The Best of the Best!

We’ll breakfast at the hotel this morning before traveling to the Back Bay and the Italian palazzo of 19th century arts patroness and collector Isabella Stewart Gardner. Over 7,500 items from around the world comprise her collection, complemented by an acclaimed recent addition by noted architect Renzo Piano. Lunch at the Café G before visiting the home of American patriot, silversmith and Founding Father Paul Revere. The day concludes at the JFK Library and Museum, situated on a ten-acre park overlooking the sea that he loved. The museum vividly portrays the life, leadership, and legacy of President Kennedy. Continuing the Gaelic theme, dinner is at an authentic Irish pub. A second night at the Hyatt Regency Boston Harbor.

Breakfast at the hotel this morning before traveling to Hillsboro, NH, birthplace of Franklin Pierce, our 14th president and New Hampshire’s only chief executive. Then, it’s on to tiny Plymouth Notch, VT and the Calvin Coolidge Homestead & Summer White House. On the centennial of Coolidge’s lamplit inauguration, we’ll have time to experience this remarkably well preserved presidential site and living history museum in-depth. Don’t miss the Plymouth Cheese Factory where you can sample Vermont’s best. Departing Plymouth Notch, we’ll pause at the nearby Coolidge family gravesite. Our riverfront lodgings for the next two nights are at The Shire in Woodstock, VT, consistently ranked as “the prettiest small town in America.” All of our rooms boast scenic river views. This evening we’ve planned a special celebration for Richard’s 70th Birthday.

After breakfast we’ll visit Woodstock’s Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park. Created by an Act of Congress and signed into law by President George Bush on August 26, 1992, it was designed to be an entirely new kind of national park, entwining the human stories and natural history of the region, an educational resource for the nation and a seedbed for American environmental thought. Lunch is at the Farm House Café at the Billings Farm & Museum. This working Vermont dairy farm with its restored Farm Manager’s House also includes a museum with an Oscar-nominated film A Place in the Land. Returning to our hotel, some free time before dinner to relax in this bucolic landscape. Dinner this evening is on our own. A second night at The Shire.

Breakfast at the hotel before traveling to the college town of Bennington, VT. Here we’ll ascend the Battle Monument and pay our respects at the grave of American poet Robert Frost. While reciting from memory his poem “The Gift Outright” at the January 20, 1960 inauguration of President John F. Kennedy, the old showman came close to stealing the show. This afternoon we arrive in Albany, NY, and a tour of the grandiose New York State Capitol perched majestically atop State Street hill. Originally budgeted at $4 million, it cost $25 million by the time Governor Theodore Roosevelt declared it finished in 1899. Our last stop today is Albany’s Old Rural Cemetery, final resting place of the 21st President of the United States Chester Arthur. Dinner this evening is at Jack’s Oyster House. Overnight (the first of two) at the Hilton Downtown in Albany.

After breakfast at the hotel we travel to Hudson, NY and a highlight of the tour: Olana, overlooking the Hudson River on 250 landscaped acres, is the one of a kind home of famed landscape painter Frederic Church. The preeminent American artist of the mid-19th century, Church traveled the globe seeking exotic locales to put on canvas. Writing to his brother in 1860, Mark Twain declared Church’s Heart of the Andes to be “the most wonderfully beautiful painting he ever saw”. Church designed Olana to integrate his advanced ideas about art, architecture, landscape design, and environmental conservation. This afternoon we stop at Lindenwald, home of President Martin Van Buren, our nation’s 8th president. Failing re-election in 1840, Van Buren returned to this recently purchased estate to plan his return to the White House at the earliest opportunity. Unsuccessful in his 1844 campaign, Van Buren resumed the life of a gentleman farmer. We’ll pause at Van Buren’s tomb before covering the short distance back to Albany for dinner and a second night’s stay.

We’ll breakfast at the hotel this morning before journeying to Hyde Park, NY and Springwood, home of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. FDR returned to Springwood often, drawing on this place to renew his spirits during times of personal and political crisis. We’ll also visit the recently renovated FDR Presidential Library and Museum and the Roosevelt’s gravesites (FDR’s favorite pooch Fala is also laid to rest here). Lunch today is at the American Bounty Restaurant at the nearby Culinary Institute of America, the preeminent training ground for tomorrow’s most renowned chefs. On to the Big Apple. Our lodgings for the next two nights are the Shelburne Sonesta, situated in the heart of the Murray Hill neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan. Free evening to dine out, shop, or take in a Broadway show.

Breakfast at our hotel precedes a visit to Federal Hall. It was here, on April 30, 1789, that George Washington took the oath of office as our first President. The same structure housed the first Congress, Supreme Court, and Executive Branch offices. Lunch (weather permitting) is at the former Pier 55, to which the RMS Carpathia delivered survivors from the Titanic disaster in April 1912. Today, it’s home to Little Island, an extraordinary manmade island supported by 132 pot-shaped structures called “tulips” and jutting out into the Hudson River in lower Manhattan. The views are spectacular. Our final stop today is The Cloisters, a medieval complex of buildings excavated from France and rebuilt in NYC in the 1930’s by John D. Rockefeller, Jr.. Marvel at the Gothic Chapel with its stunning stained-glass windows from the 14th century. Visit the Fuentiduena Chapel brought over from Spain, and The Lagon Chapel from Burgundy, France. Nowhere else in America can you find such spectacular examples of Medieval European architecture, exquisite period gardens, and priceless works of art. Turns out the so-called “Dark Ages” were actually a period of brilliant innovation, imagination, and creativity. There’s time to dress before a special Farewell Dinner at Sylvia’s Soul Food, a Harlem institution serving up generous helpings of Southern comfort food since 1962 and a special favorite of celebrities and of former President Bill Clinton, whose Harlem office is less than a mile away. A final night at the Shelburne Sonesta.

Breakfast is again included this morning before departing NYC per our own schedules.