Wednesday, July 16, 2014
My cousin, Francoise, is here for three weeks to visit her American/Armenian cousins. She is a kindergarten teacher who lives in a French Mediterranean town called La Seyne sur Mer, which is located between Marseille and Toulon. Carol, another cousin, rode the train down from Syracuse NY and also spent a few days at my house.
The Buddha
We’re having fun catching up on family news, solving world events, chattering about health issues, and cooking French food with American ingredients.
Chuang Yen Buddhas
It’s fun playing tour guide and we visited several local sights with my cousins. We went to the Chuang Yen Monastery in Carmel, NY which has the largest indoor statue of Buddha in the Western Hemisphere. He was quite impressive at thirty-seven feet tall and surrounded by ten thousand small Buddha statues. It was a new experience for both cousins. Afterwards we drove along Route 131 to the lovely town of Cold Spring. We had a tasty American lunch overlooking the river at the Hudson House Inn.
The Evening Star
The next day we went to Peekskill to ride on the Evening Star for a three-hour cruise up the Hudson River. We boarded the former buoy-tender as the strains of Gilligan’s Island theme song ran through my head. The captain was a woman with twenty-one years of skippering experience. She provided excellent detailed commentary about the history of Hudson River Valley during the tour and pointed out historic landmarks.
Freighter Under the Bear Mountain Bridge
We had picked up sandwiches and enjoyed a picnic lunch on the boat which continued up to The U. S. Military Academy at West Point and then turned around to return to Peekskill. The weather was perfect for a boat ride and the river was relatively calm. We had a great time!
View of West Point from the Hudson River
Someone’s Watching