The Outdoor Adventures of Sam & Tim

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Another unexpected, fun, and very interesting stop was the 📍Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum located in 📍 North Tonawa...
06/04/2026

Another unexpected, fun, and very interesting stop was the 📍Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum located in 📍 North Tonawanda, New York. 🎠

Riding a carousel is something everyone has hopefully done once in their lives. Well Tim never has, or at least he doesn't remember riding one, so what perfect place to ride one than at the place where they are made! 🥰

This museum showcases one of the area's most unique historical treasures, its connection to the legendary Allan Herschell Company. Along with its predecessor, the Herschell-Spillman Company, it became one of 📍 North Tonawanda's most influential manufacturers, operating from 1876 until 1959. The company was best known for crafting beautifully detailed wooden carousels through the 1930s. Allan Herschell also produced a variety of other amusement rides and attractions. 🎡

On top of being able to get up and personal with old carousels, they also have the Wurlitzer Music Department. 🎼 This houses many bands organs, which we were very lucky to get to listen to. After riding the carousel, we got an impromptu "private" tour of this area and learned more about the organs, how they work, and even got live demonstrations of them! I was a really neat experience. 🎶

📸 Photos taken May 2026
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra
🎞️ Photographed by The Outdoor Adventures of Sam & Tim LLC

Today is our anniversary! We are celebrating 4️⃣ years of being together. 🥰 Time sure does fly when you're having fun. W...
06/03/2026

Today is our anniversary! We are celebrating 4️⃣ years of being together. 🥰 Time sure does fly when you're having fun.

We've visited almost half of the country together, hiked many miles, explored beautiful National Parks, and adventures through some unusual places.

With many more to come. 😁

Here are some photos 📸 of us over the years, jumping around all over the country exploring different places with each other. 💕

06/02/2026

Anytime we go hiking in areas where there are bears I always end up singing. Working with kids, well, of course those are the songs I know best. 😅

My audience is usually under the age of 5. 😎 🎶🐜

One of the last hikes we did on our trip was to see this waterfall, 📍 Kaaterskill Falls, in the 📍Catskills of New York. ...
05/31/2026

One of the last hikes we did on our trip was to see this waterfall, 📍 Kaaterskill Falls, in the 📍Catskills of New York. ⛰️

Driving along the winding roads up the mountain was beautiful, along the way we were able to see one of the cascades along the way. 🤩

Towering at 260 feet, this waterfall is the tallest cascading waterfall in the state.

There are two different vantage points to view the falls, up high on a platform, or down low! We chose to view the falls from the bottom, get up close and personal!

The hike itself wasn't too bad. There were quite a few stairs since you had to go down. Tim counted 200, however there were "rock" stairs he didn't count as well. What must go down, must come up as well! 😌 That view though, definitely worth it.

Have you ever been to the Catskills in New York? What was your experience there?

📸 Photos taken May 2026
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra
🎞️ Photographed by The Outdoor Adventures of Sam & Tim LLC

05/31/2026

Taking the junior ranger oath at 📍 Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site! I flubbed up quite a bit at the rhyming parts, but this is so much fun! 😅 Always try to do this at every National Park that offers it!

One of our surprisingly most interesting stops was the 📍 Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site located in 📍 Hyde Par...
05/30/2026

One of our surprisingly most interesting stops was the 📍 Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site located in 📍 Hyde Park, New York.

This estate was purchased in 1895 by Frederick William Vanderbilt and his wife Louise Holmes Anthony. 🚂

It contained 54 rooms, 14 bathrooms 🚽, 22 fireplaces 🔥 and 10 guest bedrooms. You would think all this space would be for Frederick, Louise and their children, however they never had any. It was just for the two of them.

We took the tour inside and this place is what opulence looks like back in the gilded age. The men's rooms reminded me of what Gaston's looked like from Beauty and thr Beast, very wood adorned and antler covered. Tim very much liked the look of this place and could see himself living here, as for me, while it is beautiful for its time, definitely not my taste in style. 😅

Our tour guide Dmitri (not sure if that's spelled right) was fantastic. 🌟 He knew such detail and the way he speaked made me want to listen. He made every effort to get everyone that was in the tour involved by asking them questions and getting to know us, and did really good "crowd work." This is one historical tour we would've done twice in a row just to learn more information and see what we didn't see the first time.

As with every National Park I always try to do the junior ranger program if they are available, and luckily they were here! Because I was actively doing it while on the tour, our tour guide kept pointing me out and asking me questions. 😅 I had several people ask me what I was doing, so not sure how well known this is! I always recommend it, you learn more information, it's fun, and you get a badge at the end.

Have you been here before? Do you have any fun facts about the Vanderbilts?

Here's ours! Because they had no children, the mansion was passed down to their niece after Frederick's passing. However, she did not want it. Fortunately for us, she couldn't find a buyer (who wouldn't want to buy this place?). At the request of her neighbor, who was Franklin D. Roosevelt, she donated it to the National Park Service. 🏠

📸 Photos taken May 2026
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra
🎞️ Photographed by The Outdoor Adventures of Sam & Tim LLC

On day 7️⃣ of our trip we spent all day in 📍 New York visiting various historical mansions and historical sites. Our fir...
05/30/2026

On day 7️⃣ of our trip we spent all day in 📍 New York visiting various historical mansions and historical sites.

Our first stop was 📍 Olana State Historic Site located in 📍 Hudson, New York.

Walking along the paths and seeing this beautiful place, it truly is breathtaking and you really can tell that an artist lived here. 🎨

Olana was the home, studio, and even designed landscape of 19th century artist Frederick Edwin Church, his wife Isabel and their 4 children.

This Persian inspired mansion is gorgeous and is filled with sketches and paintings by one of the most famous artists of that time period.

Walking through the gardens was such a neat experience too. The most beautiful flowers! Of all different kinds! 🌸🌼🌹

Have you been to this historic place? Did you take a tour inside? Would love to see your photos! 🖼

📸 Photos taken May 2026
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra
🎞️ Photographed by The Outdoor Adventures of Sam & Tim LLC

As always anytime we travel, you know we have to find some type of coffee place to get my iced coffee craving in. 🧊☕️Tim...
05/29/2026

As always anytime we travel, you know we have to find some type of coffee place to get my iced coffee craving in. 🧊☕️

Tim found 📍 Popovers At Church Square located in 📍 Wellesley, Massachusett, and boy did they not disappoint. 😍

We ordered a large (they were HUGE) iced Biscoff late and an iced Banarama latte and both were delicious! The banana one had SO much banana 🍌 flavor, while the biscoff coffee had crushed up cookies on top. 😋

We split a chicken sandwich, which was delicious! Everything is made fresh right there.

But, they are well known for their popovers so of course wr had to get some of those.

We bought a strawberry Nutella popover abd churro popover. When I say they were melt in your mouth. 🤤 They were SO good! The portions were so big too!

I hope we somehow travel through that town again someday because they had so many other amazing foods and coffee I want to try. The ladies working were so friendly too. 🥰

📸 Photos taken May 2026
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra
🎞️ Photographed by The Outdoor Adventures of Sam & Tim LLC

local

Luckily we were able to find another asylum that was still standing. This is 📍 Metropolitan State Hospital located in 📍 ...
05/29/2026

Luckily we were able to find another asylum that was still standing.

This is 📍 Metropolitan State Hospital located in 📍 Waltham, Massachusetts.

It operated between 1927 and 1992, at its peak housing over 2,000 patients.

You can explore the area and walk around the building. There are even walking trails in the area and a dog park, but there is no trespassing within the building itself.

📸 Photos taken May 2026
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra
🎞️ Photographed by The Outdoor Adventures of Sam & Tim LLC

On day 6️⃣ of our adventures, we spent most of our day in the state of 📍 Massachusetts. Tim really wanted to visit this ...
05/29/2026

On day 6️⃣ of our adventures, we spent most of our day in the state of 📍 Massachusetts. Tim really wanted to visit this particular place so it was #1 ☝️ priority! When we first arrived there were cones blocking some of the entrance and a police car, so we drove up and asked what was going on (because we drove a long distance to see this place and would be really disappointed if it was closed when online said it wasn't).

He was friendly and said there was construction going on and to come back around 4 PM, which at the time was 4 hours away. Because we probably wouldn't be out this away again, Tim shuffled things around and found things to fill our time.

Luckily for us, when we came back just at 4, this area was open.

Welcome to 📍 Medfield State Hospital, located in 📍 Medfield, Massachusetts.

If you're a horror movie fan, you may recognize this from the movie Shutter Island, where it was used for most of filming. 🎬 Other movies such as Knive's Out, and X-Men: The New Mutants were also filmed here.

This former psychiatric hospital was established in 1892 and was the states first facility dealing with people who had chronic mental disabilities. This was also the first using the Cottage Plan layout, meaning all those who were patients here were had small jobs and were in a community, rather than confined into cells.

At its height, Medfield State Hospital had 58 buildings over 1.4 square miles with a capacity of 2,200 patients. They raised their own livestock, produce, generated their own heat, light, and power. 💡

In 1994 it was added to the list of National Register of Historic Places and was closed in 2003. Today, it is now open to the public and you are able to walk around the grounds, however the buildings are not open. It looks like they are in the middle of repurposing a few of the buildings, which is really good to see.

Scattered throughout the buildings there wad a poetry project that happened several years ago, where community members were able to submit poetry to this area.

This was probably our favorite thing we did that day and it was a really cool and rare experience to walk around the entire compound of an old insane asylum. 🙏

📸 Photos taken May 2026
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra
🎞️ Photographed by The Outdoor Adventures of Sam & Tim LLC

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