved to the Bush Presidential Library in Texas while the renovation is taking place. Nothing much to see here today. Moving on...

This photo is of three busts on the grounds between the visitor's center and the residence. If you like photography, you might find this angle somewhat odd, but that was because I wanted a natural setting in the background instead of more the signs of construction - heavy equipment, roll away refuse containers, etc.

As it was 11:30AM when I arrived, I was the last to join the tour group. I was dressed nice for my appointment with my leather jacket to try and stay dry and out of the rain. The humidity was up and it finally did me in after standing around inside listening to the decent in the FDR residence. It has no air circulating inside because of it's preservation efforts. I was hyperventilating and had to excuse myself from the tour. And then, while sitting upon a park bench trying to catch my breathe, I took this photo in between the sprinkling rain and other tourists roaming around on the grounds. I think it's gorgeous. I would love to visit again when all of the renovations are complete.