Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY

Making a "magic wand"

View of the Hudson river

Spinning map of the river

Sam's favorite activity - a stamp scavenger hunt about the animals and plants who live in the river

Topographical map of the river valley

Spectroscopy demo - looking through special goggles to see the color spectrums that various heated gases make. Sam also really liked a kids' planetarium show.

Also part of the museum is Glenview mansion, a historic 19th century estate.

Dollhouse in the mansion was a highlight. Sam had fun figuring out how the inhabitants of this house would get from room to room through various doors and stairs

Magic wand in action!

The view of the opposite side of the river, the Palisades, where we hiked last week. The lighter-color rubble of rocks in the middle is not a waterfall, but a place where a giant part of the rock fell off of the cliff several years ago.

Lunch in the nearby village of Hastings with a view of the river and the Palisades

Amazing hike! "Giant Stairs" trail at Palisades Interstate Park, in Alpine, NJ

We started at State Line Lookout, in Alpine, NJ, the part of the park which is near the border of NJ and NY, on top of the cliffs. It took us several hours and was about 4 miles long, with long stretches of giant boulders to scramble over, and my step counter counted that we climbed the equivalent of 34 floors down and then back up.

 

Looking down from the Palisades cliffs down to the Hudson River

Waterfall called Peanut Leap Cascade

We walked down the cliffs to the water level (about 520 feet of elevation) and had a snack by the river

 

This part of the trail was called "Giant Stairs" for the huge boulders one has to climb

 

 

 

 

Finally back at the top of the cliffs, after climbing a vertical distance of 520 feet!

 

 

Cultural dance performance at Sam's school - Indian dance

Sam's class before the dance

Staten Island Gateway National Recreation Area - Part 2

One of Sam's junior ranger tasks today was to go to ocean tidal pools and find different kids of shells. Here he is taking a break with Italian ice

Playing in the water at Great Kills park

 

 

A major storm was brewing... Verazzano bridge is barely visible in the distance

 

Interviewing a park ranger, one of the activities required in the junior ranger booklet

Getting sworn in as a junior park ranger (and the best part - getting a badge)

First day at the pool

 

Our town's Newcomers and Neighbors association picnic

Eagle Rock Reservation in West Orange, NJ

View of Manhattan from the observation point

Our au pair Kamil also came along to the picnic

Strawberry festival at Sam's school

With classmates Lily and Harry