Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Legends at Washington Irving's Sunnyside

On Sunday, we went to the "Legends" event at Washington Irving's Sunnyside. Kids are encouraged to go in costume. Rather than risk Mikro's intended King Tut costume getting grass stained, I pulled out a Julius Caeser costume that I picked up on sale from Oriental Trading Company. It was too cold for an off the shoulder toga, so I had Mikro wear his skeleton sweatshirt underneath and tell people he was "Great Caesar's Ghost."




"Legends" is the fun, slightly spooky kid's event put on by Historic Hudson Valley. This year they are also doing a much scarier evening program at Philipsburg Manor called "Horseman's Hollow", as well as storyteller Jonathan Kruk's performance of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", and the always amazing "Great Jack O'Lantern Blaze" at Van Cortlandt Manor. We had tried the (not as scary at that time) evening event once before with Mikro, but at 5 or so, it was waaaay too much for him. So we thought we would try the day program this year. It was great fun, and I'm glad we went, but at 7.5, I think Mikro was on the older end of the spectrum of intended audience. Programming was very short, to appeal to the younger crowd's attention span, but it was all good fun. I just would have liked it if things were a little more sustained. Next year, I think we'll take a chance on the night time spookiness...

The Magic Show was terrific. Margaret Steele's act was based on a tale of finding enchanted items on a walk through the woods. Very fun!



Chris Yerlig, aka The Mechanical Man, was wandering the grounds doing his automaton routine, and making me think of "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang"... And we were lucky enough to get called for tickets for the Spooky Woodland Story Walk, during which our guide retold Washington Irving's tale of "The Devil and Tom Walker". Mikro really enjoyed the story.



We had time for a short walk around the grounds, and a peep at Irving's beloved cottage, surrounded by glorious fall color.





And then we saw the Shadow Puppet theater version of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." Very cool! This was the sort of entertainment people might have enjoyed during Washington Irving's day.



For anyone in the area, they will be doing this again on October 30th and 31st...

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