24 photos
On my way to my first scheduled stop, the Storm King Art Center, I saw several historic sites and paid some of them a brief visit.
Having all my plans for major travel disrupted by COVID, I felt I needed to at least take a mini vacation trip this year. Despite having lived in New York for almost 60 years, I had seen almost none of what we call “upstate”. I had never been to Albany, the state capitol, never to Niagara Falls or any of the cultural sites.
One issue that had interrupted some of my travel plans was my work as Chief Engineer of two public radio stations. I had to find people to “cover” for me in the event of malfunctions while I was away, and there are limits on how often and for how long one can impose on his similarly trained friends to provide coverage. So, in 2019 I had decided to give up my positions. I didn’t need the money; I’d taken the positions more to keep me occupied after retiring from ABC TV.
Conveniently, one of the radio stations was sold in late 2019, and although I was willing to continue there through the transition to the new ownership, we were unable to come to terms financially, so I left them in mid-March 2020. My plan had been to also give up the other station, leaving me free to travel on my terms.
But COVID intervened. All my travel plans after I returned from 2020 Trinidad Carnival were squashed. No trip to the broadcast convention and then on to the northwest US in spring 2020, no trip upstate in that summer, no Trinidad Carnival in 2021, just hibernating at home. I ended up continuing working at the remaining radio station; without travel there was no reason to leave.
There was supposed to be another broadcast convention in the spring of 2021, I was vaccinated by then, but because COVID was still rampant, it was postponed until this October, and I was looking forward to taking my postponed trip out west. However, the in-person convention was cancelled and it became a "virtual" event. Meanwhile I thought about my upstate plans postponed since 2020. The border with Canada remained closed, and it made no sense to see Niagara Falls without visiting the Canadian side. Also, I wasn’t sure I wanted to spend the full several weeks I had originally planned for wandering around upstate.
I decided to take a shortened trip upstate, to Albany and the Adirondacks. I spent a week in mid-August enjoying he Albany area and just a small part of the Adirondacks. There is so much more to see, I’ll have to return another time.
One issue that had interrupted some of my travel plans was my work as Chief Engineer of two public radio stations. I had to find people to “cover” for me in the event of malfunctions while I was away, and there are limits on how often and for how long one can impose on his similarly trained friends to provide coverage. So, in 2019 I had decided to give up my positions. I didn’t need the money; I’d taken the positions more to keep me occupied after retiring from ABC TV.
Conveniently, one of the radio stations was sold in late 2019, and although I was willing to continue there through the transition to the new ownership, we were unable to come to terms financially, so I left them in mid-March 2020. My plan had been to also give up the other station, leaving me free to travel on my terms.
But COVID intervened. All my travel plans after I returned from 2020 Trinidad Carnival were squashed. No trip to the broadcast convention and then on to the northwest US in spring 2020, no trip upstate in that summer, no Trinidad Carnival in 2021, just hibernating at home. I ended up continuing working at the remaining radio station; without travel there was no reason to leave.
There was supposed to be another broadcast convention in the spring of 2021, I was vaccinated by then, but because COVID was still rampant, it was postponed until this October, and I was looking forward to taking my postponed trip out west. However, the in-person convention was cancelled and it became a "virtual" event. Meanwhile I thought about my upstate plans postponed since 2020. The border with Canada remained closed, and it made no sense to see Niagara Falls without visiting the Canadian side. Also, I wasn’t sure I wanted to spend the full several weeks I had originally planned for wandering around upstate.
I decided to take a shortened trip upstate, to Albany and the Adirondacks. I spent a week in mid-August enjoying he Albany area and just a small part of the Adirondacks. There is so much more to see, I’ll have to return another time.
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Storm King Art Center
108 photos
The Storm King Art Center is primarily a 500 acre outdoor sculpture garden.
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Walkway over the Hudson
37 photos
My next stop was the Walkway over the Hudson, a former railroad bridge now a pedestrian bridge across the Hudson River.
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Mt. Greylock, North Adams, MA
49 photos
Mont Greylock is the highest mountain in Massachusetts, at almost 3500 feet high.
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Albany NY, State Capitol
73 photos
Despite having lived in New York for over 55 years, I had never visited Albany, the state Capitol.
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Cobleskill, NY, My Grandfather's Hotel
10 photos
My grandfather Schmidt owned the hotel that was in this building, the Augustan Hotel for about a year in 1911.
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New York Coast of Lake Champlain
35 photos
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Whiteface Mountain
139 photos
Driving, then hiking to the top of Whiteface Mountain, the home of the 1980 Winter Olympics Downhill Skiing competition and the fifth highest mountain in New York.