Saturday Advenure

This past Saturday was an adventurous day for me. My daughter Katie and myself went out on an afternoon jaunt-
down to the Boston burbs.
It was great to spend the afternoon with her. Haven't had enough mom/daughter time lately.

Olmstead was the father of Landscape architecture. He designed Central Park, the Boston Arboriteum, the Chicago World's Far in the late 1800's and hundreds of other places all over the US. Katie wrote her final paper for her architecture class on him, and she wanted to go visit his house and studio. So since she and I were open all afternoon, we went. The garden of his home was great , and so was the work studio. 

He had a room full of these drawers for storing project info. 4 walls with these drawers, all labeled, floor to ceiling. Wow! I want these to store my supplies in. This snippet shot hardly shows what this room was. But I know if you use your imagination you can picture it. Hundreds of these drawers.

I was drooling the whole time I was in this room. 

Cool old fashioned work table. I'd take it. It even had lots of little pin pick holes in it from the pointy end of compasses. 

I'd also love these great sun room looking out onto this really lush and green backyard. For being just 15 minutes outside of downtown Boston, it is amazing.

It is also very late 1800's-maybe arts and crafts style is what you'd call it. And they had these cement walls in this room with all these stones set into them. And a tile floor. 

The house part was otherwise empty of furniture but the ranger told us that they are getting some in the period style.

The office part though was fulling decked out in the mode it would have been back 100 or so years ago.

This is one of the first blue printing making machines. Really funky, eh?

You wrap your drawing on the outside class and then unroll the canvas around it to make it light proof on the outside. Then you turn on a suspended light bulb and slowly drop it to process your light sensitive paper.

Then we found out that the JFK birthplace was just 2.6 miles away. That made it close enough that we just had to go. And we managed to get there just before the last tour of the day too.

It looks like a big house but it is really a quite modest place. The first floor had a bath, kitchen, living room and dining room. Three bedrooms and a small office upstairs. The 2 maids slept on the very very top floor.

I guess if you have 2 maids, however modest your house is, means you have money.

But this was back in 1917 (from 1914 into the early 1920's) so maybe having a maid isn't such a big deal.

This is one of my favorite sights from the house:

The little kids table. I guess even future presidents have to sit at one of these when they are small.

The whole house reminded me of a grandmother's house.

And I guess the weirdest thing of all is that it is on this residential street in Brookline, MA. 

Normal people with normal houses and lives just a few feet away.

Wonder if they get sick of all the tourists coming through?

Finally, we went out for an early dinner at one of our favorite places to eat -The Cheesecake Factory. The closest ones to us are down in the Boston area, so it is a treat to go. We had small salads and of course, big pieces of cheesecake.

Katie and her caramel, white chocolate and macadamia nut cheese cake. With whipped cream of course.

My lemon with raspberry sauce- and whipped cream too.

YUMMY!!!!!

So I can't believe this is my last week of vacation. Katie's too and then she's back to school on Sunday.

Time flies, doesn't it always?

Before you know it, we'll be carving pumpkins.

I have a lot on my plate this week too!

It will be a very adventurous way to end my summer.

Starting with today, all 3 of us are going to Maine to my brother's camp in Harrison. 

Will have stories to share I am sure about that on another day.

Thanks for visiting.