Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Happy 8th...month!
Friday, March 25, 2011
Give me Williamsburg or give me death!
We spent a day exploring Colonial Williamsburg, the largest living history museum in North America. That means there were a whole bunch of people acting as though it were the mid 1700s. Luckily, they "weren't annoying" (as Jason put it) and would talk to you normally if you had questions rather than feign confusion over anything you mentioned that wasn't from that period. It was a lot of fun to tour the city and talk to the local blacksmith, weaver, printer etc. about what life was like then. It made me daydream about going back in time and living in that era (of course I would have been extremely wealthy and educated, otherwise life would have been way too hard).
The Governor's Palace (obviously where I would have lived)
The front entrance to the Palace was a large round room covered in the Governor's sword and gun collection.
You could even tour the cellar of the Palace, which was actually really neat, and a little creepy.
A very small portion of the Palace gardens.
I just love this pic of Jason examining the wheelsmith's handiwork. It's such a guy thing to do. I guess it is a wheel for a cannon, which is pretty cool. I really liked that all the tradespeople were actually working on real things, not just hitting their hammer on the same thing all day. The Blacksmith was making nails for the carpenter who was building a shed. The printer was printing newspapers that were being sold in local stores. It was great.
We went to observe a "trial" at the courthouse and I got to act as a local seamstress taking on an apprentice. Jason wishes he had volunteered to be on the panel of judges and taken Bridget with him. She has started yelling randomly in such a way that it would have sounded like she was voicing her objections.
I absolutely HAD to buy her this little mob hat. Soooo cute! Even Jason didn't object to this one.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
On The Water
After Charleston we hit the road and headed towards Colonial Williamsburg. Bridget has gotten used to hanging out in her car seat for hours on end and is actually a really good road trip companion. Jason calls the car her "kryponite" as she usually falls asleep the instant we start the engine.
We really tried not to drive the same road twice so we opted to drive on a small single lane highway and catch a ferry to reach Williamsburg. It was B's first ferry and she loved it.
It was a little windy but B was just so happy not to be in her carseat that she didn't seem to mind.
One of the perks of taking the ferry is that we got to see a little of Jamestown. Founded in 1607, it was the first permanent English settlement in the US.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Doing the Charleston
I woke up early this morning and took Bridget on a run on the beach. With the recent change in time thanks to daylight savings we weren't up all that early and we still caught the sun rise over the ocean. I'm so accustomed to the sunset over the ocean on the west coast that this new to me. The tide was out and left the sand on the beach smooth and hard which made pushing Bridget's stroller easier.
We then went to the oldest continually operating plantation, Boone-Hall plantation. It was established in 1600's and started by producing indigo (for the blue dye) and cotton and over time has grown pecans and produced bricks all with the use of slaves. Now they still grow produce for local markets (no slaves though).
...or two
The original slave quarters at Boone-Hall. It had over 300 slaves in it's hay day.
We took a tour of the plantation (that now looks a lot like a farm but I guess if you have historic slave quarters on your farm you can call it a planation) and we saw a 6 foot alligator and it's 2 foot baby. Awesome.
Once we were done at the plantation, we drove into Charleston and walked around it's historic district. Charleston had a much different feeling than Savannah. Where in Savannah all of the historic buildings felt like they were museums and they took steps to recreate and preserve them in that era, Charleston had a more modern feel to their history.
Charleston had more wood railings whereas Savannah had iron. This is largely due to the fact that the railings were torn down and made into cannon balls during the civil war while Savannah was protected by a naval blockade.
Back to the beach behind our hotel once again to finish off the day.
March to the Sea
Entrance to Wormsloe
After Savannah, we decided to head to Charleston. We hadn't planned on stopping there originally but we figured we'd driven all that way so might as well spend more time in the area. It was a 2.5 hour drive north of Savannah and we opted to pass through the city and spend the night on one of the surrounding beaches. It was a little nicer than Tybee Island and we got a room right on the beach.