Catskills

Todays journey was quite long but very intriguing. We traveled to the catskill's and viewed Thomas Cole's house. The house was immaculate inside and portrayed an amazing landscape view of the mountains just like many of his portraits. It was amazing to see what life was like during Cole's time period. I found it interesting that although his house was over a hundred years old, it was built similarly to houses that are but today especially the nicer and more expensive ones. In the house something I thought was cool in particular was his paintbrushes and paint pallet that we could touch with our own hands because in most exhibits we are not even allowed to take pictures of the items let alone touch them. After leaving Cole's house we traveled to Catterskill Falls. The mile hike up and down the falls was absolutely stunning. It wasn't like your typical hike, it was entirely uphill and we had to maneuver around rocks and water to get to the falls. Once we reached the top I learned that I was at the bottom of the highest falls in New York even higher than Niagara Falls which I found hard to believe. After leaving the falls we eventualy made it to the historic sight of Olana, also known as Frederick Church's home. Olana was by far my favorite sight so far during our summer on the hudson. It was true beauty. I learned that there was a purpose to the layout of the landscape of Church's home. He planted trees purposely to block the view of his castle and portray the beauty of nature and the river, and when he wanted you to see the house it was directly in front of you and impossible to miss. Mostly everything in the house was the original from Church's time period. It was crazy to see the original paintings that still hang in his house for tourists to see. My favorite piece in the house was his painting for his wife Olivia. It shows how much respect and love he had for her. Overall the day was great and I saw things I never would have unless I was apart of the discovery degree program.