Cold Spring is nice; I live in Highland Falls across the river. There're several good restaurants, some with a view of West Point. I've eaten in the one in the old train station. As for sights, there's West Point. Since 9/11, one can't just stroll onto post anymore; I think one has to sign up for a tour at the visitors' center. Other places not far away are the Storm King Art Center (modern outdoor sculpture), Boscobel (an old mansion), and I know there's a local nature site with guided tours somewhere near there.

there's a great minor league baseball park, too...Duchess Stadium, home of the Hudson Valley Renegades in Fishkill. Minor league baseball is fun-a nice evening out. Very different than the Big Leagues.

Cindy, years ago, my husband and I traveled to upstate NY and fell in love with Cooperstown and environs. We found some used bookstores there and brought home a number of treasures. It's a beautiful area....

Cooperstown's west a-ways of the Hudson Valley, but I agree it is a great town-we visit once a summer.

I also loved Cooperstown. There is a beautiful stone barn museum that was great. And there was a place that made Xmas ornaments from old tin molds. (I was on their mailing list, but they stopped making them.) They were acually a source of old hardware.

It was such a wonderful town, I can see why you would go often. The Museum was also wonderful!

Here's the nature preserve I mentioned: Constitution Marsh Audubon Center and Sanctuary.

Isn't FDR's estate 'Hyde Park' in this area of the Hudson valley or am I hundreds of miles out?
I'm sure it would be an interesting place to visit.

Vee, you are right on. FDR's estate is in Hyde Park and a riveting place to visit. There is the house and a museum. Chills ran up and down my spine as I saw the very foolscap on which was typed his Pearl Harbor speech, "a day which will live in [typed word crossed out] infamy [in his handwriting]". The Roosevelts are buried here as well.

There's also a Vanderbilt mansion and garden practically next door, now owned by the National Park Service and open to the public.

There is actually so much along the Hudson that you would need six weeks to see it all. Boscobel. Olana, the estate of one of America's greatest artists, Frederic Church. Van Cortlandt Manor, one of the old Dutch estates. On and on.

And that would be Edith Wharton country, wouldn't it?

Wharton was from NYC and built a summer home, The Mount, in Lenox, Massachusetts, in the Berkshires. House and garden have been recently restored and are open to the public. They are in a very beautiful area with much to see and do but not in the Hudson River Valley.

There is a good website for The Mount and readers will be interested in the news is that they recently bought Wharton's library from, I think, a London dealer.

PS-- The website is www.edithwharton.org and the rare book dealer who sold her library was in Yorkshire, not London. There were 2600 books and they sold for a fortune--anonymous donation. There is an interesting article on the website about the books Wharton owned and used, and a link to a NY Times article on the same subject.

Ginny, to clarify: I meant that some of the settings of her novels are in the Hudson River Valley. I cannot recall which one, as I read them so close together -- "The Age of Innocence" or ""House of Mirth."

Sorry--you are right, of course. One of her titles is "Hudson River Bracketed" but I have never read it. What an interesting woman she was.

Mmm, now that would be an interesting book to take along!

Thanks for the suggestions. We are going to be in Albany 2 days, Kingston for 3, and Cold Spring for 1. And now that I have figured out where Metro North stops at, we are set.

Last question - fav bookstores in the area?

Sunnyside, Washington Irving's home, is just south of Tarrytown in Irvington. Tarrytown has Phillipsburg Manor, and Sleepy Hollow Cemetery...where Irving is buried, and may have been the setting for the book. Also, in nearby Pocantico Hills, there is a church with a stained glass window by Chagall.