Beard family visit to Albany

John and his parents rode Amtrak from east Texas via Chicago to Albany - 2 nights on the train! They got to see a lot more countryside than we normally view on plane flights between TX and NY.

John drove them over to Cooperstown to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame - they are big baseball fans, so this was a special treat. We're lucky that we live so close to it.

I'm not sure what this is about, but I guess the exhibits were NYY-heavy:


This is better - at least get the Bo-Sox in on the action:


I got to join the crew for the short journey over to Massachusetts to see the Norman Rockwell Museum. It sounded like something rather interesting, but turned out to be a really special place that we all enjoyed tremendously.

On the other hand, I'm not sure what this is about (on the front lawn):


Ready for our visit to the museum:


A toy train running around a diorama in the front lobby:


We couldn't take photos in the rest of the museum, but we really enjoyed the guided tour and then wandering through all the rooms reading the stories behind the paintings and Saturday Evening Post covers. NR was prolific and talented, and we learned a great deal about his life and art.

Then we took a tour of downtown Stockbridge where Mr. Rockwell used to live and work. They just happened to be doing a recreation of one of his scenes of Stockbridge at Christmastime, that was quite neat.

The car with the tree on top from the painting:

Modern art:


There were many classic cars parked along the street as part of the painting recreation:



And some carolers at the Red Lion Inn:


We had a super visit with Jenny and Jerry - thanks for making the trip to Albany!