Jacob overlooking the manmade lake near the Cornish Estate dairy barn.The downside to living 3000 miles away from your siblings is that you don’t get to see them as often as you’d like. This past weekend, after a trip from SF to Oslo to NYC, my youngest brother Jacob (aka Celsius) came up for a visit. Besides the occasional iChat video, we hadn’t seen him for almost two years.
Uncle Bucket’s Killer SushiEven though the weekend was short, we still had time to do a number of things together. Jacob spent time with Colin teaching him proper ollie techniques, watched Joanna play soccer, and made sushi for Kristin’s birthday.
On Monday afternoon Jacob and I hiked around an area just south of Beacon called the Cornish Estate. According to several accounts, there is very little information available about the estate, but the estate was built around the early 1900s, was acquired by Edward J. Cornish and his wife around 1920, appears to have been abandoned around the mid-30s, and the main building was destroyed by fire in 1956.
What remains of the estate is several large buildings, including what must once have been an incredible greenhouse, a large, manmade dam, a variety of outbuildings, swimming pool, dairy barn, and several beautiful streams and small waterfalls. Jacob and I hiked for about two hours, most of which was spent exploring the various buildings. The trails are wide and easy to walk on and were obviously used as carriage, wagon, or motorized vehicle routes when the estate was still in use.
Dairy ruins at the cornish estate.The buildings were built out of stone taken from the local area and the stone portion of the structures remain substantially intact. In the main house we counted at least 7 fireplaces in what was once a very elaborate house that, at one time, must have had commanding views of the Hudson and Storm King Mountain. These views are now obscured by overgrowth.
Overall, the Cornish Estate hike was leisurely and enjoyable, especially on what turned out to be a glorious fall day. More importantly, it was a great weekend with my baby brother, and who could ask for anything more? Well, if you’re Colin you certainly could…
Colin -n- JacobOnce we’d gotten back from our hike and picked up all the goods we needed for Kristin’s birthday party I went to pick up Colin from school. When we got in the car Colin informed me that he was having a difficult time keeping his mind on his work at school that day. “All day long,” he said, “every time I was supposed to be doing work, I kept on thinking about Uncle Jacob and when I was going to see him again.” He topped this little bit of fun off last night, after Jacob had gone back to OAK, when he informed me that all he wanted for Christmas was, “Some new trucks for my skateboard and for Uncle Jacob to buy the house next door.”
I think we need to get Uncle Jacob out here a little more often…