First Saturday at Savage Mill and 202nd Anniversary

Being fans of Savage Mill, we went to the final Summer First Saturday celebration on September 2, 2018. Most of the festivities were held in the courtyard. Businesses set up tables with demonstrations and activities.

The first table we came to was the Family Game Store's table, where we tried out Dr. Beaker and Dr. Microbe. Dr. Beaker had us stirring marbles in a beaker in order to match patterns on cards. Dr. Microbe had us picking little colored plastic microbe pieces out of a petri dish to match patterns on cards. Both were fun.

Beakers and microbes!

Further down the courtyard was a wheel of fortune dispensing various gift certificates. Our older son won a five dollar gift certificate to any store at the Mill; our younger son won a free appetizer at Rams Head; our daughter won a free sample at Faces by Brandi.

Wheel of fortune!

Rams Head also had a cornhole game in the courtyard, which occupied a lot of time as our young one tried to get a bean bag in the hole wholly on his own. He insisted on not being helped!

Just short

Still too short

One way to solve the distance problem

A new player

We went inside and had lunch at Say Cheezz Grille, the grill and ice cream bar that is also part of the Sweet Cascades Chocolatier. Naturally, we had dessert there as well. We wandered around a bit and headed back to the courtyard for the balloon guy. He was very charming and made a dragon for my young son.

Starting with green, a good start for a dragon

Adding wings

Presentation of the critter

The courtyard also had live music. We weren't in quite the right clothes to dance and the songs were mostly pop cover tunes (including Michael Jackson's Billie Jean, which we had just watched on YouTube). It was a fun afternoon.

Music al fresco

We didn't make it to the earlier First Saturdays because of other obligations. We hope they will keep up the tradition next summer!

Later in September, we went to the 202nd "birthday" celebration for the Mill. It was built back in 1816 and had the 200th anniversary celebration two years ago (see posts here and here).

The Mill's back entrance

Plaque

We saw a weaving demonstration and an old music box that was the fanciest, most complicated music box we'd ever seen. It has volume control, the ability to switch songs (each cylinder has 24 songs!), and other nifty adjustments. It was the iPod of the 18th century!

Weavers in action

Big ol' music box

We had ice cream at Say Cheezz and played a game at the Family Game Store. We tried out the deluxe version of Hey, That's My Fish!, which has bigger tiles and fancier penguins.

Playing the game

My older son grasped the concept of the game quicker than the preschooler and I did, so he managed to isolate our penguins as we slowly removed bits of the iceberg.

It was fun but brief second visit to the Mill in September.