West Point Museum, Washington's Headquarters, FDR National Park

A big educational day for all.  Today was our last day and wanted to see the things we hadn't gotten to yet.  We started off at the West Point Museum.  Stefan loved it but we didn't want of focus too much on guns.  Stefan selected a nice book of Washington's quotes that he wanted to have for his library.  On the way to FDR's home, we stopped at Washington's last headquarters where he was for the last 16 months of the war. It was a Dutch style home right on the Hudson river.  This Dutch style home had an open fireplace which the stone wall would heat the room, open painted  beams and date plate at door.  We learned Washington's favorite snack was Walnuts and he slept as was cutomary of the time, sitting up because they thought not good for health to sleep close to floor-beds short-ate biggest dinner at 3:00 p.m.., ink came in packets and put  in water, called pocketing.  Most interesting was seeing the original desk where he wrote his ideas about what he thought this country needed and where he designed the military merit badge which later became the purple heart, an incentive for moral since they couldn't pay more money.  He personally gave it to three people.  One was a man who was sent out to spy, got shot, pretended to become British so could get medical treatment and then escaped and came back a year later with report.

Washington's Headquarters

A memorial to the troops of the revolutionary war, and view from back of headquarters

We finally made it to FDR's  home and it was extremely interesting and informative.  Mark and I are learning so much.  We either didn't listen well in school or they didn't teach much but neither one of us knew much about FDR and Eleanor.  The movie was a good overview on his life.  He was a very self-confidant man, a mama's boy, went to Harvard and passed the bar without graduating.  In 1932 became the 32nd president.  His inaugural speech "Only thing we have to fear, is fear itself".  Gave this country hope, elected 4 times, more than any other president, Was President during depression and World War II.  Springdale was his boyhood home in Hyde Park on the Hudson where he went back to live with his widowed mother, Sara and his bride Eleanor.  They had 5 children.  After he got polio he would push himself to walk everyday down the lane in his braces.  Never made it to the end but shows his determination.  Learned also about Eleanor and her background, how she supported him and rose in leadership herself .  She became the first lady of Civil Rights and the Ku Klux Klan reportedly wanted to get rid of her.  Eleanor was quoted as saying "Courage Can Be Exilerating." FDR and Eleanor were the people's friends but it is sad that they struggled so in their personal lives and marriage. FDR collected many things:  stamps, birds, trees.  He said that trees were the lungs of the nation and called himself a tree farmer.  He inspired the  nation to send in dimes for polio research and started March of Dimes.  Good books that were recommended were No Ordinary Time (book about the Roosevelts) and Eleanor: A Scrapbook by Candace Fleming.

Springdale, home of FDR

FDR and Eleanor's grave

Stefan and Janae completing their Jr. Ranger booklet with Eleanor and FDR