Haverstraw to Nyack, NY

Well today we had a most interesting change of scenery as we travelled only 10 miles down the Hudson River. Last night we stayed in Haverstraw, NY and tonight we are in a dock in Nyack, NY

What is the interesting change of scenery? Well it is mostly the story of two different economic and cultural areas.

This morning we went to breakfast in downtown Haverstraw which has a decidedly Latino presence. In fact all the restaurants in downtown Haverstraw are Latino.
This gave Joy and Jill a chance to work on their Spanish as our breakfast waitress spoke very little English. There were many signs written in Spanish talking about upcoming concerts, etc. The area was clean but you could see that the buildings were old and some were vacant or being converted into more Spanish businesses.

The contrast with Nyack is extreme. Nyack reminded me of the yuppie town in Massachusetts where we used to live: Andover, MA. For reference point, it became yuppie after we left. In fact it became so yuppie that instead of working your turn at the cooperative nursery school, some parents wanted to send their nanny instead.

Anyway, Nyack had no restaurants that I could see that were of Spanish origin, or Spanish language or Spanish food. Included are two photos: one where we eat lunch, a decidedly veggie place, and the other a photo of the part of town we are in, settled in 1798 I believe. It is quiet a contrast.

The picture of High Spirits is in the dock at Julius Peterson Boat Yard. We were going to stay on a mooring, but they had a cancellation so we got to use this dock at the mooring price. It was good for us as the weather outside the boat yard was very rough.

The Peterson Boat Yard build small warships for the Navy during World War II and had 300 people working at it during the War. After 1946 the old owner died, and the current owner was one of a group of four. Wally was in the Air Force during the Korean War and is the last surviving member of the 4 owners. He was a very gracious host and drove Joy and I into town, telling all about Nyack. We passed the Helen Hayes house where she lived most of her adult life while on Broadway.


Tomorrow is Jill's 34 birthday, she was born on Aug 25, 1976 in Melrose Wakefield Hospital. I remember that we took Jen to Mimi and Gabe's house (Joy's parents) and drove .5 miles to the hospital. It took a long time for Jill to be born, in fact we ended up playing cards for several hours in the afternoon. After Jill was born, the kitchen was closed and Joy and I were hungry so I had to go out to Santo's Subs and buy two steak, mushroom, and cheese subs as it was another 10 hours until breakfast. Can't remember where I slept that night.

We will be travelling down the Hudson, past Manhattan tomorrow to Jersey City, NJ to Liberty Harbor Marina where we will stay for a week.

Joe

PS Wanted to add credit to Joyce, Connie, and Mike for taking care of Jennifer during the day that Jill was born. They reminded me that they took Jennifer to the park and then joined Mimi and Gabe for dinner. Jen was two and half at the time. She went around telling everybody, " I'm a big sister".