Living Our Dream

Vermont Teddy Bear Company

Westport, NY - Events of Thursday, July 25 to Friday, July 26, 2013

In addition to seeing the Shelburne Museum that we wrote about in our last two posts, we also wanted to tour the Vermont Teddy Bear Company located in Shelburne. Since it was so far to drive to the Vermont side of Lake Champlain, we stopped after visiting the Shelburne Museum even though we were tired and it was late.

Vermont Teddy Bear Company

We had a few minutes to wait before the start of the next factory tour, so we looked around the gift shop. Here, they have available just about every type of standard teddy bear they make. There are plain bears and bears with costumes for different holidays, interests and occupations.

Margery checking out the wide selection of teddy bears

Beach-themed bears - very appropriate for summer

Vermont Teddy Bears aren't cheap. A couple of reasons for that is they are all made by hand, and they are guaranteed for life. Plain, 15-inch bears are $50. Add decoration like a bow, and the price goes to $60. Bears with outfits start at $70. There is almost no limit to the customization they can do with a couple of days notice, and that will add even more to the price. The 4½-foot Big Hunka Love Bear in the next photo goes for $100. They also make a 6-foot version.

Margery posing with a Big Hunka Love bear

Soon, it was time for our tour to start. Our tour guide was Mark, who was very personable and very funny. A sign at the beginning of the tour says the guides use an average of 10 bear puns an hour. We think Mark was guilty of more like 60 an hour. We were bearly done groaning from one pun before he hit us with another!

Mark, our tour guide, at the start of the tour

The tour starts off with a brief history of the company. Vermont Teddy Bear is one of the largest manufacturers of teddy bears in the world. It was started in 1983 by John Sortino who noticed all his son's teddy bears were foreign made. He decided to handcraft his bears here in the States and sold them at an open-air market in Burlington.

An example of what one of the early bears looked like is shown below. It is made up to look like Groucho Marx. We're not sure whether the original bears looked like Groucho Marx or not because there is so much tongue-in-cheek that goes on during the tour, but the original bears could 'bearly' sit up, so their design improvements included movable arms, legs and heads.  The swivel joints, as well as the eyes, are designed to get tighter and not come apart the harder you pull on them.

Example of an early bear by the founder of Vermont Teddy Bear

The idea of selling teddy bears through mail came about when a tourist at the market in Burlington wanted a bear mailed to her home. Today, the company sells over 500,000 bears a year. Much of their sales are done over the phone or by internet, and they ship bears around the world.

The first step in the manufacturing process is to cut the fur into the shapes for the bears. Twenty individual parts are required for each bear. Fourteen layers of fur are stacked on the table to the left in the photo below. The operator then feeds the stack of fur under the press to the right where it is cut into 7 pairs of parts by a die. Scrap material between the parts is cut into smaller, two-dimensional bears which they hand out as free souvenirs on the tours.

Station where fur is stacked and cut 14 layers at a time

Next, operators sew the pairs of parts together wrong side out so the seams will be hidden when they are turned right side out.

Operator sewing parts

Once the parts are sewn and turned right side out, they and assembled. The assembled bears are then filled with polyester fiber. The fill material is blown into the bears at 100 mph.

The fill material comes in 650-pound bales, and it takes about ¾ pound of fill for a 15-inch bear. They have a plastic jar of the polyester fibers to pass around so everyone can feel it. They refer to it as a bucket of teddy bear guts.

Bears in various stages of fill

There was a display used to demonstrate the fluffiness of polyester fill material. It is a plastic case half filled with polyester with an air jet at the top that can be activated by pressing a red button. You can't see it because of the reflections on the plastic case, but there is a teddy bear in there with the fill material wearing goggles.

Paul playing with the polyester fill demonstration

The next department on the tour was the one that makes the clothes. As we said, there are outfits to suit different holidays, occasions and interests.The ones shown include a U.S. Marine uniform, a bride's dress and a graduation cap and gown. Names, dates and other information can be embroidered onto the outfits to further customize the bear. The paw pads can also be embroidered, and bears can be made with eye colors different from the standard brown (blue, green and hazel).

Standard and custom outfits are available

Bears are then boxed for sale in the store or for shipping. The boxes have an air hole so the teddy bears can breathe. They are also shipped with a small box of bear food, which consists of a couple of pieces of chocolate (caramels are substituted in hot weather). They say the bear almost never eats the food, so the recipient is free to indulge instead.

The last stop on the tour was the bear hospital. As we said, the bears are guaranteed for life. If anything ever happens to the bear, even if it's your fault, Vermont Teddy Bear will repair or replace the bear at no charge.

Teddy bear hospital

Convalescing teddy bear in a wheel chair

Teddy bear receiving an IV of honey

Initially, Paul wasn't that interested in taking the tour because he was so tired and it was late. Not only that, but we don't have grand kids to buy teddy bears for. However, the tour is really a hoot and a lot of fun. We're both glad we took the time.

We finally made our way back to the motor home. We took the next day off to rest up after our long day of walking on Thursday. About the only things we did were our weekly cleaning chores and downloading and organizing the many photos we took. But we were back out the sightseeing trail again on Saturday. We'll tell you all about what we did in our next post.

More Shelburne Museum

Westport, NY - Events of Thursday, July24, 2013

After our break, we continued our tour of the Shelburne Museum with a stop at the Stencil House. Named for the decorative stenciling in the entry hall, parlor and dining room, this house was built about 1804 in Columbus, NY.

Stencil House

About 90% of the stenciling in the parlor is original and dates back to the 1820s or 1830s.

Stenciling in the parlor that is 90% original

When the museum acquired the house, approximately 2/3 of the stenciling in the dining room was missing. The museum attempted to preserve what was left by using an animal glue-based primer. Unfortunately, it didn't work and the primer actually pulled much of the remaining stencil paint from the walls by the 1980s. In 2000, the museum decided to repaint the entire dining room and re-apply the stencils. What remained of the original stencils was painstakingly traced, photographed and then reproduced in the original colors.

Repainted stencils in the dining room

The Stencil House is filled with a mix of both high-style and everyday furniture from the 1800s. The next photo shows the kitchen. The dining room is to the left, and the parlor is through the door to the right of the fireplace.

Kitchen of the Stencil House

From the Stencil House, we went to the general store. The building, which was originally built as the post office for the town of Shelburne in 1840, was moved intact to the museum in 1952. An apothecary shop was added to the right side of the general store in 1959. Early doctor and dental equipment and instruments are displayed upstairs. Much of the early medical procedures can best be described as grim. We're so blessed to have modern medicine.

General store

Essentials for everyday life in the 1800s in the general store

The Vermont House Gallery, shown below, is used to house changing exhibits. Furniture from the 1700s and 1800s was on display inside when we were there.

Vermont House Gallery

Secretary on display in the Vermont House

We wanted to stop by the blacksmith shop because its always fun to watch the sparks fly if there is a blacksmith demonstration going on. On the way, we passed a meeting house that was built in 1840 in Charlotte, VT by a Methodist congregation. In New England, churches also provided space for community meetings and other gatherings, thus the name meeting house.

1840 meeting house

The one-room, brick blacksmith shop was built around 1800 in Shelburne near the railroad. There were two blacksmiths and a helper who were demonstrating making decorative hooks.

Demonstration in the blacksmith shop

A later, wood-frame addition to the shop featured a display of wagon wheel-making tools and equipment.

Wheel-making exhibit in the blacksmith shop addition

We came next to the horseshoe barn. Built in 1949, it is a U-shaped barn modeled after a unique dairy barn located in Georgia, VT. It is built from the hand-hewn beams from 12 different Vermont barns and stones from two grist mills.

Two-story horseshoe barn

The barn houses more carriages, wagons and sleighs. The annex behind the horseshoe barn was built on site in 1957 and houses farm, trade and utility wagons like the Conestoga wagon shown below. The wagon was built in 1837 and was used to haul freight between Lancaster and Philadelphia, PA.

Conestoga wagon

Conestoga wagons were developed by the Pennsylvania Germans for the express purpose of hauling freight. Their curved bottoms kept loads centered so they didn't shift when traversing rough roads or when crossing streams. Conestoga wagons were pulled by draft horses or oxen and could haul 5 to 8 tons. Conestoga wagons aren't to be confused with the covered wagons that carried pioneers west. Those were mostly ordinary farm wagons fitted with canvas covers and were known as "prairie schooners."

Another interesting vehicle in the annex was a school bus sleigh from around 1910 that was found in northern Vermont. It has rows of benches down each side and a small wood stove inside to keep the children warm on their journey.

School bus sleigh c.1910

The Dutton House was built in 1782 by Salmon Dutton in Cavendish, VT. In addition to being a dwelling, it was also served as an inn, a tavern and as a facility for several other commercial enterprises.

Dutton House

An interesting piece on display in the Dutton House was the adult invalid cradle. It enabled an invalid to be with the rest of the family and to be part of daily activities. Its high sides would keep its occupant from falling out, and its rocking motion would be soothing.

Adult invalid cradle

As we continued on our way around the museum grounds, we stopped for a photo op at the 1890 jail from Castleton, VT. Castleton is in the slate quarry district of Vermont, so the exterior of the jail is constructed from slate. It weighs 50 tons and was moved to the museum intact in 1953.

Paul in the 1890 jail

The 1835 brick farmhouse at the right of the photo below is the only building that was original to the museum site. The farmhouse and the wood addition are used to display Electra Webb's extensive collection of decorative arts including ceramics, glass, pewter, scrimshaw, miniatures, toys and dolls.

Brick farmhouse (right) from 1835 is original to the museum site.

As we said, the farmhouse and addition contain an eclectic display of items, among which is a series of miniatures handcrafted by Helen Bruce. The miniature scenes were purchased and commissioned by Electra in the 1940s and 1950s.

Helen Bruce miniature

An old stagecoach inn c.1787 from Charlotte, VT contains collections of weathervanes, folk art sculptures, trade signs, decoys, whirligigs and ship carvings.

1787 stagecoach inn

Trade signs in the stagecoach inn - apothecary (right) and 1800s barbershop

The last stop on our museum tour was a rare, two lane covered bridge. Built in 1845 in Cambridge, VT, the bridge was dismantled and moved to the museum in 1949. There is also a separate foot path to the left.

Two-lane covered bridge with separate footpath (left)

We spent about 4 hours at Shelburne Museum walking its 46 acres. Even with splitting the story about the museum into two separate posts, there still are several more buildings and many additional types of collectables we don't have room to show.

The museum is listed as a AAA gem (which is what they call their "must-sees"), and Margery liked it a lot. It is not an historic village with buildings restored and decorated accurately to the period, but rather old buildings holding various types of collections that may or may not represent the period of the building. For that reason, Paul was a little less enamored with the museum, but he still found the Shelburne Museum to be interesting and well worth the time.

It was a long day, we were tired and it was getting late; but we had one more stop to make while we were on the Vermont side of Lake Champlain. Stay tuned.

Shelburne Museum

Westport, NY - Events of Thursday, July 25, 2013

There were a couple of things we wanted to see while we were in the area that were located across Lake Champlian in Shelburne, VT. The straight line distance was about 17 miles, but Lake Champlain is a long lake (150 miles), and the nearest place to cross was a bridge located over 17 miles to the south of the campground. The drive to Shelburne took over an hour with the winding roads and numerous small towns along the way.

The Lake Champlain Bridge crosses a narrow part of the lake. It was built in 2011 replacing an older bridge from 1929.

Lake Champlain Bridge

At the bridge on the New York side is the Crown Point Lighthouse. The 55-foot lighthouse, which was first lit in 1859, was converted in 1910 to a memorial to Samuel de Champlain who was the first European to see the lake in 1609. The Memorial Lighthouse has 8 granite columns and a decorative granite cornice in place of the original, limestone tower.

Crown Point Memorial Lighthouse

Our first stop in Shelburne was the Shelburne Museum, which was founded in 1947 by Electra Havemeyer Webb. Electra Webb was a pioneer collector of 18th and 19th century Americana, American fine art and American folk art. Most of the buildings on the 46-acre museum grounds are old buildings that were moved from other sites in New England and were restored and preserved. They are used to display Electra Webb's extensive collections of decoys, glassware, ceramics, miniatures, furniture, pewter, scrimshaw, dolls and toys, metalwork and much more.

We started our tour of the museum with the big, red, round barn that sits right inside the entrance to the museum grounds. It was built in 1901 in Passumpsic, VT about 30 or 40 miles from the museum.

Round barn

The barn is 80' in diameter, and the main floor had stanchions for 60 dairy cows. The cows faced inward toward a feed trough where they could be fed hay from the loft above. Manure dropped through trap doors to the basement where the farmer could load it onto his manure spreader.

In the barn there is a video that shows how the barn was dismantled and moved to the museum site in 1986. As we watched the video, we realized the other couple that was watching it with us were the people who had donated the barn to the museum. They had their grandkids with them, and the couple was explaining the details of how the barn was moved. How cool to get to listen in on a narration by the previous owners of the barn!

The barn is now used to house a collection of carriages and coaches on the middle floor and sleighs in the basement.

Concord coach in the round barn

Surrey with fringe on top

One of the sleighs from the collection in the basement

Near the barn is a U-shaped building that contains a collection of carousel horses and a miniature circus parade. Outside is a garden of - you guessed it - daylilies. There are 36 different varieties and a total of over 1,700 daylilies.

1,700 daylilies outside the circus building

Carousel horses with decorative carousel panels on the wall

The miniature circus parade contains nearly 4,000 individual pieces and was made from 1935 to 1955. It has a scale of 1 inch equals 1 foot and is over 500 feet long - the equivalent of over a mile at full size.

Wagon and team of horses from the 500-foot miniature circus parade

From the circus building we headed to the 1880 railroad station from Shelburne, VT.

1880 Shelburne, VT railroad station

Also on display at the station is Locomotive 220, a 4-6-0 coal-fired, steam locomotive that was used to pull both freight and passenger trains. The locomotive was known as the "Locomotive of the Presidents" because it was used on special trains carrying Presidents Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower.

The museum also has a private rail car that was presented as a gift to the Governor of Vermont in 1890. Electra's father-in-law was the president of the rail car company that built the car and presented it to the governor.

A few of the buildings at the museum are not historic buildings, but have been constructed on-site to provide places to display collections that don't exactly fit anywhere else. Such is the case of Beach Lodge and Beach Gallery. These buildings, which were named in honor of William and Marie Beach who were long-time hunting companions of Electra Webb, are built from logs to resemble an Adirondack hunting camp. The buildings are used to display hunting trophies, wood carvings and Adirondack-inspired furniture.

Alaskan brown bears are among the many hunting trophies on display.

The 220-foot, side-wheel steamboat Ticonderoga is also part of the museum. You can visit all four decks and see the bridge, the passenger lounge, the crew's quarters, the dining room and the engine room. The Ticonderoga was built in 1906 and was used as an excursion boat, a showboat and a floating casino. She was used to carry passengers primarily on day trips between various scheduled stops up and down Lake Champlain. She is set up to look the way she did in 1923, which was the peak of prosperity for steamboats on Lake Champlain.

Steamship Ticonderoga

Margery in the dining room of the Ticonderoga

Since we're on the subject of boats and Lake Champlain, the Colchester Reef Lighthouse has also been relocated to Shelburne Museum from a location in Lake Champlain about 10 miles north of Shelburne. First lit in 1871, the lighthouse was replaced by an electric beacon and was decommissioned in 1933. It was damaged by ice and weather over the years, and was finally sold at auction in 1952 for $50 after which it was scheduled to be dismantled for timbers. When Electra Webb found out about the lighthouse, she bought it from the new buyers for $1700 plus replacement lumber. The lighthouse was moved to the museum and restored.

Colchester Reef Lighthouse

After Electra Webb died in 1960, her children constructed the Electra Havemeyer Webb Memorial Building. It is built in the Greek-revival style, and it houses her collection of impressionist paintings.

Electra Havemeyer Webb Memorial Building

Electra Webb wanted her paintings to be exhibited in a home-like setting rather than in a sterile gallery, so her children brought furnishings from Electra's New York City apartment on Park Avenue and replicated six rooms from her apartment as part of the memorial.

View of the inside the memorial with paintings displayed in a home-like setting

Attractive gardens are scattered around the grounds. It didn't take us long to find one.

One of several attractive gardens at the museum

The Prentis House was built in 1773 in Hadley, MA and was relocated to the museum in 1955. It is filled with 17th and 18th century antiques.

Prentis House built in 1773

Parlor of the Prentis House

Dining room of the Prentis House

There was a lot more to see at the Shelburne Museum. It took us over 4 hours to cover the 46 acres. Part way through, we needed to take a break and sit a few minutes because our legs and feet were starting to hurt from all the walking. We'll continue our tour of the Shelburne Museum in our next post.

Austerlitz, NY to Westport, NY

Westport, NY - Events of Wednesday, July 24, 2013

On Wednesday morning, we hit the road again. This time, it was a three-hour drive to our next destination - Barber Homestead RV Park in Westport, NY. Barber Homestead is located on the western shore of Lake Champlain in the Adirondack Mountains of New York.

Barber Homestead RV Park has around 40 campsites. About half the sites have full hookups and the other half have water and electric only. Four of the full hookup sites have 50-amp electric while all the rest have 30 amps. Our nightly rate with a 10% discount for paying cash was about $28.

The roads and pads at Barber Homestead are dusty gravel. The sites are mostly grass and have decent spacing for a private campground. Fortunately, there is free Wi-Fi that was fairly fast because the Verizon data service in the area was poor - it was weak 1xRTT (2G) service, which is slower than dial-up for data use. We'll have more about our cell phone and internet connections later in this post.

The campground was having trouble with their Wi-Fi transmitter for the lower section of the campground, and the repair part wasn't expected until Friday. We're glad they gave us a site right beside the office where the Wi-Fi was working well because we were both suffering from internet withdrawal with all the difficulty we have been having getting online at our previous stop. What a joy it was to finally have a reliable, fast internet connection!

Our site at Barber Homestead Park

View down the road

Except for an occasional, distant train, the campground is generally quiet. Our location right next to the office made for a little added commotion with vehicles and RVs driving past our door and with people walking by on their way to and from the office, but it was a small price to pay for having a reliable internet connection given the poor Verizon reception we had at this stop and the last.

Many of the sites at Barber Homestead are seasonals. As with Woodland Hills where we just came from, all the seasonal sites are well kept and all have newer RVs. Many people have built nice decks and have planted attractive flowers on their sites.

We've been talking a lot recently about poor internet reception. Although parts of New England have high population densities, we knew we would be in some fairly remote areas in the mountains of New York, Vermont and New Hampshire and along the northern coast of Maine. Remote areas mean there may be poor cell phone reception, both for voice and data. Therefore, we ordered a Wilson Sleek from the 3GStore a while back.

Paul would have preferred a more powerful, in-line amplifier that was better suited to our Pantech modem. However, the only in-line amplifier that is currently available that is good for both 3G and 4G is a very expensive model designed for stationary use, not for RVs. Since the Wilson Sleek works for voice, 2G, 3G and 4G, that's what we chose. There are different models for different cell phone providers, so make sure you know which one you need.

The Sleek is a cradle that your smartphone slides into. It comes with a magnetic-mount antenna, a 12V power supply, and a swivel holder for your car. The arms on the side of the cradle are adjustable to accept phones of different sizes.

Wilson Sleek

The Sleek is designed for smartphones, and the arms are too wide to grip our Pantech modem. However, it can be made to work with a modem by using a rubber band to hold the modem in the Sleek cradle. The modem is mounted with its logo facing the Sleek because that's the side of the modem where the antenna is located. When we use the Sleek for the modem it is in one of our overhead electronic compartments next to the wireless router. It is being shown on the desk for clarity.

Modem held in the Wilson Sleek with a rubber band

We also ordered the home and office kit that includes a 120V power supply, an articulated desk-top stand, and a suction cup mount to be placed on the outside of the window for the magnetic antenna. Since we already had a Wilson RV Cell Phone Antenna on the roof that works for voice, 3G and 4G, we are using that instead of the magnetic antenna unless we take the Sleek with us in the car.

Because we had good Wi-Fi at Barber Homestead, we used the Sleek only for the smartphone and only for voice because we could connect the smartphone to the campground Wi-Fi for data.

Our smartphone in the Wilson Sleek with desk-top stand

The Wilson Sleek works, but it is not a panacea. It can take a weak signal and make it into a usable signal, but it can't take a bad signal like we had most of the time in Austerlitz and make it strong. The Sleek will raise the signal strength one to three bars. In Westport, we normally had one or two bars, occasionally dropping to no bars. With the Sleek activated, the signal went to three or four bars, occasionally dropping to one bar.

Two bars without the Sleek

Four bars with the Sleek

Overall, we're pleased with the Sleek, but we wish it were more powerful. An in-line amplifier for mobile use is due out sometime this fall, and we may investigate that for use with the modem. We will then be able to use the Sleek exclusively for the smartphone. One advantage to the Sleek is it was designed to be used in a car, so we can easily take it with us when we go sightseeing in remote areas.

On one of our outings, we needed a post office. Westport is a small town, but they are big enough to have a post office. They also have a nice inn right on the main street. The Inn in Westport was built in 1855.

The Inn of Westport built 1855

Westport also has a park across from the inn. The lawn at the park sweeps down to Lake Champlain, so we stopped to investigate.

Park across from the inn overlooking Lake Champlain

We walked down to the lake where there was a small beach. We introduced Freeway to the water.

Freeway: What's up with all that water?

Margery: C'mon, Freeway. Give it a try.

Freeway: This is as far as I go. Uh-oh, here comes a wave. I'm outta here!

In the end, Freeway got his paws wet, but there was no way he was going to jump in. Our previous dog, Molly, was an English Springer Spaniel, and she LOVED the water. She would whine if we drove across a bridge and she smelled water because she thought she might get to go for a swim. Of course, even Molly had to be coaxed into the water the first time. Maybe we'll try again someday with Freeway.

Next to the beach is a marina. There are some pretty big boats on Lake Champlain.

Westport Marina

Another view of the marina

There are several things we want to see during our stop in Westport. We only have a few days, so we'll be busy. Look for our next post to see what we found to do.

Stockbridge, MA Part III: Norman Rockwell Museum

Austerlitz, NY - Events of Monday July 24 to Tuesday, July 25, 2013

On Monday, we headed into Stockbridge again, this time to visit the Norman Rockwell Museum. Norman Rockwell was an illustrator who is best known for the covers he created for the Saturday Evening Post. Margery has always been a big fan of Norman Rockwell, so visiting his museum was the main reason for our stop in this area.

The museum was founded in 1969 and was originally located in the town of Stockbridge. It moved to its current 36-acre site outside town overlooking the Housatonic River in 1993.

Norman Rockwell Museum

Norman Rockwell created over 4,000 paintings and illustrations in his career. Most of his works are in public collections, although a number of them were lost in a fire at his studio in 1943. The Norman Rockwell Museum has the largest single collection of his original paintings, sketches and drawings numbering close to 1,000.

Norman Rockwell realized his interest in art at an early age and transferred from high school to art school at age 14. He continued his education at several different art schools. His first major breakthrough was a commission to do book illustrations in 1912 at age 18. At 19, he was hired to illustrate several covers of Boy's Life, the magazine of the Boy Scouts of America. Rockwell published his first cover for the Saturday Evening Post in 1916. He produced over 300 original covers for the Post over 47 years.

Norman Rockwell was born in New York City. He later moved to New Rochelle, NY, and after spending a brief time in California, he returned to New Rochelle. He moved to Arlington, VT in 1939 where his paintings began to reflect small-town life. Rockwell moved to Stockbridge, MA in 1953.

Rockwell considered himself an illustrator rather than a fine artist, and he liked to tell stories with his illustrations. His sentimental style, his idealistic portrayal of American life and his use of humorous situations made his work immensely popular. The next two photos of Rockwell paintings show some examples of his humor - the child studying the doctor's medical diploma as he prepares to receive a shot and the kids carrying their clothes past the no swimming sign.

Before the Shot, 1958

No Swimming, 1921

Another reason for the popularity of Rockwell's work is many people can identify with his subjects. The next example shows a family exuberantly heading off for a a day or a weekend at the lake in the top frame and looking tired and worn out in the bottom frame on the way back. We have experienced the same thing when we used to go camping for the weekend in our tent (and later in our travel trailer).

Going and Coming, 1947

Rockwell published his last cover for the Saturday Evening Post in 1963. The Post always had a policy that the covers were to be lighthearted and non-controversial. Beginning in 1963, Norman Rockwell began a 10-year stint creating illustrations for Look magazine, and his work began to take on more of a flavor of current events including subjects like space exploration, presidential portraits and civil rights. The next painting, completed in 1963, appeared in Look in January, 1964. It shows a young Black girl being escorted to school by Federal Marshals.

The Problem We All Live With, 1963

The museum has a large Rockwell painting called Stockbridge Main Street at Christmas, and we recognized many of the buildings we saw just the day before. Three of those buildings were pictured in our last blog post. Click here to see them again. On the far right of the painting is the Red Lion Inn. Just to the left of center, the larger white building is the Stockbridge General Store, and to the left of that right in the center (building that is pale yellow on top and reddish on the bottom) is the Williams Country Store.

Stockbridge Main Street at Christmas, 1967

As we said, Norman Rockwell produced over 300 covers for the Saturday Evening Post. Examples of most, if not all of them are on exhibit at the museum. It was fun studying the covers and trying to interpret the story they were trying to tell.

Margery checking out covers of the Saturday Evening Post

Norman Rockwell worked in around 20 different studios in his lifetime. His last was located in has backyard in Stockbridge. It was moved from town to the museum grounds and is displayed with all its contents just about the way Rockwell left it.

Norman Rockwell's Stockbridge studio

Interior of the studio is just about the way Norman Rockwell left it.

The property the museum purchased for its new building in the early 1990s was part of the estate known as Linwood. Linwood House was the summer home of Charles Butler who was Joseph Choate's law partner and the person who introduced Choate to the Berkshires. Joseph Choate and his family were visiting the Butlers when they picnicked under the old oak tree that is on the property they ended up purchasing to build their summer home Naumkeag. Naumkeag, which we wrote about in our last post, sits directly across the valley from Linwood. Linwood House was built in 1859 and was one of the first of the Berkshire "cottages."  It now houses the administrative offices for the museum.

Linwood House

Attractive garden with more daylilies outside Linwood House

This definitely seems to be our year for daylilies. One of the ones on the grounds of the museum caught Paul's eye. It was a peach color with a dark orange throat and with orange outlining the ruffled edges of the petals.

Another example of a beautiful daylily

Lu and Larry, whom we met through our respective blogs, have an RV lot in Otis, MA where they spend their summers. We met up with Lu and Larry last fall in Summerdale, and we said we would try to get together this summer since we knew we would be going to New England. Otis is only about half an hour's drive from Stockbridge, so we made arrangements to meet Lu and Larry at 3:00 at Michael's Restaurant Stockbridge for lupper.

Michael's Restaurant

Michael's serves lunch from 11:30 until 4:00, after which they switch to their dinner menu. Sandwiches, wraps and burgers at Michael's range in price from about $7 to $10, lunch salads are about $8 to $12, and light dinners are $9 to $15. Lu, Margery and Paul had jumbo clam strip light dinners, and Larry had fish and chips.

Jumbo clam strips, sweet potato fries and cole slaw

Margery, Lu, Larry and Paul

The food was yummy. The restaurant wasn't crowded at the time we were there, so we lingered after our meal and chatted for quite a while. It was good to see Lu and Larry again. We eventually said our good-byes and headed back to the motor home for an evening of TV.

We spent most of Tuesday relaxing and we made a few preparations for our departure on Wednesday morning. We'll tell you where we were headed in our next post.