2011 Christmas Vacation, Day 2 (morning): Oglebay Park

Day 2 of our Wheeling WV trip was spent touring Oglebay Park and the city of Wheeling. We also went to the Good Zoo and saw the Winter Festival of Lights show. Since I have so many pictures to share, I'm breaking Day 2 into two posts: one for the morning and the other for the rest of the day.

We began our day with a buffet breakfast. Buffets are a great place to overeat, and I'm especially likely to do that at breakfast. It's my favorite meal of the day!

Pictured: scrambled eggs, potatoes, bacon, sausage, cinnamon bun, fried apples
What I didn't photograph was the second plate of food, consisting of two small blueberry pancakes and syrup. Having eaten all of that, Jay and I decided to go for a walk around the property before our tour group was scheduled to meet. Almost as soon as we left the parking lot, we saw deer. There were five deer in the small herd that approached us. They aren't afraid of people, since they're protected on the property.

Pictured: Jay taking a photograph of a deer
After our walk, we met up with the rest of our tour group for visits to the various buildings on the property: the Carriage Glass House and museum, the greenhouse complex, the gourmet food shop and the Mansion Museum.

Pictured: stained glass in the Carriage House

Pictured: Christmas display in the gourmet food shop

Pictured: looking down into the greenhouse complex

Pictured: Sharon and the 4'10" Sweeney punchbowl
One of my favorite pictures is the photograph of me standing next to the Sweeney punchbowl in the glass museum. The Sweeney brothers were well known glass makers in the 19th century, and this was their most famous piece. It once stood on Michael Sweeney's grave, but has been moved indoors to protect it from vandalism.