What To Do: Goodbye ‘Barrels,’ hello ‘Trailblazer

Also: sports memorabilia, RVs, and James Buchanan

By Denny Dyroff, Staff Writer, The Times

It didn’t take long for the Brandywine Valley Wine Trail’s annual “Barrels on the Brandywine” to become an area favorite.

Unfortunately, nothing lasts forever.

The Brandywine Valley Wine Trail (610-388-6221, www.bvwinetrail.com) announced that this year’s Barrels on the Brandywine, which marks the 12th anniversary of the popular event, will be the final staging of the event. Maybe it was a case of triskaidekophobia (fear of the number 13).

The following message was posted on the trail’s website — “After March, we’re converting our events format over to an annual pass called the “Trailblazer.” The Trailblazer pass provides great value and flexibility.  Visit when you want, as many times as you want, and take advantage of special offers that vary by winery each month for a period of one year!”

You can bid farewell to Barrels on the Brandywine on Saturdays and Sundays this month. The event will take place on March 7, 8, 14, 15, 21, 22, 28 and 29 from noon-5 p.m. each day. Barrels on the Brandywine passports are available at any of the Wine Trail member locations for $15.

The passports entitle holders to tour, taste and participate in activities at all four member wineries — Black Walnut Winery (3000 Lincoln Highway, Sadsburyville, 610-857-5566, www.blackwalnutwinery.com), Kreutz Creek Vineyards (553 S. Guernsey Road, West Grove, 610-869-4412, www.kreutzcreekvineyards.com), Paradocx Vineyard (1833 Flint Hill Rd., Landenberg, 610-255-5684, www.paradocx.com) and Borderland Vineyard (3000 Lincoln Highway, Sadsburyville, 215-236-9154, borderlandvineyard.com)

With an annual Trailblazer pass, which costs $45, pass holders can visit a member winery or tasting room any time during regular business hours to redeem their special monthly offer.  Each winery’s special Trailblazer offer changes monthly.  Pass holders can visit as many times as they want during a month.

The BVWT is saying “Bon Voyage” to Barrels on the Brandywine with a special offer. Anyone who purchases an annual Trailblazer pass this month will have free access to the very last Barrels on the Brandywine.

The Chaddsford Winery (632 Baltimore Pike, Chadds Ford, 610-388-6221, www.chaddsford.com) will present an event called “Wine and Fondue” on March 7, 8, 14, 15, 21, 22, 28 and 29 from noon-6 p.m. on Saturdays and noon-5 p.m. on Sundays.

Participants will be able to experiment with food-friendly wines. Tasting includes the fondue (chocolate, cheese or both), a plate of goodies for dipping and a tasting of five wines (seven if you go with the chocolate-and-cheese option).

The cheese fondue is made with three cheeses — Emmentaler, Double Cream Brie and Gruyere — combined with three Chaddsford wines — Proprietor’s Reserve White, Barrel Select Chardonnay, and Chaddsford White.

Accompaniments are breadsticks from Hudson Breads in NYC, white grapes, honey wheat pretzel, garlic pita chips and a Granny Smith apple quarter.

The chocolate fondue is a Belgian bitter chocolate incorporated with an egg custard that is tempered into the chocolate with heavy cream and a touch of molasses.  Shaved chocolate is added until it becomes a ganache.

Accompaniments are pretzel rods, strawberries, cookies, graham crackers and marshmallows.

Tickets are $20 for either cheese or chocolate or $35 for both. Space is limited so reservations are required.

With snow on the ground, it’s hard for the average fan to think about baseball. But, spring training already underway for Major League baseball teams and sports fans know that the arrival of the 2015 season is just around the corner.

Baseball fans — especially those who are also collectors of baseball-related memorabilia — can get into the spirit by attending this weekend’s special event at the Valley Forge Casino Resort (First Avenue, King of Prussia, 610-524-0822, www.phillyshow.com).

From March 6-8, the convention area of the casino will host the Philadelphia Baseball Card and Sports Memorabilia Show. This is a show where buyers almost certainly will be able to find what they’re looking for whether it is individual cards needed to complete a set, new card issues or rare memorabilia such as game-worn jerseys.

Dealers from around the country know that this show is an event where they can find a market for their highly specialized goods. Similarly, collectors know that if what they’re looking for is out there, it most likely can be found at the Philadelphia show. And, collectors know they will find excellent selections and competitive prices.

This weekend’s event, which runs from 3-8 p.m. today, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. on Sunday, upholds the tradition of featuring former professional sports stars as autograph guests.

Some of the featured signers at the show will be John LeClair, Charlie Manuel, Bob Kelly, Brad Lidge, Pete Retzlaff, Bake McBride, Bobby Locke, Bill Clement, Garry Maddox, Maxie Baughan and Keith Primeaux.

The show will feature over 250 vendor booths with a huge array of sports memorabilia — ranging from highly collectible items from a century ago to the latest sports card issues featuring today’s stars. Daily tickets are $8 and a three-day pass is $21.

Snow on the ground also makes it hard to think too much about camping in a tent. Camping in an RV is the only way to go in cold weather and a pretty good way in any weather.

If you’re considering purchasing an RV — any type from a home-away-from-home on wheels to a simple pop-up — then you should check out the Greater Philadelphia RV Show & Sale from March 6-8 at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center (100 Station Avenue, Oaks, 800-290-6886, www.phillyrvshow.com)

Show attendees will be able to shop at exhibits by many of the top dealers of Southeastern Pennsylvania without having to drive all around the area to do so. The dealers will all be assembled together under one roof so comparison shopping becomes an easy task.

In addition to exhibits displaying all types of RVs, the show will also feature supplier booths, camping information and dealers specializing in parts and accessories.

The roster of participating dealers includes Stoltzfus RV & Marine (West Chester), Berks-Montgomery Camping Center, Hitch RV, retz Enterprises, Indian Valley Camping Center, Family Camping Outlet, Family Camping Outlet and Media Camping Center.

The line-up also includes  Haulmark Motorcoach, RV Value Mart, Ahady Maple RV, Boat-n-RV Superstore, Stoltzfus RV (Adamstown), Miller Trailer Sales, Showhauler, Tom Schaeffer’s RV Center and Susquehanna RV.

Show hours are noon-8:30 p.m. on March 6, 10 a.m.-8:30 p.m. on March 7 and 11 a.m.-5 p.m. on March 8. Tickets are $10 with children (under 12) admitted free.

Want to take your mind off piled-up snow and frigid temperatures?

All you need do is visit the Philadelphia Flower Show at the Pennsylvania Convention Center (12th and Arch streets, Philadelphia, 215-988-8899, www.theflowershow.com).

The huge annual event, which runs through March 8, provides area residents with a respite from winter — a fragrant and colorful alternative to sub-freezing temperatures and bleak landscapes.

The theme of this year’s show is “Celebrate the Movies” with a focus on Disney and Disney Pixar films. Some of the movies that will be featured in displays and exhibits are “Cinderella, “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “Aladdin,” “Fantasia,” “Mary Poppins, “Peter Pan” and, of course, “Frozen.”

The 2015 Flower Show will feature a large number of garden displays and thousands of plants and floral designs entered in various competitions. These entries will be reviewed and rated by a staff featuring over 200 expert judges from across the nation.

Every year, the show’s busiest attraction is the massive “Marketplace” featuring over 150 vendors from all over America and several European nations. They will be selling flowers, orchids, floral-inspired furniture, sheds, artwork and unique garden-related crafts and supplies.

Be prepared for large crowds

Since you’ll be attending during the weekend hours, expect large crowds. That means throngs of people inside the hall and thousands of cars taking up parking spaces in the vicinity. Parking lots tend to fill up early even though they are charging exorbitant fees.

Tickets for the Philadelphia Flower Show are available online in advance for $27 ($32 at the door) for adults, $20 ($22 at the door) for students with valid ID and $15 ($17 at the door) for children ages 2-16. A service fee of $1 per ticket is applied at checkout.

Another indoor attraction of a horticultural nature is the “Orchid Extravaganza,” which is running now through March 29 at Longwood Gardens (Route 1, Kennett Square, 610-388-1000, www.longwoodgardens.org).

The celebration of the orchid species features approximately 5,000 orchids in bloom along with a variety of displays and special exhibits throughout its four-acre conservatory. There are displays of orchids in planting beds, containers and innovative exhibits.

Admission to Longwood Gardens is $20 for adults, $17 for seniors and $10 for students.

For all you parents who are looking for indoor special activities to quell your kids’ cabin fever, there are a number of good options in the region.

The Delaware Museum of Natural History (4840 Kennett Pike, Wilmington, Delaware, 302-658-9111, http://www.delmnh.org) has a new attraction “The Robot Zoo,” which will be open through May 25.

Visitors to “The Robot Zoo” will be able to explore the biomechanics of complex animal robots to discover how real animals work. It reveals the biomechanics of robot animals including a chameleon, a platypus and a giraffe.

Three robot animals and seven hands-on activities illustrate fascinating real-life characteristics, such as how a chameleon changes colors and what enables a fly to walk on the ceiling.

Machinery in the robot animals simulates the body parts of their real-life counterparts.  In the robot animals, muscles become pistons, intestines become filtering pipes and brains become computers.

Admission to the museum is $9 for adults, $7 for children (ages 3-17), $8 for seniors (age 60 and older) and free for children (under three).

The Garden State Discovery Museum: (2040 Springdale Road, Cherry Hill, New Jersey, 856-424-1233, www.discoverymuseum.com) is presenting a special program called “Passport to Discovery” on selected weekends now through the end of March.

This weekend’s theme is “Holi Festival.”  From 11 a.m.-3 p.m. on March 7 and 10.am.-2 p.m. on March 8, the museum will celebrate the music, dance and art of India.

Holi is a spring festival also known as the festival of colors or the festival. It is a centuries-old Hindu religious festival that celebrates the victory of good over evil, the arrival of spring and the end of winter.

At the Garden State Discovery Museum’s celebration, the theater program will begin at 11:30 a.m. with a yoga session for kids.  It will continue through the early part of the afternoon with various cultural dances, both traditional and contemporary, set to the rhythms and featuring the traditional fashion of India.  The program will conclude with a celebration of color and movement unique to Holi.

Other celebrations in the series will be “Latin Dance” on March 14 and 15 and “International Day of Forests” on March 21and 22.

Admission is $12.95 plus tax for adults and children (12 months and over) and $11.95 plus tax for seniors.

The Adventure Aquarium (1 Riverside Drive, Camden, New Jersey, 856-365-3300, www.adventureaquarium.com) is presenting “Dinosaurs of the Deep,” an exhibit that allows spectators to travel into an underwater world of millions of years ago when giant prehistoric monsters ruled the seas.

Other attractions at the Adventure Aquarium include “Hippo Haven,” “Stingray Beach Club Feeding Experience,” “Meet the Divers,” “Hippo Feed and Talk,” “Ocean Realm,” “Caribbean Currents,” “Shark Realm,” “Penguin Island,” “Creature Feature” and the Aquarium’s “4D Theater” featuring the film “Sea Monsters.”

Admission to the Adventure Aquarium is $25.95 for adults and $18.95 for children (ages 2-12). Children under two are admitted free with a paying adult.

The Hands-on House Children’s Museum (721 Landis Valley Road, Lancaster, 717-569-5437, http://www.handsonhouse.org) offers a variety of educational attractions geared to the younger set.

Some of the featured interactive exhibits are “Right in Your Backyard,” “E-I-E-I KNOW,” “Mostly Make-Believe,” “Marty’s Machine Shop,” “Face Painting Porch,” “Corner Grocery” and “Post Office.”

Another fun and educational option for parents with children is a concert this weekend by the Kennett Symphony of Chester County (610-444-6363,www.kennettsymphony.org) — a special concert geared to introduce children to the joy of listening to classical music.

The concert, which is called “Music, Stories in Sound,” will be presented on March 8 at 2 p.m. at West Chester University’s Emilie K. Asplundh Concert Hall (700 South High Street, West Chester). Tickets for the show are $5.

It will be an interactive concert where the children will create a story based on the music they are hearing. The music will be from the catalogue of composers such as Beethoven, Bizet and Copland.

For the next month, the Brandywine River Museum of Art (Route 1, Chadds Ford, 610-388-2700, www.brandywinemuseum.org) is featuring a major retrospective exhibition of artist Jamie Wyeth that examines his distinctive approach to realism over the course of six decades.

The exhibit “Jamie Wyeth” includes more than 100 paintings depicting the landscapes of the Brandywine Valley and coastal Maine as well as family members and fellow artists. Also featured are domesticated and wild animals, many of which are executed in “combined mediums,” the artist’s preferred term to describe his technique.

On Fridays and Saturdays through March 14, the museum is presenting a special attraction — “The Art of Jamie Wyeth Tour.” Tours will be offered at 10 and 11:30 a.m. and 1 and 3:30 p.m. (weather permitting).

The Brandywine River Museum of Art is open daily from 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Admission is $15 for adults, $10 for seniors (ages 65 and over), $6 for students and children (ages 6-12) and free for children (under six) and Brandywine Conservancy & Museum of Art members.

Time is running out to take advantage of a special offer from the Hagley Museum and Library (Route 141, Wilmington, Delaware, 302-658-2400, www.hagley.org).

Now through March 13, Hagley is offering free admission. This includes all exhibitions, site tours, weekend demonstrations and other activities — everything with the exception of ticketed events.

Visitors will be able to check out Hagley’s current exhibits, explore demonstrations in the Powder Yard, tour the du Pont ancestral home, and enjoy walks along the scenic riverside. Exhibits and dioramas document the Brandywine Valley’s early eras as well as the history of the DuPont Company.

On March 7, Wheatland (230 North President Avenue, Lancaster, 717- 392-4633, www.LancasterHistory.org) will present a special living history event called “Buch Henry – A Free & Independent Man” from noon-4 p.m. each day.

Visitors will be able to step back in time to the last few days of autumn in the year 1865 at Wheatland, which was the home of America’s 15th president, James Buchanan. On this particular day, James Buchanan is at home waiting on the arrival of his nephew, James Buchanan Henry, who is known as “Buch” to his uncle and family.

James Buchanan is anxious to welcome and comfort his nephew — especially because Buch had recently lost his wife Mary when she succumbed to the ravages of consumption two months earlier.

Visitors to Wheatland — along with their tour guides — will be invisible to the characters of the past. This will allow tour participants to eavesdrop and hear Buch Henry and Uncle James reminisce about their life at Wheatland and in the White House.

Tickets are $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and $6 for students (ages 11-17). Children (10 and younger) are free when accompanies by paying adult or senior.

Charter Day recognizes the day William Penn received his land grant for Pennsylvania from King Charles II of England in 1681. In observance of Pennsylvania’s founding, some of the region’s historic sites host special activities.

On March 8, the Brandywine Battlefield Park (1491 Baltimore Pike, Chadds Ford, 610-459-3342, http://brandywinebattlefield.org) will re-open for 2015. The local historic site will celebrate Charter Day on March 8 from noon-4 p.m.

Activities that will be offered throughout the afternoon are tours of Washington’s headquarters, participation by Continental soldiers, an historical movie, museum visits and a number of other activities. And, the event features free admission.

The Daniel Boone Homestead (400 Daniel Boone Road, Birdsboro, 610-582-4900, www.danielboonehomestead.org) will offer an exciting open house and living history event featuring a variety of 18th-century demonstrations and hands-on activities on May 8 from noon-4 p.m.

Visitors can tour the Boone House and learn about hearth cooking as interpreters prepare an eighteenth century meal in the kitchen. As visitors stroll through the Boone House, Robert Mouland will treat them to parlor music.

Additionally, all the historic buildings with be open, and blacksmithing and gun building demonstrations will be ongoing throughout the day in the blacksmith shop. Visitors can also watch leatherworking and tinsmithing demonstrations. At the Bertolet Log House, the 1st Pa Regiment will have a military display and visitors can enjoy tours of the home, as well as hearth cooking and baking demonstrations.

Darius Puff will share stories about Native American heritage, life, and culture, and visitors can join the Amity Colonial Dancers as they demonstrate different eighteenth-century dances in the Wayside Lodge. Children and their families can partake in hands-on activities including 18^th-century toys and games and candle dipping. Visitors will have the rare opportunity to see the Bertolet Sawmill in operation during two afternoon demonstrations.

No admission is charged for this program, but donations will be kindly accepted. There will also be fresh baked goods available for purchase, benefiting the Friends of the Daniel Boone Homestead. Complimentary drinks will be provided. This program is sponsored and run by the Friends of the Daniel Boone Homestead.

On March 8 from noon-4 p.m., the Conrad Weiser Homestead (28 Weiser Lane, Womelsdorf, 610-589-2934, www.conradweiserhomestead.org) will host military units, both British and French, who will be demonstrating 18^th-century drill. There will be a Native American on site to answer visitor questions and Charlton Folk Art will be displaying 18th century reproduction folk art.

As an added attraction, there will be special one-day exhibits to entertain visitors. The Homestead bookstore will be selling history-based book and a line of redware products from Robesonia Redware.

Other area sites that will have Charter Day celebrations this weekend are Landis Valley Museum (2451 Kissel Hill Road, Lancaster, 717-569-0401, www.landisvalleymuseum.org), Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania (300 Gap Road, Ronks, 717-687-8628, www.rrmuseumpa.org), Cornwall Iron Furnace (Rexmont at Boyd Street, Cornwall, 717-272-9711, www.cornwallironfurnace.com) and Ephrata Cloister (632 West Main Street, Ephrata, 717-733-6600, www.ephtatecloister.org).

The list also includes Graeme Park (859 County Line Road, Horsham, 215-343-0965,www.graemepark.org), Hope Lodge (553 South Bethlehem Pike, Fort Washington, 215-343-0965,  http://www.ushistory.org/hope) and Pennsbury Manor (400 Pennsbury Memorial Road, Morrisville, 215-946-0400,www.pennsburymanor.org)