Where Bloggers Create Party 2013. Tour my current studio here.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Country Living Fair- Other Destinations

 By the time we were all shopped out on Saturday we stopped by the Rhinebeck tourism table to see what else we could visit that day.  They highly recommended Wilderstein Historic Site.  It was the home of Margaret (Daisy) Suckley, a cousin and confidante of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  It was a most enjoyable tour as the guide was full of passion and knowledge.  No photos are allowed inside and you only get to see the main floor but it is still well worth the visit.

 Sunday morning found us at Olana for a tour.  It was the home of American landscape painter, Frederic Church and his family.We paid the extra for the two story tour and again it was a most delightful and informative tour. Nothing like an enthusiastic docent!

 The place is amazing! Again, no photos inside were allowed but there was plenty of detail to capture outside.

 Just across the bridge- Rip Van Winkle Bridge- I love that name! is the home of Thomas Cole, long time teacher and mentor to Frederic Church.  I thought it would be the perfect end to our adventures, plus they had one dollar off coupons at Olana.

 I am afraid the most interesting part of the tour was the almost two hundred year old honey locust tree in front of the house.

                                    It had big thorns.  Here you can see them in the new growth.

And here is a shot of some dried thorns.  They are huge!  Definitely not a climbing tree.
I was hoping to learn more about the relationship between Church and Cole and more about Cole's life in general however the guide was otherwise distracted and more interested in other less-focused details. In the end it was a disappointing tour.

 At Olana we picked up a very reasonably priced book covering Church's art, family and home.  The pop-up card of the house was only a dollar.

This is just a sampling of other places you can visit in the area.  You could spend a whole vacation just taking in the historic sites.

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