from NYC towards the Halcyon Farm via the Hudson River Valley

Before Jeffery and I left New York City, we went out to dinner at Pergolas des Artistes, a lovely little restaurant that is celebrating 50 years of operation.  We went there last year for our 36th anniversary, so it was only fitting that we do it again this year.  Afterwards, we went to the play "The Realistic Joneses", an off-Broadway play that we enjoyed a lot.  Uncle Grover treated us to the nice dinner, so we did it up right.

Then we headed up the road towards the Farm, taking the Hudson River route, to see the famous area that sparked many an American artist, and was home to many of our country's great people. It was a wonderful drive in beautiful countryside.

Us at the Pergola des Artistes, with owner Marie in the background.  We were honored to meet her, and she bought us a glass of wine.

after the play, we went to Junior's for their world famous cheesecake, which, in our case, was strawberry shorcake cheesecake.  Yummy!

The next day, we trained to White Plains, picked up our rental car, and headed up Rte. 9.  In Sleepy Hollow, I met up with the Headless Horseman!  Eeek!

the stairs to the restrooms

which door should we use?

Andrew and Louise Carnegie's grave, with coins placed on it; to which Jeffery added.

The heavy rains made all the waterways look full and vigorous

The old Dutch Church, filmed from behind because it's curved roof was so cool

We only found one grave older than this; at least, that was legible.

In New York State, the historic points of interest are marked with these blue and yellow signs, so they are easy to find

The Irving family grave marker

The gravestone of the famous author; Grant's distant kinsman?

We thought this modest home was FDR's, and loved the tree behind it.  Later we learned that the FDR home is a mansion farther on.  We were relieved to know that our great President hadn't spent his years in this "small" house

The Vanderbilt mansion, which overlooked the Hudson River

A cool hardware store in Germantown, where we had a nice lunch

We arrived in Olana just in time for the last tour, which we enjoyed tremendously

Olana, home of Frederic Edwin Church and his tiny wife, Isabel; who designed every aspect of their home, and filled it with treasures from their travels to the Middle East, Africa, and South America.  We weren't allowed to photograph the inside of the house, which makes me sad, not to be able to share it with you all.

Every detail of the house was this beautiful.  I cried for happiness to see it.

Over the front door was an Arabic script character set, meaning Welcome