Day 4 5/23



Inside Cole's studio

It has only been the first week and I am already loving the Summer on the Hudson, and today was a great way to end the week.  We traveled to Cedar Grove to see the houses of Thomas Cole and Fredrick Church, also between sites we hiked through the Catskills.

Inside Cole's Studio

The drive there was an adventure all itself, Andor drove the van for the first time. We followed behind Michael. Along the way we ended up getting a bit lost. In the end we made it to our destination. The Thomas Cole site was nice, I enjoyed getting a chance to see more of his paintings, and I also liked hearing more about his backstory. Although the tour guide at the site was a bit annoying, overall I had a good time.

We next took a hike in the Catskills, to an actual site of one of his paintings. This was defiantly the best part of the week. I am an outdoor person so I defiantly enjoy hiking and hope we have more days like this. I loved the hike, the scenery was beautiful. For me what I love about hiking is getting away from the sound of cars and technology and all only hearing the sounds of nature (however we all had are phones to take pictures.) Hearing the waterfall, the flow of the river and the other sounds of nature to me is the best part of hiking. Once the group reached the site, we had the option to continue up the path to the top part of one of the waterfalls. The path was a little harder but it was fun, once we reached the top the view was incredible. Going back down was a little bit harder but we all got down safely.  

Church's House

After a break for lunch we next went to Fredrick Church’s house. His house in my opinion was defiantly better then Coles, the outside was breathe taking. I thought it was cool that he added his own personal touch to the house. As the house was built he used his paintings to model for the design and color. Sadly we were unable to take pictures of the inside. This was the end of our first week and I cant wait for what the next five have in store for us.