We are currently camping in Clarksboro, NJ which was the closest campground to the sites we were interested in visiting.....in Pennsylvania and Delaware!
Saturday we visited the Winterthur Museum in Wilmington, Del. We were interested in seeing it, as we had watched a program on PBS and the museum sounded like it would be of interest. We arrived about 11 a.m. and secured a tour time for the "house" at 12:00 noon. It was suggested we take the Garden tour tram on our way, as it would give us a good view of Mr. du Ponts Garden. He built his mansion in the country and loved gardening, so he filled his acres (2000) with trees, flowering shrubs and ground cover and built his 4-story mansion there. Mr. duPont lived on the estate until 1969 when he died. During the last years of his life he added 5 floors to his house (yes, he had 9 floors) and remodeled the rooms to make them more applicable as museum areas to show his collections of furniture, art, and textiles. In the 1950's he build a smaller home for himself across the driveway and moved into it. His swimming pool became a reflecting pool, the rock quarry on his property became a rock garden with patio and tables and benches. After his death another building was erected to house a gift shop and a cafe. We toured the 5th floor in a group of 10 people and toured the furniture and textile/art exhibits on the ground floor. We also enjoyed seeing the 120 soup tureens in permanent exhibit from the Campbell Soup Company. We enjoyed the Enchanted Woods, an area for children but enjoyed by adults as well. We left at 4 and started back to camp.
On Sunday we had 1:00 p.m. reservations to see the Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania - 30 miles west of Philadelphia. Our entry time was 1:00 p.m. and we arrived about 12:45. The gardens were built by Phillip du Pont. Originally he bought the first tract of land to save the trees. We visited his home and learned he and wife Alice both enjoyed the beauty of flowers. They built 20 "gaardens" and a 4-acre Conservatory housing lily pads, palms, orchids, roses and thousands of other plants. The gardens are arranged so that there is always something blooming. From June the fountains are the main focus. My favorite was the Italian Water garden. We will post some pictures in the blog.
We spent 4 hours here and walked about 3 miles! We were exhausted so grabbed dinner on our way home.
Tuesday we'll move closer to Trenton, NJ.
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