A Day in Delaware

Lacey and I drove up to Wilmington, Delaware, on Saturday - and we couldn't have asked for a more perfect day - low 80s and not a cloud in the sky. We had reservations for an 11:00 tour at the newly re-opened Nemours Mansion, one of the famous DuPont estates. However, we encountered some traffic along the stupid toll roads (seriously, why are they everywhere and why do they cost so much??). We ended up missing our tour and they were all booked up for the rest of the day. So we'll have to come back another time.

Luckily we had another item on our agenda: the DuPont country estate, Winterthur. The house and gardens are beautiful, and we really enjoyed walking around the grounds. The tour was a little disappointing though. We only got to see one floor of the house, even though there are EIGHT floors in all. And they didn't really explain the history of the DuPont family or much about them. The focus of the museum is the collections. Henry Francis DuPont was a collector of early American artifacts, and Winterthur actually has the largest collection of its kind. Seeing all the artifacts was really fascinating, but I wish they would've told us more about the family.

Anyhoodle, on to the pictures!

We took a tram up to the mansion from the visitors center. This is the back of the house, with a view of the conservatory.

The front of the house.

Lacey on the terrace.

The grand staircase.

Genuine American artifacts.

George Washington's china!

This room was neat. They constructed the room to fit the wallpaper.

The French ambassador happened to be there, and his group was right in front of our tour!

Strolling the grounds.

The swimming pool, which is now a "reflecting pool."

We proceeded to the Enchanted Woods, which is sort of an area for the kiddies. Luckily there weren't any rugrats while we were there. This is me in the "tea room."

The maypole was not well constructed. Lacey could barely reach the ribbons!

Lacey in the oversized bird's nest.

More of the gardens.

The aptly named Fern Walk.