Sleepy Hollow

October 30, 2023

We finally made it to Sleepy Hollow this fall! This was another stop I wanted to check off my Halloween list and this year I was able to make time for it and on my birthday of all days. We were able to make a nice day trip out of it since it was only about an hour and a half away. For some reason, in the past I thought it was longer because anything ‘upstate’ seems like forever. In reality, this isn’t that much upstate of Manhattan. It was an easy drive up and back, especially if you’re able to avoid rush hours.

It’s a relatively small town so it’s very easy to see everything in a day. We got there around noon so we were able to explore a little bit of the cemetery, see the famous town sign for a quick pic, take a tour of Lyndhurst Mansion and walk the grounds before having dinner at Horsefeathers. The town is well decorated and very festive, being a popular tourist spot. I didn’t get to check out the shops on their main street because we arrived later in the day but because it’s so close, we plan on coming back again next year because it’s just such a beautiful and easily walkable town.

The iconic Sleepy Hollow sign is on the side of the road right next to Sleepy Hollow High School. It was easy to spot, and conveniently marked on Google maps as well. And because we went on a weekday, it was easy to find a quick spot to park, get out and take a quick pic. You don’t want to loiter too long since it is a school zone area. Weekends during October I’ve read can get pretty busy. This comes down to pros and cons of what you want to experience though. Weekends are busier so it may be harder to find a spot to park and have to wait your turn for things, but it’s also when they have more festivals and fun special Halloween events. If you walk a few blocks over from the sign, you’ll find the famous Beekman Ave, where there’s a big clock and the Jack Skellington looking pumpkin display decorated right at the intersection.

Drive a little further down the road and you’ll be at the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. The Old Dutch Reformed Church is right out front with a couple of parking spots inside the entrance but you can drive alongside the one-way road and park on the right all along the cemetery if you can’t find a spot, as long as you follow all the marked signs and rules. We didn’t get to see inside the church this visit because it was closed albeit coming during visiting hours. Note that the bridge right outside the church is the official “Headless Horseman Bridge” - you literally drive on it to get to the cemetery - but it has since been replaced by a more modern looking construction. If you walk through the cemetery to the Old Style Horseman, you’ll find a more iconic, traditional looking wooden bridge the town installed to fit in with the legend of Sleepy Hollow better, to appease the tourists and makes for a better picture opportunity. It’s very pretty walking through the path to get there during this time, seeing all the beautiful fall colors and the stream that runs through it. I came at just the perfect time as the fall foliage in this area was reaching peak. Driving through the cemetery as we left was also a very pretty ride. I know, it seems weird to describe a cemetery as ‘pretty’ but there’s something hauntingly beautiful about the mausoleums and different tombstones, especially during this time as the colors change with the spooky season. Speaking of spooky season, the hubby noted there were a lot of Hot Topic looking girls also visiting during this time. I imagine the weekends are even more packed with tourists and Halloween fans. They have day and night tours for the cemetery but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go on a long walking tour at this time but maybe next time, if the weather is comfortable, a night time tour might be nice to try. We actually got very lucky this visit and it was a pretty warm day and a cool evening. It was unusually warm for my birthday weekend this year.

After the cemetery, we headed to the Lyndhurst Mansion for a tour. It was either this or the Armour-Stiner Octagon house but the Octagon house sold out before I remembered to book it, and the Lyndhurst Mansion had a lot of good reviews and gave you access to the grounds after the tour for you to wander to your hearts content. If you’re a history or architectural/home interior design buff, I recommend the Lyndhurst Mansion as one of your stops. It goes through the history of its three owners, from William Paulding, to George Merritt to Jay Gould. They used to have a Halloween tour but our tour guide said people complained and preferred to learn more about the history of the mansion than ghost stories so they only offer the classic tours at this time. (Hopefully next visit, I can book the Octagon House’s Myth and Mysteries tour to fit in better with the spirit of the Halloween season.) The mansion was built and decorated in a gothic style. I found it beautiful to walk through as all its furnishings and decor looked so regal and grand. I’ve never seen any of the shows and movies that it’s been featured in but I can definitely see why they would choose this building for their sets. And the grounds are also equally beautiful and were decorated for Halloween in good fun. Our tour ended right before sunset and we walked out to this beautiful view overlooking the Hudson river. It felt like the perfect ending to the evening for my birthday. We took a moment to take it in before leaving to head back to town for dinner.

We went to Horsefeathers for dinner, which came highly recommended by a few friends, and reviews and blogs I read online. There is definitely a wait because it is a popular spot and the hostesses to seat you do work a little slow (we tried earlier in the day before the tour and again after the tour and both times, it took a bit of a wait before someone came out to greet us and gave us an estimate for our wait time), but once you’re in, the service inside is normal. The inside decor is really festive and cute, with writers on the wall like Mark Twain, Edgar Allen Poe and Washington Irving. The food though, for me, didn’t really live up to the hype. I was in the mood for fish and chips and the fish was a little too crispy and the chips were more like potato wedges than fries, which I would’ve preferred to pair better with the fish. The crabcake was good though. The hubby had ribs and they were fall off the bone good but a little too oversauced. I probably should have gotten a burger instead since that’s what they’re well known for but I wasn’t in the mood for a burger. There were a lot of other things on the menu so maybe I’ll give it another shot if we visit again. I probably should’ve tried a drink but I don’t really drink and I’m in prep mode for the NYC marathon so it wasn’t really a good idea anyway. Two other recommended restaurants I’m looking to try next time are The Bridgeview Tavern and The Hudson Farmer & The Fish. Hopefully they fare a little better. After dinner, we walked around the block a little to kill time and check out some decorations. The shops were all closed by this time but it was a beautiful cool night to just walk since we were waiting for rush hour to die down before heading home. I found Sleepy Hollow very charming and everyone very friendly and informative. Hopefully next Halloween season, I can experience a spookier tour and see more of the town. I missed the Headless Horseman statue but that just means I need to make another trip back, of course!

Cherry Blossom 10 Miler

April 5, 2022

I discovered this race back in 2019 serendipitously while shooting cherry blossoms with a friend when I was visiting DC. We were shooting at the Tidal Basin early to avoid crowds when I heard a lot of cheering. Then I saw a throng of people stampeding through the roads and I realized that’s why the roads were closed that morning and why my Uber driver had a hard time trying to find a spot to drop me off. I Googled it and found out that it was an annual run held in DC where you literally run through all the cherry blossom blooms along the trail of the Tidal Basin. I was intrigued. I immediately texted my girl Kerri who always does all the runDisney Princess runs with me and we agreed to sign up the next year. We got in the lottery that December and were all set to run it Spring 2020.

DUN DUN DUN.

And then Covid happened. The race was cancelled pretty much the week after everything shut down around the world that fateful week in March 2020. It was literally 3 weeks til the race and I was pretty sad about it because I was looking forward to it all year after witnessing this phenomenon that spring before.

Fast forward to today. It would be 3 years from when I first stumbled upon and discovered the existence of the cherry blossom before it would return.

But alas! I finally got to run this race, this past Sunday and it was a great experience!

It was definitely different from running a Disney race that’s for sure. It was a different atmosphere, with much more serious runners than I’m used to in the Disney crowd. I’m not exactly sure yet if I enjoyed it or felt too intimidated by it. I definitely felt like I had to push harder and felt compelled to never stop at all during the course, except one time for a much needed sugar pick-me-up when I spotted a free beer and Oreos stand. I grabbed three, scarfed them down and felt so much better. I’ve never experimented with cookies before as one of my race fuels but it really made me feel better and helped recharge me to finish out the last leg of the course.

The sad part is the bloom was very early this year and a few days before this race, a tornado came through and wiped out a bunch of the blossoms so a lot of the trees in the area were looking rather sparse. Most of the course wasn’t very scenic to run through, considering the whole race is themed around literally that; running through cherry blossom blooms. Luckily though, the last 4 miles of the course running through the East Potomac park had a decent amount of trees still in bloom which made for a beautiful trail to run through, especially for the home stretch leg of the race.

Those last miles definitely were eventful though. Between mile 7 and 8 was where everyone’s favorite stop was, the free beer and Oreos stand, which literally had pre-poured cups of beer for everyone and literally trays upon trays of free Oreos in different flavors and everything. These were provided courtesy of a local brewery, which was pretty cool of them to do.

A little after mile 8, though, I witnessed something pretty crazy. I saw a little red medic looking golf cart with the curtains down and saw there was someone in a stretcher inside through the curtain panels. And then a few feet in front of the cart, I realized there was a girl on the ground, her face eggplant purple and medics doing chest compressions (And sadly, this wasn’t the first time I was witnessing this happening. The day before in Capitol Hill, after dinner on our way to the metro to head back for the night, we saw a man on the ground surrounded by EMTs and police with a device administering chest compressions. We found out later the man did not make it when we looked it up later that evening.) The girl looked fairly young too. I was in a bit of shock after seeing that but I had to keep going. There was enough people already around her helping and this didn’t seem like a race you could really stop in without getting trampled because it’s literally full of serious runners compared to my past races. Although I worry that might have been what caused this young girl’s unfortunate situation-being a serious runner and pushing too hard. I hear it all the time.

“Listen to your body.”

“Rest when needed.”

“Slow down.”

And you know for the most part, I’m pretty bad at all that. I worry a lot about overexerting myself. I do try to slow down when I feel like my heart is racing too fast, which happens from time to time, but less frequently ever since I started being more active. I’m always conscious of my cardio health because my mom has a heart condition. One of my friends, who is also a runner, went into tachycardia after finishing his race a few years back, collapsing right next to the medic tent luckily enough and was rushed to the hospital. They did emergency surgery on him and now he has forever has a device implanted in him that will shock his heart back to life if it happens again. To me, these things are very scary and very real especially witnessing what was happening to that girl with my own eyes. It’s a grim reminder I need to take care of myself. I need to listen to my body and its needs. I need to slow down. I need to rest. I need to stop overdoing it and wanting to get too many miles in and causing myself to be prone to injury and then not letting that injury heal before my next big run. I need to stop taking my health for granted. I need to practice more gratitude for what my body can do, for what it allows me to do. For allowing me to move everyday and carry me through so much. As much as I worked on my physical health in the past few years, I need to also work on my mental health and stop thinking negative thoughts about myself. There is still a lot I have to work on, on myself.

But I digress. This race was a rollercoaster of events and emotions. After mile 9, I reached the bend where I had discovered this race all those years ago. There was a HUGE crowd of spectators at this bend, cheering everyone one, firing off confetti sticks, blasting music and pushing us to finish the last mile. It was the push I needed after witnessing mile 8’s incident. I raced through to the finish line and was so happy I finished this. Although I do have to say, this finish line was not as exciting and cool as a runDisney finish line, by far, lol. And the reunion area was much more chaotic. The medals were in an area far from the finish line and it was very odd that you had to pretty much go chase them down. I’m used to Disney where they just hand them to you as soon as you cross that finish line. I swear, I’ve been spoiled by the mouse. It’s true what they say and I can finally attest to it. There’s no race like a runDisney race and now I know why those races cost more and why people keep coming back.

Make no mistake, I still had a great time and would love to come back and run this race again, especially when the blossoms are in peak bloom. Plus DC is just beautiful in general so I enjoy coming back to visit and enjoy the views. There’s still so much I want to see and do in this city, but also still waiting for it to open up so I can do them, like the White House tours, tour of Congress, the many, many great museums and visiting embassies and trying their food. And food, let’s not forget food. I had a great time this weekend trying different restaurants and dessert spots! I walked alongside the Tidal Basin for a photoshoot, then walked from Georgetown to Capitol Hill, on top of the 10 mile run the next day, then limped all over the National Mall for vain medal pics, and then continously tortured my poor legs dragging them all the way to brunch and then the White House, getting in a total of 28.7 miles and 57,324 steps this weekend.

I’m not the fastest runner by far, but I still enjoy getting out there and seeing what I can do, while my body still allows me to do it. Despite feeling intimidated by all the ‘real’ runners this weekend, I still want to continue doing this. It pushes me to keep going and to have fun with it.

I realized how fitting that the race was a cherry blossom run, given this weekend and all I witnessed and experienced. Cherry blossoms are symbolic of spring - a time of renewal and rebirth of everything. But they also represent the fleeting nature of life, and how everything can quickly change, especially since their bloom is so short lived. The race, just like cherry blossoms was eventful with all the things I ran past, symbolic of how life goes up and down so fast you can’t keep up sometimes. But you just have to keep going. It reminds me of the lesson of the cherry blossom in Memoirs of a Geisha.

We must not expect happiness…
it is not something we deserve.
When life goes well, it’s a sudden gift, it cannot last forever.

I learned this weekend that we have to keep moving on, moving forward, but we also have to remember to enjoy life in the present. Don’t live life so fast that you forget to have fun and just enjoy things. Allow yourself to be happy when it does happen.

And as cheesy as it sounds, like my girl Cassey says, find the joy in fitness! My husband has started running with me again for the spring and I can’t even begin to tell you how much joy it brings me. It’s the little things in life, truly.

Up next, two race events in Central Park and then our Bermuda trip at the end of this month!

All Magic Comes With A Price

June 14, 2019

At this point, just unfollow me. I never meant for this to happen but the mouse has consumed my life. My next two vacations I have planned are to, surprise, surprise, Disney.

One is for next year to conquer the runDisney Princess Half Weekend races so that's pretty far ahead.

The other one, I booked just last week and it's going to be my first Disney cruise.

I actually had intended to try and broaden my horizons by visiting at least one new country this year and had my heart set on Italy but a few factors played into my decisions to switch gears for a bit. First off, flights for the dates I wanted were not only tricky but costly. Planning an itinerary is also a lot of work so every time I sat down and tried to research it to strategize it, it ended up stressful and overwhelming. I felt this way about Paris too but Paris was a little easier because it was just one city and everything simply fell into place nicely like puzzle pieces. For Italy, there are a few cities I want to visit and I would ideally like to hit them all up in one visit so the logistics of it is tricky. It also gets expensive trying to do a lot of cities in one trip, traveling from one spot to another in a matter of days. I also worried that I might be hopping too fast in between places. Like for Japan, I explored 3 cities in 2 weeks, which I enjoyed but I did feel like my experience could’ve been better had it not been so rushed. For Paris, it was just Paris and I was able to soak it all in and enjoy it at my own pace since it was just one city. If I didn’t get to do something, I simply just did it the next day. I don’t want to travel and visit these places just to check it off my list. I want to be able to breathe and really take it all in. And of course, I want some beautiful photos for the gram and for my own memories to keep forever. Not that I don’t intend on revisiting Italy if I do enjoy my trip but I also want to enjoy Italy to as much of its full potential as possible. By this, I mean I don’t want to go just to check it off my list, half ass and it and then have to go back because I didn’t do everything I wanted. Especially because it wasn’t in the budget the first time around. I got lucky with my Paris trip that all the costs were pretty contained and within budget thanks to a nice tax refund. Unfortunately if you’ve been following me, you know that this year’s taxes were not so kind (Thanks Trump!) and I didn’t have that extra help to subsidize any traveling this year, but rather a nice hefty tax bill to pay. Anyway. I’m slowly digging myself out that hole still but I refuse to allow this setback to stop me from living my life. I still want to go somewhere in the fall and celebrate my birthday. But unfortunately, I think I will have to put Italy on the back burner for now. I’ll still go one day, but I’d rather that when I do, I’ll be able to do it fully my way and not cut corners just to go.

Another reason I ended up giving up Italy for 2019 is because of my husband. He’s not fond of flying and preferred a vacation in which we didn’t have to fly anywhere. He also wanted a vacation where he doesn’t have to ‘work’ so much; he wanted something more relaxing and less running from place to place exploring and moving onto the next site so quick. This made me feel really bad and probably was the grain of rice that tipped the scale in Disney’s favor. I realized all the vacations we’ve been on, have been mainly for me. This adorable boy has been tirelessly chasing after me as I run from place to place and ask him to take photos for the gram for me. He follows me everywhere I want to go and does everything I want. I need to take a step back and let him have an actual vacation for once. I felt bad because we work such opposite schedules and rarely see each other and when we do and get to go on vacation, I’m really just making him work some more instead of being about to sit back, relax and enjoy his time off.

So this Disney cruise was the compromise that fit both our interests.

This idea was actually implanted by Zuckerberg in my Instagram ads. I swear that guy is trying to sabotage me. I saw an ad for a Halloween Disney cruise a few months ago and out of curiousity, I clicked on it. There were several routes, ships and sailings but one cruise in particular, I swear was put together to bait me. And I can’t even lie because at this point, I definitely bit. This cruise sails exactly a day after my birthday, stops at Castaway Cay and then in Port Canaveral so I can go do Disney World for a day. And surprise, surprise guess what day that is. You bet your bottom dollar, it’s exactly Halloween day.

The cruise ended up perfectly for my husband as well because it’s not a lot of stops in port anywhere so I can’t drag him anywhere to take so many photos for the gram so it’s maximum relaxing all week. It’s only one day in Disney so it definitely minimizes how much running all over the parks he’s going to be dong as well.

I’m disappointed there won’t be any new destinations on this cruise for me to add to my travel list but I mean, I can’t be too mad because Halloween in Disney, as well as the cruise itself is Halloween themed onboard. So it satisfies my favorite holiday needs. I mean, I’m also going to have unlimited Mickey bars on board all damn week, how much more can a girl dream? Hahaha. I’m also told that the ship I’m sailing on has mango soft serve. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. INSERT BIG HAPPY SMILE. It’s also supposed to have a Tangled themed restaurant as well so I’m excited for that too.

The only really major con to the cruise I would have to say is the biggest deterrent as to why I never cared to consider a Disney cruise in the past. The cost. Disney cruises are one of the most expensive cruises around, unfortunately. It’s funny because being a Disney fan, you’d think I would’ve been all for one already in the past but I actually had no interest in them because I thought they were overpriced and I wasn’t crazy about being on a Disney cruise because well it’s Disney. Disney is more family oriented and thus meaning it has a higher percentage of families and kids on board. I wasn’t keen on being on a ship with that many more kids than a regular cruise. But one of my retired coworkers actually did recommend me to try a Disney cruise one day in my life. I asked him about the kid factor and he actually said it wasn’t too bad on his trip and wasn’t something I needed to worry about. So this is definitely something I will have to report back on after I return.

So despite having to delay Italy until I can afford the dream trip I want, this fall we will be setting sail on our first ever Disney cruise! I won’t lie, I am a little disheartened about Europe but at the same time I am definitely excited about finally trying out a Disney cruise and seeing what all the hubbub is about. I’ve been told by a few followers they enjoyed their cruise and that Disney is simply incomparable to other cruiselines after that which can be both good and bad. Good in the fact that it’s worth the money, but bad in the fact that I’ll be in another Contemporary situation. Last year I stayed at the Contemporary for my birthday and balled out. Now that my husband’s tasted the finer things in life, we can’t downgrade in Disney hotels from the Contemporary. He refuses to stay anywhere else besides anywhere on the Monorail line, hahaha. A similar situation happened when we cruised with Royal Caribbean back in college and then with Norwegian for our honeymoon. Norwegian is so much better by far in quality, food, cabin space, service, etc. And we can’t go back from a balcony room to an inside cabin either. Once you tasted the finer things in life, you can’t go back. So with that said, I fear we may be making a mistake, hahahaha. I want this Disney cruise to be amazing to rationalize how much I had to pay, but I also fear that it actually might be too amazing and we’ll want to only go with Disney moving forward. But that’s the price we pay as we move onward to bigger and better things in life. All magic comes with a price, dearie.