Along with “staycations,” “heritage tourism” is a marketing concept that has gotten amplified buzz in these past few years, ever since the bottom fell out of a lot of people’s annual vacation budgets. It’s a brilliant notion for the Hudson Valley in particular, considering the wealth of cultural and historical resources that we have close at hand, and within easy driving distance of a major metropolitan area.

Last year, New York State got on the bandwagon big-time by launching an initiative called New York Heritage Weekend, with the intent of kicking off the summer tourism season a couple of weeks earlier than its traditional Memorial Day weekend onset. It was a big success; so it’s going on to its second incarnation this weekend, with plenty of things to do both locally and farther afield in the state.