Vacation 2012

Almost a year ago we had begun to make plans to take the kids to Disneyworld this summer. It is Marsha’s 40^th birthday and she wanted to go away and stay at Disney and not have to do anything while we were there. We knew that they usually had a deal in the end of the summer for a free meal plan and she wanted to go and not have to worry about food. Unfortunately things don’t always work out the way you want, and clearly this trip was a bit out of our reach financially. So we began to think of other possibilities.

Marsha’s parent’s, seeing that we need some time away by ourselves decided for her 40^th birthday to allow us to go away. The last week in August is usually when we can get away and we made plans to go away by ourselves (her parent’s would stay with the kids). So today we left for the Brandywine Valley and we are staying at a very nice little Inn called the Fairview Inn in Chadds Ford, PA. But before I get to that I need to mention yesterday. Marsha’s birthday was on Friday, and we had a little cake and celebration at Shabbat dinner. About two months ago, I began to plan a surprise party for her. I also thought it would be great if she could have a “girl’s night out” with her friends. So I contacted our friend Carla to take care of the girls night out and I would plan the party. The problem is that there was almost no time to have this party. The Sunday after her birthday (today) was when we were leaving so we could not have a party then. I decided to have the party on Shabbat afternoon. Most everyone was local and my parents and my siblings all drive on Shabbat. So I invited a bunch of people, and low and behold, one person (who shall remain nameless) asked Marsha about her birthday party that first week after I sent out the e-vite! ARGGGH! Marsha asked me about it, and I just gave her no answer.

About a week ago, Carla asked Marsha to go out on Saturday night, so Marsha got it in her head that the surprise was going to be then. Great! Now she would not suspect the party at the house. I had everyone get to the house by 12:45 and I would keep her at the Kiddush after shul until 1 pm, which was not out the ordinary. Thank God everything worked, and she was surprised (although she was a little suspicious as she got near the house). Then of course once she had this surprise, having a few of her friends at diner where Carla took her was also a surprise.

Of course her staying out until 1 am meant that I had to pack us up most of the way, but it was well worth it. Sunday morning we finished packing and got out of the house only 30 minutes later than we had hoped. On our way to the Brandywine area we stopped off near Philly to have lunch with our friend Ari. We had a great time catching up and had a wonderful lunch in of all places, a Wegman’s supermarket!

After we got to the inn, we went right out to visit Winterthur (the h is not pronounced) which was a home of one of the du Ponts. The house was converted into a museum by the last occupant, Henry Francis du Pont and he expanded the house to a 175 room museum. He had three passions in life. One was horticulture and he created an amazing natural garden on the grounds of the house. The second was dairy farming and today over 60% of the dairy cows in the US can probably trace their lineage back to his heard. The last was Americana, and the museum houses perhaps the largest collection of Americana in the US.

It was a pretty good first day to our mini-vacation and tomorrow we will see the Brandywine River Museum (an art museum that highlights the Wyeth family of artists) and Longwood gardens, a formal garden created by a different member of the du Pont family. Hopefully I will post some photos tomorrow.