Leaving Philadelphia....More to Come

   

       Wednesday of our Pennsylvania Adventure...This was our morning view as we got up early, checked out and drove to Chadd's Ford, the home of  N.C. Wyeth and son Andrew Wyeth, both artists I love!  Tours are given of their homes and studios.  I had been through N.C.'s studio many years ago with Dick, but Andrew was still living at the time so his home/studio was still occupied. For those who might not know...NC was an illustrator...well-known for his wonderful paintings of many classics..."Treasure Island", "Black Arrow", etc. And Andrew Wyeth is well-known for his fabulous watercolors using egg tempera technique. One of his best known paintings is "Christina's World".
   

The Brandywine Museum where the Wyeth paintings are on display.

The view from the Museum...the Brandywine river

Andrew Wyeth's home and studio-Originally an abandoned schoolhouse on the property NC purchased and lived in when the family was young. NC then developed it into a studio after he had the family home built.  In later years, it was added onto for a home for Andrew and his family.

Andrew Wyeth's Studio in the home         

Andrew Wyeth's studio-his paints, etc. 

The NC Wyeth home which he designed and had built for his family of five children.

NC Wyeth Studio which was up the hill from the home.

NC Wyeth Studio...left as it was the day he died.  Any pictures seen are copies..the originals are more secured.

NC Wyeth's mural studio...he painted these huge murals which would be transferred into pictures for the illustrations in books.  He had the stairs built on wheels so he could get to the highest parts of the canvas.

    After our tours, we ate lunch at the cafe there and drove on to the Amish country about an hour away. I had gotten reservations at a B&B on line...not knowing anything about the area, I had to go by what the lady told me...I had asked her if she was located in the heart of Amish Country; if there were shops and restaurants nearby; I read all the five star references, looked at the pictures on line of her place...all sounded good!  But as we were following our GPS directions, we seemed to be getting deep into a rather not very Amish looking neighbor hood  in Lancaster...I did not know that Lancaster is a pretty  big place...we got to the address and I told Andrea to just keep driving!  Pretty seedy looking neighborhood...we saw her house and it looked just like the picture, which didn't show the houses that are very close on either side!  And we were pretty sure this was not a neighborhood we would want to walk around in nor did we see any places we would have wanted to walk to! So we drove out to the hiway and stopped at the Visitors Center where a nice gentleman steered us to a Boutique Motel on the edge of town, near Bird in Hand and Intercourse...two Amish communities.
     And there we ate dinner at a spot right next door...DJ's...and had a great meal topped off with....Yum!!

And they were playing music from the '50s all night long...we went there for breakfast the next day...and were jamming' along with Elvis all the time!