Friday, June 10, 2011

Another Day at the Village

 Yes, I like to repeat field trips with the kids.  Even if the older kids have seen something, the younger ones still deserve a chance to see it as well.  We also love to get memberships to museums and zoos so we can make multiple trips and not feel the need to cram everything into one day to get the most out of the money spent.  One of the local sites that we love to visit frequently is Genesee Country Village. This living history museum is just 10 minutes from our home and frankly wonderful.  We usually manage to something new with each visit and love to spend time in the hands-on children's area.  Granted, I don't make the kids sit through each exhibit if they have heard the talks before because that would kind of ruin the experience for them and as long as they leave quietly the workers don't care if you leave.  Really they don't. They prefer having you leave part way through if you are bored than have young kids not really paying attention.  On our last trip we were able to visit both the brewery and the pottery studio while folks were working there. 
Walter Grieve's Brewery is the only working brewery housed in a living history museum in the US.  It shows how breweries were run in the early 1800's.  Although the beer made cannot legally be served due to current health regulations, the products produced in the brewery are used throughout the museum for feeding to the animals, fertilizer and compost.  A local brewery has been contracted to produce a beer that is similar in taste to the beer that would be produced by Grieve's Brewery instead.

The kids saw the hops growing outside, the large kettles filled with the ale, pumped water and worked with the grain. 
We also visited the pottery studio and watched the potter shape a jar.  He worked rather quickly and showed us how to keep the pottery wheel running with no electricity.  It's amazing to see the pottery still being hand made using wood fired kilns and such today.
I've wanted to get a picture of this war memorial in the village for a while.  I'm not sure how authentic it actually is.
No visit is complete without pictures of animals.
And the hands-on room. 

It was a super hot day on our visit but everyone had a great time.

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