Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Norman Rockwell Museum

Just a few miles from our place is Stockbridge, home to the world’s largest collection of original Norman Rockwell art.  The museum is located on 36 scenic acres in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts. 

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The Saturday Evening Post hang from the walls of this big room. 

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Other rooms had master art from children’s picture books, graphic novels and animation art.

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This cover shows a soldier helping his mother peel potatoes; this other one is the last cover of The Saturday Evening Post.

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Very well said!

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We had to walk around the museum to see the studio.  The grounds are just beautiful!

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See what I mean?  On the right side of the sidewalk, there are many apple trees.

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My thought was, “ I will pick some up on the way back.”  Green apples….

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Red Apples….

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Almost at the studio.  The sights from here are gorgeous.

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The view from the studio were amazing. 

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Inside the studio as it was back in 1976, when his health began to fail. 

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This was the guide and she was telling us about his last piece of art.

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This was his last piece of art….

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A copy was presented to Pope Francis on his recent visit to Boston.

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The view out the window. 

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Walking back to the museum, I picked up 4 apples.  I was not the only one picking up apples.  When I got to the truck, Compadre Frank has also picked up 4 apples.  Now if Adela and Manuel would have picked some up, we would have had enough to make an apple pie!

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Adela and I checked out the cafĂ© here thinking we would have lunch here but they only had cold sandwiches that were prepared earlier.  We decided against it.

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The home. The guide told us that when they sold this home, the contract read that the new owners were not to profit from it  being on the museum grounds, such as using it as a Bed & Breakfast.  

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I love this time of the year, especially with all the beautiful fall colors.

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Another great day in this part of the United States.  We have enjoyed every site we have visited. 

This trip had been intended to tour the New England States but there has been really bad weather along the coast so we have made changes to stay away from that area.  Maybe we can make another trip up to see what Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, and Connecticut have to offer.  I am sure they are all as awesome as Massachusetts has been.  We are loving it here.

Hilltop Orchards in Richmond, Massachusetts

Today we drove around the area and all the small towns which included: Lee, Pittsfield, Lenox, Springfield and our final destination was the Hilltop Orchards.  Here they have wine tasting and you can pick your own apples.  It was pretty chilly out and we quickly made out way to the fresh baked cider donuts and hot apple cider.  This was so delicious!   Yummmmm!

This reminded us of the visit to Vicki & Bill’s home in Michigan with our great friends, George and Janet Lambe a few years ago.  We visited an apple orchard there and it was our first experience taking this fresh apple cider and donuts.

Great memories.

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As we parked behind the building, they had all these crates of apples.  Our thought was “Why go out and pick your own when they have all these here”.  HaHa

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We walk up to the front of the building and they  are baking the donuts!  This display is neat of all the New England Apples!

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Look at Manuel checking out the Candy Apples.  I know he is thinking of me as he knows I love candy apples.  He does not care for them.   Yes, he bought me a couple.    We also bought donuts.  They were delicious!!!  Wish I had some right now!

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Nicely bagged apples….  and pumpkins….

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Tummies are full!  Time to sit back and relax.  They had a fireplace inside and it was warm in there but the wine tasting area was packed with tasters so we just came outside.

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Forget the hay ride to pick our apples!!

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I love flowers and this is a beautiful display of fall flowers.  Gorgeous colors.

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The trees are so full of apples.

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Our tummies are full and we have stock with us so we head back home.  What a wonderful time we had!

The back road going home were neat.  Beautiful country side.  Fall colors are beautiful, too.

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Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Leaving Washington D.C.

Our visit here was just awesome.  We had a great time and saw so many wonderful things. 

So we leave our Nation’s Capitol and move up towards the Boston, Massachusetts area.

Nice view of the White House.

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We are right up on the fence and I put my camera through the fence for this nice shot.

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As we leave, Fall is in the air….

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“On The Road Again”!

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We arrived in Lee, Massachusetts early.  Nice little town. 

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We checked into the Siler Leaf Resort.  The Compadres have a time share here.  It is a beautiful resort. 

We will take time to rest a little here.  Manuel was not feeling up to par so we just hung out her until he felt better.  We had time to relax and to do some laundry. 

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While here, Compadre Frank cooked breakfast for us all every morning then we would go sightsee. 

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I see this playground and all I can think of is how much the granddaughters would love this,

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The weather is pretty cool here and it kind of drizzled but that did not keep us home too long. 

More to come.