The Parrent Family: Hudson River

Our drive up the Hudson River was beautiful and one of our favorite stretches of water, even though it was rainy and overcast most of the way. This waterfall along the shoreline was so picturesque near the home.

The lush green trees of the Catskill mountainous hillside was breathtaking. The majority of the river was lined with railroad tracks and trains passing through all day long. Look closely at bottom of photo.

A plane on the shoreline near a home and you wonder how he got there....

There was interesting debris along the way including a few tires and lot of driftwood. The current pushes you at sometimes a few knots at a time. It's always favorable to take a ride and travel with it, but the time of day and direction your heading play a factor in it all.

West Point College was so impressive to see from the water. We would travel miles to only see an occasional home and then you see this!

A castle in the distance looked very grand sitting so high. I can't imagine the view up there. The Vanderbilt and FDR homes also line the shore.

Pollepel Island shows the remains of the Bannerman Castle. You can tour the area with a ferry boat and portions of it collapsed a few years ago. When you see the photos of what it use to look like its sad to see the deterioration.

We had a great anchorage in Esopus Creek one night. It was a very narrow inlet with a cute lighthouse at the entrance. It was a calm night as many tall trees above swayed in the breeze with wind and rain, we were so protected and had a cozy night grilling on the aft deck.

The Doris Moran and other tugs frequent the waters daily.

A very popular place to have your mast stepped. Many of our boating friends use this shipyard for the task. This 126 foot long vessel was built in 1901 and just underwent a major remodel. More photos to come.

Downtown Albany a U-Haul building had a truck on the rooftop.

Lock One, known as the Troy or Federal Lock was our first on the Erie Canal. It was a very narrow inlet with three very large trees in the water. The wind was blowing strong and our bow thruster is still not functioning. Our captain took it in stride, crew secured the lines and used dock poles to fend off debris. We were so happy to officially be in fresh water again.

The Erie Canal will take us to Lake Ontario. This stretch feels like our last leg of the trip.

The Waterford Welcome Center offers floating docks with free water and power which is virtually unheard of!

We spent a fun evening with the family aboard 'Messenger' of Scott and Lisa and three teenage children, Elizabeth, Aiden and Reg. It's an instant connection when meeting other families that live parallel lives. They had to leave the next morning and will have finished their journey by the end of the month at their homeport in Waterford, Canada.

A cruise ship passed by en-route loaded with passengers seeking an Erie Canal experience.

This man rode his bike from LA, California in 50 days and will catch a plane in Boston to head back to Korea.

'Onrust' is a 52' yacht project taken on by volunteers over the past few years to reconstruct one like New York's first ship and decked sailing vessel in 1614 that was the first American yacht and first ship to be built in NY.

Hannaford's grocery store made for a huge provision stop for us. Customer service walks you to the parking lot (with the device in her hand) to unlock the wheels so you can take the cart back to the boat. Every Saturday they come to gather the carts.

We walked nearly a mile home and crossed this bridge. It made for a quick and easy way to stock up without backpacking or biking and great prices and produce too!

Kayaking one evening as Jaxon takes over the paddling!

We made it all the way to the waterfalls. There was a group of over 30 other kayakers that joined us for the evening as they gather every Tuesday to paddle and gather at the bar afterwards.