Skip to main content

Deerfield, MA Trip & Review


Last weekend, my parents were in town so on Saturday we went into Western Mass. Mom loves candles and the first stop I planned was the Yankee Candle Flagship Store in South Deerfield. We spent about an hour and a half there. The place is enourmous. Thre's a Christmas World or at least four different styles of Christmas World, a large toy store for kids, a general store, a cafe and coffee shop, and of course a bunch of candles.

Guys, if you live in New England or traveling through on vacation and want to take your girlfriend or wife or parents on a nice day trip. This is actually a great destination. It's right off of I-91 at Exit 24. Head North on US 5 for about a mile and it is on your left. Mom very much enjoyed it.

Next, we headed to Deerfield to find a place for lunch. Little did we know that Historic Deerfield is a New England version of Williamsburg with a lot of small town charm. Deerfield is a traditional New England town it's the home of the prestigeous Deerfield Academy, a top end boarding prep school. We ate lunch at the Terrace Cafe, which is on the grounds of the historic Deerfield Inn. The Terrace Cafe offers a cafeteria style lunch with giant sandwiches for only $4.95.

The town of Deerfield is full of many historic homes along a one mile street that is over 330 years old and to tour them it costs $14/person and the pass is good for two days. The pass alows you to tour many of the old homes, some are guided others are self guided. At various places with in town, you can see woodworking or cooking demonstrations or take a stop at the Carriage Barn. There a wonderful 91 year old man, who doesn't look a day of it, tells stories about carriages and farm equipment from the 17th to the early 20th century.

Most of the guided tours are on the hour by members of Historic Deerfield. Parking is easy, for the most part it is on either side of the sleepy town road. We spent about four hours there and saw nearly half of everything. Touring the town is certainly an all day visit.

We headed next to Saratoga Raceway by way of Vermont. Just west of Brattleboro on Route 9, we stopped for ice cream at the Chelsea Royal Diner. Try the Creamsicle Ice Cream Float...

The color on VT 9 through the Green Mountains appeared to be near peak. There was also a festival going on in Wilmington. We lucked out as it would begin raining just west of Wilmington straight to the racino.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Pollasky Bridge

The Pollasky Bridge near modern day Friant is a ruined highway bridge which was completed during early 1906 as part of the Fresno-Fresno Flats Road.  The structure is one of the oldest known arch concrete spans to have been constructed in California.  The bridge briefly carried California State Route 41 following the destruction of the Lanes Bridge in 1940.  The Pollasky Bridge itself was destroyed by flooding during 1951, but the ruins can still be found on the Madera County side of the San Joaquin River.   Pictured as the blog cover is the Pollasky Bridge as it was featured in the 1913 book "The Concrete Bridge."  The structure can be seen crossing the San Joaquin River near Friant below on the 1922 United States Geological Survey Map.   Part 1; the history of the Pollasky Bridge The Pollasky Bridge site is near modern day Friant of Fresno County.  The community of Friant was established as Converse Ferry during 1852 on the San Joaquin Rive...

Trimmer Springs Road (Fresno County)

Trimmer Springs Road is an approximately forty-mile rural highway located in Fresno County.  The corridor begins near in California State Route 180 in Centerville and extends to Blackrock Road at the Kings River in the Sierra Nevada range near the Pacific Gas & Electric Company town of Balch Camp. The roadway is named after the former Trimmer Springs Resort and was originally constructed to facilitate access to the Sanger Log Flume.  Trimmer Springs Road was heavily modified and elongated after construction of Pine Flat Dam broke ground in 1947.   Part 1; the history of Trimmer Springs Road Much of the original alignment of Trimmer Springs Road was constructed to facilitate access to the Sanger Log Flume.   The  Kings River Lumber Company  had been established in 1888 in the form of a 30,000-acre purchase of forest lands in Converse Basin.  This purchase lied immediately west of Grant Grove and came to be known as "Millwood."  The co...

When was Ventura Avenue east of downtown Fresno renamed to Kings Canyon Road? (California State Route 180)

California State Route 180 was one of the original Sign State Routes designated in August 1934.  The highway east of Fresno originally utilized what was Ventura Avenue and Dunlap Road to reach what was then General Grant National Park.  By late year 1939 the highway was extended through the Kings River Canyon to Cedar Grove.   In 1940 General Grant National Park would be expanded and rebranded as Kings Canyon National Park.  The Kings Canyon Road designation first appeared in publications circa 1941 when the California State Route 180 bypass of Dunlap was completed.  Kings Canyon Road ultimately would replace the designation of Dunlap Road from Dunlap to Centerville and Ventura Avenue west to 1st Street in Fresno.   The Kings Canyon Road would remain largely intact until March 2023 when the Fresno Council designated Cesar Chavez Boulevard.  Cesar Chavez Boulevard was designated over a ten-mile corridor over what was Kings Canyon Road, remaini...