Jekyll and Hyde

In the previous post, I talked about Sleepy Hollow.  Well, turns out that Sleepy Hollow / Tarrytown is in New York, and just happens to be a hop, skip and jump across the bridge from New York City.  So we decided to take the next day and show the kids the Big Apple!  I love NY!  I could never live in a city, but man do I love to visit them and pretend to be a native!  We took almost every form of transportation there was....car, train, taxi, bus, subway, ferry and horse and carriage in just one day and night in NY!  But the double decker site seeing buses were the best.  You get a birds eye view of everything, and you can just hop on and off at your leisure.  So we got out in Greenwich Village to walk around, and stumbled upon a restaurant and pub that was custom made just for Hallowe'en Heads like you and I!  It is the World Famous Jekyll and Hyde Club!

Imagine my utter delight at walking into a place filled to the brim with skeletons and creepy animatronics and pumpkins and skulls!  I had never even heard of the place before...we just literally turned a corner and there it was.  I spent most my time there taking photos of everything.  I've been meaning to share them with you all for years, and have just never gotten around to uploading the pics.  So I figured they'd be an appropriate post for the Hallowe'en Countdown, just on content alone.  I'd love to open up something like this here in Florida!  Anyone want to go into business?!  Hope you enjoy the decor as much as we did!  And if you are in New York City, be sure to head down to the Village and hit up the Jekyll and Hyde Club and Restaurant!  :o)

 All Images © Wendy A.

Sleepy Hollow

 So as you all know, we try our best to get to New England in the Autumn because Florida has no such thing as an Autumn season.  Well, a few years ago, I got a wild hair to add Sleepy Hollow to my list of places to visit on our trip.  Since we stay in Vermont usually, and hit Salem each visit as well...it required a bit of a drive and a change in hotels to make it happen.  It's about 3 hours west from Vermont.  And we were going to see the Great Jack O'Lantern Blaze, (which is incredible and totally worth doing if you get to Sleepy Hollow in October!).  We also planned on checking out the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery so we could see the actual bridge where the Headless Horseman rode across in Washington Irving's classic haunted tale.

The cemetery was beautiful and I took lots of photos...but sadly, I lost them all, as they somehow got erased from my compact flash card.  I can't tell you how sick I still am about that!  The town, originally Tarrytown, is a very quaint town in the Fall.  The colored leaves blowing by, the shops with their Halloween wares on display, and streets decorated for the season...all collaborate to add to the magic of the legend itself. 

During the month of October there are a variety of activities to enjoy like the Jack O'Lantern Blaze in nearby Croton-on-Hudson, the Haunt Attraction, Horseman's Hollow, Irving's Legend, a master storytelling performance complete with organ music, the Haunted Hayride, Lyndhurst Mansion After Dark, site of the first two Dark Shadows movies, family fun at the Legend Weekends Event, the spectral tales of The Ghosts of TarryHollow and of course, Sleepy Hollow Cemetery Tours where you can enter the crypt of Barnabas Collins and find the graves of Brom Bones and Katrina Van Tassel.  I would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to live in this town...what a spooktacular October we would have!
 

As for the infamous bridge where the Headless Horseman chased ole' Ichabod Crane....well, you can find the bridge, and it is pretty....but it was a bit anticlimactic due to the fact that the bridge you see now, is not the 'real' bridge, and is not actually standing in the exact same place it was back in the day.  But it was all still a heap of fun, very cool....and absolutely perfect for a Fall vacation!

Autumn Through my Lens

A tangerine and russet cascade

Of kaleidoscopic leaves

Creates a tapestry of autumn magic

Upon the emerald carpet of fading summer.

~ Judith A. Lindberg

Today's post is a collection of quintessential Autumn shots that I photographed from around New England.  They could be from Vermont, Massachusetts or New Hampshire, depending on what ever back roads we were lost on at the time.  The one thing that always holds true there, is the color.  Even a bad year for color in New England is far more glorious than most places.  These images are from different years, but most of them incorporate bodies of water of some type or other....lakes, falls, streams.  The foliage always seem to be brighter and more lovely near the water.  I guess the leaves respond well to all the moisture!  {Sigh} I never tire of photographing and reveling in the splendor that is Autumn!  (You can click the images to view larger, as I can't fit the larger size on my page without cutting some off.)  Ahhh...New England, oh how I love thee....

And as of TODAY....I am officially on AUTUMN TIME!!!

  

 

  

  

 

 

All Images © Wendy A. (All Rights Reserved)

Hello Autumn, My Old Friend - Part 1 of 2

“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.

Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.

The winds will blow their own freshness into you,

and the storms their energy,

while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.”

~ John Muir

Well...I am sad to report that we are now home from our Autumn vacation....boo hiss! Why is it that vacation passes SO stinking fast? And why oh why do I live in Florida when there are states out there as beautiful as Vermont and New Hampshire? {sigh}Okay, enough feeling sorry for myself....moving on! Vacation was pure Fall Fabulousness as always, BUT, it was somewhat lacking on the two most important things I look forward to when heading to New England. And those two things were 1.) Cold Weather and 2.) Colorful Leaves. Apparently we got there too early this year, and right in time for a warming trend. So not only was there a decided lack of color to the trees, but some days it was literally warm enough to wear shorts. If that doesn't suck acorns, I don't know what does!!

(My son on the zip-line)

But never one to dwell on the negative for too long...I decided I would not let it dampen my commune with my old friend Autumn! Besides...what is 'shorts' weather to you northerners, is still sweater weather for me.

(Yours truly, happily flying zipping across an autumn ravine.
All I need is a pointed hat and a broom! )

So on our first day there, we drove up to Stowe Vermont and up into Smuggler's Notch to do some Zip-Lining. We've zip-lined before in Gatlinburg, TN, but ArborTrek's ZipLine at Smugg's puts that to shame. It was truly incredibl,e zip-lining through the tree canopy in Autumn. High above the mountain sides, over streams and gorges....from one tree platform to another. It takes almost three hours to complete, has really long zip lines, (with one being almost 1000 ft. long), and two rappels off the platforms to the ground below. That was new for us....we've never rappelled before....and I must be honest and say that it was scary and I didn't much care for that part. The harness actually bruised the ribs in my back. But I'm glad that I did it, and I would most certainly do it all again. Yes, I'm pretty sure that the Smuggler's Notch Zip-Lining will now be a family tradition every time we go back to New England, because it was just that fantastic!The color was just starting to turn when we arrived, which disappoints me because those lucky jokers who had reservations on the day we came home....were zipping through a multi-colored Autumn wonderland. But...beggars can't be choosers, and I'm just grateful to have been there at all.

(My daughter acting crazy on the zipline,
and giving me a nervous breakdown.)

So after we finished zip-lining, we had to travel back down through Smuggler's Notch. And since it was so beautiful outdoors, we decided to pull off at some of the viewing areas and climb up the rocks on the side of the mountain. The color was better in this area, although it was mostly bright yellows and gold with a little oranges here and there. The kids took off up the mountain to see what they could see, while I found myself a big flat boulder up on the mountain side and decided to lay down on it and try to connect with the earth's energy. This was pure bliss for me!

I laid there feeling the coolness of that rock while staring up at a canopy of golden leaves. The warmth of the setting sun filtered through just enough to make the leaves glisten like real gold. The air was cool and dry, and had the most incredible earthy smell to it. It smelled fresh and clean...of herbs and leaves and moss and earth....it smelled like only Autumn can smell. And as I laid there, I was quite certain that it was my version of Heaven. I would gladly tarry there for eternity if only I could.Then I thought to myself..."if only my Halloween friends could be here enjoying this very spot with me"! For only THEY can truly appreciate and understand the depth of what Autumn offers to its 'Autumn People'. YOU all...could appreciate the solitude of laying on that massive rock, staring up in complete bliss at the glory of Autumn. So you know what I did? I decided I should take a few shots UP...so that I could share with you what I was viewing from my vantage point. I laid there on my back and lifted up my camera and shot what I saw above me. I was feeling very connected to the cycle of life, to the changing seasons, and to the earth itself....when my blissful solitude was broken by the excited shrieks of my children....calling out to me that they had found a 'treasure box' up in a cave on the mountainside. Knowing their active imaginations, I "yes deared" them while trying to get back into my zen space....but they were relentless. I HAD to come and see it right that very minute. Of course I was somewhat peeved that I had to trek myself up the mountain to see some imaginary 'treasure box', but my son insisted it was real. The hubster then appears on the scene and confirms that it was indeed real. So I struggle to release the magnetic force that was connecting me to my rock, and carefully climbed my way up higher on the mountain, not sure of what to expect.

I had visions of some pirate chest perhaps....or more likely, an empty fast food container that they found and filled with pinecones, rocks and other 'treasures from nature'. But I was way off! They had indeed found a 'treasure chest' of sorts, and it was purely accidental. My son spotted it up in the crook of some rocks, so he and his sister decided to investigate it. And what a VERY COOL find it was too. Turns out...we opened that box up and discovered something brand new that we had no idea existed until that very day.

So I'll stop here and share our discovery with you in my next post.
All Images © 2011 Wendy A. and ArborTrek (All Rights Reserved)