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Bob and I headed back out on the OCA (Old Croton Aqueduct) trail today. We have walked it north for about an hour from right in our neighborhood, and we’ve walked it south as far as the village of Irvington. Today, we drove to Irvington to walk the trail from there to Dobb’s Ferry. It was a warm walk, as it is a bit more humid than yesterday and much of our walk in Dobb’s Ferry was not shaded,

Just as a reminder, the Croton Aqueduct was built in the 1830s to bring water from the Croton Reservoir, 41 miles north of New York City, into the city using just gravity to convey the water. In 1968, the state bought 26.2 miles of the original aqueduct path to create a linear park.

As when we walked from Tarrytown to Irvington, we saw a number of lovely homes along the trail.

Mercy University is a private, non-sectarian, non-profit, co-educational research university. Its main campus is on these 66 acres in Dobbs Ferry, but it also has campuses in Manhattan, the Bronx, and Yorktown Heights. It offers more than 90 undergraduate and graduate programs.

The portion of the trail that we walked today is sometimes on the same level as the surrounding land, but is sometimes above the areas surrounding it.

Dobbs Ferry, also in Westchester County, is a village of about 11,500 people today. It is named for the ferry service started in the early 1700s by John Dobbs. The ferry service provided key transportation for American forces in August of 1781 to allow additional troops to join Washington’s in a battle at Yorktown that helped end the war. The ferry service here continued until 1945.

We walked along Main Street in Dobbs Ferry and saw a number of retail stores and restaurants as well as a bank and a library in a mix of older and newer buildings.

We then walked across the train tracks, via the walkover bridge, to check out the Dobbs Ferry Waterfront Park. We even got a faint view of part of the New York City skyline.

Yesterday, Bob and I had a great visit with my cousin Traci and her husband Paul who made the 2 hour drive down from Kinderhook, NY, to Tarrytown. They got here about 12:30. We were able to catch up for about 45 minutes before we walked downtown for our lunch reservations and then we chatted back at the house again afterwards until they headed back about 4:15. It was a lovely and very unusual day for us when we are housesitting, and, of course, we had cleared having them in the house with the homeowners ahead of time.

Since the weekend was mostly filled with us planning and cleaning for their arrival (we may be a bit OCD about this since we don’t entertain very often), we were ready to get out for a walk today.

We drove back to the trailhead near the reservoir to walk on the Empire State Trail again, but this time heading south. It was still a lovely, shaded walks with lots of cyclists, but it took us by an industrial/business area with a couple of street crossings. There is a humane society located along the path as well, so we saw a number of volunteers out walking the shelter dogs. The downside was there were a lot of gnats along the trail, mostly at the end of the walk, otherwise we may not have walked as far.

We did not continue on the trail at this point. We stopped at a gas station instead to cash in a winning lottery ticket ($4) and to purchase a couple of tickets for tonight’s drawing.

Before I start on today’s short outing, I wanted to make a quick remark about the weather. While large parts of Europe, Canada, and the American Northwest are or have been dealing with destructive and sometimes deadly wildfires, the weather worry here has been rain. We have had at least one flood watch or warning here every week that we’ve been here and many places in the surrounding states have been flooded.

We have been lucky so far in Tarrytown, and perhaps living at least half a mile steeply uphill from the river helps, but there are signs of the wet weather, including the photo below.

Anyhoo, today was sunny after another rainy day yesterday, so we got out to do a bit of hiking. We headed back to the Rockefeller State Park Preserve for our 3rd hike. This time, we were headed for the trail that goes around Swan Lake within the park. This was the most populated trail that we’ve hiked in the preserve, with lots of dog walkers, a couple of photographers (with actual cameras), and a bird watcher, in addition to others of us just out for a walk. As with the duckless Duck Pond in Croton-on-Hudson the other day, Swan Lake was swanless but pretty all the same.

Some days on our outings we walk to walk, and sometimes we walk to explore. Yesterday, we headed out to walk part of yet another trail in the area. We drove about 10 minutes to a trailhead for the 750-mile Empire State Trail. We walked an hour out and an hour back — somewhere between 2 and 3 miles each way, so we barely scratched the surface of this trail. And we were not alone, we saw a couple of runners and two or three other walkers, but we were passed by quite a few bikers on the paved trail.

Today we took the Metro North Railroad train that runs south to Grand Central Station in New York City and north along the Hudson River to Poughkeepsie for the first time. We went north for the 20 minute trip to the Croton-Harmon station, the second stop from Tarrytown. We first explored Croton Point Park, which lies west of the train station, and then walked back past the train station to explore a bit of the town.

Croton Point Park is a 508 acre park situated on a peninsula in the town of Croton-on-Hudson, New York. It has a small beach, Nature Center, and lots of picnic areas along the Hudson River which were being used on this sunny Saturday.

Croton-on-Hudson, still in Westchester County, is a village of about 8,300 about 21 miles north of Tarrytown. Bob found us a couple of different retail areas to explore.

A week or so ago, Bob and I walked south to the village of Irvington along the Old Croton Aqueduct Trail. This route took us onto the lovely grounds of Lyndhurst Mansion. Yesterday we went back to the estate grounds to tour the home. It was $26 apiece for the one hour tour, which we really enjoyed. We also viewed the 20 minute video of the estate at the Welcome Center and perused the cute gift shop.

Our tour guide was very good, and there were a total of 14 of us on the tour. The Gothic Revival mansion was designed in 1838 by the architect Alexander Jackson Davis as a summer home for William Paulding, a former NYC Mayor and his family. It was only owned by three families — the Pauldings, the Merritts, and the Goulds— before it was donated to the state in 1961.

Each time it was sold, the home was sold furnished (minus art and books), so much of the furnishings are from one of the three families.

When the house was originally built for the Pauldings, it ended before the highest tower. George Merritt bought the house for his family in 1864 and had the building expanded to accommodate his larger family. He was able to hire the original architect who designed the expansion of the house, which included a large dining room, additional bedrooms, and the large tower with the initials of Merritt’s children. The expansion nearly doubled the size of the house from its original 7,000 square feet.

Mr. Merritt was the first to refer to the house as Lyndhurst due to the many linden trees on the property. He also converted the landscape from open farmland to a country estate with additional trees, walkways to view the Hudson River, and a grand wood-framed greenhouse.

Mr. Merritt’s widow Julia decided to sell the estate, and it was purchased by the railroad tycoon Jay Gould in 1880. The biggest change Jay Gould made to the estate was to replace the greenhouse, which burned to the ground, with an 18,000 square foot metal-framed one that allowed for 14 different temperature zones for his plants. After Jay Gould’s death, the house was lived in by his oldest daughter Helen and her family and then by the youngest daughter Anna after Helen passed. Anna then donated the estate to New York upon her death in 1961.

Note: The dress on the mannequin is one worn by Helen Gould to a costume party where she dressed as Martha Washington.

Note: Helen Gould married at the age of 44. She and her husband then adopted 4 children that they raised on the property. She added a bowling alley and enclosed swimming pool on the property.

In driving to some of our other destinations, we had seen signs for Pleasantville, and then we saw that it was on a list of New York’s Most Charming Small Towns. So we drove the 10 miles or so there on Friday to check it out.

Pleasantville is also in Westchester County but is not situated along the Hudson River. Wikipedia says that Pleasantville is a village in the town of Mount Pleasant and is located 30 miles north of Manhattan and northwest of Tarrytown. It has a population of about 7,500. We walked around the smallish (but larger than Tarrytown or Sleepy Hollow) downtown and found a number of cute shops, lots of restaurants, and a film center.

We really enjoyed the walkabout and also found a great bookstore which sadly had 2 tip jars near the checkout. While they were labeled “Fiction” and “Nonfiction” in keeping with the theme of the store, I just am not sure what this means for the state of physical retail shopping if you are to tip people now for just handing you back the item you just purchased. Having said that, I’m pretty sure Pleasantville hasn’t seen the last of us.

Last night, was a rare night out for the Pecks. We had purchased tickets to a show at Tarrytown Music Hall, as we wanted to see the inside of the theater and they don’t do tours. Last night was our event, but before the show we ate at a local restaurant near the theater called Sweet Grass Grill.

The restaurant gets good reviews and was also recommended by our homeowners. Much of its menu is either vegan, vegetarian, or gluten free, or some combination. We had a great meal, and the place was hopping. The group that sat to the left of us (from where I was) ending up sitting to the right of us in the same row at the theater.

The nonprofit Tarrytown Music Hall was built by William L. Wallace, a wealthy candy manufacturer, and designed by Theodore de Lemos and August Cordes. It opened on December 12, 1885, with the new Gilbert and Sullivan opera, “The Mikado.” This was the same year that Grover Cleveland became president, Karl Benz engineered the first automobile, and the Statue of Liberty arrived in New York Harbor. It is the oldest theater in Westchester County, the 5th oldest in New York, and one of the oldest in the nation.

We had tickets to see an Eagles cover band called EagleMania.

The show was fun, but then you can’t really go wrong with Eagles’ songs, as there are so many good ones to choose from.

As with everywhere it seems, we’ve had a bit of weather. So far, we’ve been very lucky. Tuesday was a rain-filled day where it really poured for quite a few hours. I think we got 4.8 inches, but we were under a flood and tornado watch and luckily neither of those materialized for Tarrytown. Except for a couple of quick errands in downtown, we were in all day Tuesday.

Yesterday, we wanted to do some walking but nowhere that might have been really impacted by all the water, so we headed down near the coast of the Hudson River to check out two restaurants that were near the yacht and boat clubs to see how they looked and the best way to get to them if we decide to go sometime.

Some fun facts about the Hudson River since it figures so predominately in our time here. It is 315 miles long, flowing from the Adirondack Mountains to the Atlantic and forming part of the border with New Jersey. The lower 154 miles (including where we are) are a tidal estuary which means saltwater from the ocean mixes with freshwater from the river. While it is now named for the explorer Henry Hudson, the native Lenape tribe gave it a name which means river that flows both ways, as it does appear to do that in the estuary part of the river.

Today, we went a tiny bit further afield and drove to another portion of the huge Rockefeller State Park Preserve to see more of the park. This section of the preserve, separated a bit from the main sections, had free (although somewhat limited) parking.

The Rockwood Hall section is aptly named as it is the site of William Rockefeller’s former mansion of that name. The mansion, which was designed by Frederick Law Olmstead of Central Park fame, had 202 rooms, but sadly, no longer exists.

No more World Cup games, summer storms, or Canadian wildfire smoke to keep us inside today, so we headed to the nearby (15 minute car ride) Rockefeller State Park Preserve for a hike. When asking the Google/AI guru what to do near us, it had brought up the 13 bridge trail at the preserve, so we thought we’d start with that one.

As you will see by the map below, there are plenty of trails to choose from. We paid the required $6 fee to park near the Visitor Center, but we noticed a number of cars parked along the main road, so we may try that sometime depending on which trail we are wanting to hike. We definitely don’t mind supporting state parks.

The map below shows the large expanse of the preserve. It is a 1,775 acre park featuring 45 miles of gravel covered carriage roads for walking, jogging, or horseback riding. As you may have guessed from the name, the land was donated by the Rockefeller family.

As a side comment, we were very impressed with the trail signage throughout the parts of the preserve that we were in.

It went on like that. Nothing displeasing to the eye, just not terribly exciting. It was an aptly named trail, as there were 13.

Bob and I have spent a good deal of time over the last few days watching the World Cup Semifinals. Unfortunately, they were played during the afternoons of the last two non-smoky days we may have for awhile. There are wildfires going on all over the world right now, but we are focused on those burning in Ontario, Canada, as the smoke from those is really impacting the air in much of the Midwest and Northeast of the US.

Except for watering last night, we stayed inside to just not deal with all the fine particulates in the air. Today, is a little better, and we were a bit stir crazy, so we walked a little over 2 miles (round trip) to tour Sunnyside, the home of Washington Irving.

Washington Irving (1783-1859) was born in New York City and died in Tarrytown in his home called Sunnyside. He is considered America’s first professional writer. Best known for his short stories, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle,” he was also the author of many celebrated works of travelogue and biography, including volumes on Christopher Columbus, the American West, and George Washington (for whom he is named).

We learned during the tour that he was the youngest of eight surviving children, never married (although he was once engaged to a woman who died of tuberculosis before they were to marry), and lived in Europe for about 17 years. Sunnyside was the first and only home that he owned.

While Washington Irving never married, he lived in the home with a widower brother and two of his older sisters.

Much of the house and furnishings remained intact after he and then his sisters passed away because the family that purchased the property thought the cottage style house was too small and built a mansion next to it without razing or disturbing the property.

This place is crazy with trails, and we are loving it! Today, we walked about 30 minutes northeast of the house to Tarrytown Lakes Park to walk some trails there.

Tarrytown Lakes Park is a72 acre park in Tarrytown featuring two man-made reservoirs which were the village’s drinking supply until 1993. Today, it’s a recreational area with paths for hiking/biking/running plus opportunities for canoeing/kayaking and fishing.