So as everyone can see from my last post, Matt and I had high hopes to see the botanical gardens this weekend. We got a good night’s sleep on Friday and planned to start our day early on Saturday. So we woke up early only to have our hopes and dreams crushed; there was a craft fair at the gardens. That could have been fun, but we weren’t really feeling it so we had to find other plans. Somehow we ended up flip flopping between Greenwich, CT and Sleepy Hollow, NY. Matt & I are both huge fans of scary movies and, personally, Sleepy Hollow is one of my favorites! However, we figured that was kind of more of a Fall spot to explore, so we went with Greenwich. (WHICH, just a side note: should be pronounced “Green-which” it sincerely bothers me that it doesn’t, but that’s just me). Onward. Luckily Greenwich really isn’t that far from us, so we stopped at Dunkin and set off on our little mini road trip. Within an hour and a half we arrived on Arch Street and I immediately fell in love. Arch Street is like a beautiful out door Short Hills Mall, and it’s fabulous. So we did a little shopping…. and by we I mean me of course. We had lunch at a waterfront restaurant, L’escale. To be honest, I wouldn’t suggest it. It’s intensely fancy schmancy and the food is eh at best. We were delirious with hunger so we stopped there. Had we had more time to make a better decision we would have gone elsewhere. Here are a couple pictures from lunch, and also, Matt’s first appearance on the blog! Hi hubbs.
So, after lunch we hit the road to head home and we decided it’s still early enough, why not stop at Sleepy Hollow? It’s on the way home. So we did. When we found Sleepy Hollow we thought we saw the infamous covered bridge that the headless horsemen used to attack his victims (we later discovered that bridge no longer stands). So we were like, awesome! Let’s get out and do the tour. Upon signing up for that tour, we realized we were able to take the tour of Kykuit as well! Which is the Rockefeller mansion in Westchester. So we take the first tour of “Sleepy Hollow” all pumped to hear scary stories about the Headless Horsemen……. not. one. story. They didn’t even mention the words “headless” or “horsemen.” It was all about the owners of this plantation and their slaves. Which, sure, that’s interesting, but I was in the mood for some real life ghost stories! Not a demo of how to churn butter. The most interesting thing that happened on this tour was almost becoming lunch for a pack of wandering sheep. *exciting*
So after this tour we headed over to Kykuit, which was absolutely breath-taking! The ride up the driveway alone took about 2 minutes… insane right? Here are some of my favorite pictures from the tour below!
Between my phone (which all of these were taken on) and our actual camera I have about 200-300 pictures from the house, including authentic Andy Warhol prints of Nelson and Happy Rockefeller. You really weren’t supposed to take pictures inside the house, but our tour guide was literally pushing 100 and I don’t think she seemed to notice. So if you want to see more you can view them here: http://bit.ly/qVEbvU
This house even had a “play house” which included 2 pools; one indoors and one out (one of which is Olympic size). Two tennis courts; one indoors and one out. A basketball court.. you get the picture. If you’re ever in NY and have some spare time, definitely take a trip out there to see this place, it’s totally worth it. And, between you and me, try to avoid getting Rosalie as a guide… she’s sweet as pie, but the tour will take FOREVER. If you’re like me and you’re more interested in the visual over the history, it can be a bit painful to sit through.
To read more about Kykuit http://www.hudsonvalley.org/content/view/12/42/