I saw you look at the japanese maple

I'm a cheap date, let's face it. Gardens, great houses, and museums can pretty much keep me happy for days. Throw in a few historical sites and some old train tracks, and I'm the happiest little tourist you ever did see.

All of which means that the Hudson River Valley and I were made for each other.

We're camped out now in our homebase, a tiny house rental midway between Tarrytown and Rhinebeck. Tomorrow, we're off to Tarrytown, to revisit Kykuit (the modest little abode of the Rockefellers), Sunnyside (home of Washington Irving and some stupendous views), and a wee little church nearby with one or two casual stained glass windows by Chagall and Matisse.

But tomorrow it is going to rain, so I don't know how great the photography is going to be.

Don't worry, I made up for it today, by snapping a million billion photographs of the amazing gardens at Stone Crop.

You guys. Stone. Crop. Go to Cold Spring, swing east for a few miles, and go up into the hills on quite possibly the most perfectly beautiful, tree-lined, leaf-strewn winding road you can imagine. Pay the paltry five dollars admission, and then enjoy hours and hours of incredible gardens and grounds to wander through.

Also, there are cats.

Cats! Who will let you skritch them and everything!!

I'm on vacation and therefore lazy, so I'm not going to do the full-on photoblog extravaganza I usually go in for. Instead, I'm just going to embed a dreamy little slideshow, go make some tea, and have some chocolate.

See? I told you I was a cheap date.