When it comes to big rivers, we’ve seen it. Sorry, folks but you’re gonna’ have to put up or shut up to
impress us. Don’t forget these small town Southerners have pretty close
ties to the mighty Mississippi, so unless you’re boasting the Nile or Amazon or
something, we’re not easily swayed. Our new home in upstate New York puts
us pretty close to some decent “little streams,” as we like to call
them. We cross the Mohawk and the Hudson Rivers almost daily, but we
hadn’t had a chance to really check them out until recently.
When my husband finagled tickets to a Dutch Apple Cruise for a
great price off of craigslist (basically two for one) I said “Heck ya! Let’s
go! The Dutch Apple Cruise company has a variety of Hudson River tours, everything
from sightseeing tours to Sunday brunches to even booze cruises. We
figured we better go before the weather got cold.
The two of us headed to downtown Albany and hopped on board the
Dutch Apple II right next to the U.S.S. Slater. How
cool is that big ship? The
retired WWII war vessel is the only destroyer escort that remains afloat in the
United States! It was pretty neat to see such a huge battleship up close!
We learned that our 65′ cruising boat was built in 1986 as a take-off of
the popular Hudson River day liners. Apparently, back in the day, the day
liners would cruise up and down the Hudson ferrying passengers between ports in
Albany and NYC. Our tour was two hours long and we saw plenty of
shoreline.
Thankfully,
the tour was narrated, otherwise we would have had no idea what we were
looking at. The tour took us right by
downtown Albany, which sits on the western bank, and it was neat to see the big,
beautiful buildings from the river’s perspective! I had no idea that Albany
is the oldest surviving settlement from the original thirteen colonies and the
longest continuously chartered city in the United States, all thanks to the
Hudson.
Brett
& I picked up lots of facts on our ride. I’m sure most Yankees know
that the Hudson River is 315 miles long (small potatoes to the Mississippi
River’s 2,320 miles) and is named after Henry Hudson, who explored it in 1609
while sailing for the Dutch East India Company. In 1825, the
original Erie Canal opened to connect the Hudson with Lake Erie. (This is where the lyrics to “15 Years on the
Erie Canal” song always pops into my head from grade school!)
Ok, so there was one disturbing thing we saw on the tour: there were huge mounds covered by black tarps. Our tour guide told us that was salt…for road crews to spread during winter storms. Yikes!
Our moods perked up when we actually saw nests of
bald eagles in the trees alongside the riverbanks! Seriously…how cool is that? Once listed as an
endangered species, today there are nearly 10,000 pairs of nesting bald eagles
in the American wild. Y’all trumped us on the wildlife up here,
very impressive!
With all the rich history the Hudson offers, it’s almost as
impressive as the Mississippi River. Almost.
