Brandywine Valley, Monday - Memorial Day

I know this is a bit out of the ordinary. Posting our blogs after we've already returned home from our trip. But the beginning of June weather for this year's trip was also a bit out of the ordinary. Back when Bev requested her vacation time and we were making reservations for a hotel, we never anticipated that it would be so hot and so, so humid. Terribly oppressive best describes it - like trying to swim a breast stroke through thick air. But we weren't to be deterred.

As we always say about situations like this, it is what is. And so, with a bit of false bravado (at least on my part), we decided we would just make the best of the situation and adapt as necessary. However, and this is a big HOWEVER, by the time we got back to our hotel room each night, we were much too tired - truly tuckered out and so hot and so sweaty, that writing the blog was simply too much to think about. So we cut ourselves some slack and decided we'd just write it when we got home. There's always exceptions to the rules and it's why you're reading our blog now instead of last week in real time.

Now on to the actual trip. This year we decided we would head south to the Brandywine Valley. We talked about a number of other possible destinations, but when I suggested the Brandywine Valley and a visit to the Brandywine River Museum which houses a large collection of works by all three Wyeths - N.C., Andrew, and Jamie, as well as tours of their family home, N.C.'s studio, and Kuerner Farm which was a favorite spot for Andrew Wyeth to paint, Bev was right on board. And as a bonus, we could visit Henry Francis DuPont's mansion and gardens at Winterthur, make a second visit to the spectacular Longwood Gardens, and also visit Valley Forge National Park and Brandywine Valley Battlefield. Oh, and not to forget Chadds Ford Winery, one of the best wineries located on the east coast. Actually, if you know us at all well, you're already thinking you bet that Chadds Ford Winery was at the top of our list of places to visit. You're right, it was pretty darn close to the top!

The trip from Massachusetts was pretty uneventful. We left Raynham by 7:30 am on Monday, Memorial Day, because we wanted to arrive at Longwood Gardens no later than 3 pm. Lilytopia! It was the last day of the magnificient Lilytopia exhibit held once a year and Longwood closed at 6 pm. We wanted at least 3-hours to see and photograph the exhibit and figured we could always go back another day to walk around the rest of the gardens. We made great time and arrived at Longwood before 2 pm.

Now remember, we were traveling in comfort in an air-conditioned car, so we weren't even thinking about the changing weather conditions outside. Once we parked the car at Longwood and got out to enter the gardens, we were quite shocked to discover that the air there was not at all like the cool, dry air we'd left behind at home. It was hot. To be exact, 92 degrees. It was humid. To be exact, a dewpoint of 72. It was oppressive. To be exact, a shock to our bodies. But the lilies were calling, and we were like the Argonauts on Jason's ship and we followed the lilies' siren call of beauty. To drive all this way and not see those lilies. Never!

Lilytopia was displayed primarily in the Conservatory. It is hard to do it justice with words. I will leave it to Bev to pick some photos which show what it looked like. Suffice it to say, lily blossoms as large as my face are almost surreal. Most of the lilies displayed are brand new species that horticulturists have created and are not yet for sale on the market. So we were seeing lilies that most people have never seen and are not yet growing in peoples' home flower gardens. The displays were unbelievably creative - especially if you have an unlimited number of species and colors of lilies to create with. I hope you enjoy our photos. And a visit to Longwood Gardens, anytime of the year, if it's not already, should be on your bucket list.

It certainly was hot there that afternoon though. By the time we left the Conservatory and the lilies and walked back outside, there were very few people walking around the gardens out in the sun. There were people outside for sure - but they were sitting on the many benches that are placed around the gardens in the shade of trees or on shady terraces or verandas. Other people were sitting or lying on the grass under the shade of big trees. And Longwood, being very service-oriented and concerned about people becoming overheated, had sent staff out on golf carts with huge coolers packed with ice and bottles of water. The water was free and you could have as much of it as you liked. The very nice golf cart driver who gave us water, suggested we first place the bottle of cold water on the back of our neck right under our hair so as to first cool down our blood as it circulated through our body. Great advice! It really does cool you down ever so nicely.

Even though we still had some time left to wander the outside gardens before the 6 pm closing, it was much too hot to be out walking in the sun. We decided we'd wait until later in the week to see if the temps cooled down a bit and we had the time to come back to see more of the gardens.

So from Longwood, we headed back to Glen Falls and the Hampton Inn where we'd made reservations. On our way in the car, we decided we'd stop for lunch/dinner before we checked in and got settled in our room and relaxed and started thinking about sleep and what we wanted to do the next day. That's how we ended up at P.F. Chang's. It was just a stone's throw from our hotel.

Neither of us had been to a P.F's before. And we were hot, tired and starved. A dangerous combination when entering a restaurant with good food and strong Mai Tais. We ordered way too much food (how were we suppose to know that their servings are very large? after all, we'd never been to a P.F. Chang's before), the Mai Tais were very strong, but oh so tasty (again, we plead ignorance on knowing that as well), and the waiter so cute. So we flirted a bit with Vince. It's allowed. And it was fun. He flirted back. See, even in your 60s, that stuff is good!

We left the restaurant full to the gills, tipsy (I won't say just how tipsy we were), and headed to our hotel. We loaded up one of luggage "buggies" (as Bevie calls them), and the desk clerk offered to come with us with a second buggie carrying a small frig for our room so we could store all our leftover P.F. Chang food and any cold drinks we might buy for the rest of the week (***** stars for Hampton Inn & Suites - their service was impeccable). Bevie and I drove the buggy with our luggage and "stuff". If the buggy trip from the lobby to our room was a test to get our drivers' licenses, we never would have passed. We started to giggle at our lack of driving skills and the foolishness of it all, the giggling turned into full-blown hilarious giggling, and someone peed her pants before we could even get to our room. As to which one of us it was, our lips are sealed.

We settled in, relaxed, checked out the weather forecast on TV. No, that's not the right order. Then we settled in, relaxed and checked out the weather. It appeared that for outside touring, the next day would be the coolest of the week (only in the low 90s) and we decided we'd head for Winterthur to arrive as soon as it opened in the cool of the morning. We'd wander the gardens before it got too hot and then we'd tour the mansion itself which we optimistically hoped would be air-conditioned what with the art and furniture collections that would need to be kept at a constant temp and humidity. It was a plan. We were cool and comfortable, our stomachs were full, we had visions of lilies floating in our heads, and we were tired. Time for bed and sleep.