Granite Farms Estates Acts CCRC (2/20-21/2018)

Tuesday, February 20, 2018
We visited the second ACTS retirement community in Media, PA, Granite Farms Estates. There is friendly competition between the two ACTS communities, and this week they are competing against each other in water volleyball! Built in 1984, Granite Farms Estates is situated on 55 acres with about 300 apartments, 60 assisted living units, and 60 skilled care beds. They have completed a $300 million renovation, which includes a wing of assisted living apartments topped by The Preserve, two floors of luxury independent living in contemporary style.

Granite Farms Estates is a gated community,
and the "driveway" exits at a traffic light

View of the front of Granite Farms Estates, including the main entrance

Again, there are no protected parking areas, even though this is Pennsylvania!

Hearth in the "living room" section of the lobby

Life Care Consultant Stacie S gave us a tour of the facilities.

Part of the main dining room, open only for dinner

The bistro, Crossroads Café, is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner

Mail room

Library

Auditorium

Chapel/Prayer Room

Pool

There is also a fitness room, billiards/game room, and art and crafts room. Most interesting was the lapidary room, where we saw two residents polishing their rocks! Outside there is a walking trail that goes around three-quarters of the property, and then you have to resort to making your own path across the front.

It seems each floor has a lounge, and each lounge has a computer room

A typical hallway

After the tour, we checked into the guest apartment.

Guest apartment bedroom

Tiled shower

Nifty set up opposite the kitchen

We walked around the property, then drove back to complete the Media, PA tour. Returning to Granite Farms Estates, we showered and dressed to have dinner with residents, Shing-Mei and Bruce H. The Life Care consultant figured they would be a good match, because we had lived in China. But Shing-Mei and Bruce are from Taiwan, and have lived in the United States since after their college graduation. There is not much in common between Taiwan and the People's Republic of China. However, they were a very interesting and delightful couple. They even took us to see the wood workshop, and to The Preserve to see the vast contemporary common areas, and to note that there were no people in them, even though at least one floor is at full occupancy.

Wood workshop

There is also a beauty salon and gift shop.
Granite Farms Estates is about one mile from Riddle Hospital, and two miles from Penn State Brandywine. There are other colleges in a radius of five miles.
The closest major airport is Philadelphia International/PHL, about 14 miles away.

Wednesday, February 21, 2018
We had a voucher for a full breakfast, then left Granite Farms Estate to drive to Washington, DC. We just made it in time for our noon timed tickets to be admitted to the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Kent was up at 6:30 to reserve these free tickets.

National Museum of African-American History and Culture

The bronze-colored openwork cast aluminum panels

A peek at the fountain in the Contemplative Court

We ran out of time before we could see the Contemplative Court from the inside. We had two hours on the parking meter, and that gave us time for two of the three lower level floors, and none of the upper three galleries!
We continued to Springfield, VA, where Kent had dinner with Mark VW, and I was picked up by Diane W to have dinner at the Red Hot and Blue Fairfax, in order to have a Virginia comfort food: Brunswick stew. Thick, rich and tasty! I still have to research when I last saw Diane, it was definitely not as long as with Sue M! Maybe 15 years!