Since we didn't see it all on Tuesday, and since we purchased a multi-day pass -- we were back at Colonial Williamsburg on Wednesday. Day two went much better for several reasons, including the fact that we didn't have to stand in line to purchase tickets this time! After arriving at the visitors center we decided to watch the half hour introductory video. Interestingly - this video, which does a nice job of setting the stage for what you will see and experience in the "Revolutionary City," was originally made in 1957! The video follows the story of a fictional new member of the House of Burgess's in 1775 and provides the backdrop for what the folks in Virginia must have been thinking back in those days. Do we just do what our government back in England tells us to do?... or do we commit treason and declare our independence from a government for what they considered tyrannical acts? By the way ... the penalty for treason was death! This was serious business!!
After watching the video we boarded the shuttle bus for the drive to the far end of the facility to start our day's visit. I was wasting no steps today! We started our visit by visiting the DeWitt Wallace Museum.
The Museum not only contains art and artifacts from "the day" - it also has a nice theater where we were headed to listen to an hour long "discussion" by Thomas Jefferson himself! The fellow playing the role of Thomas Jefferson certainly knew his part. He not only talked for most of the hour about "his" role in the writing of the Declaration of Independence and the process used by the committee to accomplish this secret and treasonous task - he also answered questions from the audience and provided excellent and detailed answers that only Jefferson (or someone who had studied Jefferson in great detail) could answer! I really enjoyed the presentation. Something like this should be required for every middle school US History class! Unfortunately most of us attendees were far past middle school age.
After our time with TJ we wandered off to tour Bruton Parrish Church. This church was the Church attended by all the big names of the revolution in Virginia and was the meeting place of the members of the House of Burgess after they had been "dissolved" by the Royal Governor.
Our next stop was the Royal Magazine - site of the mysterious theft of the peoples gunpowder by royal troops. Even in those days the citizens had a right to a militia and to bear arms. But it wasn't going to do them much good without gunpowder!! Mmmm - makes you think ....
We then made the long walk down the Palace Green to visit the Governor's Palace. And palatial it was - at least by 18th century New World standards!
After our walk back to the visitors center we called it quits for this visit to Williamsburg and made it back to Winne for the evening.
But we didn't quite call it quits yet. In spite of already completely blowing by the amount allotted in this months eating out budget -- we decided to treat ourselves to a nice meal out and found our way over to the Seafare Restaurant. I'll keep the critique here to a minimum by just saying it wasn't cheap --- but man was it goood! There are several things on the menu that I wanted to try but I can vouch for the crabcakes and Peggy can vouch for the crabmeat stuffed shrimp!! Yum-Yum. We'll have to figure out what other part of the budget can be sacrificed for our indulgence!
Today was pre-travel prep day. We accomplished some mundane chores like a little grocery shopping (where did all the food go anyway? I swear we ate out every meal!!), haircut getting, a small amount of laundry doing, and a little Winne maintenance.
Tomorrow we leave 18th century revolutionary America and drive to Gettysburg, PA. Time to move on to the 19th Century and a Civil War. How did those glorious times of reconciliation during the 2nd Continental Congress go so bad - so fast?
Apparently the weather guessers were right this time.
Peggy and I got out Sunday morning and took a short drive over to the original Jamestown settlement for a walk through early American history. After showing my America The Beautiful (Old Geezers) Pass we marched in for free and took a stroll over to the Jamestown Church and the site of the original Jamestown Fort -
which interestingly enough - remains an ongoing archaeological dig. It seems the actual location of the fort was unknown until as late as 1994 and it is still being explored today!
We wandered around the site taking it all in and visited the nearby museum where many Jamestown artifacts are on display. After a few hours we had pretty much had enough of John Smith, Pocahontas, and the story of the Powhatan people. About this time it was starting to sprinkle and the temps were hovering around 32 degrees so we decided to head into town for lunch and then back to the rig. By the time we got back to Winne the snow was starting and within a few hours it was really coming down. Nice, pretty, heavy, white, cold SNOW!! By early evening it had piled up to a couple of inches on the roadways.
We spent Monday pretty close to the rig - doing a few chores and watching the snow melt. Sometimes you just need to take a day off -- and we did.
Today we were off again to immerse ourselves in mid 1700s American History. Oops - we failed to take into account that somebody must have called off school in the surrounding states because the place was packed with lots of families with kids! Our first mistake was getting into line to purchase our tickets for Colonial Williamsburg. About an hour later we were finally entering the facility. These folks have a lot to learn about getting the customer in with minimal hassle!
After standing in line for that lengthy period we decided to walk the 3/4 mile or so to the historic area of Colonial Williamsburg - complete with all the staff in period clothing and playing their parts. After standing in our second line of the day for about 15 minutes we entered the Courthouse where we attended a re-enactment of a colonial courtroom session. Actually - I got to sit up front and play as one of the Judges. It was entertaining and educational learning how the early court functioned ... and how far we have come (or declined) in what is considered "politically correct."
After court I was really needing to eat something so we searched for someplace to get a snack. We finally found a bakery/sandwich shop - we could tell because there was a line to get in - and a longer line to get to the cashier. Another half hour in line later and I was finally in possession of my way-too-expensive ham and cheese sandwich!
Having saved my life with a ham and cheese we wandered off for more sightseeing. We toured the colonial capital building (for the Commonwealth of Virginia) and then made our way to the center of town for several street acts involving rabble rousing colonialists stirring up the anti-British rule crowd
- setting the stage for more revolutionary war stuff to come - tomorrow!
Yes indeed - having spent what seems like several hours standing in line today - we're going to do it some more tomorrow.
This playing tourist stuff is hard work!!
In my last post a few days ago ... I left my readers while looking for my long pants and sweatshirts in Savannah. It's a good thing I found them as the weather as turned considerably cooler as we traveled further north.
On Thursday we left Savannah on a cool but sunny morning and it didn't warm up much as we made our up along the Atlantic coast to Myrtle Beach, SC. Both Peggy and I were pretty beat in general so we we spent most of our stay in Myrtle Beach napping, eating, or sleeping. We both felt much better on Friday morning and decided to continue our trip north.
On Friday we traveled another couple of hundred miles north to near Rocky Mount, NC. Another uneventful travel day on another rather cool but otherwise pretty nice day.
Today we traveled again. Up I-95 to near Richmond, VA and then we turned east along I-64 to Williamsburg, VA. Our plan is to spend several days here in Williamsburg - seeing the early settlement sights at Jamestowne, checking out the revolutionary war days at Colonial Williamsburg, and maybe even making it over to the revolutionary war surrender sight at Yorktown. There is a lot to see in this area and we hope to get to see at least a bit of it while we are here.
And then there is the snowstorm heading this way! I just heard that Washington DC may get 6 to 12 inches of snow on Monday! -- and that ain't that far away! SO - as usual -- we'll just wait and see what happens and take it from there.
It's a good thing we're flexible - and that I carry a snow shovel!
I'll admit it ... I may have overdone it a bit these last few days in Savannah. We started off our visiting yesterday with a drive into the historic downtown area and parked in the Visitor's Center Parking Lot. It was a nice and slightly breezy afternoon so we decided to walk through the historic district and take in a few sights.
We walked through several of the beautiful "squares,"
we walked by lots of bright and beautiful azaleas,
we walked through the Colonial Park Cemetery,
we walked by the birthplace of Juliet Gordon Low (founder of the Girl Scouts), we walked by the Andrew Low House (the married home of Juliet Gordon Low and the headquarters of the Girl Scouts of America for many years),
and then we walked some more.
We walked so much I got hungry. SO now I'm in trouble ... I'm hungry and I'm in Savannah ... so it was off to Tybee Island and the Crab Shack for lunch. The Crab Shack is a ... well it's a shack .... but a popular shack complete with a gator lagoon ... and all the seafood you could ever want.
Several types of crab, oysters, crawfish, mussels, shrimp -- you name it and they pretty much got it. Unfortunately we were hungry and we decided to try most all of it! We ordered the Seafood Sampler For "Two" - which included Snow Crab, Stone Crab, Shrimp, Mussels, Crawfish, about a pound of BBQ sausage, some new potatoes, and a couple of hunks of corn on the cob. Oh - My - Goodness. We ate and we ate - we shelled and we shelled - and then we ate some more ... but we still couldn't eat it all!
That was about it for me for Tuesday -- walk a few miles and then eat way too much!
Today we started off with running a few errands and then - you guessed it -- lunch out again. This time we decided to try Uncle Bubbas Oyster House - another one of Savannah's favorite places to eat. But today we ate a little more sensibly. I had the blackened salmon BLT and Peggy had the 1/2 shrimp salad sandwich and a cup of broccoli cheddar soup. Both were good and we were able to walk instead of waddle back to the car.
But we weren't done yet. Peggy wanted to visit the somewhat famous Bonaventure Cemetery. Bonaventure is famous I suppose for its beauty, its overall size and the fact that it was featured in the movie "Midnight In the Garden of Good and Evil."
It is a very beautiful place with lots of stately live oaks dripping with spanish moss, beautiful azaleas of every color, and graves going back 200 or so years. Including the grave of that great American Songwriter and Son of Savannah - Johnny Mercer.
Our visit to Savannah has been fun. We ate too much -- but it was fun.
And now its time to start heading north. I know ... it's too early ... but it's time. So tomorrow were going to slowly start the northward trip and head up the coast to somewhere near Myrtle Beach, SC. We thought about heading more inland and up through Charlotte -- but the weather is looking even colder up that direction. They're even forecasting a "wintry mix" up in that direction for later this week. I may be heading north but I'm not ready for that - yet!
Time to break out the long pants and sweatshirts!
We spent most of the day Saturday with Mike and Gerri, touring the beautiful grounds of Callaway Gardens here in Pine Mountain. The Callaway Gardens facilities are spread over some 13,000 acres and were developed by private monies from the Callaway family and their foundation. All I can say is Wow! Although we visited a few weeks before the Azaleas and other flowers really start to jump out - the grounds themselves, the walking paths, the small lakes, the horticulture and butterfly buildings are all beautiful. We had a fun afternoon walking and talking - just taking in the nice day, beautiful setting, and good friends.
We did have one close call at Callaway when one of the butterflies tried to escape the enclosed Butterfly habitat by attaching itself to Peggy's shirt. Notice the attempt at camoflage!
Sunday - Peggy and I drove over to Warm Springs to visit the Little White House. The Little White House is a rather small cottage on a gorgeous Georgia hillside that was used by Franklin Delano Roosevelt during his time as Governor of New York and President of the US. Roosevelt had contracted polio in the 20s and had lost most of the use of his legs by this time and was drawn to the area by the therapy offered by the nearby pools filled with water from the "warm springs." Roosevelt passed away here at the Little White House after suffering a stroke while sitting for a still unfinished portrait.
We enjoyed our tour of the house, the nearby museum and we even visited the pools where FDR and many others received their therapy. The pools weren't filled during our visit but we could walk down and feel the spring water that feeds the pools - the water was indeed warm -- right around 88 degrees.
Yesterday was a travel day and we hit the road around 10 AM for our 300 ish mile drive over here to Savannah, GA. Actually ... we are staying just north of Savannah in Hardeeville, SC -- but we're to visit the Savannah area for a few days and see if we can find some seafood to sample! I noticed a lot of blooming azaleas yesterday as we pulled into the area so I'm hopeful that the downtown area will have more color than we are used to seeing since we have only visited Savannah in the January and February months in the past.
I understand our Maine friends and family and enjoying a late winter snowstorm today with another foot or so of snow predicted ... so I won't gloat about being down here in mid 70 degree weather.
Nope - not me - I won't do it!
