Hudson River Valley- Saturday, July 13, 2024

      We started from our hotel in Troy this morning, eager to get to see Emma again.  We went to breakfast at McDonald's and later Starbucks and texted her that we were on the way.  She came down from her apartment to greet us when we arrived and Dad helped her carry a bunch of things up that we had brought for her- the care package from Grandpa and Grandma Frank, a cooler full of spices and cooking things that had been in our refrigerator, her  sewing machine, and some other odds and ends.  Abby gave her a big hug when she saw her, and Emma is sure that Abby has grown since she saw her last.  Abby may have been even more excited to see "puppy" who Emma brought down.  Puppy had been Emma's constant companion when she was Abby's age and he stayed with Abby all through the day today.

     We headed south and stopped first in Kingston, where Dad wanted to go to Deising's Bakery.  They had been featured on John Oliver's Last Week Tonight for the past few episodes when he challenged them to make one of their famous cake bears with his face on it.  There's a long story behind it, but the short version is they rose to his challenge and created just such a pastry.  They sold through the couple of hundred that they made pretty quickly, so we weren't surprised when they didn't have any today.   The employee we asked said the John Oliver one was a chocolate cake with a vanilla filling.  We didn't see any of the regular cake bears either.   We ended up getting a "poo pie" which looked like a pile of poo, complete with pieces of toilet paper stuck on it and a few flies.  When Emma bit into the chocolate cake part, she found it had a raspberry filling.  It apparently tasted good, but it looked even grosser with the red oozing out.

     While we were in Kingston, Scott wanted to stop at the Senate House.  It was a private residence that the original New York State Senate met in in 1777, after they had drafted the first state constitution.  Scott had mentioned this place in his classes when we talk about the change of government from being the colony of New York to the state of New York.  Interestingly, they were writing this constitution as the state itself was being invaded by the British in the campaign that would end in the turning-point battle of Saratoga.  Scott took a little bit to correctly identify the building and get a few pictures.  We didn't tour the inside, though, because the three girls were anxious to get back on the road.

     We continued down the Hudson and crossed the river at the Tappan Zee, on what is now called the Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge.  On the east bank of the Hudson, we came into the village of Tarrytown.  It is where Washington Irving set his story of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow.  On Tarrytown, he wrote  "This name was given, we are told, in former days, by the good housewives of the adjacent country, from the inveterate propensity of their husbands to linger about the village tavern on market-days."   It's is far from a sleepy place now and, like Kingston, is filled with lots of interesting looking little stores.  Emma is not as impressed by the cuteness of these Hudson Valley towns anymore.  She's had some time to look around and says they all seem so similar.  "There's always a book store," she said as we drove through Kingston.  She said there's also always hair salons, coffee shops, and vintage stores.  

     Our first stop in Tarrytown was for lunch, and Julie wanted to stop at a place called Horsefeathers.  It's an upscale place with a large mural of literary figures on the wall (if you can allow them a loose definition of "literary" because Groucho Marx and W.C. Fields were included on the wall with Mark Twain, Edgar Allen Poe, Oscar Wilde, George Orwell and others.   Of course, Washington Irving was there.)  They have funny framed quotes and quips hanging around the place and books and things on the walls.  It was a little dark and expensive, but different and fun, which is what Julie wanted.

     After lunch we made our way to the "Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow."  The church is the one that Irving had in mind when he described the ghost of the Headless Horseman, who haunted the cemetery and the vicinity.  He described the spirit as an "apparition of a figure on horseback without a head. It is said by some to be the ghost of a Hessian trooper, whose head had been carried away by a cannon-ball, in some nameless battle during the revolutionary war; ...His haunts are not confined to the valley, but extend at times to the adjacent roads, and especially to the vicinity of a church at no great distance. Indeed, certain of the most authentic historians of those parts, ...allege that the body of the trooper having been buried in the churchyard, the ghost rides forth to the scene of battle in nightly quest of his head..."  The original short story from 1820 (as well as in the 1949 Disney movie) tells of Ichabod Crane, the lanky schoolmaster who is said to have met his fate at the hands of the headless spirit.  Crane seems to be a creation of Washington Irving's imagination, but the name Sleepy Hollow was used in this area at least a little bit.  Crane's love interest was Katrina Van Tassel, and there are a number of Van Tassels buried in this church yard.  Julie saw a YouTube video that said that the real-life Eleanor (Van Tassel) Brush [b. 1764; d. 1861] was the inspiration for the character of Katrina, and Julie did direct us to Eleanor's grave.  [There are other people who may have inspired the character too, and we'll leave those competing claims for another day.  The alleged inspiration for the character of Abraham "Brom Bones" Van Brunt is also said to be buried nearby.]   It was very hot in the cemetery and more people than us were having problems finding the grave of Washington Irving.  The "Old Dutch" cemetery is adjacent to the much larger "Sleepy Hollow" cemetery, and we eventually found our way up a pretty steep hill to the Irving family plot where the author is buried.  Julie referred back to the YouTube video for hints on where to go, and the fact that there was a small tour group there helped us find it.   It was interesting that the cemetery wasn't actually called "Sleepy Hollow" until its name was changed in the mid-1990s.  The area seems to be willing to capitalize on the legend now.  We saw a lot of horsemen on the street signs and businesses like "Horsemen's Bagels."  Sleepy Hollow High School is the home of the Horsemen.

     There are a lot of famous people buried in Sleepy Hollow cemetery too, including such diverse people as Andrew Carnegie, Rockefellers, Walter Chrysler, and labor leader Samuel Gompers.  Scott was interested to see that Carl Schurz was also buried here.  He was a German revolutionary, and then a Union general at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg among other places.  His wife helped found kindergarten in the United States.  Anyway, we chose not to look for any of these graves.  From Irving's grave, we made our way back down the steep hill to the air-conditioning of the car.   We drove around the backside of the large cemetery to see the "Headless Horseman's Bridge."  Even though we knew it was a modern construction, it was fun to see.  Emma was a little disappointed.  She said she had always pictured a big red covered bridge, and this little one looked like it belonged in a Winnie the Pooh story instead.   It isn't the only bridge that people call the Headless Horseman's Bridge in this area, but after looking a little for the second one we decided to head to the hotel in nearby Tarrytown.

      We are staying in a Marriott tonight, and it's a sprawling setup.   It was a bit of a maze to get to the elevators, which are at the back of the complex, and then a long walk to the room.  It really seems like there's a better way that we're missing.  The room itself is nice, with a small balcony that overlooks the courtyard.  Once we were in the air-conditioning of the room, it was difficult for us to gather the energy to leave, and we all just rested and soaked in the cool air for a while.  

      Emma's told us that, based on her experience with Hudson Valley towns, it was pointless to try to  go to any of the little shops downtown because it was too late in the afternoon.  Once we summoned up enough energy to go out again, we decided to go to the Palisades Center mall which was only a short distance away.  We would have to cross the Hudson on the Gov. Cuomo bridge and cross it again to get back to the hotel, but we knew it would be open.  It's supposed to be the 12th largest mall in the US, currently, and it IS big.  Apparently, it's too big for the air-conditioning to work well because it was pretty warm and stuffy inside.  There's a huge ropes course in the center of it's four floors, and Abby was sad to learn that she was too little for it.  There was also a big Ferris wheel by the food court, but it wasn't operating.   At the food court, we were each able to get something we wanted.  Abby also ended up getting a stuffed chubby penguin and pushed it around in her stroller.  We figured that if Abby got the penguin, Emma would be able to get Puppy back.