We slept in a bit today... I didn't wake up until 8:00 a.m. We had a beautiful view of the Hudson River from our hotel room.
After checking out of the hotel and grabbing breakfast at McDonalds, we headed back to Sleepy Hollow. We parked at the visitor center and walked over to the Old Dutch Church. We walked past the Phillipsburg Manor and got a cool picture because the water was so still.
We then spent some time at The Old Dutch Church. It is a 17th century church and was completed in 1685. The church's walls are about two-feet thick and are composed of local fieldstone. Cast in Holland in 1685, the tiny church bell still hangs in the open-air steeple. The church and its three acre churchyard feature prominently in Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow". It was open and we were able to go inside.
After that we walked the cemetery surrounding the church. Tracy had a few graves that he wanted to film and/or photograph.
At 11:00 a.m. we met Henry Steiner at the Old Dutch Church. Henry is the village historian. Tracy found a book online that Henry had written about all things Sleepy Hollow. He emailed Henry asking him a few questions and they started corresponding back and forth for a while. We told Henry we were coming to Sleepy Hollow and he agreed to meet with us. Tracy and Henry talked for about 2 hours. Before parting company, Tracy got him to autograph his book and I took a picture of them. Henry was a very nice and very knowledgeable man. Tracy was honored to have met him.
We talked with Henry at Washington Irving's burial plot. Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 – November 28, 1859) was an American author, essayist, biographer and historian of the early 19th century. He was best known for his short stories "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle".
After that we went to lunch at The Horseman... very busy place! Then we walked the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery for a few hours. The cemetery is the burial site of a number of famous Concordians, including some of the United States' greatest authors and thinkers. On September 29, 1855, Emerson delivered the opening address of the cemetery's consecration. In it he lauded the designers' work. "The garden of the living," said Emerson, was as much for the benefit for the living, to communicate their relationship to the natural world, as it was to honor the dead.
We walked down to the replica of the original Headless Horseman Bridge downstream from where it was originally. It was a beautiful area in the cemetery.
We walked across the site of the original Headless Horseman Bridge. Of course it is quite different now than what is was like back in Irving's time.
Next we walked up to the Beekman Avenue Block Party - not much happening there! After much discussion, we drove to the nearest theatre (in Elmsford) to see if any movies would fit into our time table - nope! So we decided to get some dinner at the Eldorado Diner. They had very fast service so dinner didn't take very long at all. We then headed back to Sleepy Hollow - the traffice was terrible so that drive took awhile. We parked in the event overflow parking lot and walked up to the Phillipsburg Manor to take same night shots.We then walked over to the Old Dutch Church for a dramatic reading of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. We had to wait in line for 25 minutes - it was a bit cool. We got front row seats! The guy did a fabulous job on the dramatic reading. We both really enjoyed it!
Tracy really enjoyed the ambience that we experienced throughout the day!We then headed back to the Super 8 in Nyack for the night.
Very pretty pictures!!
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