Oct 13, 2018 Adventures in the Capital District - Union & Pine Bush

It was a rainy Saturday morning, yet we went ahead and took the Union College historical walking tour with Bret. We learned all sorts of facts, such as when a student there, President Chester Arthur carved his name into a window sill (now in their special collections); the movie "The Way We Were" was filmed there, and the fake ivy on the Nott Memorial caused damage to the building; Union was established in 1795 and was asked to be a member of the Ivy League, but they declined as they did not want to be elitist; they took the name "Union" as it was the first college to admit students from 16 different religious sects.  Photos of the 16-sided Nott Memorial, inside and out, designed by Edward Potter (we don't think that's a relative).


In the afternoon, we went to the Albany Pine Bush Reserve, an interesting area that Bret visited in his environmental geology field lab which he wanted to share with us. This is a "globally rare ecosystem" of forest growing on fossilized sand dunes. It is home to the endangered Karner Blue Butterfly, which we did not see, although we caught a glimpse of a fast-moving garter snake.   http://www.albanypinebush.org/about-the-pine-bush/origins-of-the-pine-bush-2



Then we took a few minutes to pay respects at the Most Holy Redeemer Cemetery. Later, we finished the day at Scarborough restaurant in Latham, very fittingly with a dozen cousins. Once a Dutch colonial farmhouse, this building was their childhood home and a place we used to visit before being converted into a restaurant.
http://www.scarboroughslatham.com/about.html