We've been dipping our toes in the water, so to speak, and getting out a bit more. My spouse and I, along with Middle Child, visited Stan Hywet gardens. They are offering free admission to their grounds during the pandemic, which I thought was really generous. I've done a few posts about visits in the past. It was the estate of F.A. Seiberling, co-founder of The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, when Akron was in its heyday. Here are some photos from our day:
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| Entering the rose garden. There weren't many roses in bloom quite yet. |
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| However, all the peonies were blooming and smelled wonderful. |
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| A few irises still in bloom. |
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| Walkway through the gardens. |
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| Birch Tree Allee (Alley for Americans). |
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| The back side of the Tudor Revival mansion. It's as magnificent inside as out, but is currently closed for tours. |
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| Japanese Garden |
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| Every summer, they have outdoor art exhibits throughout the gardens. I did not see a sign, but the theme this year must be birds because they were prominent in all of the art. |
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| More birds on display. |
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| The children's playgarden was closed, but I took a few pictures around the outside of it. The sculptures inside the four holes were spinning around. It was mesmerizing. |
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| Vintage Model A Ford truck with plants in the back. |
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Playhouse with green roof.As you can see from the pictures, it wasn't crowded at all and people were doing a good job with social distancing, unlike other places I've been. Since we hadn't had any food made by anyone other than me in three months, we decided to hit Swenson's on the way home. |
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Swenson's is an Akron landmark drive in. You park your car facing the building, turn your headlights on, and a server comes running out of the building with a menu and then your food. Due to Covid, we just looked at the menu online. They are known for their Galley Boy, which is a double cheeseburger with two special sauces. I don't do burgers, so I ordered a BLT with onion rings. Sort of lame, but that's me! Swenson's is the first stop for LeBron James whenever he comes home. Added trivia: similar to the Pat & Geno's Philly cheesesteak rivalry, Swenson's and Skyway are the two Akron drive ins that have a hamburger feud featured on the Food Network.Have you been venturing out again? Does your hometown have dueling restaurant items? |
That's a beautiful garden. I've been doing lots of outdoor stuff all along, just not as much indoors except at home or in my office.
ReplyDeletewww.thepulpitandthepen.com
Outdoor stuff is all we have done, too. Everything was closed until just recently.
DeleteWe have been venturing out - a lot. But always taking precautions. Glad you are getting to get out some too. I have never heard of Swenson's but it sounds good. Goodyear loved his gardens didn't he - they were gorgeous. sandie
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you are getting out, too! Yes, Frank Seiberling was a nature lover. There is even a metroparks and gardens named for his family.
DeleteGood for you! Glad to hear you're getting out a bit more. I've been doing the same thing. Philly started opening last Friday, so it's been great to see people outside, still abiding social distancing, but enjoying the outdoors. Even our restaurants have outdoor seating, and you can just see how happy people are.
ReplyDeleteGorgeous photographs! Isn't it something to see all the flowers in bloom? All that beautiful color! Love the pictures of Birch Tree Allee and Tudor Revival mansion. Stunning! And being someone who has visited Japan and love all-things Japanese, that garden is so lovely. And as I shared on your Instagram account, that picture of the blue Ford truck is stellar!
"Swenson's is an Akron landmark drive in. You park your car facing the building, turn your headlights on, and a server comes running out of the building with a menu and then your food."
OMG, that is the coolest thing!!! When I was a kid, I was able to experience those before they went away. Happy to see that they're back!
Thanks so much for sharing your day. Loved it!
Have a great weekend, my friend! X
Omg, people here are dying to eat out, so the patios have been packed. We tried to go to a brewery last week that has a huge patio and the line to get seated must have been 30 people long. We left!
DeleteI'm glad you enjoyed my photos. The grounds are so wonderful there. Something to see around every corner.
I wasn't sure if people would know what a drive in was. Both the ones I mentioned have been around since the 1930's and never went away. I went to both in high school and college. My HS friends and I would often go on Friday nights after a football game to see what boys were there. One of my favorite memories was when we ran out of money for a decent tip and my friend gave the guy a bunch of wrapped candies she had in her purse. LOL! I still bring that up to her! You enjoy your weekend as well!
Wow, those flowers are so pretty. I don't see nearly enough green around where I live so I love seeing pictures like those. I don't venture out anywhere even when things are normal, so no I haven't been anywhere.
ReplyDeleteI'm always amazed when we fly back from being out west and how green everything looks here. We forget that it's not like this everywhere.
DeleteSo pretty! Glad you got to visit and still social distance!
ReplyDeleteWe had Swenson ice cream parlors in San Diego which I think is different than your Swenson. Food sounds good too.
We have been out and about . Arizona is currently a hot spot for the virus lol. I don't get it. But we are still out and about and now masks are required in Phoenix.
Betty
Yes, that must be a different Swenson's because ours is just local and no ice cream. One of my good friends has been stuck in Phoenix for months, not being able to get a direct flight back and worried about how bad it is here. Now it seems like the tide has turned and it's worse there now. She managed to get a flight out this coming week.
DeleteWhat a beautiful place, gorgeous gardens, and that stunning house, and a great place for children to grow up in, I love the play house, and the truck! I recognised Le Bron James' name, my grandson is a passionate basketball player. There is a socially distancing picnic in our sports field this afternoon, and my very good friend and I are arranging to meet up next week, the first time since lockdown started.
ReplyDeleteLeBron is from my hometown of Akron, Ohio. He's pretty much a legend here and has done a lot to help local students. That's great that you are finally going to see your friend again! I've just started walking with friends again. It makes me feel 'back to normal' which is a blessing.
DeleteSure some great sights to venture too. Can't say we have dueling restaurants here with anything on the menu, aside from like 50 coffee joints. What is this staying in thing you speak of? Can you tell work about it so I could try it? lol
ReplyDeleteThat's a lot of coffee! I thought you did accounting work? They aren't letting you work from home?
DeleteBeen a good 4 years since I did accounting lol would be so nice to work from home.
DeleteYeah, the outdoor stuff has been about all we've had available to us, so we've gone for walks in parks we used to visit a lot, but haven't in a while. So that's been very nice. . .
ReplyDeleteBack in the day when I used to get to Akron semi-regularly (the company I worked for was owned by Goodyear), I was always impressed by how 'upscale' the local amenities were - the parks, entertainment venues, etc. It came across as a much larger city, because of all the old 'rubber money'. . .
While it's frustrating to miss out on vacations and such, this quarantine thing would have been worse in the winter. Then again, maybe we will experience that as well :(
DeleteIt's so nice to hear that you enjoyed your visits to Akron. I haven't actually lived there since 1988, but I'm still proud to call it my hometown. I grew up experiencing things like watching ballet in the grand Civic Theatre and eating under chandeliers at some amazing restaurants on special occasions. And the metroparks system might be one of the best in the country. The department stores and even the libraries were grand. Just a great place to grow up.
P.S. I posted a photo of the Goodyear blimp on Instagram. It went right over my car while I was on the highway two days ago. My daughter captured it for me since I was driving. The blimp never gets old for us!
DeleteSome great photos. I'd love to visit Stan Hywet Gardens, if I wasn't 3,400 miles away! Still, we have our own 28 acre Botanic Gardens here in Belfast.
ReplyDeleteNo duelling restaurant items that I know of, though plenty of competing coffee shops and restaurants all fighting for customers (or they will be once they reopen in a few days' time).
Went into Belfast city centre this afternoon, and there were very few people bothering with social distancing. They seem to have decided the risk of being infected is so low, they needn't bother.
I imagine there’s plenty of gorgeous gardens in your part of the world! That’s too bad about the lack of social distancing. I’m finding that people are actually worse indoors than outdoors, which makes no sense!
DeleteThanks so much for posting these beautiful photos, Bijoux. They brightened up my day considerably. Stan Hywet gardens look fabulous.
ReplyDeleteAnd I love Swenson's! It looks like such a cool place. We'll go there when I visit you! (You don't do burgers?!?)
I go out to shop, go for walks or to work out in the park, but that's about it. Such a weird, depressing time, so I enjoy seeing posts like these.
Take care and stay safe!
I’m so happy you enjoyed the photo tour. I rarely eat beef, but when I do, it’s steak! Go big or go home! I’m hoping NYC gets a big break in cases and opens up for you before summer is over!
DeleteThis place is beautiful! You got some great shots. The flowers are gorgeous. Glad to see that you're world is opening up a little more. Hopefully life will start to resume some sort of normalcy soon. :)
ReplyDeleteThank you! We were just without tv, phone and internet for past 24 hours. It’s been trying times. Lol!
DeleteWhat a beautiful place to visit and spend some time walking around! That Swenson's sounds delicious; I would have to try it if I was in that area. Its kind of like In and Out Burger here in some western states. Everyone goes crazy to visit it if their home city doesn't have one LOL and its not really that good of a burger.
ReplyDeleteWe continue to go out in our required masks right now when we need to wear them. We keep spiking cases which they are blaming on Memorial Day weekend and too close proximity of crowds in bars but I'm blaming it on something else that happened for 19 continuous days here with not much social distancing and masks not encouraged or required. Enough sad.
betty
Didn't you already comment on this post? Lol, I don't mind!
DeleteNice foto... Salam from me in Indonesia
ReplyDeleteMerci!
DeleteHow lovely to offer free admission. Does your library offer passes to area parks that normally charge an entrance fee? Ours does, but it's first come, first serve of the day so you have to plan to get there bright and early to snag them.
ReplyDeleteI really like the gardens there. The peonies probably smelled heavenly. Birch trees are my favorite, so I'd love to walk that path. We have a Japanese garden a few miles from my house that's free to the public. It's really popular this time of year because brides love to use it for their wedding photos.
We have been testing the waters with eating out more lately. I've gotten a few items from our grocers deli last week and had a picnic with my hubby at a park. We've also done curbside carryout at the local Italian eatery a few times.
No freebies here except that the zoo is free on Mondays for county residents. I remember when we visited Indianapolis two years ago, I saw online that museums were free On certain days for residents. How lovely to have a Japanese garden nearby for photo shoots! My son and his wife went to Wade Lagoon and the art museum today to get photos taken since we had to cancel their August reception. I can’t wait to see the pics.
DeleteStill, a bummer that he had to cancel his reception, but I hope his pics turn out lovely to make up for it!
DeleteBeautiful gardens! Thanks for sharing these nice photos. :) It's really cool they have been offering free admission. I can imagine inside the mansion is stunning, the outside certainly is.
ReplyDeleteWe have ordered takeout quite a few times, both delivery and pick up. Ron usually gets it and has reported all seems good with distance/masks. We went to the woods a while back but it was still a bit cold. We've been to the home centers recently for garden supplies, with masks and distancing of course. We used to like going to a few restaurants and to the movies, but are just not ready to do any of that even as places are starting to open. Ron's hair has grown quite a bit .... he can't even get it all in a baseball cap anymore...lol .. but is still not ready to sit for a salon cut.
We are not comfortable eating inside restaurants, either. I’ve gone all scientific and read up on how air flow works! No thanks! We are lucky that one of my good friends cuts hair as a small business out of her house. My son used to go to her when he lived here. Since Covid, my husband, daughter, and I have each had our hair once by her and were quite pleased with the results! Might have to give up my regular salon!
DeleteVery pretty. I LOVE the way peonies smell. Did you find that people kept their distance?
ReplyDeleteWe really haven't been getting out. My husband goes to the grocery store, masked and gloved, and of course to work. I stay home except for going out to our property. I just don't think we've seen the worst of it yet.
Thank you. Yes, as the pictures show, people were very good at social distancing. I’m not finding that to be the case in stores, but then again, it’s much easier outdoors.
DeleteWe are still really in lockdown. The only thing we can do is have BBQ's in the garden. Restaurants, pubs and cafes are all closed. We did treat ourselves to a takeaway pizza last week which was a real treat!
ReplyDeleteThings started opening up here a month ago and it looks like shutting down again is a very real possibility. We also ordered a pizza a few weeks ago and YES it was a treat! I'm tired of home cooking.
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