Happy 400th Birthday to the Hudson River

Yesterday (Sunday) was the main festivities in celebration of Henry Hudson's discovery of the Hudson River 400 years ago. Henry Hudson was hired by the Dutch to find a trade route between Europe and Asia that cut through the Americas. When he discovered New York Harbor, he thought he had found the Northwest Passage. He followed the Hudson River, named for him, all of the way to Albany until it got too narrow to navigate.

In celebration of the discovery of the river, a Flotilla of boats sailed up the river yesterday so we spent a couple of hours down by the river yesterday. The weather was beautiful. We sat on our chairs and enjoyed listening the water and feeling the gentle breeze.We saw a ton of boats just out on the river for fun, and several of them were sailboats. It made me a little nostalgic, especially when I saw this. (Click on the picture and you will notice the people on the front with their legs hanging over the side as the boat sails gently with the wind.)
This barge, being pushed by a tug boat, went past while we were waiting for the Flotilla. Notice it's size in relation to the sailboat who's picture I took from the same place, when the boat was at the same point in the river and also about the same distance away. I actually had to zoom out some to get the whole barge in the picture.
The kids enjoyed visiting with friends that we kept seeing. Lots of people were out to see the boats. They also had fun standing on the "rocky dock" as it bounced in the waves. (It is made of several sections of plastic so it rolls and rocks as the waves come in... and there were lots of waves due to all of the boat traffic.)

The Flotilla arrived at about 5 pm and was hailed with the firing of several cannons from shore.
It was fun to see all of the boats, including the fire boats, one large and several small. The larger one, the John J. Harvery, pumped water to firefighters at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11th.
We also saw a replica of the Onrust, a Dutch vessel that sailed in 1614
an old older tug boat of the type used in the canal systems up north
a replica of the Half Moon, the ship Henry Hudson sailed when he discovered the river,
And many other boats.