I accompanied Mona’s Kindergarten class on their field trip to “Belmont” in Fredericksburg today and it was pretty neat. The plaque above kind of sums up what Belmont is. Apparently he maintained a main gallery in New York and a country home here in Fredericksburg, which is known as Belmont. I don’t really know how his work celebrated Fredericksburg and its people because he studied in Europe and from what I could see, mainly painted Dutch people and landscapes…I mean he even had a pair of wooden shoes in his room.

Unfortunately photos weren’t allowed inside the home or of the paintings, but I did get a bunch of the exterior. The grounds were beautiful and the weather was cooperative (we’ve been having the loudest and longest spring thunderstorms lately); though hot…it was something like 90 degrees which is fine with me except it’s so humid here…still not used to it…jeez! The property includes a huge house, studio, some small out buildings and the gardens; all on a hill overlooking Old Town Fredericksburg and the Rappahannock River.

Really beautiful, especially this time of year. I’m still trying to figure out how I didn’t get a single picture of the house – by far the biggest photo target there… amateur…

There were lots of little old gates, walkways, and passages…

The kids also did some great painting with water colors on part of our tour…

At one point the kids were given a list of scavenger hunt objects and here are a few of their finds…

I was actually given a third of the class for the scavenger hunt, which was not my favorite part. Those kindergarteners operate with a pack mentality and they can smell fear…managing a small herd of 5-year-olds is a gift I simply don’t have; however, my competitive side and my OCD won out and we managed to beat the other two teams…oh, wait, I just remembered it wasn’t a competition.

I’ll leave you with my favorite photo…