Tuesday 9-24 Basilica and Museums

Outstanding Day

We started the day out by going across the street and taking a shower. Then we got the Minnie ready to leave Mosquito Lake State Park.

Today we drove a total of 90 miles, we went down both two and four lane highways and through small towns. Our first stop in Youngstown, Ohio was at Tim Hortons to buy a couple of donuts. Our next stop was at the Basilica of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. It was the smallest Basilica we have seen but it was gorgeous. While walking around taking pictures a gentleman came on the alter dressed for mass, he wasn't a priest but he helped out in the Basilica. He was getting the Basilica ready for daily services at noon. We visited with him for a long time about the history of Youngstown and history of the Basilica and the grounds. We asked if we could leave the Minnie in the parking lot while we walked around Youngstown, he said it wasn't a problem. 

Standing in front of a statue of the Pope

Basilica of Our Lady of Mount Carmel

The alter inside the Basilica

The Holy Family (Joseph, Baby Jesus and Mary)

Our Lady of Mount Camel statue

The next stop in Youngstown was The Butler Institute of American Art. It was in an old beautiful building with three floors. The first floor had a cafe, gift shop, nine galleries, a couple of other sections of art and a wing with other art. The galleries were: Sports Art, Impressionism, Mid to Late 19th Century, Early 19th Century, 18th and 19th Century, Contemporary, Mid 20th Century, Early 20th Century, Temporary and Permanent Collections, Burger Gallery and Cynthia R. Debartolo Gallery. We saw a lot of beautiful art and it was amazing how the paintings kept their bright colors after all the years. The second floor had Executive Offices, the library, data room, board room, Western Collection by Adler and Susko, Giffuni Gallery, Davis Gallery, Finnegan Hynes Gallery, Macintosh Gallery and Waldman Gallery. The lower floor didn't have a lot of exhibits. Most of the exhibits on the second floor were temporary. The Butler Institute of American Art is one hundred years old this year, it is free but they do accept donations. While we are not art aficionados we do enjoy visiting some art museums. This Museum was larger than many and we had a great time.  

Afterwards we had lunch at their Collects Cafe. We had a turkey bacon ranch wrap, it came with a pickle and chips. The wrap was delicious.

Standing with a young warrior at the entrance of The Butler Institute of American Art

Larry getting ready to enter into the museum

Mrs. Knowles and Her Children by John Singer Sargent in 1902

Ivan LeLorraine: A Self Portrait in Georgia in 1967/68

Americans, Youngstown 1977-78 by Alfred Leslie

Kneeling by the security guard Art

Queen Catherine made out of plaster by Audrey Flack in 1992

Our lunch at Collections Cafe

After lunch we walked back to the Minnie. Our next stop for the day was the National Packard Museum in Warren Ohio. We did a self-guided tour of the museum. The lady at the desk told us the history of the Packard brothers, they started out in Warren in 1899. There was a section about the history of the Packard family. They started out making light bulbs. There are 30 Packard automobiles on display. It was a very nice museum. We walked around about a half hour and enjoyed it.

The National Packard Museum

The 1901 Model C Packard

The Packard hood ornament

A 1934 Packard, first sold in Austin, Texas

1956 Caribbean Convertible

Our final destination for the day was a county park in Stow Ohio called Silver Springs. It was about 40 miles from Warren. It is a beautiful campground with 15 amps electric sites on a grassy field. The sites aren't level or defined. We parked the Minnie and later in the evening when the gentleman showed up to collect the fee he asked us to move over about 20 feet to where he thought the site should be. Seemed strange to ask us to move since there are very few people here and nobody was close to us, oh well. Each site had a fire ring and picnic table. The park has a fishing pond, dog park, picnic area with shelters, hiking trails, playground, tennis courts, horseshoe courts and basketball courts.

As we were relaxing after dinner we heard this noise and it was getting louder and louder. Larry looked out the window and saw a hot air balloon flying over the park. I got the camera and took a picture of it. We had a super day.  

The hot air balloon that paid us a visit