We also got to see Marie's daughter, Candy. She and her husband recently bought an RV, so we could get advice from a local camper about good places to explore in the northeast.
Besides visiting old friends, we found a few other treasures in the Albany area. We drove to Cohoes Falls on the Mohawk River. We couldn't get very close to it, but this is a grand waterfall.
It is often compared to the American Falls at Niagara that we just visited a couple weeks ago. Cohoes Falls is actually wider and taller, and has more water flow than the American Falls. The main difference is that Niagara has thousands of visitors each day, while we were the only three people at Cohoes.
Another interesting treasure in Albany is America's first Shaker settlement. We had heard about this group, but today we learned more about them when we visited Watervliet, the Shaker church family community. The Shakers came to America in 1774 to escape religious persecution in England. Led by a female, Ann Lee, one of their devout standards was equality for women. But we were curious why there are separate entry doors for the men and women into the meeting house. This is where church services were held, and was the only building open to the public.
The men and women would also be seated on different sides of the building. All the seating was crowded into one end of the sizable building--leaving most of the room for the dancing that took place in church. This religious group was nick-named Shakers because of the violent trembling and whirling that is sometimes part of their worship. There were no columns in the building to get in the way of their worship dancing, which evolved into more formal steps like the Square Order Shuffle and the Ring Dance.
This building also houses the Shaker museum. When we first arrived, we were welcomed with a sign that instructed us not to let the cat out.
It seems that they have a 17-year-old cat named William, that sometimes attempts to make a run for freedom out the front door when guests arrive. Today, William made himself at home on Betty's lap while we watched the documentary about Shakers at the museum.
We learned about the strong work ethic of the Shakers, and their fine woodworking skills. There was an example of a true Shaker chair (on the left) in the museum.
On this beautiful blue-sky day, we walked the park-like setting that included buildings of the now-closed Shaker village. All the buildings have been closed since the early 1900's, but some were re-purposed. To the left is the old Shaker cannery, and to the right is one of their barns. Even though there were as many as 6,000 Shakers in 1850, this was the last of the property owned by the community. It was sold to Albany County in 1925.
Since Betty was hungry for fish, we took her for cod at the restaurant that has been cooking for Albany for over 60 years--Ted's Fish Fry. Then it was time to take Denisa's Mother to the airport for her flight back to Oklahoma. The week has gone by quickly, and she seems to think that our wandering lifestyle is fun. After our trip to the airport, we continued our tour of Albany's treasures at the New York state capitol.
We have visited a lot of state capitols in the last year and a half, and we have to say that this is the most elaborate from outside to inside. It showcases the hand-laid floor tiles and hand-carved columns throughout the building.
We decided to take the guided tour, and we were so glad we did. Our young tour guide told us stories and pointed out details that we would have surely missed on our own. She first told us that New Yorkers planned to build the most extravagant capitol to show off to its southern neighbors that had just been defeated in the Civil War.
Denisa is standing by the grand staircase. Normally, we would completely overlook the banister railing directly in front of her. But our tour guide pointed out that the architect insisted that each one of those oft-overlooked banisters be carefully hand-carved, and each has a unique pattern.
Sure enough, when we bent down and zoomed into those foot-long columns, each one has a very intricate and very unique pattern that was hand carved and designed. It is puzzling that so much time and trouble was taken with a detail that people would have to get on their hands and knees to notice.
The large columns all over the capitol building are also uniquely carved and designed. Many of them feature faces, and the architect didn't want any face repeated. Sometimes famous people were immortalized on a column, and their names were also included. But in an effort to use many individual faces, the artists used their own likeness, or those of their friends and families.
All this detail and carving and unique planning caused the building of the capitol to drag on for decades. The plan to make an elaborate capitol building went over-budget again and again. There were four different architects hired, each trying to finally complete this project. This opulent room is the senate chambers--complete with walls covered in 23 karat gold.
The acoustics in this room are so perfect that even a whispered conversation can be heard from afar. There are two large fireplaces in the room, but they are not properly connected to chimneys, so they have never been used. So if legislators want to have a private conversation, they just walk into the 6-foot opening of one of the fireplaces to talk.
Those huge fireplaces are curiously plain in a building that has such elaborate decorations. That is because there was finally a day when the state of New York had enough, and someone declared it was finished. After 32 years, they literally told the artisans to take their chisels and go home--right now. So those fireplaces never got carved. We would have totally missed the less obvious details that went unfinished without our tour guide's guidance to see the row of carvings under the windows that didn't get completed.
In the middle of the picture, the lump of stone was left unchiseled. But even funnier, in the far right section of the picture is a row of stone beading that has remained uncompleted since that day when all the stone carvers were fired.
This was the most expensive government building of its time, but that didn't include its crowning jewel--the dome at the center. This flat top building is where the huge dome was supposed to sit when the state of New York finally halted work on this money pit.
We also got to visit the Assembly Hall, where the larger legislative house meets.
The capitol guard allowed us to go inside the ceremonial governor's office this day because Governor Cuomo is out of town. This big room is used mostly for press conferences and group meetings, but there is a desk pushed into the corner to give it some semblance of an office. New York has had some famous governors that used this office and then went on to become presidents.
One of those was Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who tried to hide the fact that he was unable to walk on his own after he contracted polio. Our tour guide said that he had this secret door cut into the wool paneled wall. A secret passageway allowed him to be wheeled into this office without anyone seeing that he needed a wheel chair. He was seated at the desk, and the wheel chair tucked into the secret passage way before visitors were allowed into the room.
We have to say that this was the most interesting state capitol we have visited so far, and we were glad that we took the time to take the tour. But by the time we were leaving, the sun was lowering and lighting up the side entrance to this beautiful building.
When we were waiting for the capitol tour to begin, we walked around in the underground tunnels that connect the state buildings in the capitol complex. We came upon this curious sign in our self-guided underground tour.
That meant that we had arrived at the Center for the Performing Arts, fondly called "The Egg" by all of New York. It is actually a grand theatre, and the architects were successful when they were instructed to design an unusual building for the Empire State Plaza. It's hard to grasp the size of The Egg until you notice that Mark is standing at its base.
This picture shows the proximity of The Egg to the capitol building and many other state buildings on the pedestrian Empire State Plaza complex. It was a pleasant walk with large water features and sculptures on this beautiful autumn day. But the underground tunnels that we explored earlier would certainly be appreciated on a cold winter day in Albany.
We walked across the plaza to the New York State Museum. We didn't have long before it closed for the day, so we only had time to hit the highlights.
That would include the 100-year-old carousel on the top floor. Free rides are given every half hour, and Denisa doesn't miss a carousel ride.
They also have a large 911 exhibit that includes the remains of the fire truck of one of the first responding units--Engine 6.
We are now camped near Lake Sacandaga, and we drove through the town of Schenectady to get here. So we have already seen that American Indians helped to name many hard-to-pronounce places in this area of New York. So it is fitting that a large section of the New York Museum featured Native American lifestyle--including this life-size reproduction of the Iroquois Indian long house.
We had to run by the exhibits on New York's plants, animals, and minerals, but this huge skeleton of a right whale suspended from the ceiling would be hard to miss.
When they made the announcement that the museum was closing, we made a quick exit. We were back at the car just in time to fight the rush hour traffic out of town. But we feel that we had got to see some of Albany's treasures, and we had a great time in this area.
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