GW 25 Daily Journal. Friday October 14, 2022

Friday, October 14, 2022

 

Our first morning is always slow going. As 60-somethings, we savor these quiet, stress-free mornings of doing only what we want to do. We got up rather late for us, around 8:30 and took our assigned seats in the comfy living room (we always tend to choose “our” spots in our living quarters every year.) Lori launched a deep dive into what there was to do in and around Wilmington.

 

This is a banner year – not only is it our 25^th anniversary, it is also our first, last, and only trip during which we plan to cover three states. Because of our strict rules about what constitutes being able to check a state off of our list, we usually do only one state at a time. Seven times we have explored two states, but to do that we either must find a border town from which we can easily explore neighboring states, or we have to pick up and move in the middle of our trip. We REALLY hate moving, and most times a good border town is hard to find. This year we have a rare opportunity because of these interconnecting eastern states. That, combined with the fact that if we don’t pay attention we will be 80 years old trying to navigate the Colorado Rockies or something, has made us take advantage of this one-time opportunity. Wilmington, Delaware is across the river from New Jersey to the east, and a stone’s throw from Maryland to the west. All three states were still on the list, so here we are.

 

Our itinerary will take careful planning. Lori chose our day trips to New Jersey and Maryland in advance, but we had not yet paid much attention to our home base of Delaware. So this morning we mapped out our week . . . mostly because I simply cannot function well without a list. This took some time, and it was well after noon before we got moving, showered, and dressed. Lori made sandwiches and we took our lunch with us to eat in the car on the way to our first excursion: The Hagley Museum and Library right here in Wilmington.

 

The weather was absolutely glorious—a sunny fall day with temps reaching 68 degrees. By the time we arrived it was 1:55 pm, and we were greeted by a sign informing us that the museum store was closing early, at 2 pm, because of an event. So we began our exploration by running into the gift shop before it closed. We held them up from closing for about 20 minutes, then made our way to the visitor’s center.

 

OK, here’s where I’ll tell you what we THOUGHT we were going to see. The visitor’s center is also a museum of working models of machines submitted for patents before 1880. Between the years 1790 and 1880 the U.S. Patent Office required both documentation and a three-dimensional working model to demonstrate each new invention submitted for a patent. The models helped to explain proposed innovations and compare them against similar inventions. The Patent Office collected the submitted models during this period and exhibited them to large public audiences in the grand galleries of Washington D.C.’s Patent Office Building. As the mechanical widgets, thingamabobs, and whatsits started to collect, however, they realized there was not nearly enough space to store them, so they decided that the detailed drawings were enough.

 

This place is in possession of 5,000 of these mockups and has a large portion of them on display. This idea tickled our nerdy little hearts and we thought we could spend an entertaining . . . oh, I don’t know . . . maybe 90 minutes (?) looking at all the fun inventions. In reality, the amazing and misleadingly named estate “Hagley Museum and Library” is a massive, sprawling 235 acre estate built and landscaped by the du Pont family (yes, those du Ponts, as in chemicals and cars) that includes not only the building housing the model collection (called the Nation of Inventors), but also the Eleutherian Mills Residence, the E. I. du Pont Garden, the Hagley Powder Yard, and the Eleutherian Mills area. “Hagley” was the name already in place when the DuPonts purchased the land in the early 1800s.

Dupont Phaeton

 

The family began a highly profitable black gunpower business on the shores of the Brandywine River that runs through the property and built a gorgeous Georgian-style mansion high on the banks overlooking the mills. The mansion looks much as it was when the last family member lived there. It is filled with furnishings and collections of American folk art alongside treasured family pieces and is open for tours, so of course we bought tickets to see it. In front of the house are two acres of charming gardens that have been restored to their original site following a plan drawn by E. I. du Pont in 1804.

 

Lori and I had just enough time to race through the patent models display, jump on the shuttle to get to the mansion, walk the gardens, and tour the house and the powder mills business office. On the way back to get the shuttle we quickly went in the outer barn to see the gorgeously maintained original farm machinery, and three classic du Pont automobiles before the entire place closed down at 5:00 and we had to leave. We did NOT get enough time here! The estate is fascinating, and we were unprepared. We were unable to see the Hagley Powder Yard or much of the Eleutherian Mills area. There are several historic structures we were unable to visit that held the powder manufacturing stuff, and there are demonstrations too! We were only able to see these by riding by them in the shuttle. We are hoping to find time to get back here and explore the areas we had to miss, and dangit, we didn’t even get to fully enjoy all the gadgets!

 

The Mansion

Our du Pont mansion tour guide, Cheryl, who had heard me talking about strawberry rhubarb pie as we passed through the rhubarb patch in the gardens, suggested that we go to Booth’s Corner Farmers Market. She said it was an amazing place we would love to see, and that they had strawberry rhubarb pie there. Lori and I rarely ignore recommendations from locals, and the market was open until 8:00pm, so we decided to go see what Cheryl was raving about. Booth’s Corner Farmers Market is in Garnet Valley, PA. We laughed because we felt like, especially after having gotten lost on the way to our Airbnb, we had already spent too much time in Pennsylvania, a state that was not even one of the three designated for this trip!

 

Holy moly, this place was fabulous! Not only were there stands of fresh meats, cheeses, veggies, fruits, breads, nut butters, candies, and pastries, there were also surprising and convenient services, such as shoe repair, a notary (!!?), and watch repair. The market had clothing booths and booths with hats, scarves, jewelry, gifts. . . the place was awesome. Lori and I purchased some marinated pork chops and chicken breasts, fresh asparagus, couscous from a great little dry goods shop, yogurt, granola, milk, and of course, a fresh-from-the-oven strawberry rhubarb pie! After we found a great little taco stand and ordered fresh-made tacos to go, we left this haven of wonder and arrived home in less than 15 minutes.

 

At our cozy Airbnb, we changed into jammies and established ourselves on the couch to eat tacos and watch TV. We chose a new show called Alaska Daily starring Hilary Swank and were sad that there are so far only two episodes. We loved the show and are eagerly awaiting more. However it was now time for the first tossing of the states! In Lori’s ziplock bag of remaining states, there are only 15 options remaining, and Lori and I took a moment to reflect on how we have dedicated ourselves to Girls Weekend over the years, and now have less than a third of the 50 states and D.C. left to visit for GW. Lori hurled the puzzle pieces into the air, and more than half landed face up! Living to face another day are: Texas, Nevada, Colorado, Georgia, Alaska, Arizona, North Dakota, South Carolina. Lori is pulling for Arizona, and I would like to go to N Dakota because it is the only state in which I have never set foot. We turned in around 11:30 to rest up for New Jersey day tomorrow.

States remaining in the running after the toss