SLEEPY HOLLOW

I have always had a "thing" for Halloween and slightly creepy things.  In first grade we did a project entitled "One time I stayed up 'till midnight and..." and I finished my sentence with "I saw bats hanging from my ceiling" and proceeded to draw my little blonde pony-tailed self in my bedroom with bats everywhere.  My mom still has this and as a joke, it's hanging on my parents garage refrigerator right now.

Evidence

On this note...as a child I was obsessed with (and still currently am) was Disney's The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad which was a VHS with 2 short films on it...the first being a story about Mr. Toad (from the Wind and the Willows) and a second being a short and adapted version of Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (you know...Ichabod Crane?).  To make the latter part of this film even better (Ichabod's portion), it's narrated by Bing Crosby.  I would have picked this over a princess movie any day.

I LOVED this in my younger years and possibly love it even more as an adult.  So much that when I went to visit my friend Beege (Hi Beegie) in NY a few years ago, I researched how far Sleepy Hollow/Tarrytown was from the city.  I then dragged my friend (who accompanied me on an NYC trip) with me, stating that it was bucket-list material (it was...is that sad?) and she sacked up, got up early and went to Grand Central with me that morning.  We were on the train for about an hour...staring out at the Hudson River and listening to the conductor rattle off names like "Harlem" and "Yonkers" while waiting to hear "Tarrytown".

To make a long blog not so long...we got a cab to the Old Dutch Church and walked around the graveyard....yes this is creepy I know and I am forever indebted to Jen Wells.

 

Washington Irving's grave

The Van Tassels-if you haven't seen the movie...then you don't get it.

bridge below the graveyard

 

somewhere in the middle of town

 

Best part of Sleepy Hollow?  HORSEFEATHERS TAVERN!  I actually yelped this or something before we went and found it on some page on the internet somewhere and it looked too amazing to pass up and BOY WAS I RIGHT!  They had these garlicky, seasoned croutons instead of bar snacks, nuts or popcorn that were so good, I asked to buy some.  They gave us a bag to go on the house.  THANKS HORSEFEATHERS!

Check them out here: Horsefeathers

All my homies! All Washington Irving characters.

Word to the wise...if you ever do make this trek up from NYC...go in the fall.  The Great Jack O' Lantern Blaze starts October 1st.

The Great Jack O' Lantern Blaze

Linzo says: walking around a famous graveyard is EVERYTHING it is cracked up to be!