In contrast to yesterday, the sky was clear blue when we woke. The sea was a beautiful clear blue and the boats bobbed glistening white on the water.

Today we were in for a treat. We were taken to the New Bedford Art Museum where earlier this year I had said no to a solo exhibition. It is a lovely museum with a good exhibition going on at the moment. We were lucky enough to be given an exclusive tour of the exhibition by a lady who certainly knew her stuff. I understand that they are going through some changes and in the future will be increasing their ability to teach about art too. I liked in particular how they displayed work there as it was not on standard white walls, but painted in a way that showed off the artwork well.

After this we went to the Library and were shown original prints from the Audubon collection which they have there. The Curator there was extremely knowledgeable and gave us a lot of information about Audubon’s work and, in particular about each picture. He painted al the birds himself except for one, which his son painted. However, the backgrounds were often painted by ‘interns’. It seems that Audubon painted the original watercolours (some of which are now on display in Boston). They were sent to a printer in England who had plates etched, printed enough copies to send to every sponsor and then each print was hand painted by an unknown watercolourist. Audubon did not do any of this work himself, but did check it all out. All very inspiring.

For lunch we had delicious hamburgers. I had thought of being good but couldn’t resist.

To complete the day in this part of the world, we drove to Mattapoisett a lovely village leading out towards Cape Cod. The style of houses were very specific to Cape Cod, very functional and built from available materials. The design was done to maximise on light, keep the house cool in summer and prevent the snow weighing down the roofs in winter.

I wish I had the photos on my iPad, but I’m afraid they are in my camera!

In the morning we will be starting the next stage of our journey to Pittsburgh.