The final city we visited in New York state was Troy, a city just outside of New York’s state capital – Albany.
A friend described Troy as being “gritty” which seemed like a great description of it. It wasn’t quaint, but it also wasn’t a bad place to stay for a week to explore the area a little, especially with Albany and Saratoga Springs being close by.
Here’s a roundup of what we did in the Troy/Albany/Saratoga Springs area during our week there.
Where We Stayed
We stayed the entire week at this two bedroom apartment booked through Airbnb. It looks like both Shae and I forgot to take photos of the apartment, so you’ll have to click through to Airbnb to see what it’s like.
It was a great place to stay; it was spacious, quiet and was well-equipped (including having a washer and dryer). Its biggest downside was the fact that it was on the third floor of a walk-up. We knew this ahead of time and had picked it so that there wouldn’t be anyone above us so that Truffles wouldn’t bark at footsteps overhead. Walking up and down wasn’t an issue in and of itself, but unloading our car with all our stuff and having to carry it all up two flights of stairs when checking in wasn’t the most fun experience! Again, that’s not an indictment on the Airbnb as we knew that going into it, but it didn’t make it any less fun!
The neighborhood was interesting. Walking a couple of blocks over in one direction took you into what seemed like a somewhat sketchy neighborhood, but walk a block or two in another direction and there were beautiful brownstone buildings. We felt perfectly safe walking around.
What We Did
New York State Capitol
Albany is only 15 minutes from Troy, so we drove downtown to visit the State Capitol building. The building’s exterior is interesting as it felt more like something you’d see in Germany or Austria than New York state.
The building’s interior – particularly its stairwells – on the other hand looks more like something out of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
You can take a self-guided tour of the building too. Shae checked it out while I waited outside with Truffles as dogs aren’t allowed inside.
Saratoga Springs
Troy is about 40 minutes south of Saratoga Springs, a cute city that’s home to the Saratoga Race Course. There were horse races going on during our time there, so Saratoga Springs seemed like it was probably busier than it’d normally be. That made it a little harder to find parking, but also meant the city felt like it was bustling and vibrant.
A particularly pretty part of Saratoga Springs is Congress Park. The park has a wooden carousel, mineral springs, a former casino building, fountains and more.
Schuyler Mansion State Historic Site
One afternoon while I was working, Shae headed into downtown Albany to visit the Schuyler Mansion State Historic Site. The mansion was owned by Philip Schuyler, a prominent politician who nowadays is possibly more well known as being the father of the Schuyler sisters in Hamilton, including Elizabeth Schuyler who went on to marry Alexander Hamilton. You can read more about Shae’s visit to the Schuyler Mansion State Historic Site here.
Poestenkill Gorge Park
I’ve been writing for Frequent Miler since 2018 and Nick (senior author on the site) lives in upstate New York somewhat near Troy. He and his family had been away on vacation during the first part of our time in Albany, but we were able to get together on our last day there. We started off by meeting up at Poestenkill Gorge Park in Troy, a small park with a waterfall and swimming hole.
Saratoga National Historical Park
Shae missed a fair bit of our time in Albany as she met up with her mom in Washington D.C. for a few days. They’d originally planned on meeting up during that time to go to the Madonna concert; that concert was postponed due to Madonna’s health issues, but they decided to spend the weekend together anyway.
Shae returned the afternoon of our last day in Troy. After checking out of our Airbnb, we headed up to Saratoga Springs so she could visit there as Truffles and I had checked it out a few days prior. After that we headed on to Saratoga National Historical Park, the site of the first major victory by the Americans in the Revolutionary War.
There’s a road running through the park where you can stop to see a few notable sites, but it seemed far more sparse than other battlefield-type sites we’ve visited in the past.
The park also includes other sites a little further afield like the Saratoga Monument which commemorates the surrender of the British Army in that battle, as well as Philip Schuyler’s house (separate to the mansion mentioned earlier).
Where We Ate & Drank
La Casa De Pizzeria
We had a couple of Grubhub credits to use up towards the end of the month and so ordered dinner from La Casa De Pizzeria which is in the app. I don’t like cheese, but that was no problem as they had a tasty beef shawarma meal (among other non-cheesy options) which was massive and packed with meat.
Shae ordered a calzone which was absolutely enormous too – way bigger than expected. It wasn’t just size over substance either – she thought it was delicious.
Rare Form Brewing Company
After Shae flew to Washington D.C., Truffles and I walked downtown to check out Rare Form Brewing Company. Their selection of beers wasn’t quite as extensive as those listed on their website, so it was a shame that they didn’t have any darker beers. However, their other beers were pretty good nonetheless, with their Belgian IPA being my favorite.
One of the reasons I’d chosen Rare Form is because they’re dog-friendly inside. Truffles loves attention, so she has a tendency to want to sit or lay in walkways to encourage people to pet her as they walk by.
Green Shell Chinese Restaurant
In addition to having a couple of Grubhub credits about to expire, we had some Uber Eats credits about to expire at the end of August too. To use those up, I ordered a couple of meals from Green Shell Chinese Restaurant – house fried rice and General Tso’s chicken. The house fried rice was fine, but the General Tso’s was very poor – it was mostly batter with very little chicken.
Whitman Brewing Co
When visiting Saratoga Springs, I stopped at Whitman Brewing Co downtown to have a beer while getting on with a little work. They’re a pet-friendly brewery which lets dogs in their lobby area and outside on their patio, but not in their main taproom.
Whitman Brewing Co had a dozen different beers to choose from, several of which I was interested in.
I’d been hoping that they’d offer flights, but alas not. However, they do offer 3oz pours and so I got a couple of those. One was their Paint It Black which is a black lager and the other was their Edelweiss which is a hefeweizen. The Edelweiss was the best of the two.
Artisanal Brew Works
After wandering around Saratoga Springs for a while, Truffles and I headed to a different brewery on the outskirts of the city – Artisanal Brew Works. This is another pet-friendly brewery which lets dogs on their patio.
Artisanal Brew Works has an extensive beer menu. They had 35 different beers between draft pours, cans, slushies and more.
Unlike Whitman, Artisanal Brew Works does offer beer flights and so I ordered one of those. I got:
- tOATal Darkness – an oatmeal stout
- BB Brown – an English-style dark ale
- Daily Double 7th Anniversary Edition – an IPA
- Touch O’ Crunch – a spiced beer (cinnamon)
They were all good, but the oatmeal stout was my favorite. In hindsight, I’m disappointed that I didn’t order their Totes McGoates which is described as a BBBBerry smoothie. I’m curious if it’s as good as the amazing Berry Rocky Road beer at Dewey Beer Co. in Delaware.
Brown’s Brewing Company
After visiting Poestenkill Gorge Park with Nick and his family, we all went for dinner at Brown’s Brewing Company in downtown Troy. I ordered their peach hefeweizen which was very good, while Shae got their intriguing Troyarita. This had Tanteo chipotle tequila, blackberry liqueur, fresh lime and agave nectar and was more smoky than I was expecting after trying a little of her drink.
For dinner I ordered their pulled pork sandwich with sweet potato fries (tasty), while Shae got their French dip sandwich (also tasty).
Dairy Haus
When visiting Artisanal Brew Works, I’d driven by Dairy Haus on the way there. I didn’t visit it that day, but Shae and I headed there a few days later when returning to Saratoga Springs.
Dairy Haus had initially caught my eye as they had a sign saying they had apple cider donuts. They were sadly out of them a few days later when we visited, but we did get ice cream flights – something that more and more ice cream shops seem to be offering which is an awesome development!
They have 30+ ice cream flavors, so it was hard choosing which ones to get. I eventually managed to settle on four flavors, with caramel cookie dough being the best of the four, but all of the ice cream flavors were lovely.
What We Didn’t Do
There were several attractions and restaurants we didn’t have a chance to get to in Troy, Albany and the surrounding area, so these are on a future to-visit list:
- Dinosaur Bar-B-Que
- Bella-Napoli Italian Bakery
- Uncle Sam statue (Troy was home to the person Uncle Sam is modeled on, but the statue had been taken down for construction work while we were there)
- Nine Pin Cider Works
- Tara Kitchen
- Howe Caverns
- Martha’s Dandee Creme – has huge ice cream cones
- Lake George
- Kaaterskill Falls – highest cascading waterfall in the state
- Art Omi
- Emerson Kaleidoscope – world’s largest kaleidoscope
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