Tag: vacation

On October 19 Mom agreed to watch the girls and Jess and I went to Newport, RI to see the "summer cottages" of the Gilded Age.  When we got to town we first stopped for some lunch at the Brick Alley Pub & Restaurant.  After lunch, while walking back to the car to drive to the mansions we walked by a little art gallery and popped in.  We really liked some of the pieces and the prices seemed reasonable for actual oil paintings, so we decided to buy a few and have them shipped home.

The big one is about 40"x30" as framed.  The little ones are about 15"x13" as framed.

Despite the proprietor's claim, I'm pretty sure they're not local-artist works, but instead probably come from somewhere like Dafen Village in China which mass produces oil paintings.  We like them regardless.

Then we were off to the Breakers, built by the Vanderbilts.  Ostentatious is probably an understatement.  Every light fixture is wired for electrical and plumbed for gas.  Materials were imported from around the world so that every surface is just perfect.  The extravagance rivals the Palace of Versailles (though on a much smaller scale, Versailles is about six times larger).

The great hall:

The dining room, I believe:

Some unidentified room:

The kitchen, naturally:

The front of the house:

After the Breakers we headed over to the Elms for their Servant Life Tour.  I believe this tour was developed in response to the popularity of Downton Abbey with lots of people suddenly wanting to know more about how the servants lived in these mansions.

We went through the servants' quarters upstairs, which are actually fairly large.  Then out on the roof before going down to the kitchen, storage areas, mechanical rooms, etc.

Outside before the tour, because who doesn't want a sphinx to greet their visitors?

The view from the roof (up on a platform to see over the wall that hides the servants' quarters from view):

The coal dump:

Every house should have an underground coal delivery rail system:

Jess posing with the pastry chef:

The back of the house that overlooks the rest of the property:

After the Elms we grabbed a quick bite to eat at Panera and headed on back to Cromwell.

Upon our return to Connecticut from Washington, D.C. we spent a day recuperating and playing in the yard.  Mom was watching Evan's son, Ryan, that day and the kids got wheelbarrow rides.

On the 13th we drove down to Lyman Orchards for a good old New England apple-pickin', cider-drinkin', donut-eatin', corn-mazing time.

Jess finding the perfect apple:

Heather strikes a pose:

Corinne became enamored of this Golden Delicious apple that was just her size. After paying for the apples we got back in the car to drive to the shop.  We let Corinne hold on to her prize apple.  When we got out of the car, to our surprise, we discovered she had been eating it!  We didn't know she could bite into an apple successfully.

After some snacks it was on to the corn maze, but not without some cutout pictures.

Corinne is, in fact, in this picture:

In to the maze, full of energy and excitement:

It rained a little bit while we were in the maze, but we made it out.  Heather was a bit worn out by the end, and Corinne's face is sort of a "what just happened" kind of look.

Then it was back to the house.

Friday, the 14th, was a down day.  I spent the day working and then needed to prep for Saturday when I had invited over some friends from high school to catch up with.

Jess took Heather to "Pumpkintown" while I worked:

Then it was off to the grocery store for supplies:

Saturday was the casual lunch outside.  It was awesome to see old friends again and meet their kids.

On Sunday we found time to make apple crisp with the fresh-from-the-orchard apples we picked:

Coming up next: Kidcity Children's Museum and the Connecticut Science Center.

Save

We got up early on Friday October 7 and took the train from Berlin, CT down to Washington, D.C.  Mom & Dad went on this excursion with us.  We spent 5 days in D.C., so this post is fairly long.

From Union Station we walked to our hotel, the Holiday Inn just south of the National Air & Space Museum.  After dropping off our luggage we popped over to the museum for a little bit before closing.

Lunar Lander!

Curiosity Rover!  No idea what Heather is doing...

On Saturday we got up, ate breakfast at McDonald's (the only restaurant anywhere near the hotel open for any useful set of hours [except the two sit-down restaurants attached to the hotel]), and headed off to the Building Museum.  A "Building Museum" may not sound very interesting, but it has a bunch of things in it and many that are geared towards young kids.

The first snag was that Taste of D.C. was getting set up directly between our hotel and the Building Museum and we had to detour around it since the entire thing was fenced off for several blocks--annoying.  The second snag was that the Building Museum was hosting a pay-to-enter craft fair in their Great Hall which is usually available as a play space--super annoying.

Fun fact:  The Building Museum building was originally the Pension Bureau.  Brick was chosen to meet the anti-flammability requirements as the facility was going to house all the pension records.  The steps were designed to be shallow and easy to climb to make it easier for war veterans to navigate the building while handling pension issues.

After some time there we grabbed some Subway for lunch nearby.  Then we walked back to the hotel in a light rain in order to get the girls down for a nap.  They were going to need a nap because we were going to be out late getting a West Wing tour of the White House from Mikey.

We took the Metro from the hotel up to the White House and then had dinner at Custom Fuel (a counter-order pizza chain) while we waited for our tour time.  Mikey met us at the restaurant and then off we went.  We made it through guard shacks 1 and 2 successfully and got in to the White House (can't take any pictures inside, except in the Press Room).  We had to pause shortly after starting because a Secret Service agent didn't like where we left the stroller and made me move it, but the rest of the tour went without issue.

We saw the Oval Office, the Roosevelt Room, the door to the Situation Room, the Navy Mess, the Rose Garden, and the Press Room.  Jess was really pleased with the "Jumbos"--pictures taken by the White House Photographer that get hung on the walls throughout the building and changed out regularly.

After our tour we walked across the street to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building (formerly the Old Executive Office Building) where Mikey's office is.  It's a building with a lot of character.  It's really sad that the architect was hounded and denounced for its design and eventually killed himself.

After wandering around the EEOB for a while we got back on the Metro and headed back to the hotel.  Corinne liked the Metro.

Sunday morning we were off to the National Museum of Natural History.  So much to see and not nearly enough time to see it all.  We got through most of one floor including the dinosaurs, mummies, insects, butterflies, and some geology.  Heather and I read a book about mummies on the train ride out, but in the museum she got all weird in that exhibit and we basically raced through to the other side.  Not sure what her deal was.

We did the Butterfly Pavilion walk through and the butterflies seemed to like Heather and Jess.

Lunch was down in the atrium and felt a little like the cafeteria in Jurassic Park.

After lunch we walked down to the Washington Monument and on down to the Lincoln Memorial for sunset.

Then we went by the Korean War Veterans Memorial and on back to the hotel.

Monday was Columbus Day.  We headed back to Union Station, but not to leave.  We took a Duck Tour (amphibious assault vehicles from WW II refurbished into tour buses that go through the water as well).  While we waited for the tour to leave we watched the Knights of Columbus do their wreath laying ceremony at the statue of Christopher Columbus that stands outside Union Station.

After the Duck Tour we ate lunch and went to the National Postal Museum (just across the street from Union Station).  Here's Heather sitting in the cab of a "semi" mail truck.

Again, you might not think it would be very engaging, but it's a pretty neat museum and not very crowded.  I wish we had had more time to spend there.  But instead it was off to the other side of town to see the Renwick Gallery and try to pick up an official White House Historical Association Christmas tree ornament.  Unfortunately, the WHHA was closed, so I had to order the ornament online instead. But the Renwick Gallery was pretty neat.

Tuesday was our final day in D.C.  We went back to the National Air & Space Museum to see some more exhibits before heading to Union Station for the train ride back to Connecticut.

Here's Heather in front of the Apollo 11 Command Module.

During this trip Heather developed two new anxieties.  One morning she ran and hopped on the elevator before the rest of us and then the doors closed.  We pushed the call button before it started moving and the doors reopened, but she was freaking out.  After that she would basically glue herself to our sides while entering elevators.

The second incident was on the metro.  We were talking about how many more stops before ours and she had misunderstood something we said.  When we reached the next stop (not ours) she jumped out of the train all excited to be on our way.  We started yelling for her to turn around and get back on the train and she did, but she freaked out about it.  Hindsight: It would probably have been smart for one of us to go out after her and bring her back, presumably one of us would have jumped out if she hadn't come right back.  So after that she had to be coaxed on to the metro and soothed in order to dare ride again.

We don't interact much with subways or elevators on a regular basis so we don't really know if these are still issues for her or not, but I'm sure it will resurface at some inopportune time in the future.

Back at the house was another rest day and then Lyman Orchards for apple picking!

The first order of business after our long train ride was a day off.  So we spent a day just hanging around the house letting the girls run around the back yard.

I'm sure you weren't, but in case you were wondering, all the pictures on this trip were taken either with a phone or using my new 18-135mm zoom lens that I purchased specifically as a just-take-one traveling lens.  I'm fairly pleased with its performance though it's not as nice as my 50mm prime.

The next day it was off to Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts.  A preserved / restored rural New England village representing life from the 1790s to the 1840s.  On the way there we had to make a pit stop to find some Dramamine for Heather, who was becoming carsick.

When we arrived we first ate lunch at the Oliver Wight Tavern.  Then it was into the past:

The sawmill is always interesting.  There was a lot of ingenuity in these old water-powered automation systems.  Kind of amazing what it takes to bootstrap a society.

Here's Jess taking a break next to the covered bridge.  The covered bridge doesn't usually have the interior fencing.  They were setting up for a town-wide production of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and the fencing in the bridge seemed to be to keep the audience on the edges, presumably so they wouldn't be trampled by a galloping horse.  Side note: I read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow on the train ride home.  It's kind of dumb.  I guess it's a good representation of the "Have you ever heard the story of the...." kind of ghost tale though.

I took this picture as Heather and Corinne were chasing chickens around the town green.  The chickens had all hopped off the side of this porch and Corinne was getting ready to follow.

Hanging out at the general store eating a snack.

The water wheel that operates the gristmill.

Squirrel!

Corinne was enamored of all the animals, but, unlike the chickens, the sheep didn't run away.

After our adventure in the past we made our first Friendly's stop for dinner and ice-cream (and it's only like half a mile from the Old Sturbridge Village entrance).  Heather chose the build-your-own kids sundae with mint chocolate-chip ice-cream, strawberries, cookie dough, marshmallow, and rainbow sprinkles.  She thought it was amazing.  I stuck with the Reese's Pieces Sundae.

Then back home for another day of rest before our adventure-within-an-adventure: Washington, D.C.