Longwood Gardens

Back in 1906, Pierre S. Du Pont bought 202 acres known as Peirce Park in the midst of the Brandywine Valley.  That piece of land, now known as Longwood Gardens, is now 1077 acres in size and resplendent with flowers, trees, fountains, and more.  We spent a lovely day wandering the paths and admiring this beautiful park.

Bennett and his parents eagerly enjoyed the tree house.

He then stood front and center to watch the fountains dance to music.

Even in the fall, the gardens display brilliant colors.

In the conservatory, we admired the record-setting 1416-blossom chrysanthemum.  Longwood gardeners went to Japan to learn how to make a single-stem cutting of the mum.  It took the staff 1500 hours over a 17-month period to create this perfect blooming dome.  Next year it will have more blossoms, setting a new record. 

Another mum was grafted with a hundreds of different types of blossoms. 

We watched the gardener tend the eight-foot-in-diameter water lilies.

 After an excellent lunch in the café, we watched the main fountains dance.

Bennett traipsed on the bridge in the children’s area and tumbled into the pumpkins.

What held his attention the most was the model railroad trains.  The man working with the trains was so delighted with Bennett’s interest, he gave him a train catalog to pick out future gifts.  Zaidy plans to get his childhood set ready for his grandson to enjoy.

These gardens exceeded our expectations and we look forward to visiting them in other seasons

Brandywine Valley Area

Our next move was to the Lancaster/Brandywine Valley of Pennsylvania.  This the land of the Amish, duPonts and three generations of Wyeths.  Over the next several days, we will make contact with all of them. 

The campground where we stayed is surrounded by large farms and dairies but the homes on many of these are dark as the sun sets, indicating they may be Amish owned. 

After we connected the motorhome to power and water, we headed out to an area where many people live without those same “necessities.”  We passed horse drawn wagons and 19th century- clad pedestrians on our way to the town of Intercourse.

  We saw this John Deere 300 horse-drawn harvester gleaning corn. 

Most of the shops, while filled with products identified as made nearby, seemed very commercial to us. 

Not so the market where we filled our cart with soups, chicken pies, and snacks, all made locally.

Even some local girls joined us to get ice cream.

As evening approached, our interests diverged.  The men and boy opted to enjoy a local tavern while the women joined a local knitting group in a lovely shop.  We all had a pleasant time.

Delaware Gap

On Tuesday morning, we said farewell to our NY family and went to the Delaware Gap in Pennsylvania.   The Delaware River runs along the border between PA and NJ forming the Delaware Gap.  We drove too quickly for photos through the scenic area heading for our campsite in a commercial campground (no beautiful scenery but we had water and power).

We came here to do the Tannersville Bog Walk in the Stuart M. Stein Preserve.  It was led by a volunteer from the Nature Conservancy.  Our 2 ½ hour walk along the boardwalk took us deep into the bog.  Our excellent guide explained the characteristics of a bog:

    It has no inlets or outlets and receives water only from rain or snow
    It has no oxygen
    It is highly acidic
    It is nutrient deficient

This bog was formed by glaciers 15,000 years ago and is 58 feet deep.  The major plant growing in this bog is sphagnum moss, but there are also mushrooms, 150-year-old trees with three-inch trunks, pitcher plants and more we cannot name.

Our guide told us a delightful tale about lichen.  In summary Allie Algae and Freddy Fungus met, took a “lichen” to each other and have been consuming the rocks ever since.

The bog is a great environmental cleaner of air and water.  Artificial bogs are being used to filter the toxic drainage of old mines.  This walk was an educational experience we all enjoyed.

Bennett was too young for the bog walk but enjoyed his time in the campground taking care of his father, chasing Bubbie (Anna Lee), or helping Zaidy (Jerry) drain the RV tanks (sorry no photos).

More Family Time

After the marathon, the five of us drove over from Vermont to upstate New York.  While Cheryl and her family took the ferry route, Jerry and Anna Lee drove the backroads of VT and NY going through small villages and continuing to enjoy the foliage. 

In Troy and Castleton, we visited son Jeff and cousins Ed, Leora, Edan and Liat. Our weekend together started with an in-home pizza night.

While the adults talked, Bennett enjoyed seeing his cousins Edan and Liat and their two dogs.

Edan generously went through toys from when he was little and gave them to Bennett who was excited to get these great hand-me-downs.

On Monday we went out for what has become a family tradition, apple picking, again at Bowman’s.  Bennett is showing skill at picking apples as well as sampling them.

 Edan captured some excellent photos of Bennett with Dave’s camera.   Good shots for a 13-year-old beginner.

 The rest of us also enjoyed taking pictures.

 After filling up the car with about 75 pounds of apples for pie and applesauce making, we went to the play area where Bennett took Liat on a train ride.
 

Bennett sure has grown from last year.

 We attempted a quiet family dinner at the new Asian Restaurant Red and Blue in Troy but Bennett chose to control the evening.  The food was delicious and we plan to go back when the boy is less voluble.

We again had a wonderful family weekend and look forward to the next one.

Grand Isle, Vermont

We have settled into another beautiful campground in a state park.  This one is on an island in the middle of Lake Champlain. We had the whole area for ourselves for the first night.

 The isle has small towns nestled between farms and ranches.  It is an idyllic area to spend fishing, hiking, bike riding, and, once a year, doing a marathon.  That is what Cheryl and Dave planned to do here when they arrived a few days later.

The woman at the park office gave Jerry and Anna Lee an inside tip on where to photograph the best fall foliage and our drive around Lake Carmi did not disappoint.

After our photo stops, we went to St. Albans for a good cup of coffee and a bit of shopping for local products (maple syrup included).

On their way north to Lake Champlain, Cheryl and Dave stopped to visit Jeff in Troy and went to Defazio’s Italian Market for way too much delicious pasta for dinner.  After all, a carb load before running a marathon is a good thing.  We look forward to the leftovers later.

We must have been hungry again in the morning, because on the Saturday before the race we had quite a shopping spree at the local farmers' market, where a Greek dinner for the evening was irresistible but the hand-painted cookies were wonderful.

We topped off our shopping at the excellent Burlington Central Market.

In addition to acres of grass, the campsite had a playground for Bennett to enjoy.

Saturday night before the marathon was a sleepover for Bennett. After a rough beginning, he settled down, and everyone had a good night’s sleep and awoke eager to watch Cheryl run her marathon and greet Dave at the end of his half marathon.

Cheryl was 1.8 seconds off of her personal best which she did 12 years ago.  Dave and Cheryl were each ninth in their age groups.  

Shelburne Museum

These well-dressed ladies greeted us as we entered Shelburne, VT.

When the ticket agent tells you your ticket to a museum is good for two days, listen.  We did and so did Jim and Joann, friends from back home.

  The four of us arranged to meet at the museum for a day, their second and our first.  With 38 buildings on over 40 acres we knew we would be seeing a lot but what we saw was beyond our expectations.

Electra Havemeyer Webb, whose mother was a Vanderbilt who collected Impressionist Art with her railroad fortune and a polo playing father who made his fortune in his father-in-laws Domino sugar business, was a collector.  At fifteen Electra began a “lifetime fascination with color, pattern, whimsy, and scale.”  She started her collection of collections with a cigar store Indian and spent her life accumulating buildings, glass canes, apothecary items, dolls and so very much more.  All these she situated near her home in Shelburne, VT.

The four of us wandered amazed and delighted by Electra’s ability to see beauty in a vast variety of items and to display them in such a way that we visitors shared her enchantment.

Docents are key to the enjoyment of museums and the ones we encountered at Shelburne added special stories and information that enhanced our visit.  On the 220-foot sidewheeler Ticonderoga, our docent told us  about travel on Lake Champlain before the automobile. 

 It took 65 days to haul the steamboat two miles overland to the museum.  The tour takes place on “October 3, 1928" and shows what passengers and crew would experience back then.

Another docent explained that the Webb children took six rooms (one of three floors) from the Webb home on Park Avenue and placed them in the Greek Revival Webb Memorial Building to display some of Electra’s Impressionist (Monet, Manet, Degas), pre-Impressionist (Rembrandt), bronzes and Vermont landscapes. 

The center piece of the art in the building is of Electra as a young girl and her mother painted by Mary Cassatt, who guided the mother to collect Impressionists when their art sold for less than $100. 

 Another docent in the home explained that Electra’s grandfather General Webb was general in pretension only. 

He was a friend of Lincoln’s Secretary of State and managed to get appointed Ambassador to Brazil.

A current exhibit has outstanding quilts by Velda Newman from Nevada City, California.

 In the next room are Patty Yoder rugs, The Alphabet of Sheep, with letters of the alphabet hidden in the weaving.

An 1835 wood frame building, original to the site, is filled with toys and trains,


while next door is the Variety Unit, filled with all the wonderful things that didn’t fit anywhere else, like automata, dolls, ceramics, and much, much more.

 The covered bridge dates back to 1845.

The Round Barn is filled with horse drawn carriages.

The circus building has memorabilia from Barnum, Ringling, Beatty, and others.

Nearby is the 1920s carousel awaiting riders.

The newest exhibit is a collection of N.C., Andrew, and Jamie Wyeth paintings.  One is owned by the museum, the rest are on loan.  Our excellent docent, who felt her English major defined her interpretation, gave us a family and stylistic background on each of these great American artists.  She pointed out details that we would have missed and welcomed comments from our knowledgeable fellow guests.  No photos were allowed.

The above visits took each couple two days, though we only spent one of them together.  To relax and replenish after our museum day together, we went to Misery Loves Co., a rather funky restaurant in Winooski.  The cooks and servers dressed as if they had just come in from their factory work but the food they served was creative and delicious.  We started with a selection of small plates to share.  These included squid ink spaghetti, smoked chicken wings, and corn pudding.  Then we shared a hanger steak with three sides.  Pinot noir enhanced the flavor of these dishes. 

 Chocolate pudding and a slice of cake topped off a unique and luscious dining experience and the end of a lovely day.