Exploring Philadelphia's Suburbs

Though Philadelphia is a sprawling city with enough to keep you busy for more than a week, there's more to see nearby and a little further afield. We indulged in culture and history and art and fun, and then we went outside the city to explore a bit more and see things most tourists don't get to. 

On our way to actually stay in the city, we drove to Kennett Square, outside of Philadelphia, where Longwood Gardens lives. It's over 1,000 acres of plants, flowers, paths, and fountains. Started by a Quaker, the land was purchased by Pierre du Pont, who had a great love of horticulture. He wasn't sure it was a fantastic purchase, but he had a small house built on the property. Over the years, as he became wealthier, he added to the property and its features.

The coolest thing by far on the property is the Greenhouse, which is huge. You'll find everything from tropical plants to a bonsai trees inside In fact, it's a bit like a maze inside and we probably didn't see every corner that was open. 

On each end of the massive greenhouse are lawns with different plants, many you may not have seen before. 

There are lots of photo opportunities, even when it's freezing outside, like it was when we were visiting. Inside felt like Spring, while we had to bundle up outside on the grounds. 

If you enjoy Chrysanthemums, you'll love the hallways lined with different colored ones. We were there as they were putting up decorations for a light-up event happening after dark. I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of plants all in one place and interested in how many gardeners it takes to maintain the property.   

du Pont had a great love of fountains and added a huge group of dancing fountains to his property, where people would come from all over every year to see them and special shows put on by entertainers hired by the du Ponts.  

I can see how the warmer weather would make the gardens a great romantic day out. W skipped some parts, because the fountain garden was shut down for the season and I doubted the wildflower field would have been in bloom. 

There is a large lawn full of topiaries. Unfortunately, they were also closed for the season, so we  could only see them from the walkways around them. 

On the property is the original du Pont home, with additions. Inside you can see the ground floor and learn more about the family that lived there. 

In between the buildings is an adorable courtyard and you can ask questions at the information booth and then go inside and sit in the library to watch a video about the du Pont family. 

Pierre du Pont loved to travel, and his modest home turned into a bit of a mansion, despite his wondering if he made the right choice in buying the property in the beginning. 

When I learned we were going to visit Longwood Gardens, I looked at dining options and found that aside from the cafe and outdoor dining options (open in the warmer months) that include a beer garden with woodfired pizza and outdoor seating, there is a fancier option called 1906. We decided to make lunch our splurge meal for the day.

1906 is gorgeous with forestgreen velvet banquets, a living wall and a bright, open feel. It's wonderful to have an upscale restaurant in the middle of all the beauty of nature. The menu has three parts. You can choose from Past, Present, and Future dishes. Your meal starts with an adorable dinner roll baked in a terra cotta flower pot. You can also order starters, like their popular mushroom soup, which is always on the menu. 
 

Eric ordered a veggie goulash and I got a duck ragout with carrot noodles. It was all amazing. I was just sad that I couldn't fit in a dessert, but luckily, they brought us some chocolate bark served on a tree stump. Even that was fab.

1906 isn't cheap, but it's not too expensive. You'll also be fed so well, that you don't need a big dinner later. Of course, you can split up your visit with a meal here and walk off those extra calories...and then double back for dessert. If you're going to Longwood during a busy time, because it sees one million visitors a year, make sure to make reservations so you can actually get in for one of the best meals you'll have on your trip.

Longwood Gardens, besides being beautiful and educational, also has walking tours and an educational program. and make sure to learn more about the sustainability of their restaurant and stop by their large gift shop on your way back to the car. The gardens are only about 30 minutes outside of Philadelphia, so if you have the time to get out of the city for half a day, you should definitely make the trip. Bring your walking shoes and a camera with a full battery.

Do you have a favorite gardens from your travels?


Disclosure: I was provided with a VIP Media Pass from VisitPhilly in order to visit Longwood Gardens for this review, but all opinions are 100% my own.

Christmas Travel Trends

Every year, millions of people pack up their bags and head to visit family and friends. Some, like me in the past, have opted to go somewhere to get away from all that and have a less stressful holiday instead. Want to know where everyone's going, according to Christmas travel trends, so you know how crowded your destination will be? 

That's a lot of travel! We'll be staying home for Christmas this year. Where will you be going? If you need a little airport help, check out this post.

Visiting a Castle in Philadelphia

Our trip to Philadelphia was jam packed. In fact, we didn't even spend the whole time in Philadelphia, especially considering we stayed a majority of the trip in Hershey. I'm not opposed to a trip that feels like a road trip, and it also gave us the chance to view the surrounding areas and an excuse to get out and see other surrounding cities besides Chestnut Hill (where we went to the Witches & Wizards Weekend. 

Lancaster wasn't too far from us, and we went there, too, but we also visited Doylestown and Kennett Square. In Doylestown, I saw they had something called Fonthill Castle. Obviously, I'm a person who loves a castle, so I was definitely in. Nearby was also the Mercer Museum, which houses Henry Mercer's collections of stuff, who built Fonthill Castle.

Fonthill Castle

This labyrinthine mansion was built from the ground up from concrete through trial and error. Henry Mercer always dreamed of living in a castle and with the help of a few laborers and a horse, he designed a bunch of rooms to house his handmade tiles as a sort of showroom for buyers. He liked the idea of telling stories through his tiles and the house was positively overrun with them. Wherever you looked, they were embedded in walls, the ceiling and even the floor, though the floor was much less busy than everywhere else you looked. 

the well house

All these tiles were embedded into the cement before it dried

Henry Mercer was well off and came from a wealthy family. He went to law school, but never really practiced law. He also traveled extensively. He tried a lot of things and excelled in quite a few. He never got married, but he wanted to live in a castle, so he sketched some plans and jumped right in. Some stuff worked, some didn't, and eventually he had rooms built and had to figure out a way to connect them. There isn't anything like the ground floor and the second floor in his house. There will be a hallway with a staircase and a room off halfway up and then another at the top and then a different staircase that goes elsewhere. If you didn't know where you were going, you'd be lost a million times a day. And you'd get so much exercise. 

Mercer was a collector on top of an "architect" and "potter", so much so that there is so much stuff everywhere, but not as much as in his personal office. My husband declared it had a bachelor pad vibe, and it totally did. He was like a little kid who just put everything in that room that he thought was cool: swords, guns, books, skulls. You name it. Not only that, but all of the bookshelves in there were basically apple crates stacked on each other. 

The house was really interesting if you didn't think about having to actually live there, because I think I wouldn't have lasted that long. I described it on Instagram as what Versailles would look if the occupants had to make everything themselves. It's definitely an acquired taste. It has its appeal and the house has an interesting story, though it's quite cold in the winter and hot in the summer, as concrete is not a good material to really make a house out of, but Henry Mercer has accidentally burned down someone's barn when he was a kid and that stuck with him and he was deeply afraid of house fires.

You enter directly into this "courtyard".

After our tour, we took in lunch and then headed to the Mercer Museum, which is 7 floors of Henry Mercer's weird collections of everyday objects. From lanterns to cooking utensils to horse troughs to baby cradles, you name it, he had it. He even had a full-size country store and a real gallows. 

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If you learn nothing else about Henry Mercer, it's his love of people who work hard for a living and the things they needed in order to do their jobs. It may have been because he never had to work a day in his life, which gave him the opportunity to try a lot of things, without officially fully mastering any. I thought perhaps he loved Americana, but his collection includes items from Europe as well. 

There's even a kid's play room with items from Mercer's collections and an activity room

These 7 floors are basically full of everything that didn't fit into his house. He took what he learned from building his house to build this building as well. It might be no wonder why he never married, what with being so eccentric (or a hoarder). This is a great place to take kids to see how many things they can find or identify. When we were there they actually had a sort of scavenger hunt that you could pick up in the lobby.

In my next blog post, I'll talk about Lancaster and Kennett Square, so you can see why renting a car for a day or two might really be worth it.

Have you ever been to Philadelphia? If so, what was your favorite part of your trip?

Disclaimer: Visit Philly gave me a VIP attraction pass in order to visit Fonthill Castle and the Mercer Museum at no cost, but all opinions are 100% my own.