5/14/2023

 

Weekly Update 5/14/2023

The vacation with Allen was WONDERFUL! I enjoyed every minute (with the exception of the time spent in the airport and on the plane).

I had a 10:30 flight to Atlanta, with a three hour layover, and then a flight that got me to Albany just after 5 pm. I was surprised to see a handsome young man holding up a sign that read “Welcome Mom! (I’m out of clean laundry)”. I started to laugh, and others who were deplaning were laughing, too. A good start. We went to his apartment, which is small, but really cute. It’s in a historic house in Nassau, NY. We walked to a pizza place that was excellent. I asked for double cheese, and I really got it – there was much cheese on this pizza, I was choking. There wasn’t enough room for me to sleep at his apartment, even if I’d tried to stretch out on the floor in a sleeping bag. Allen had booked me into a Comfort Inn near him, and I spent the first two nights there.

On Friday, we visited two Shaker Museums that are near to where he lives. The one in New Lebanon is not really a museum. It is now the Darrow School, and most buildings are residences, dorms, or classroom buildings and are not open to the public. But there are a few older buildings with signs that give a little of their stories. We wandered around. The next museum was in Hancock, and it was a restored Shaker village. There were buildings that you could walk through, a barn with many new baby animals, a docent who gave a talk about the Shaker community, a famous round barn, and a gift shop. That was interesting. On the drive back to Nassau, we drove past Santarella, the artist Henry Hudson Kitson’s home. It looked a little like a gnome home. I wanted to stop at a Tex Mex restaurant for supper since it was Cinco de Mayo, but (unlike Savannah, where mexican food restaurants are as numerous as nail salons and liquors stores), there were not a lot in the NY / MA area. Not to worry, we found a nice place so we didn’t have to starve.

Saturday, we woke up and watched a little of the coronation while eating the breakfast at the Holiday Inn. But there was a lot to accomplish that day, so we were on the road pretty early. We wanted to go to Old Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge, MA. It’s a recreated New England town depicting life in the 1830s. Because it was a weekend, there were craftsmen in several of the buildings: blacksmith, potter, printer, Quaker lady in the church (I got into quite a discussion with her about museums and docents, I loved talking with her),shoemaker, tins smith, and farmhouses. There were also soldiers who were training and practicing shooting at targets. One of the farmhouses, for a rich farmer, had the exact same wallpaper that we have a DH! It was like walking into my house! We ate lunch at the tavern there, and wandered around more in the afternoon, even attending a talk by a 19^th century dentist.

We had reservations that night to stay at the Red Lion Inn, a historic place in Stockbridge, MA. First built in 1773, it was destroyed by fire in 1896, but rebuilt with the same design. Many of the furnishings and antique collectibles were saved from the fire and are on display everywhere in the hotel today. It was a little shabby – very worn carpets, uneven floors, a lock on our room door that made me feel less than secure, an iron cage elevator that looked precarious and we never tried it, converted gas lights in the lobby ladies room – but the ambiance was delightful, and we wandered around marveling at the collections. We checked in just before 7 pm, and were able to watch the Kentucky Derby in our room. The entire Inn was taken over by a wedding party, so we couldn’t go to the dining room or the bar to watch there, but we didn’t mind. We had breakfast the next morning in the dining room.

Norman Rockwell, famous American illustrator, lived in Stockbridge for the later years of his life. A museum has been built outside of town that shows many of his illustrations. His artists studio has also been moved to the site, so we toured both the museum and the studio. He had created over 4,000 paintings, and we saw maybe 50, but they were all wonderful. The exhibit changes from time to time, but the Four Seasons is always there and always highlighted. My favorite was of three soldiers: a Confederate soldier, a Union soldier, both looking on as a WWI doughboy gets ready to join the forces. Rockwell liked to say that he wasn’t an artist, but an illustrator, and that his pictures were drawings that told stories. He excelled.

We headed next to Bennington, VT. There is a lot of Revolutionary War history there. We went to an old church with a graveyard (where the poet Robert Frost is buried). I loved seeing all the icons on the headstones – very different than the Victorian monuments in Bonaventure. There’s also a hilltop oblesk to commemorate the Battle of Bennington, a turning point battle that was decided on August 16, 1777. Patriot militiamen, primarily fro New Hampshire and Massachusetts, defeated the British.

While in Vermont, we toured Hildene, the summer “cottage” of Robert Todd Lincoln. Completed in 1905, Robert Lincoln spent summers there until he died in 1926. It remained in the family until the last Lincoln descendant died there in 1975, so many of the furnishings and artifacts are from the Robert Lincoln and his parents. Also, because he was the president of the Pullman company, there was a restored Pullman railroad car on the property. I think that would have been preferable to the 17 inches of space on my Delta flight.

The next day, my flight was scheduled to leave at 1 pm. We had time to go to Washington Park in Albany to see the tulip gardens. Each flower bed was more amazing that the one before it. Tulips of every color, and many with unique shapes and petals, were everywhere. It was amazing. (But it also rather made me long to the Lilac Fest that I always enjoyed. Savannah’s azaleas are great, but they’re not the only blooms that are magnificent!)

Then, all too soon, it was time to say goodbye. What a wonderful holiday Allen planned for me! I thoroughly enjoyed every minute.

So, that was the vacation. I’ll update on what I’ve been doing next week.