Fort DuPont

"From 1942 through 1945, more than 400,000 Axis prisoners were shipped to the United States and detained in camps in rural areas across the country."

-- Smithsonian Magazine

Who has not built a fort from sofa cushions and blankets? There is something so evocative about being "safe inside" that even the word fort conjures up images of warmth and security. While the reality is not always quite the same, there are fewer things I like better than exploring an old fort. Imagine my delight when I discovered that an old fort with a history sits about half an hour away from my house.

Restaurant Review: Iron Hill Brewery

"He was a wise man who invented beer."

--Plato
 

I went to Iron Hill Brewery on one of the first nice days of the year. I had been walking for most of the day and I wanted to sit in the sunshine and the warmth while I tried some of their famous beers. Things did not start out well.

Maryland's Covered Bridges

"We build too many walls and not enough bridges."

-- Isaac Newton

I have a recurring nightmare. I am standing at the top of a very tall bridge and I have to get down to the other side. As I have a crippling fear of heights and as we all know what bridges represent in dreams, it does not take Freud to understand what I am going through when I have this dream. I always wake up crying and sweating.

Why is it, then, that I simply love bridges? I love to drive across them; I love to walk across them. I love to listen to the water flow beneath them. I especially love covered bridges because they always seem to be the perfect combination of function and beauty.

Restaurant Review: Liquid Alchemy Beverages

"The heat of autumn is different from the heat of summer. One ripens apples, the other turns them to cider."

-- Jane Hirshfield

Cider. Just the name evokes hot summer days with a cold drink. Or, cold winter nights with a hot mug topped off with a cinnamon stick. Since I moved home from England, I have missed hard cider as it is not as easy to find on this side of the pond. Luckily, it turns out that just down the road from where I live, cider is being produced with delicious results.

Jeff and Terri, the owners of Liquid Alchemy Beverages (LAB) started this enterprise as a hobby. They began by making mead then expanded into cider. The menu changes frequently as they are constantly experimenting with flavors and seasonal fruits. From what I tasted, the experiments are more often than not successful.

Delaware's Independent Bookshops

“What I say is, a town isn’t a town without a bookstore. It may call itself a town, but unless it’s got a bookstore, it knows it’s not foolin’ a soul.”
― Neil Gaiman

As I was surfing for something else the other day, I stumbled across a list of independent bookstores in my tiny state of Delaware. I was surprised at the sheer number of them, so I set myself the task of visiting the ones that appealed to me and seeing for myself what they had to offer. The individuality of each of them was fun to explore.