Sturbridge Village

On our travel day from New York to Boston, we made a stop at Sturbridge Village to break up the drive and to get some wiggles out.  Sturbridge Village is a living museum located in Sturbridge, Massachusetts which recreates life in rural New England during the 1790s through 1830s. It is the largest living museum in New England, covering more than 200 acres. The Village includes 59 antique buildings, three water-powered mills, and a working farm. Costumed interpreters speaking in modern English help visitors understand 19th-century life.

We began our visit with Sunday Brunch at the Oliver Wright Tavern. It was a huge buffet with lots of delicious entrees and sides to choose from.

Everyone's favorite was the dessert table, that's always the best part of any brunch. Our favorite dessert offering was this creative masterpiece. It was a pudding of sorts, with basically any sort of chocolatey or peanut butter sweet imaginable. There was chocolate mouse with pieces of peanut butter cookies mixed in it, topped with whipped cream, m&m's, peanuts, cookies, and several different kinds of mini reeces peanut butter cups. I kind of looked like something a little kid would put together, so I loved imagining the talented chef's in the kitchen concocting this creation. It was super good, just really rich, you only needed a couple of spoonfuls.

After brunch, we set out to explore and enjoy the village. It was a beautiful day!

In the different houses, there would be an activity to learn about how things were made back in the 1800s. The first one we tried out was book making!

Midway through our visit, these two gals started some fun outdoor games. Our boys especially loved the tug-o-war.

Next, we visited the silversmith's shop and learned how they used to make their own pots and pans and other helpful utensils.

Then the kids got to try their hand at silver work and created cute ornaments to take home.

We bought tokens at the Miner Grant Store that we used to take a relaxing boat ride on the Quinebaug  river. It was a pretty hot day that day, so taking a mid day break to float on the river felt so nice.

Quinebaug is a Native American word meaning “long, slow-moving river.” This bridge is named after the river and was built in the 1930s and the wooden covering added in 1953. Until a flood in 1955 it served as the main entrance to Old Sturbridge Village.

We also got views of the gristmill across the river.

We spent a majority of the day at Sturbridge Village and still only scratched the surface of all the fun things it has to offer. There are demonstrations every hour and so many fun activities to choose from! It was hard to pick and choose what to do with our one afternoon, but we covered quite a bit of ground and had such a lovely day there.

Then we continued on our trek to Boston, Ricky driving us all in a 9 passenger van, thank goodness he was willing to drive that big van on the unknown freeways from New York to Boston! We made a stop at the Boston Massachusetts temple which is located a little ways outside the city. We made our stop at the most gorgeous time of day, when the sun was setting in the midst of a dramatic, clouded sky. We got out, took a few pictures, and walked around the grounds. We were able to see all three temples on this trip, Philadelphia, Manhattan, and Boston!