Our last day in the area. We headed to Albany to check out the Empire State Plaza, a large area of fountains and monuments surrounded by office buildings and the capital. The best way to see it is from above…42 stories up the Corning Tower to the Observation Level. From that height, it’s also easy to see the Hudson River as it winds its way south. The governor’s mansion is beside the tower; funny to think what Teddy Roosevelt, Grover Cleveland, FDR and other NY governors from the distant past would think of the current next-door neighbor.
The most unusual structure in the plaza is known as The Egg--a 1,000-seat concert hall. Look it up online…it’s unlike anything we’ve seen before. It looks like an enormous egg that’s been cut in half lengthwise and placed round-side-down on the ground.
Next we headed below ground to the concourse…a huge complex beneath the plaza that contains at least three banks, parking garages, numerous restaurants and food courts, college recruitment office, a post office, a florist, and other shops that serve the 11,000+ state workers in the buildings connected to it. Kelsey bought postcard stamps, charming the postman…I don’t think he sells many postcard stamps down there.
We picnicked in the center of the Plaza, hoping to say a quick hello to Governor Cuomo and thank him for his state’s hospitality, then drove home to tackle some schoolwork, a bit of bike-riding, and get the place ready for tomorrow’s move to Vermont. We’ll be back in New York in September, arriving in the southern part of the Hudson Valley just after the 10th Anniversary of the attacks. Hard to believe we’re already nearing the northernmost point of our adventure, and then it’s all south, hopefully in navigation only.
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| View from the Corning Tower, the Egg in the foreground |
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| New York Capital |
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| Evil Knievel Stevens |
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