Sleepy Hollow Vacation: Day 7

Friday, October 29:

We got up at 6:45 a.m. again and were on the road by 8:15 a.m. after stopping at McDonalds to grab breakfast (love those McDonalds breakfasts... can you tell?). We had to cross the Tappan Zee bridge during morning rush hour so we allowed 1 hour to get to our destination just to be safe. Our first stop was the Kykuit visitor center. We hit no traffice so got there 35 minutes early!! We ate our breakfast and then browsed the gift shop. We also took some pictures around the visitor's center which is in Sleepy Hollow.

At 9:45 a.m. we boarded a shuttle bus to take us to Kykuit- the Rockeller Mansion- for a 3 hour tour. The home has 6 levels at 5,000 square feet each!! All I can say is "wow"!!

Also known as the John D. Rockefeller Estate, it is a 40-room house in Westchester County, New York, built by the oil businessman and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller, and his son, John D Rockefeller, Jr., enriched with art collected by a third-generation family member, the Governor of New York and Vice-President of the United States, Nelson A. Rockefeller. It has been the home to four generations of the family. It overlooks the Hudson River and, in the distance, the New York skyline. The Classical Revival Georgian mansion took six years to complete and was refurbished some years after initial construction, being finally completed in its present form in 1913. The gardens are terraced, with formal axes, and include a Morning Garden, Grand Staircase, Japanese Garden, an Italian Garden, a Japanese-style brook, a Japanese Tea-house, a huge Oceanus fountain, a Temple of Aphrodite, loggia, and a semicircular rose garden. We were only allowed to take pictures outside.

For lunch we ate at the Eldorado Diner. It was very good!

After lunch, we went to tour the Lyndhurst Castle. The outside is gorgeous; the inside - well, lots of faux finishes (didn't really like it). And the funny thing is... it probably cost more to do the faux finishes than to have used "real" materials. It was a 60 minute tour.

The house was designed in 1838. When first built, the house was named "Knoll"; but critics immediately dubbed it "Paulding's Folly" because its extremely unusual design, including fanciful turrets and asymmetrical outline. Its limestone exterior was quarried at Sing Sing (now known as Ossining). The second owner, Merritt, doubled the house's size in 1864–65 and renamed it "Lyndenhurst" for the estate's linden trees. His new north wing added an imposing four-story tower, new porte-cochere (the old one was reworked as a glass walled vestibule) and a new dining room, two bedrooms, and servants quarters. Jay Gould purchased the home in 1880 for use as a country house until his death in 1892. It was Gould who shortened the house's name to today's Lyndhurst.

After the Lyndhurst Castle tour, we headed to Kingston Point Park to view the Sleepy Hollow Lighthouse. You could see the New York City skyline from there. The 1883 Lighthouse at Sleepy Hollow, formerly known as the Tarrytown Lighthouse or the Kingsland Point Lighthouse, is the only Caisson-style lighthouse on the river. Like all lighthouses on the Hudson, the 1883 Lighthouse at Sleepy Hollow was designed as a "family station," as the keeper and his family lived in the five-story structure year-round. The duties of the keeper were to perform the never-ending chores of maintaining the lighthouse and lamp and to operate the lamp every night as well as during inclement weather.

It was quite cold today - 50 degrees with wind gusts up to 40 mph - a bit of a chilly day. We still had a few hours before our evening event so we decided to go up to Peekskill and check into our hotel. Once we got there, guess what? No directions and no address!! I had to give Tracy a hard time about that because he was the one who planned this vacation! We did finally find it. It sat up on a bluff overlooking the Hudson River. We had a room with a view of the river. After checking in, we relaxed for awhile: Tracy watched TV and I napped.

Sunset from our hotel room:

Around 7:00 p.m. we decided to get some dinner at Wendy's. Then it was time to head to the evening's entertainment: The Blaze at the Van Courtland Manor. Guess what? No directions once again! We finally found it but were 20 minutes late (we had tickets for a certain time). It turned out to be no problem. The Blaze was very cool!! They had almost 6,000 individually hand-carved, illuminated jack o’ lanterns. They had a path that you walked that took you past all the various displays. Each area had a category: sunflowers, snakes, faces, cats, spiders, Irish designs, dinosaurs, witches, pirates, ocean life, etc. The jack o' lanterns were carved and then hooked together to make the various things. It was the coolest thing ever! It took us almost 2 hours to walk the entire grounds! I got a little frustrated because one of my batteries was very, very low so I had brought a fully charged one (so I thought). It was almost dead also. So I had to be very particular about what I took pictures of. My camera did last until the very end! Yea!!

Sleepy Hollow Vacation: Day 6

Thursday, October 28th:

We got up at 6:45 a.m., stopped for breakfast at McDonalds, and were headed to Kaaterskill Falls by 8:00 a.m. We arrived at the trailhead at 9:40 a.m.

First we took pictures of the Rip Van Winkle Falls (Bastion Falls) that were at the trailhead along side the road. These falls are 60 to 80 foot with a larger upper fall and multiple lower falls. They were very pretty falls. Being that the falls were in the shade, it was hard to get good pictures.

The Rip Van Winkle Falls were partially in the sun when we hiked back from Kaaterskill Falls.

Then we hiked a 1/2 mile to the Kaaterskill Falls, a two-drop waterfall located in the eastern Catskill Mountains of New York. The dual cascades total 260 feet in height, making it one of the higher waterfalls in New York, and one of the Eastern United States' taller waterfalls. It was a rocky, steep hike. We were the only ones on the trail. The falls were gorgeous. Tracy, of course, had to climb up to get better pictures of the falls. He was even able to walk behind the upper falls - he loved that! I sat on a big rock beside the river keeping a look out for bears. I was not happy that I did not have my bear spray! A few more people came to the falls after we had been there for awhile. We passed quite a few people on our way back to the car.

Our next stop was the Saugerties Lighthouse. It is a red-brick lighthouse built in 1869 at the mouth of the Esopus Creek. The restored lighthouse offers overnight Bed & Breakfast accommodations. It would have been cool to stay there but they are booked out over a year in advance and it costs $200 per night! We had a 1/2 mile hike to the lighthouse but luckily it was completely flat!
After lunch at McDonalds, we visited a park along the Hudson River to view the Roundout Creek Lighthouse. It was built in 1915 and replaced the earlier 1867 lighthouse.


On the way to the next lighthouse, we drove along the Hudson River- it was a very pretty drive.

Our last lighthouse to view was the Esopus Meadows Lighthouse. The Esopus Meadows Lighthouse, fondly nicknamed the “Maid of the Meadows”, was completed in 1871. It replaced an earlier structure built in 1839. It is the only remaining wooden lighthouse on the Hudson River.
We then headed back to the hotel to clean up, change clothes, and go to the evening's entertainment. We went to the Westchester Broadway Theatre for dinner and a show. We had front row center seats - they were great! They served dinner as you arrived. We had a ceasar salad, rolls, and choice of entree. I picked pork loin and Tracy picked prime rib. They also served ice cream for dessert. The show was great: Jekyll & Hyde, the Musical. We had dessert during the intermission. I had turtle cheesecake and a caberet cappucino and Tracy had an Ice cream delite. On our drive back to the hotel after the show, I directed Tracy to go the wrong way and we ended up 1 mile from Yonkers and had to pay $2.50 in tolls!