Last week I went & got a tour from Mallory and her supervisor Carly at the Historical Center of York County, where Mallory is interning this summer.  They are mostly a record keeping and research site, but they did have one great display case that Mallory had been wanting me to come and see of hats, of all things, from throughout York County history.  She said she knew I would love it, and she was right.  I obviously had my finger over part of the lens when I tried to take a picture of the aviator cap, dang it. Still it was very cool.

Last weekend when we were in Tennessee burying Momma’s ashes we spent Saturday morning touring a couple of the houses that Josh is working on now – he said he currently has five in progress. He is a construction manager for Castle Homes, which builds fancy dancy houses in the Nashville area. Jeff & I are hoping to get a walk-in shower put in soon, and I loved this one in the first house we toured. Zollie told me it is called a curbless shower, but Josh said it would be very difficult (read: expensive) to add one like that, because all of the bones are different in the area where it is placed. Still, I thought it looked so cool.

When we got back to Murfreesboro we headed out to the house where we lived on Lascassas Road, where Sher buried some of Gran’s ashes. It was a good day.

Yesterday Mason & I headed to Concord to visit Crazy Mason’s Milkshake Bar. I’d wanted to take him since I first heard about it a couple of months ago. Then when I was at the beach last week, my friend Charlotte’s grandson Jordan came over to visit, and he works at the one in Wilmington, so that reminded me that we needed to go before school starts back in three weeks (!!!) It was just a great place. Here are a couple of pictures.

We had another good, low key day when we were on vacation on Thursday. In addition to more time at the pool and on the goofy golf course, June & I went to a craft class, where we decorated tote bags. Everyone else used the stencils that were provided, but creative June just went with her own design. I thought she did an amazing job. Our plans for the following day were to visit the Emily Dickinson Home – in fact, that was our reason for the entire vacation – so I especially loved June’s tote. The quotes on the handles are from Taylor Swift songs, who, as it turns out, is Emily Dickinson’s 6th cousin. How very cool.

Also spent some time hanging out in the arcade. It was another good day just hanging around the resort.

We had such fun exploring the ruins of the old house that used to be there. I would love to go back some day and spend longer checking the entire trail out.

Yesterday Jeff, June, & I started out to explore the area, and our first stop was Mount Greylock, the highest mountain in Massachusetts. It was pretty hazy so the pictures of the views and even the tower on top didn’t really turn out that good, but I loved reading about it, anyway.

Neither Jeff nor June had ever been to Vermont, so we headed there next, and found a covered bridge – the Green River Covered Bridge – to drive through. That seemed like a very Vermonty thing to do 🙂

From there it was on to New Hampshire – another first for both of them – where we picnicked and went hiking in the Madame Sherri Forest. Such a good day to be out and about in New England. The little footbridge across the creek was pretty rickety, so the signs said to cross on these rocks through the creek instead, which Jeff and June did. Without my hiking stick, though, I was afraid to try it, so I took my chances on the bridge, and made it with no trouble at all 🙂

Our vacation Tuesday was just a lowkey day, mostly spent around the resort. June & I did go & visit a couple of local nurseries – this girl LOVES plants – and did a little shopping and exploring in the area. We ended up on one way back mountain road that got so rough we had to just turn around and come back down, but before then she wanted to stop and take pictures of the absolutely gorgeous mountain creek running beside the road.

We came back to eat lunch and take a nap, and then hit the goofy golf course with Jeff. It was a fun, relaxing day.

I loved that they had a room with an issue of every single Saturday Evening Post that he had drawn the cover for there in the museum.  Not just the pictures, but an entire magazine.  Most of the mailing labels were still on them, and they were from all over the country.  I bet the story of how they accumulated all of those would be interesting to hear.

We stopped and had lunch at a great diner located in the old general store building in Stockbridge. Food was great and it was fun just being in that atmosphere.

Monday of our Massachusetts vacation, Jeff, June, & I headed to the Norman Rockwell Museum. We got there a few minutes early, so while we were waiting on the porch for it to open, I noticed this sign and went ahead & took a picture, in case I forgot to get it on the way out. And sure enough, I never even noticed it when we headed home – so glad I got it first thing 🙂

We went on the really fabulous tour of his studio. It was so interesting – the guide was fabulous. I loved seeing this helmet was still there over his easel – I remember it being in that famous picture of him doing his self portrait 🙂

This was something really cool that we didn’t expect to see. Twice a year the Norman Rockwell Museum hosts exhibits of different illustrators and their illustrations. This one was one children’s and young adult books and magazines. There was a lot of information in the museum about Norman Rockwell’s work with the Boy Scouts – his longest affiliation with any company or organization, including the Saturday Evening Post, which of course is what he’s most famous for. I thought this was a cool picture, even though he didn’t draw it, and some cool information about it.