Well we broke the cycle; we got an outing in with out either of us getting sick. Our first stop was Hagley Museum and Library (http://www.hagley.lib.de.us/). We bought a family membership for the year (this of course will get us into other museums around the country). We then went upstairs to the display of patent miniatures from the 19th century. The patent office of the United States required any person submitting an idea for a patent to submit a working scale model. There where some very interesting models on display. A few I liked are the combination fork, knife and dough crimper (see album). Then there was the coffin with the window built in, not sure why. One of the more bizarre was the duck boat, why they put the swans on the corners is beyond me. After having lunch outside by one of the mill races, Hagley is on the Brandywine river and had been used as a mill and later by the first DuPont to make gunpowder, we went over to Longwood Gardens.
While at Longwood we went on a behind the scenes tour under the conservatory. The tunnel system under the conservatory is massive. All the plumbing and electrical systems for watering, heating and lighting are under your feet as you walk through the conservatory. You can see two of the tunnels we were in, in the album. The other interesting thing was the electrical panel labeled with 2400 volts. The electrician showed us a sample of the cable used to transmit that much electricity and it was very impressive. Then after chasing Barbara around the garden for a few hours, she was on an electric cart, we started home. I am just joking about chasing Barbara, I would stop to take pictures and would have to catch up to her.
On the way home we got hungry for dinner and found a very nice Italian restaurant. We had a very nice dinner and had enough to take home for dinner tonight. All the deserts except one are imported from Italy, we shared a piece of Grandmothers cake. We will be going back to this restaurant.
All in all we had a great day out.
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