Thanks everyone for your comments on the pictures of Pennsbury Inn and its grounds.  I’m glad you enjoyed it!

Our visit to Chadds Ford was mostly taking pictures, shopping for antiques, visiting the Brandywine River Museum for N.C. Wyeth artwork, and going out to eat.

Lunch our first day was at Hank’s Place, a plain but tasty local diner.  There’s nothing fancy about it, but the food is plentiful, hot, and reasonably priced.  We can also get in and out quickly (this picture is from last June).

My favorite boy toy enjoys antiquing for his still life photography.  A great thing about going to different parts of the country is that there are often regional differences in what we find for sale, leading to a better variety of objects for his pictures.

We visited a large one-time show that was about 12 miles away from Pennsbury Inn.  We had a nice drive, seeing a different area of the county.  It was more open and rural.

Unfortunately, the antiques were expensive and way out of our price range.  So we antiqued our way back to Chadds Ford.  I was so taken with the ceiling at the Brandywine River Antiques Market, I asked for permission to take some pictures of it.

It looks like it used to be an old wine cellar.  Although it was level with the parking lot, it actually extended to the side of the store, running under a hill.

Supper the first night as at The Gables.  I loved looking at the bar from the restaurant side and found it hard to pick a picture to share.  Day turned to night as we ate our supper, visiting about which pictures we liked the best and why we didn’t like any of the antiques.  It was a common conversation for us.  No matter how mundane it sounds, we always enjoy recapping our day.

Sunday was a little more frustrating.  There were large crowds at Winterarthur Gardens & Mansion (part of the duPont fortune) as well as Longwood Gardens.  Both looked nice, but not appealing enough that we wanted to be jostled so much.  One of the frustrations of being a visitor is standing still, trying to figure out where you’re going and what you’re doing, while everyone is streaming around or bumping into you.

We went back to the Brandywine Museum instead.  My boy toy wanted to see the N.C. Wyeth artwork again and spend time just sitting and soaking it all in.  I went for a walk along the river.  Not too surprisingly, there wasn’t much to see yet for spring.

I did spend a few minutes inside the museum.  There were several different N.C. Wyeth pictures on display.  One very notable one was of him in a skating cap (i.e., a stocking cap).  He has a big mischievious grin on his face!  Most of the self portraits and photos show him looking dour or scowling.  His face is really lit up and the colors are bright.  Unfortunately, I cannot find this picture on the Internet and not surprisingly, it’s copyright by the museum.  To see it, right click on this link and then double click on the picture.

Another picture I’d not seen before was also a self-portrait, in which he dreamt that he’d met George Washington.  Once again, the colors are vivid.  N.C. is facing away from the viewer and towards George Washington.  His hand is behind his back, holding paint brushes.  To see it, right click on this link and then double click on the picture.

For supper, we went into Kennett Square.  It was another nice drive to someplace different.

This building holds municipal offices, as well as various retail stores and other offices.  It was also quite pretty, sitting on the main corner of downtown.

We had supper at a new Italian restaurant.  I’d tell you the name, but the food was marginal.  It never got very busy, so the locals knew better than we did not to go there.

Of course, that didn’t stop my favorite boy toy or I from enjoying ourselves.

The weekend was more pictures, reading and relaxing, and finally of course, driving back home.  We got home soon enough to pick up the dogs from the kennel.  They were so happy to see us and we were happy to see them too!

Then it was to bed early and back to our regular life.

Chadds Ford PA Travel antiques Brandywine River Museum Chadds Ford Hank's Place N.C. Wyeth Pennsbury Inn Pennsylvania The Gables travel vacation