Friday morning, it was still raining, so I hibernated. After the rain let us in the late morning, Peter dinghied into the hamet of Cold Spring Harbor for a haircut. After lunch (and a visit from the pump-out boat), we pulled up anchor and motored the few miles over to Oyster Bay, anchoring in the bight west of Cove Neck. The sky seemed to be brightening in the north, but it really didn't clear up until after sunset. Before that, we took the dinghy into town, tying up at the Oyster Bay Marine Center.
Oyster Bay, particularly Sagamore Hill, was the home of Theodore Roosevelt, so the waterfront park through which we strolled honors him in name and with a sculpture installation consisting mostly of rocks from places that were significant in his life. The walls of the restaurant we chose for dinner, Canterbury's Oyster Bar and Grill, is lined with photographs, magazine covers, political cartoons and paintings of Roosevelt and his family and friends. How could one not have oysters in Oyster Bay? Well, it is easy if one is a vegetarian like me, but Peter had some for an appetizer and found them delicious. We were just finishing up our meal and having the leftovers boxed when a couple of musicians started setting up to perform. We were assured that we were welcome to stay, but we felt compelled to order dessert, a wonderful creme brûlée/cheesecake combination with melted caramel and fresh whipped cream. After the first set was over, we pulled our overly fed bodies out of our seats, walked back to the dinghy and motored back to Mantra.
Today was a sightseeing day, all about Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919). First we visited Sagamore Hill, his home and property on Cove Neck about four miles from the center of town. When Teddy was 15, his father established the family's summer residence at Oyster Bay, and Teddy and his siblings loved exploring the nearby fields and woodlands of Cove Neck. In 1880, the year he graduated from Harvard, he purchased the 155 acres of Sagamore Hill with his fiance Alice Hathaway Lee, whom he married later that year. He kept 95 acres and sold the rest to close relatives, so his six children grew up surrounded by aunts, uncles and many cousins.
Plans were completed for the house but construction had not yet begun when his wife and mother both died on February 14, 1884--his wife from kidney disease just 48 hours after giving birth to their daugher Alice, and his mother from typhus at their home in New York City. Devastated by the double loss, Roosevelt had the house constructed at Sagamore Hill and arranged for his sister Anna to take care of the baby and move into the house while he sought refuge on his ranch in the Badlands of the North Dakota for the next couple of years, although he returned to New York often.
In December of 1886, he married his childhood and family friend, Edith Kermit Carow in London, and in the spring of 1887 the couple moved into the house, which remained their home for the rest of their lives. As the 26th President of the United States, from 1902 to 1909, Roosevelt believed the office was a full-time, full-year job (Other than Lincoln, previous presidents had taken the summer off.), and Sagamore Hill became known as the Summer White House. Many national and internationally historic events occurred here. In August of 1905, for example, Roosevelt met separately with envoys of warring Japan and Russian in the library and then brought them face-to-face, starting a peace process that resulted in the Treaty of Portsmouth on September 5, 1905, that ended the conflict and earned Roosevelt the Nobel Peace Prize.
He enjoyed and took great pride in his public life and political activities, but he valued his family most of all. He stopped work at about 4 p.m. every day to spend time and play with his children. Although he loved to read to them, he particularly advocated what he called "the stenuous life" and joined them in outdoor games, hikes, swims, boating excursions on the bay, wood chopping, hikes and horseback riding, which he loved. He was also known to instigate pillow fights through the halls of the second floor of the house before bedtime.
Although as a child he suffered from acute asthma and spent most of his time indoors with books, he led an extremely varied, involved and active life as an adult. In government, he served in the New York State Assembly, on the US Civil Service Commission, as NYC Police Commissioner, as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, as Governor of New York, as Vice-President, and as President for two terms. He wrote over 30 books as well as numerous articles for magazines and newspapers during his lifetime. He was a cattle rancher in the Dakota Territory, a heroic leader of the 1st Volunteer Cavalry Regiment (the Rough Riders) in Cuba in the Spanish American War, a big game hunter, an explorer and world traveler. But, as the guides at the Sagamore Hill National Historic Site emphasized, he was a devoted father who put family above all else.
He supported U.S. involvement in World War I, and all four of his sons joined the military. His youngest, Quentin, an airman, was shot down over German-controlled France late in the war, in 1918. The death devastated his father, who was already suffering physically from severe arthritis as well as from previous wounds and tropical diseases that had never entirely healed. He died in his sleep at Sagamore Hill on January 16, 1919, of a pulmonary embolism.
His funeral was held at the church he, his wife Edith and their six children had always attended, Christ Church and buried a mile away from the church and just a couple miles from his home at Youngs Cemetery.
In the morning and early afternoon at Sagamore Hill, we learned these details about Theodore Roosevelt and much more during a tour of the house, a visit to the museum and a stroll to Cold Spring Harbor on the trail the family used to reach the marshes and beaches. Hungry but determined to soak up as much history as possible, we took a Lyft back into town, quickly purchased enormous ice cream cones (our lunch!) at Carvel's, and joined the 2:00 ranger-led tour of the heart of the village of Oyster Bay, where our knowledge and appreciation of the man only increased.
Afterwards, we stopped at a hardware for items for the boat and then at a little cafe, Sweet Tomato, for homemade soup to balance out the ice cream before returning to the boat. It was warm enough to take a shower on the swim platform at the stern of Mantra, and we still had plenty of hot water from running the engine for an hour yesterday to reach Oyster Bay. For the past few hours, we have been piddling and going chores. For the first time, I am using the washing machine on the boat (because we are out of underwear!) and it seems to be working fine. We wish we could say the same about the relatively new batteries, which are not charging or discharging properly, stymying Peter, who can usually figure these things out. Because of their unreliability (or complete failure), we have been very conservative about using power, so I am charging my computer now while we have the generator running in order to run the washing machine.
The wind will be too light for the next couple of days for sailing, but we will pull up anchor and move on nonetheless.
There are no photos right now due to inexplicable technical difficulties! (Now there are!)
Oyster Bay, particularly Sagamore Hill, was the home of Theodore Roosevelt, so the waterfront park through which we strolled honors him in name and with a sculpture installation consisting mostly of rocks from places that were significant in his life. The walls of the restaurant we chose for dinner, Canterbury's Oyster Bar and Grill, is lined with photographs, magazine covers, political cartoons and paintings of Roosevelt and his family and friends. How could one not have oysters in Oyster Bay? Well, it is easy if one is a vegetarian like me, but Peter had some for an appetizer and found them delicious. We were just finishing up our meal and having the leftovers boxed when a couple of musicians started setting up to perform. We were assured that we were welcome to stay, but we felt compelled to order dessert, a wonderful creme brûlée/cheesecake combination with melted caramel and fresh whipped cream. After the first set was over, we pulled our overly fed bodies out of our seats, walked back to the dinghy and motored back to Mantra.
Today was a sightseeing day, all about Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919). First we visited Sagamore Hill, his home and property on Cove Neck about four miles from the center of town. When Teddy was 15, his father established the family's summer residence at Oyster Bay, and Teddy and his siblings loved exploring the nearby fields and woodlands of Cove Neck. In 1880, the year he graduated from Harvard, he purchased the 155 acres of Sagamore Hill with his fiance Alice Hathaway Lee, whom he married later that year. He kept 95 acres and sold the rest to close relatives, so his six children grew up surrounded by aunts, uncles and many cousins.
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| Teddy Roosevelt's home at Sagamore Hill |
In December of 1886, he married his childhood and family friend, Edith Kermit Carow in London, and in the spring of 1887 the couple moved into the house, which remained their home for the rest of their lives. As the 26th President of the United States, from 1902 to 1909, Roosevelt believed the office was a full-time, full-year job (Other than Lincoln, previous presidents had taken the summer off.), and Sagamore Hill became known as the Summer White House. Many national and internationally historic events occurred here. In August of 1905, for example, Roosevelt met separately with envoys of warring Japan and Russian in the library and then brought them face-to-face, starting a peace process that resulted in the Treaty of Portsmouth on September 5, 1905, that ended the conflict and earned Roosevelt the Nobel Peace Prize.
He enjoyed and took great pride in his public life and political activities, but he valued his family most of all. He stopped work at about 4 p.m. every day to spend time and play with his children. Although he loved to read to them, he particularly advocated what he called "the stenuous life" and joined them in outdoor games, hikes, swims, boating excursions on the bay, wood chopping, hikes and horseback riding, which he loved. He was also known to instigate pillow fights through the halls of the second floor of the house before bedtime.
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| Tidal marsh at the base of Sagamore Hill by Cold Spring Harbor, where Teddy and his family enjoyed the water |
He supported U.S. involvement in World War I, and all four of his sons joined the military. His youngest, Quentin, an airman, was shot down over German-controlled France late in the war, in 1918. The death devastated his father, who was already suffering physically from severe arthritis as well as from previous wounds and tropical diseases that had never entirely healed. He died in his sleep at Sagamore Hill on January 16, 1919, of a pulmonary embolism.
His funeral was held at the church he, his wife Edith and their six children had always attended, Christ Church and buried a mile away from the church and just a couple miles from his home at Youngs Cemetery.
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| Christ Church in Oyster Bay |
Afterwards, we stopped at a hardware for items for the boat and then at a little cafe, Sweet Tomato, for homemade soup to balance out the ice cream before returning to the boat. It was warm enough to take a shower on the swim platform at the stern of Mantra, and we still had plenty of hot water from running the engine for an hour yesterday to reach Oyster Bay. For the past few hours, we have been piddling and going chores. For the first time, I am using the washing machine on the boat (because we are out of underwear!) and it seems to be working fine. We wish we could say the same about the relatively new batteries, which are not charging or discharging properly, stymying Peter, who can usually figure these things out. Because of their unreliability (or complete failure), we have been very conservative about using power, so I am charging my computer now while we have the generator running in order to run the washing machine.
The wind will be too light for the next couple of days for sailing, but we will pull up anchor and move on nonetheless.
There are no photos right now due to inexplicable technical difficulties! (Now there are!)
 |
| Sunset, Oyster Bay |
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