The other thing we did was walk around gardens. This is more major than it sounds.
One of the DuPonts bought this place called Longwood, which already had an arboretum of sorts in it, and turned it into what is simply one of the greatest gardens in the world. You name it, they’ve got it. You want trees? They’ve got trees. Cabbage plants? Dancing fountains at night with Gershwin music? Carillons? Norwegian stave churches (sort of)? Conservatories (plural)? Old house? Student competitions? A really good restaurant? You got ‘em. Also, there was an art installation of light, which translates in one case to a forest floor covered with 125,000 fiber optic balls changing colors in waves, looking like something out of a fairyland, only more magical. There were other works, each as arresting. It will be there all summer, if you’re in the Philadelphia area.
Winterthur, which I gather was the point of going to this region in the first place, is some other DuPont’s house, which has the architectural distinction of baby’s first Duplo set, although it does have something like 200 rooms, each of which is filled with antiques. We walked through about 10 of them, with the most boring docent ever. Even I knew more than she did, which isn’t saying much. This particular DuPont was a horticulturist and planted all sorts of natural gardens, which were okay, but pretty punk compared to Longwood. Not that they were necessarily in competition by any means, either directly or conceptually, but, well, there you are. The place was, in the end, not exactly a disappointment, but more of an, okay, that was nice, what else have you got. So it goes.
I’ve got plenty of photographs that I’m editing down to a manageable number, and I’ll post them probably next week. Unfortunately the light show stuff was hard to capture; it would have been the high point.
The next vacation is later in the summer in the opposite direction. Plans are still in development; I’ll keep you posted after the fact.
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