Family Fun Time

Entertaining Visiting Relatives

Congratulations. Your wedding/civil union/hand-binding ceremony has arrived, and it’s happening in the Hudson Valley. Everything has been lovingly planned, from the bridesmaids’ matching flip-flops to the music. The meat is grass-fed, the cheese, artisanal and raw. All is in readiness.

Then it hits you. You’ve got an entire weekend with mismatched families, ranging from Ivan The Terrible Two-year-old, to your intended’s high-energy Grandma, who can outlast the whole mishpocheh. If you don’t act fast, it could devolve into Meet the Fockers. Relax. Knock back some Old Gristmill Authentic American Corn Whisky. Chronogram can help. Here are our (selective) suggestions.

Locust Grove is the house and gardens of telegraph inventor Samuel F.B. Morse. Set on 150 acres in Poughkeepsie, Locust Grove hosts trail walks, garden parties, art exhibitions, tastings, and other events. The Visitors’ Center is open daily from 10am to 3pm through November 30. The gardens are open from 8am to dusk. Admission to the gardens and grounds is free; entry to the mansion and exhibits is $9 for adults, and $5 for ages 6-18. www.morsehistoricsite.org

In nearby Hyde Park is the Vanderbilt Mansion. The 50-room home designed by architect Charles McKim, of McKim, Mead and (Stanford) White was primarily a weekend getaway for Frederick Vanderbilt and wife Louise. The Mansion and formal gardens are open daily from 9am to dusk. A guided tour of the Mansion is $8 for adults; kids 15 and under, free. Reservations are required for guided tours; the last tour is at 4pm. www.nps.gov/vama

For kids large and small, there is the Mid-Hudson Children’s Museum in Poughkeepsie, full of interactive exhibits. In the Great Bubble Machine, for example, you can see the world—not through rose-colored glasses, but through a bubble. Hours of entertainment for the wee ones. www.mhcm.org

No visit to Hyde Park is complete without eating at The Culinary Institute of America. The CIA boasts five restaurants, all student-staffed. St. Andrew’s Café and Apple Pie Bakery Café are the most family-friendly. The Apple Pie Bakery Café doesn’t require reservations, and shorts, jeans, and sneakers—verboten elsewhere at the CIA—are accepted. American Bounty Restaurant, Ristorante Caterina de’ Medici, and Escoffier Restaurant are open for lunch and dinner and require reservations and business or business/casual attire. If classic French food is your glass of Pernod, try Escoffier.

The foodie in your midst can attend demos or one- or two-day workshop at the school. Some are geared toward kids, such as “Do It Yourself Diner Food for Kids” and “Party Food for the Sophisticated Teen Chef,” both slated for June 9. The CIA offers gift certificates for restaurants and courses—an excellent wedding gift! www.ciachef.edu