Village Recreation

For 4th of July I spent a rainy day on a piece of private property converted into a turn-of-the-century family plantation with outhouses, old stone, brick and wooden buildings and even a dilapitated church. The owner decided 30 years ago to save seriously old buildings by dissembling them board by board and then transplanted them on his 5-acre farm near Troy, New York. The buildings are full of antique furniture, cracked paintings, barn tools, hanging lanterns and a reminiscent musty smell that clings to your clothes. It's a wonderful interactive learning center for kids though I'm not sure if the owner encourages school trips. Still, on July 4th there's no better place to enjoy fresh cobs of corn, a fashionable flag cake with raspberries and free Chardonnay with about 100 others who share my enthusiasm for history. Happy Independence Day everyone!