I am back home since last Tuesday evening, our daughter is on the mend in Philly, thank goodness, and I’m nearly caught up with work, writing, volunteer activities, and keeping up with everything else that I need to keep up with. So, it was definitely time to do something fun this weekend. Al is skilled at finding hidden gems that are not far away, and for Father’s Day, he suggested we visit Forest Park in Springfield, Mass., one of the nation’s largest municipal parks, built in the late 19th century. I’m a fan of park design from that era, so we were were good to go.
I added to the mix another suggestion: a visit to Springfield’s The Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum, which commemorates the life and whimsy of Theodor Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss, one of Springfield’s most celebrated citizens. And that turned up another fun fact: Springfield has four other wonderful museums in the same lovely location, and admission to one is admission to all. So we added in a visit to the Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts.
The best part of the Dr. Seuss Museum was having Al read to me, in his inimitable way, two books that neither of us had ever read before: There’s a Wocket in My Pocket! (1974), replete with delightful made-up rhyming words about a surprising cast of creatures hiding in a little boy’s house, and I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew (1965), an odyssey of mishaps that pokes fun at the idea that anything in life is free of troubles. Too true.
My favorite painting at the D’Amour Museum was a powerful acrylic on paper, Disappearing Forest 1, by Marlene Yu, all the more meaningful, given the Canadian wildfires. Then there were roses in Forest Park and the mysterious sphynxes guarding the dramatic mausoleum to Everett Barney, who donated much of the land for the park.
As always, I hope you enjoy my photos from our day. And watch out for those Wosets in your closets. . . . They’re actually rather charming.
Evelyn Herwitz blogs weekly about living fully with chronic disease, the inside of baseballs, turtles and frogs, J.S. Bach, the meaning of life and whatever else she happens to be thinking about at livingwithscleroderma.com. Please view Privacy Policy here.
We had taken Derrick to the Seuss museum a few years ago and just loved it. We also went into another one of the museums that had a Thomas the Train Engine exhibit which we could barely pry him away from.
Sounds like you had a great day!
Beautiful, and fun! I want to go with Adam when I can, and an adult trip seems in order too, since the other museums on site would not interest him very much. Thanks for sharing!
Fun for all ages! And there is a natural history museum as well, so, dinosaurs!