A few weeks ago Dan and I saw Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby and LOVED it (not sure why the critics balked, I thought it was the best big box office movie in years). So as soon as we arrived at my friend Jenny's house in Queens, NYC, I asked if we could channel our inner Gatsby by touring an old gold coast estate.
We chose Coe Hall because Sweet Fine Day had good things to say about the authenticity of the house's restoration (love that blog). She was right - more than any other historic mansions we've visited (The Biltmore in Asheville, NC Casa Loma in Toronto, Canada), this one somehow made me feel as if the butler really was right around the corner. The kid-friendly staff showed my children the servant call buttons and challenged them to find the buttons in every room, sort of the world's easiest scavenger hunt but T loved it. The day we visited the house was pretty vacant, so the kids and I slipped into our rich people persona" and tried to decide which bedroom we'd sleep in, where we'd hang out as a family, what we'd eat for dinner. So much fun.
The grounds are huge and beautiful (we only managed to see a small section). And admission is reasonable - $8 per car to enter the grounds and $3.50 per person to tour the house (children under 12 are free). Click here for more info.
There's something incredible about playing under really big old trees.
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