A Little Churchin’, Some Sin, and the Enchanted Woods

Jill's Journal: It turns out there’s a lot to see in Delaware. One just has to look a little harder to find it.

Yesterday, the girls and I made the trek to the north end of the state for a very, very full day in Wilmington. We got lost twice –street names are not always well marked in old cities and I’m now convinced I could use a GPS! – and got quite the driving tour of this big city. Let me just say that while there are some beautiful areas and stunning homes and buildings, there are also some extremely dicey ones. How does one explain to three little girls why very scantily clad women are walking from one car to another at a stoplight? Or why people are sleeping on sidewalks? Or why we haven’t seen another “blonde” person in 15 minutes? On narrow streets, entire groups of people were swarming cars and I was fully prepared to run someone over if I needed to escape. I’ve never felt that way in my life. However, I would rather explain to the police later than get these little girls hurt. Needless to say, it was not a place I felt remotely comfortable.

The girls watched out the windows with fascination and Erika especially clued in pretty quickly that it was not a good neighborhood. When I turned off the children’s music we were singing along to, she told the other girls, “I think Mommy needs to concentrate. Let’s be quiet.” What a good girl!

All that trouble finally led us to our destination: the Old Swedes Church, also known as Holy Trinity Church. Completed in 1698, it is the oldest church in America still in regular use! It’s a beautiful little church with amazing construction. Our fantastic tour guide, a University of Kentucky graduate, no less, had a speech impediment and was so sweet and wonderful with the girls. He brought them up into the pulpit (the oldest known pulpit in America), showed them the original key, and got his boss to let them ring the church bell! They loved every minute.

The gorgeous little cemetery surrounding the church on all four sides actually pre-dates the church by 60 years. The original church standing on the site was built out of logs and was in use for more than 50 years before construction on the current church was started in 1698. We also saw the 1690 Hendrickson House, which is part of the property and shows how the original people in the area lived.

We left the church and headed for the Enchanted Woods. Yes, the Enchanted Woods! I’d heard about a du Pont estate called Winterthur which contained a fairy tale garden just for children and the girls could hardly contain their excitement. The estate was indeed that – an estate in every sense of the word. We didn’t take the tour of the nine floor, 175-room mansion, but it was certainly impressive from the outside, as were the grounds.

The girls loved the fairy garden, which had everything from a troll bridge to a giant bird’s nest, plus a fairy cottage, a tulip tree house, an acorn tearoom, and much more. It was truly a magical place designed for imagination and the girls would have loved to stay all day.

We closed the day with what I thought would be a quick visit to Delaware Park, the First State’s only Thoroughbred racetrack. Some people dream of seeing every baseball park in the country. I feel that way about racetracks and have never before had a bad experience. I love the track and so do our kids. My plan was to stop in at Delaware Park for just a race or two and to see the facility.

But I’ve never been so bitterly disappointed at a track in my life. One of the biggest debates in racing right now, especially in Kentucky, is the issue of slots. Delaware has them. The casino in Delaware might be what helps fund the racing in Delaware, but the racing has become secondary and the track is practically hidden.

I parked in what I thought was the entrance parking lot and made the trek to the door, only to be told by security that the racetrack was on the complete opposite end of the massive facility and children are not allowed on the casino floor. The guard told me the only way to get to the racetrack with children was to walk around the entire gargantuan facility on the outside in the sweltering heat...only to find when we did that the casino floor extends there too!

There seems to be absolutely no way to enter the grandstand without going through the slots…and children can’t be inside, can’t even walk through the slots, so how does a family get to the grandstand? We enjoyed the beautiful walking ring and a kids’ play structure for a minute, and we got a peek at the track, but we were there for racing and had no apparent way to get there. I eventually saw an official and stopped him. It was like he’d never even considered the question. It took him a minute of pondering before he said that we could ask security to summon a special guard to escort us to the grandstand.

By this time I was completely frustrated. I asked him how racing was supposed to cultivate young fans (another of the biggest debates in the sport) at Delaware Park if they couldn’t even go to the races. He told me slots are such a double-edged sword: the racing in Delaware wouldn’t exist without slots, but the racetrack can barely be found because of the slots.

At this point, what I had thought would be a half-hour stop had turned into over two hours and the last race of the day was already over. So, we made the very long, very hot trek back to our car. It began raining halfway back. The rain was refreshing, but it didn’t take away the bitter taste in my mouth from our experience at Delaware Park. Luckily, our girls are troopers and think everything is an adventure, but I think this might spur my first ever "letter to the editor" to my old friends at racing publications.