Sleepy Hollow Vacation: Day 9

Sunday, October 31st (Halloween):

Today we wer able to sleep in- that felt really good!! We once again picked up breakfast at McDonalds and headed to Sleepy Hollow for the day.

We checked in for our Phillsburg Manor tour. We were 45 minutes early but they let us go on through. We toured the manor house, the mill, and the barn. The guides in each were dressed in period clothing. It was all very interesting.

Philipsburg Manor was a late 17th century English Manor located north of New York City. The manor comprised about 52,000 acres of land in total. Philipse was granted a royal charter in 1693, creating the Manor of Philipsburg, and making him first lord of the manor. Philipsburg Manor was a farming, milling, and trading center owned by the Philipses, a family of Anglo-Dutch merchants. They rented land to tenant farmers of diverse European backgrounds and relied on a community of 23 enslaved Africans to operate the complex. Philipsburg Manor includes the millpond described in Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

The second stop of our day was the Sunnyside Manor. Once again the guides were dressed in period clothing.

Sunnyside Manor was the home of one of America’s first great authors, Washington Irving. Beginning in 1835, Washington Irving expanded a small cottage in stages, combining his sentimental interests in the architecture of colonial New York and buildings he knew in Scotland and Spain. The house became a three-dimensional autobiography. The grounds reflect Washington Irving's romantic view of art, nature, and history. He arranged garden paths, trees and shrubs, vistas, and water features to appear natural, and planted an exotic wisteria vine (still growing) to envelope the house.

Next we stopped at Patriot's Park, the site of the capture during the Revolutionary War of British officer John Andre, who was carrying the plans to West Point provided by Benedict Arnold.

We had an early dinner at the Eldorado Diner- they had great food and great service so we ate there several times on the trip.

After dinner we met Henry Steiner by the Sleepy Hollow Lighthouse. Since he is the village historian, he was able to give us a private tour of the lighthouse - very cool!! We were up in the top of the lighthouse at sunset- it was gorgeous!

After Henry left, Tracy wanted to take a few more pictures. When we went to leave the park, the gates were locked. That was quite irritating because I had seen the ranger drive through the park just a bit earlier so he knew we were in there!! We called Henry and he called the police or ranger to come let us out!

At 7:00 p.m. we went to the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery for a lantern tour. Every two or three people were given gas lanterns and then we walked through the cemetery for about 2 hours. We stopped at significant burial plots. It was pretty cool! Before we left, our group walked down to the replica Headless Horseman Bridge. Lo and behold, while we were there.... the headless horseman galloped by. I believe that was Tracy's highlight of the vacation: in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery on Halloween night at the headless horseman bridge and the headless horseman rides by! He was in heaven!! My silly, silly husband!!

After the lantern tour, we stopped at the Eldorado Diner to get some dessert to go. They ended up not being very good - very disappointing. We headed back to the Super 8 in Nyack for the night.