Kykuit

Our company summer outing was yesterday, and I was pretty excited to go when I heard it was going to be this. Kykuit is the Rockefeller estate, which is one of several you can go up to Sleepy Hollow and tour. You can also go up to Washington Irving's house, the Vanderbilt estate, etc. Anyway, yesterday was a bit overcast but cool, and I thought a really nice day to be on this tour.

A shuttle takes you up to the estate, and when you pull in, there's a huge fountain and lawn to greet you. The name "Kykuit" (rhymes with high cut) is Dutch for high place or overlook. This is appropriate since the house is built on a hill that looks down over acres and acres of greenery below. The tour was pretty cool - you go through various rooms and see the art, furniture and hear stories of the Rockefellers and the entertaining they did at Kykuit. You wander through garden after garden after garden. Fountains, flowers, even a nine hole golf course right outside the estate. In the basement there's a pretty decent art collecction the highlight of which is a bunch of Picassos, some sketches some tapestries. Then last they took us to the stables/garage where you saw their collection of horse drawn carriages, the stables, and then the garage where many classic cars that belonged to the family are kept. Very cool experience, so if you live in NY and have a Saturday to kill, head on up!