-I'm in a destination that's known as one of the most beautiful in the United States.

A famous river defines it, but so does the rich abundance of its experiences.

[ Gunshot ] -[ Laughs ] -It's a historical area where the past is always part of the present, especially when sitting down to eat.

Fantastic.

It's where the views are sweeping, farms are the focus, and art seriously appreciated.

There's no doubt it's my cup of tea.

I'm in New York's Hudson River Valley, exploring the beautiful Dutchess County.

I'm Samantha Brown and I've traveled all over this world.

And I'm always looking to find the destinations, the experiences, and, most importantly, the people who make us feel like we're really a part of a place.

That's why I have a love of travel and why these are my places to love.

Samantha Brown's "Places to Love" is made possible by... -The rhythm of the waves.

The calming sounds of nature.

On the Southwest Florida coast, there are wide open beaches and hundreds of islands.

Sometimes doing nothing can mean everything.

♪♪ Learn more at fortmyers-sanibel.com.

♪♪ -We believe watching the world go by isn't enough.

That's why we climb... ♪♪ ...pedal... ♪♪ ...and journey beyond the beaten path, on storied rivers, with a goal to ensure that every mile traveled turns into another memory.

You can find out more at amawaterways.com.

♪♪ -All the untamed beauty of the Canadian Rocky Mountains and the American Southwest... experienced on a journey by rail.

Rocky Mountaineer, proud sponsor of "Places to Love."

-The world is full of breathtaking destinations and experiences.

AAA wants to help turn vacation dreams into reality.

Wherever you want to go, AAA has services to help you before, during, and after your trip.

Learn more at AAA.com/LiveTV.

♪♪ -I am on the walkway over the Hudson.

Now, when this was built as a bridge in 1889 for rail cars, it was the world's longest bridge.

Fast forward to 2009 when a group of passionate locals said, you know, "We need to save this for the public."

And they did.

It became a state park, as well as -- wait for it -- the longest elevated pedestrian bridge in the world.

As you can see, it gives you incredible views of the scenic Hudson River, which starts in the Adirondacks of New York and flows down to New York City, carving out one of the most beautiful regions, the Hudson River Valley.

Dutchess is just one of the Valley's many counties.

It's peppered with lots of charming villages, and its biggest city is home to one of the region's best restaurants.

-I'm Chef Brandon Walker, and I've had a restaurant in Poughkeepsie, New York, for four years.

The name of the restaurant is Essie's Restaurant, after my grandmother, because I wanted to pay homage to the women in my family who were all great cooks.

-When did you decide -- At what age did you realize that you love to cook?

-15, I was, you know, learning, learning, and being able to just try things out.

-Mm-hmm.

-My mom allowed me to cook in the kitchen.

You know, I figured out at an early age that, you know, I was good with my hands, and cooking just became the star of all the things that I was doing.

-Brandon is a graduate of the esteemed Culinary Institute of America, which is located just two miles from his restaurant.

-And then when I did an apprenticeship in New York City, I really, really, really found out, you know, this is what I really, really want to do.

-You learned from great cooks, like your grandmother and your mother, and then you learned from great chefs.

-Correct.

-What's the difference?

-Home cooks, they don't follow a recipe.

You know, they just cook from the heart and they do this, do that, and because they do it so many times, they know when the dish is right.

You know, and as a chef, as a professional chef, you know, I learned how to perfect my craft at a high level.

I learned how to develop flavors, learned how to develop my palate, to recognize certain flavors and certain -- certain tastes so that way it's consistent in whatever restaurant you're working at.

-So I have your famous grit croquettes.

-Yes.

-And the jerk ribs.

-Yes.

People really love those.

-Whenever you put the words "grits" and "croquettes" together, I think people get really excited, right?

[ Laughs ] -Yes, yes.

I just love grits.

I love grits in general and being able to play around with them in different ways and make them differently.

-Oh, my gosh.

-I wanted -- I wanted to make a, like, quick bite, you know, with crunchy, cheesiness, gooeyness at the same time, a classic French croquette, again melding another culture.

-Mm-hmm.

And you could never take this off the menu.

-No, I'm never taking that off.

No.

-So explain this rib for me.

This is beautiful.

And it's so -- Look at that.

I can just pull it apart, it's so soft.

-Yeah.

So this is our jerk ribs.

It's a pork rib, which is a homage to my culture from the Caribbean.

Nice dry jerk rub.

We cook the ribs till they're super tender and then we finish it with a sherry tamarind glaze.

So that way, it calms the heat down on your palate, and you get to be able to enjoy the jerk.

I said, the jerk being super-hot.

-Yeah, I love the spice.

That's quite a kick.

But it's not too much.

Right.

-It's not overpowering.

Right.

-And you get the tamarind and the sweetness.

Ohh!

-Correct.

What is American cuisine?

American cuisine doesn't really have an identity.

What we have is a melting pot of flavors and cultures.

And being an American chef, why not accentuate and highlight that?

That's the way I like to cook.

And being in the Hudson Valley, we have so much access to great purveyors and great farmers and great vendors, being able to source locally.

And I'm prideful about that because these are people like me who love their craft, who love what they do, and they want to share with everyone else in the community.

-Dutchess County is easily one of the most beautiful places on Earth, and what I love most about it are these rolling hills and these wide-open vistas and the farmland.

And I realize that -- that you really represent all of that, the beauty, the hard work, and what we get to eat, what we get to enjoy in life.

And you come from a long line of dairy farmers yourself.

-Yes.

-How far back does it go in your family?

-Four generations, that I know of.

-So you started out, then, as a dairy farmer?

-Yes.

-But then you moved in another direction.

-Yes.

The vegetables were an option that I wanted to go in in a roadside market.

-And you also became totally organic, which is a whole other level of risk.

-I didn't really know anything about it, but I had somebody that was teaching me -- an old farmer from up in Vermont.

He didn't know anything but organic.

He brought me down a tomato in May.

I tasted that and how beautiful it was, and I said, "Boy, I want to get in on this."

So then we start growing these great tomatoes, and then it just kind of evolved into more vegetables and more vegetables.

So that's when we started to really diversify and get into the chickens and the turkeys, you know, with the beef cows.

And I think we started out with like 11 cows or so.

-Three decades later, McEnroe's is far more than just a store.

It's a 1,500-acre destination where people can reconnect with their food, whether it's berry picking in the summer, a discovery garden for kids, or seeing animals out in the pasture.

It really allows people to interact, I think, with farmers and what they do.

-Yeah.

Farmers are big-time gamblers.

I mean, you buy the seeds in the winter, and you plant them in the spring, and you're hoping that, you know, you're going to have enough sun and enough rain to make them grow in the summer.

And you never know when it's going to be a good crop until you harvest.

Now we grow everything pretty much from asparagus to zucchini.

-Did you ever think there would be a trend in kale?

-No.

-[ Laughing ] I don't think anybody did.

-No, I never did.

♪♪ -About a 15-mile drive from McEnroe's is the oldest permitted shooting club in the country -- Sandanona.

Its main lodge was built during the presidency of Thomas Jefferson.

So you compete, and you compete state, you compete country, you compete world.

-Nationally and internationally.

-Wow.

-I competed pretty heavily for 20 years, and now I teach more than I shoot.

-Paula Moore is the chief shooting instructor at Sandanona, and she's going to be helping me take a shot at sporting clays.

-It's wonderful for me.

I love the game.

And they say, if you love what you do, you'll never work a day in your life.

And it's come true for me.

-Our first stand is called Fur & Feather.

And, yes, I am visiting the range during COVID, and, of course, when social distancing isn't possible, we do wear our masks.

But before I even held a gun, Paula had taken me through an extensive orientation of firearm safety, gun-handling etiquette, and being properly fitted for a gun.

-So that's the gun you're going to be shooting, a 28-gauge gun.

-Yeah, okay, that feels nice.

That feels like I could manage this.

-So we are ready to head out to the instruction area.

-Excellent.

-Our positioning.

You know, we're starting off with good foot position.

We know we're going to be shooting a target out there.

So now, this target that we're shooting is coming up like this.

-Yeah.

-And you're actually going to put the gun on the target.

-Mm-hmm.

-And when it covers it up, you're going to pull the trigger.

-When the -- -When the gun blocks out the target.

-Okay.

Okay.

-Sound like a plan?

-This is all -- We'll just see what happens.

-Of course.

-[ Laughs ] -Now, you're going to bring your finger up alongside the trigger.

You can actually put it on the trigger lightly.

-Put it on the trigger lightly.

-Yep.

Keep your head down on the gun, hips back, weight forward.

-Yep.

Yep.

-When you're ready, you yell "pull" nice and loud.

-Okay.

Pull.

-Follow it up.

[ Gunshot ] [ Laughs ] -Did I just do that?!

-Yeah!

-What?!

Oh, my gosh!

Are you serious?!

-You crushed it.

Now you got to take the look of surprise off your face.

-Oh, my gosh!

I had no idea I would get it the first time!

That's crazy!

-That's awesome!

-Sporting clay courses are designed to simulate the hunting of ducks, pheasants, upland birds, and even...rabbits.

And, in this case, bright-orange disc-shaped ones.

-Follow it.

-Oh, that's hard.

Pull.

-Move with it.

[ Gunshot ] -Pull.

[ Gunshot ] Ahh!

[ Both laughing ] Can I just say, I was having a blast.

Whoo-hoo!

Nice!

Yeah!

Shooting near the main lodge doesn't give you an idea of the scope of the 20-stand course, each stand a new environment, a new challenge.

Paula is clearly an exceptional coach and teacher, as she is helping me tap into a skill I never knew I had.

Pull.

-Move.

[ Gunshot ] -Huh!

-[ Laughs ] You got it.

-Whoo!

When do I get the teddy bear?

-Pretty soon.

-Wow, I've missed my calling, clearly.

Fantastic.

[ Gunshot ] [ Tea kettle whistling ] I am a huge tea drinker.

I love to drink tea.

I actually travel with a teacup.

Did you know that?

Cheers.

-Cheers.

-I heard about this.

I heard about this.

-I actually travel the world with a teacup because I love to have a proper cup of tea in the morning.

And, for me, tea just begins my day the right way.

And here in the little village of Millerton, there's an internationally-known shop that aims to satisfy anyone's taste for tea.

-I'm Mike Harney, and our family's been in the tea business for 37 years.

Harney & Sons started in 1983 by my father, John Harney.

When he started Harney & Sons, there were no sons in the business, but he was very optimistic.

-Michael, there is a method to really tasting a tea, which actually doesn't begin with tasting it.

-No, no, your eyes are very important.

We try to use all our senses.

Many times, I can just look at the leaf and figure out which one's good and which one's bad, like this Golden Monkey.

Then we smell it.

[ Inhaling ] -Oh, you go right in there, huh?

-Yeah.

-Okay.

-My German tea mentor always told me the sign of a good tea taster is tea on the nose.

-It smells great.

Do I have any on the top of my nose?

-As long as you don't sneeze, it's okay.

-After you put the nose in, it's time to brew some.

But before we drink, we do this.

-[ Slurping ] The idea is that you can smell retronasally better than you can smell orthonasally.

-Your business is an agricultural product.

-Indeed, it is.

-But you're not a farmer who's seeing it grow.

-No.

Around the world.

-Your farms are 10,000 miles away around the world.

So you go directly to the farmers?

-We go right there.

Yeah, sure.

-Is that a really important part of the Harney & Sons process, that you make eye contact with the people who are farming the tea, growing it, collecting it?

-Very important.

It's extremely very important.

-When you come into your shop, there's a bit of matchmaking that has to happen, right?

-Indeed.

Indeed.

-A lot of people don't know teas.

Because when you come in, it's a bit overwhelming to see two walls of tea.

Where do you start?

-Well, I'm not a matchmaker, but I can help choose your teas.

So we just ask like, "Do you like flavored teas?

Do you like green teas?"

And then we can go behind us and choose one that might make some sense.

And oftentimes, we're able to get it.

And a lot of times -- You know, I have lots of stories that we can tell about these places.

-One story worth telling is that their headquarters and factory are also in Millerton.

It's where teas from around the world that Mike has found are blended and then packaged using a series of elaborate machines, like this one, which creates 300 tea bags a minute.

-So I go around the world sourcing teas, looking for teas that make me smile and you smile.

It's worth the trip.

-Any trip to Dutchess County wouldn't be complete without a visit to this estate, home to a family who profoundly shaped our nation and the world.

This is the home of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

The longest serving president in the history of the United States was born here, returned here his whole life, and was laid to rest on the property.

But I'm not here to understand his life as much as I want to know hers.

And to do that, I've traveled three miles east to the only national historic site dedicated to a First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt's home Val-Kill.

-My name is Franceska Macsali-Urbin, and I'm the supervisory park ranger at the Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site and the home of Franklin Delano Roosevelt National Historic Sites.

-Franceska, are people surprised when they come here to Val-Kill, that they've heard this is Eleanor Roosevelt's home, and they actually then see it?

Because it's -- well, it's -- it's rather plain.

-Oh, it's very plain.

And it was because it was originally a furniture factory.

So people today are amazed.

But you can imagine that world leaders who came here or political leaders were pretty amazed, as well.

She would actually go to the front door herself.

She didn't have a butler or a maid to do that.

Usually if she wanted to have a very serious and important discussion with someone, she would take them into her living room.

-Oh, then you knew it was going to be a serious discussion if Eleanor sat you down on the couch?

-Probably, because that's where she met with people like John Kennedy.

And she had a very intense conversation with him there about civil rights.

-She went on to be one of the main motivators and creators of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

How did Val-Kill play into that?

-Sometimes she brought fellow delegates here to talk about some of the articles, because she thought that, in this very simple, calm atmosphere, they could come to an agreement a little bit more easily than they could in the more formal trappings of the United Nations.

I always wanted to work at the Eleanor Roosevelt site once I heard it was going to become part of the National Park Service.

She was an amazing woman.

She was fearless.

She spoke out for civil rights, human rights, gender equality.

To me, sharing history is the most important part of my job.

And it's just such a thrill to be able to talk to people who come here who are so excited to be here.

And certainly, I'm equally excited to share whatever information I can with them.

-In your artist statement for the exhibit, you wrote that Americans have an aversion to history and that history is not even the past, it's the present.

That's everywhere in your work.

-Yes.

Yes.

I use patterns.

Those patterns in my pieces represent the patterns that I seem to see coming back over and over again.

And they're reflected in today's society as well as in my artwork.

I'm Ransome.

I'm an artist that lives here in Dutchess County.

-And one of the highlights of Dutchess County is the Barrett Art Center.

Located on a residential street in Poughkeepsie, it features contemporary art curated globally.

It's open to the public and free so there are no financial barriers to art.

The collection is titled The View From Here.

-Yes.

-What does that mean for you?

-Well, it comes from an essay by James Baldwin.

When he was an expatriate living in France, he wrote an essay about seeing America in the 1960s.

He wrote this in '68.

And so, I sort of thought, "Well, I live in Rhinebeck.

I live in this rural area.

It's very nice."

But looking out at what's going on in other areas, in urban areas, in politics, and throughout this country, you start wondering.

So some of this is commentary on what's happening today.

-I love your use of the quilt and how it recurs through a lot of -- actually, almost all of them.

-Yeah.

-Sometimes it's just a piece of quilt.

Other times, it's the entire thing.

Sometimes we're just seeing a bit of it.

Does it mean the same thing in every painting?

-Yeah, it's sort of about how parts represent things from our lives.

This is the painting "Quilters of Gee's Bend."

Gee's Bend is a section in Alabama where they made quilts for years.

I didn't do a portrait or a face because I didn't want to identify one particular woman from Gee's Bend.

I want this to represent all the women from Gee's Bend.

And that's really what this painting is about -- their quilts are seen and they are not seen.

So we have this bright, beautiful quilt and this woman who is basically invisible.

We don't see her face.

And this is "Love."

"Love" is sort of a special painting for me.

What's interesting is, there's not really any paint on it at all.

It's really tiles.

This idea of wood is hard.

It represents the community that they come from.

But beyond that, we have this couple, and we're looking down on them.

And there's these birds that are flying over them.

How it feels when you are in love and how everything's, you know, just sort of floaty, you know, you're just -- you know, anything can happen.

It can be turned any direction.

And that's what this represents, the love that existed in hard, difficult places -- during the depression, that's happening now in urban cities.

All those things is what this piece represents.

-Although Ransome has been a professional artist for decades, these paintings are his recent graduate work in his first love, the studio arts.

-After 30 years of doing art, to be as excited as I was, you know, 30 years ago.

I have some grand ideas.

I'm just like a kid in a candy store.

I can't wait.

-Being a part of the Hudson River Valley, Dutchess County was designated by Congress as a national heritage area, a place where culture, history, and the beauty of landscape should be preserved.

And if there's one place that really sums up this lofty title, it's here -- Innisfree -- 185 acres of meticulously designed gardens just outside the village of Millbrook.

Where are we right now in the gardens?

-Well, we're at the shore of Tyrell Lake, which is the heart of Innisfree, I think.

It's a glacial lake, so it's about a 13,000-year-old puddle.

So the garden wraps around it.

I'm Kate Kerin.

I'm a landscape architect and garden historian.

Here at Innisfree, I'm the landscape curator.

Basically, my job is to understand the garden here, understand its history, its story, understand how we take care of it, and how we teach people about this amazing place.

-Innisfree is considered by many prominent landscape architects as being one of the world's greatest gardens.

-Yeah.

-What gives it that consideration?

-The big idea is that, although it draws on lots of different garden traditions -- Asian ideas, Western ideas from very different periods in time, including modernism, and this incredible sort of natural glacial landscape -- I think because it was created over so many decades, blends it all together in a way that it's very elemental.

-When people come to Innisfree, for me, it's this secret garden, right?

I've passed by so many times in the last close to two decades.

-Yeah.

-And then you finally like, "Oh, okay, I'll go.

I'll go."

And, all of a sudden, you're like, "Oh, my goodness.

I had no idea."

-Yeah, I love that.

-Do most people come to you like that?

-Absolutely.

I feel Innisfree is a very peaceful healing place.

Not to sound too new-agey.

That's not really my personality.

But I know that if we put a blood-pressure monitor in the parking area, people would be calmer on their way out.

Innisfree is all about slow.

We should take our time here.

-I moved here mainly because of the Hudson River.

It really was the draw that brought me here, the way it winds through this beautiful countryside, in between these mountains and these beautiful landscapes.

All sorts of wonderful things to eat.

-Being able to source local ingredients is really, really great.

It's really a powerful thing.

That's the way I like to cook.

And I really -- I wouldn't have it any other way.

-It's a great place to find a wonderful meal and beautiful views.

-FDR, our old president, he used to love to drive around these hills, and he made a state park here and a state park there because he loved it so much in Dutchess.

-I think anybody who just wants to learn a little bit about history, there is a lot here.

So I think you would enjoy coming.

-When a destination's landscape inspires its people, when those people, now inspired, create experiences in food, art, and so much more, when interacting with those people then inspires you... Wow.

...that is when we share a love of travel.

[ Gunshot ] I got it!

Oh, my gosh!

And that's why Dutchess County in New York state is a place to love.

-For more information about this and other episodes, destination guides, or links to follow me on social media, log on to placestolove.com.

Samantha Brown's "Places to Love" was made possible by... -We believe watching the world go by isn't enough.

That's why we climb... ♪♪ ...pedal... ♪♪ ...and journey beyond the beaten path, on storied rivers, with a goal to ensure that every mile traveled turns into another memory.

You can find out more at amawaterways.com.

-The rhythm of the waves.

The calming sounds of nature.

On the Southwest Florida coast, there are wide open beaches and hundreds of islands.

Sometimes doing nothing can mean everything.

♪♪ Learn more at fortmyers-sanibel.com.

♪♪ -The world is full of breathtaking destinations and experiences.

AAA wants to help turn vacation dreams into reality.

Wherever you want to go, AAA has services to help you before, during, and after your trip.

Learn more at AAA.com/LiveTV.

♪♪ -All the untamed beauty of the Canadian Rocky Mountains and the American Southwest... experienced on a journey by rail.

Rocky Mountaineer, proud sponsor of "Places to Love."

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪