Fall Festivities on the Hudson Valley

On a beautiful fall day my husband and I decided to escape the city in a rental car to the Hudson Valley. The 30 minute drive on the Henry Hudson Parkway through the mountains and some very late foliage was well worth it, let alone the whole day of activities I had planned for us including a Rockefeller Estate tour, apple picking, and 4,000 lit up Jack O' Lanterns.

Our first stop was Sleepy Hollow, a village in Tarrytown, where iconic American author Washington Irving wrote the tale of the Headless Horseman. We didn't get to go to the terrifying Horseman's Hollow haunted walk through the forest, but we did do a fantastic tour at Kykuit, the Rockefeller Estate.

Not only was the home, gardens and overall property breathtaking, but it was fascinating listening to the very knowledgable tour guide's stories on John D. Rockefeller and his family.

One thing I especially liked was one of Rockefeller's mantras that he was known to tell his children, "Order and Balance." He was extremely organized and disciplined, and found balance in life from making an abundance of money through owning Standard Oil, and giving back an abundance through all his charities focused on world peace, education and health.

It was so admirable to hear about all of the Rockefeller charities starting from John D. Sr. all the way down to the youngest son and daughter-in-laws. The Rockefellers did so much for New York City from creating Lincoln Center and the MOMA, to building lower Manhattan to keep business thriving downtown, getting the bid for the United Nations Assembly to be built on the East Side of the city, considerable land and park preservation, and of course son Nelson being the state's four term Governor and Vice President to Ford.

Next was off to Wilken's Fruit and Fir Farm via the Saw Mill Parkway for apple picking, but mostly buying lots of lovely things in the gift shop and eating lots of lovely things from their bakery. I'm not much into donuts,

but Wilken's homemade APPLE CIDER DONUTS were simply AMAZING! They sell so many that they are constantly being made fresh and hot. The donuts were light, dense and flavorful -- not syrupy or artificial tasting -- just perfect. Honestly, I wish I could wrap them up and send them over to everyone right now... Not too mention enjoy one myself as I write this post!

So with time to kill before the 8:30 Jack O'Lantern Blaze, we decided to go to a restaurant on the Hudson River to have a glass or two of wine, and something to eat to relax and reflect on our great day.

We heard of Harvest On Hudson, sitting right on the River with a great big lot of grass for customers to sit on benches and enjoy the view.

It was like an amazing first date all over again seven years later. We sat there for a few hours philosophizing, conversing, cuddling and just plain loving life. So far the day couldn't have been any better, and we still had 4,000 pumpkins to check out.

To end our day, Charles was such a good sport to drive back towards Tarrytown 20 minutes out of the way to the great Jack O'Lantern Blaze. It was really something walking through thousands of creative, artistic carved pumpkins all lit up in the great outdoors. There were probably more adults than kids enjoying it. It was well worth the drive and $17 ticket to go. Of course I had another apple cider to end our fantastic day.