Mount Beacon

Most years I feel as if I've petted fall to death before the first snowflake even falls, but this year has felt different. Maybe it's the consistently warm weather or the fact that a lot of the leaves in the city still haven't changed yet, but I haven't felt as immersed in fall this year. I mentioned before that this is probably just a consequence of living in New York City—when we took a hike upstate in Beacon, NY in mid-October fall was already in full swing.

Beacon is about two hours north of the city, on the eastern side of the Hudson River. The Mount Beacon hike that we took was about 2.5 miles total, which doesn't seem that far but it was a tough two miles. Our hikes are usually longer but we had limited time so my dude chose one with maximum impact in a relatively short amount of time. The hike was very steep—it starts out with 200 stairs—but as always, the view from the top was worth it.

Mount Beacon used to be home to an incline railway, which would take passengers up 1,500 ft to a hotel and casino. The incline ceased operations in the late '70s, but you can still see remnants. The casino and hotel have been reduced to their foundations, but I will immediately agree to go on any hike at the mere mention of ruins.

I definitely have something I call "exercise amnesia," meaning that I complain the entire way up (sometimes just in my head, sometimes outloud) and make dramatic claims like "I'm dying." But as soon as we rest for a minute and take in the views, I forget how terrible I felt and I'm ready to do it all over again. There's a specific feeling of accomplishment when you literally climb a mountain that is hard to replicate elsewhere.

West Taghkanic Diner

When I planned our epic Labor Day weekend roadtrip to Lake George, I knew that I wanted to take the scenic route on the way there. I've been wanting to explore a bit of the Taconic Parkway, the longest parkway in New York state and the second-longest contiguous road to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places. There were three diners in particular that I wanted to see, but I knew that I wanted to stop and eat at the West Taghkanic Diner, located just off the Taconic on NY-82 in Ancram, NY. I discovered it a year ago when I was planning for a different road trip, and it had been on my mind ever since.

Like most diners I love, the West Taghkanic has an epically amazing sign, although I was slightly disappointed to see a bit of what looked like scaffolding obscuring parts of it. I also realized that I would have preferred to see the neon lit up in all of its multi-colored glory, but now I'll just have to plan a return visit when it's dark outside.

The inside felt mostly original—to my delight—with wonderful counter stools, boomerang-print countertops, loads of aluminum and stainless and the best light-up signs for the fountain, restrooms and telephone. They even had branded cups, which I can't remember ever seeing at a diner—I always appreciate adherence to a brand, especially when it's based on a sign as good as the West Taghkanic's.

Cold Spring Cemetery

The weather has finally been appropriately spring-like and warm, so we've been trying to get outside every chance we can get. Two weekends ago my dude and I decided to go 1.5 hrs. upstate to Cold Spring, NY for a hike. Of course when I did a little bit of research, I found a cemetery about a mile from the Metro North station, so we added it to the itinerary.

Cold Spring is an adorable town on the Hudson River, with a Main Street containing a few antique stores, a bar, a deli, and a coffee shop. The cemetery was established in 1862—it wasn't as historical or as crumbling as I prefer my cemeteries to be, but there were a few highlights that made it definitely worth seeking out if you're ever in the area.

My favorite section of the cemetery was a seemingly-abandoned portion set off from the main area. The majority of the cemetery was very well-maintained, but there was a mausoleum and a handful of graves up a hill that looked strangely out of place. The first thing I noticed was the mausoleum because the door was wide open. This isn't something I'm used to seeing so I was super excited to check it out. Disappointingly there wasn't anything inside of the mausoleum, but it was still super creepy with its rusty door inexplicably propped open by a rock.

The oddly-placed graves were covered in leaves and mostly belonged to the Young family. Some of their headstones were quite intriguing, with my favorites being "Annie Weir Young, Student and Mystic," and "J. Henry Weir Young, Asst. Physician Bellevue Hospital, Died of Disease Contracted in the Discharge of Duty."

Another feature of the cemetery was a row of elaborate mausoleums (and an excellent receiving tomb), which I'm not really used to seeing in more rural, smaller cemeteries like Cold Spring. I noticed that while none of them were completely open like the one on the hill, a few of them had gates instead of full, solid doors. It was mentioned that it might have something to do with the fact that we weren't in the city anymore, so security was less of a concern, but whatever the reason it made spying inside that much easier, which I always appreciate.

I really started to notice some great typography towards the end of our walk, which is always one of my favorite parts of any cemetery visit. There is a remarkable amount of variation from stone to stone in style, technique and materials which I find endlessly fascinating. I love sneaking cemetery visits into my trip itineraries—in East Hampton or Philadelphia or Sleepy Hollow—and I'm so grateful to have found someone who is game for a creepy little detour every now and then.

Sunnyside and Kykuit

Before we visited the final resting places of both Washington Irving and William Rockefeller on our recent trip to Sleepy Hollow, we toured their respective estates, Sunnyside and Kykuit. They are geographically almost neighbors, but the properties are very different.

Sunnyside is more of a cottage, although Irving (who never married) shared the relatively small space with his brother and his five daughters. The house sits on beautiful former farmland, separated from the Hudson River by train tracks, an addition that was made back in Irving's time. Four of us actually got into Sunnyside for free because the fifth person in our group became a member of the Historic Hudson Valley. I think I may have been disappointed if I had paid the $12 admission price, but as I've said before I have a hard time complaining about something I got for free.

The tour encompasses only a few of the ground floor rooms, and we were free to explore the grounds (including the outhouses and icehouse) on our own. I wish we had been able to see more of the house and I felt as if the guides stationed in each room were a bit less enthusiastic with their stories than I expected.

Later in the day, as we were standing in front of Irving's grave in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, we overheard the following conversation between a husband and his wife: "Who was Washington Iriving again?" "He's the one who wrote the Headless Horseman."

They definitely could have benefited from the tour at Sunnyside, but since we already had a cursory knowledge of the man who wrote the inspiration for our entire trip (which is The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, by the way, not the Headless Horseman) it was interesting but not terribly enlightening.

Down the road a bit is the Rockefeller estate, Kykuit (pronounced Kye-cut), which is much larger and more grandiose than Sunnyside. We were wary of our tour guide at first, but aside from her creepy obsession with Nelson Rockefeller, she ended up being pretty great.

The house is beautiful, but it's the location and the grounds that really make it a spectacular place. The sloping lawns overlook the Hudson River Valley and I can't imagine a more beautiful time than fall to take the tour. Again, we didn't see as much of the house as I would have liked (why are the top floors always off-limits?) but it was still pretty long and informative.

Apparently the Rockefeller's tried not to be too showy with their wealth in keeping with their Baptist beliefs, but I'm not sure how much they succeeded in that regard. If Kykuit is their idea of what restraint looks like, I'd love to see what it would have looked like had they really tried to show off.

Sleepy Hollow Cemetery

On Sunday a group of friends and I spent the whole day exploring Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow in the Hudson River Valley. We'd been planning the trip for a while, and I can't remember being as excited for anything in quite a while. I'd never been to upstate New York before, and Sleepy Hollow seemed as if it would be the epitome of all fall and Halloween delights. The area definitely did not disappoint, and we crammed a ton of adventures into the more than 12-hour trip.

A definite highlight was the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery and Old Dutch Church Burying Ground. There are a lot of famous New York names buried in the cemetery, including a Rockefeller, a Chrysler, the Helmsleys, Elizabeth Arden and, of course, the area's most famous resident, Washington Irving.

The grounds are incredibly beautiful, especially this time of year. The entire area was exploding with fall colors, and the higher ground overlooks the Hudson River Valley, which is one of the most spectacular sights I've seen. Every corner I turned there were more and more beautiful trees and the weather was perfect.

The cemetery is a mix of old and new tombstones, fancy mausoleums and gorgeous statues — they apparently still have plots available if you're in the market for one. I can't think of many better places to spend all of eternity, but it was also a great place for a leisurely Sunday stroll.

The Pocantico river runs alongside the cemetery, and although the original "headless horseman" bridge is no longer standing, there is a rustic bridge that, according to the maps, "makes a nice souvenir photograph."

The Old Dutch Church is small and plain, but the churchyard has some of the oldest graves in the cemetery. I'll never get tired of exploring historic cemeteries, and there is always something new and interesting to discover. A lot of graves were even decorated for Halloween with pumpkins and flowers, which was appropriately festive. They offer tours during the day, but also after dark which might be neat to check out if I go back next year. I can easily see an October trip to Sleepy Hollow becoming a tradition, and there is plenty that I didn't see the first time around.