We hit the road and headed out West to visit some further State Parks in the Western Maryland region. First up, Cassleman River Bridge and the "Spruce Forest Artisan Village."
This quest was a lot of fun. Despite getting rained on a bit the boys enjoyed a lot of things about the quest.
The quest takes you on a walk around the bridge teaching you about Transportation in Maryland over the past 200 years. We took a couple pictures in front of the bridge. We then walked across the Cassleman River Bridge where we found this little village! This was the boys favorite part. We walked into several of these little historic houses. All of which were moved to this village from different locations in Western MD and then restored. Now they house studios for various artist around the world.
One of the boys favorites was an artist named Gene Gillespie. He is what is known as a Wood Turner. He takes local and exotic woods from around the world and uses a wood lathe to chip away and, sand down the wood into a new piece for his collection. He had items as little as a children's spinning top to a beautiful decorative lamp. He taught the boys about Australian Banksia Pods. He let them feel and hold a pod to show how soft yet, heavy they are. He uses these pods to make these beautiful products. His wife (who was not present) also, helps him with the staining and burning of the products.
Another favorites of the boys was the one-room Compton School house. The school house was originally built on New Germany Road in Ca. 1810-1830 but, then was relocated to the Spruce Forest Village in 1989 and restored using a loan from Maryland Historical Trust. The boys loved playing with the props that were left out. They also loved looking at all the pictures of what the children looked like back then. Conner said he had wished his classroom was as cool as this one. ;)
We really had a wonderful time at this quest!
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