Sunnyside Down

For Mother's Day, we wanted to get out of the city.  Max listens to stories on CD every night when he goes to bed and one of his favorites is "Rip van Winkle".   Naturally, we thus decided to visit Washington Irving's Sunnyside estate in the Hudson Valley for our Mother's Day excursion.

The Historic Hudson Valley website describes an "enchanted adventure in a romantic landscape", with "bucolic grounds" and a tour guide in period dress.  What's not to love! 

Mostly everything, as it turns out.

First of all, Sunnyside is a two story house, with some grass around it.  There's a stream on one side of the property.  You can see the Hudson River from the yard, as long as the Metro North train isn't roaring by at the moment.

Our tour guide had to be the least-welcoming-tour-guide-in-period-dress ever.  Either that, or nobody in the 18th and 19th century ever smiled, so she was staying in character.

We were the only people with kids on the tour.  Obviously going on a guided tour with a 1 year old and 3 year old is a completely foolish idea.  However, the only way to see the inside of the house was through the tour.  Also, it is possible that Max believed we were in fact going to meet Washington Irving and/or Rip van Winkle, and was both bored and disappointed from the instant our dour tour guide opened her mouth.

After dragging out the tour of the yard for what seemed like eternity (Nava ate grass; Max ran around searching for Rip van Winkle under trees), we entered the house.  It's a neat old house.  Well-preserved.  The individual rooms are blocked off with gates or ropes, of course, so you mostly stay in the hallway.  After a minute or so, Nava got bored and started to yell.   MDC tried to distract her by pointing out the stairs leading to the next level. Nava promptly began crawling up the stairs, resulting in both Nava and MDC getting kicked off the tour and asked to wait outside the house.

At Sunnyside, they are VERY serious about staying with the guide.  Because in a maybe 2000-sq-foot house, who knows what kind of damage could be wreaked if not in immediate proximity to the guide.

Max and I tried to stay the course.  But the tour was seriously boring.  And we thought MDC and Nava had left by choice.  So we discovered the (forbidden) stairs, and ventured up to check out Washington Irving's bedroom (also roped off, of course).

Within a minute, the tour guide found us, explained we could not be upstairs without the group, and kindly invited us to exit the house.

That's right, we all got kicked off the tour by a grumpy girl in a hoop dress.

But we were still in a lovely region, and wanted to make the most of this Mother's Day experience.  We headed to a restaurant recommended by one of MDC's co-workers only to find out that, despite having called the day before with no mention of this made, they only offered a prix fixe menu at $60 per adult and $30 per child.  Oh, and they do not have any high chairs (code for: please do not bring your young children to our establishment).

We ate in an overheated diner in Tarrytown.

Come on, Hudson Valley!  Reach deep, and pull one out for the team!  We ventured over to Stone Barns Center (which I obviously knew about from Top Chef - and some people say television is a waste of time!), which is where wealthy people go to pretend they have been to a farm (don't get me wrong - I very much like pretend farms.  It was just strange to feel under-dressed...at a farm. And I was wearing a skirt.).  

There was a "farm market", featuring very expensive pastries and charcuterie.  There are the original silos where they used to keep animals or corn or something, and now are very contemporary restrooms. There is valet parking.  There are very well-dressed people on their way to eat at the very fancy restaurant, Blue Hill (this is the part that was on Top Chef).

You can venture down the road into the pastures and see some real animals.  Unfortunately, MDC had a slight mishap on a concrete curb and banged up his knee.  Two minutes later, I let Nava get too close to the chickens, and one bit her hand.  She cried (understandably).  There was blood.  We left the farm.  (Which, I might add, we paid $10 to park at.).

It was not the best day trip.  After Sunnyside, we realized we are suffering from post-chateau snobbery, in which all homes and gardens visited will be compared with this and this and this.  Now, is it fair to compare a family home in upstate New York with a chateau in the Loire Valley?  Of course not, but that's hardly the point. 

When life gives you a boring house, mediocre pancakes, and chicken biting, make a trip to Whole Foods.  Fifty bucks spent on cheese, bread, and chocolate will fix most problems.   It certainly salvaged our Mother's Day.

PS Yes, my French friends I know you are thinking, how does baguette and brie cost in NYC?  More than you could possibly guess...