Sleepy Hollow

One of the things on my "list of things to do while I'm living back east" is to visit Sleepy Hollow, New York. It was a beautiful weekend and I had no plans so on Sunday that is what I did. I found on itunes a pod cast of someone reading the legend (which, by the way, was written by Washington Irving in 1820) and I listened to it on my way to see where the legend of the Headless Horseman came from. It was a pretty great day. My first stop was the Old Dutch Church (where Ichabod Crane sought refuge from the Headless Horseman) and the Old Dutch Burying Ground (where legend says the Horseman was buried and came from each night)

Besides it being kind of cool that this is an important chunk of the story, It was also really beautiful there. It was so cool to see the headstones that were dated in the 1700 and 1800's. I found it interesting that most of the stones (at least the ones you could still read) said the persons name, the year they died and their age at death in years and days (e.g. lived to be 47 years and 17 days old)

After that I went to the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, which surrounds the Old Dutch Burying ground and didn't exist at the time the story was written. The Bridge in the picture above is the Headless Horseman Bridge, which is within the newer cemetery.

I also went to Washington Irvings (the author) grave

This was really cool too. Its a monument and some of the solders of the the Civil War.

The last stop of my day was in Tarrytown (right next to Sleepy Hollow) for a tour of Lyndhurst. A beautiful mansion that was built in 1838, and was lived in until 1961. They have restored it, and it still has the original furnishings and art work in it, which was pretty cool to see.

This is the view of the Hudson River and the Tappan Zee Bridge that you can see from the mansion.