July 11-13 Anniversary Weekend

“Don't make space for stuff, make space for life.” -Courtney Carver

We decided to check out southeastern Pennsylvania for our anniversary this year. We had a gift certificate for the Inn at Whitewing Farm near Kennett Square, so we booked two nights. The inn sits on thirteen acres of a farm that originated in the 1700s. Much of the original farm is now Longwood Gardens. The gardens were developed by the DePont family starting in 1906. Today it's one of the world’s premier horticultural display gardens.

On our way to the inn we did a little shopping in Lancaster and Kennett Square. Kennett Square is only 15 miles from Wilmington, DE and 25 miles to Philadelphia. This area of Pennsylvania is known as the Brandtwine Valley. It is a gorgeous area filled with beautiful homes and farms.

Kenneth Square

Lancaster has a large Amish community and it's fun to see the buggies. Even more fun to see them working the fields with horse drawn farm equipment. 

The inn has 10 romantic guest rooms and suites. We stayed in the Fat's Wallow room in the pond house. It was a wonderful choice. We were able to sit by the pond and enjoy our morning coffee and cocktails in the evening.

It also was nice because it's separated from the rest of the property and was very quick and relaxing.

Our room

Looking across the pond towards the rest of the property.

The owners live in the main house and serve a wonderful breakfast in the hay barn.

We celebrated our 44th anniversary at the Antica Restaurant.

It was the top recommendation from the inn's owner and it didn't disappoint. Stan had the pan roasted salmon with basil pesto farro, caramelized cauliflower, broccoli rabe and lemon gremolata. I had the crab & lobster ravioli sautéed with sweet peas and truffle brandy cream sauce. Both were spectacular. 

Views after dinner.

This used to be a hay barn...hard to believe.

Our breakfasts were so large and so delicious we didn't need to have lunch. Fresh fruit, pastries, coffee and a very generous entrée...I'm not a fan of large breakfasts, but this was fantastic. 

We spent a whole day at Longwood Gardens and still didn't see the whole thing. What an impressive place. Longwood Gardens spans 1,100 acres. It includes various gardens, woodlands, and meadows, as well as the conservatory and fountain displays. Each season brings beautiful changes to the garden. Over 500 volunteers and a staff of 70 keep the gardens in pristine condition.

The Italian Water Garden

Looking over the Topiary Garden

The entrance to the east conservatory.

Part of the east conservatory.

Part of the west conservatory.

The waterlily court

The Main Fountain Garden offers 12-minute fountain performances at various times throughout the day, with additional 30-minute spectacular shows on Friday and Saturday evenings. We were lucky to catch one of the performances while we were in the gardens.

Our second night we had another great meal at Sovana Bistro. It was hard to choose what to have for dinner, but we chose salmon and ravioli again this evening. Both were the special of the evening.

On our way home on Sunday we chased covered bridges. I'll put those in another blog post. We stopped at a fun place along the Pequea Creek called Sickman's Mill. They offer people a chance to float down the river with a pick up serve. It reminded us of places in New Braunfels. We chose to just sit and relax by the creek while enjoying a little Jimmie Juice.

Sickman’s Mill has been used for a number of things since 1752 including distilling, saw milling, and flour milling. Through its many owners and purposes, the mill has changed and evolved.