Colonial America Part 1

 I am titling this entry "Colonial America Part 1" not because I plan to write about what we did in more than one entry (though this will be a long one!) but because I anticipate another trip to other parts of colonial America.  Hang on to your hats and glasses, 'cause we covered a lot of ground!

We started our trip really early Saturday morning because our flight was scheduled to leave at 6 am.  Grannadaddy came and picked us up and we got through the security line in no time, got boarded on the plane and then....  Well, DCA was having bad weather and was not letting anyone in or out.  So they let us get off the plane and kept us in a holding pattern where every hour to 30 minutes they thought we might be boarding again.  We finally got to reboard about 5 hours later.

In the airport, waiting for our first attempt at boarding

2nd time on the plane, ready to go!

We landed at DCA and picked up our rental car and headed down to Mount Vernon.  I had called ahead to reschedule our tour.  Evie was really excited about seeing Washington's house.  It was pretty cold and windy, but we still took the time to view the gardens and orchards.

You might be able to spot Evie just in front of the steps to the house

This is a key to the Bastille.  Lafayette brought this to Washington who hung it on the wall.

Evie and the walnut banister that George Washington had put in when he expanded the house.  The house was originally built by his father, but Washington expanded it twice to accommodate the ever-growing demand to house visitors.

The Lafayette bedroom where Lafayette slept when he visted.

Washington's office

A rudimentary single rider horse drawn cart.  Washington apparently loved this thing.  It's just a dining room chair bolted onto a platform that's then connected to wheels and a hitch.

The tomb

The orchard was really beautiful in the snow.  According to our guide, Washington rode his horse around the grounds every day, and on a day similar to the cold and blustery one we were there, Washington, age 67, still went on his ride.  He developed a sore throat, then tracheal inflammation, and died 2 days later.

The museum there was excellent, but there were high school groups touring, so we didn't linger as much as we would have liked for some of the exhibits.  They closed at 5, and then we headed down to Williamsburg.  We found a wonderful seafood restaurant there (Berrett's) where they had a kids menu that had special drinks and appetizers so Evie was able to get a fancy drink and app like we did.  That made her feel really special.  She offered a toast: To trips with family!

Evie's app of apples and peanut butter

Then we headed to our hotel which was just outside of the grounds of Colonial Williamsburg.  We drove around a bit trying to figure out how to get in, and finally figured out where the front desk was and made our way to our room.  Evie had a sleeper sofa bed which she also thought was very special.  Unfortunately we discovered that the pjs we intended to pack for her were left at home on her dresser, so she slept in on of Seth's shirts.

In the morning on Sunday the 13th, we headed to Jamestowne Settlement, which was supposed to have been a stop on the previous day, but with our flight being delayed we didn't have time.  Evie was very excited about this stop too because she started studying about Jamestowne at the end of 3rd grade

Posing with the Sacagawea statue

On the left: Me in 1992 with the same statue

Seth and John Smith

Standing in the same spot where Pocahontas and John Rolfe were married

We saw pretty much all there was to see at Historic Jamestowne.  We had to skip the museum in the interest of time, and we headed back to Colonial Williamsburg, listening to the Disney Pocahontas soundtrack along the way and having the best time singing along.

In Williamsburg, we parked at our hotel and then walked across the street to the Colonial Williamsburg park.  I learned on this trip that the 1930s seemed to be a time of conservation efforts.  Rockefeller invested in the project of preserving what was left of Williamsburg and restoring/rebuilding other structures that would have been there in colonial days.  We saw the foundry and Governor's mansion, got lost in the maze behind the mansion, and learned about the lives of enslaved people.

During our tour of the Governor's mansion, we saw the ballroom and Evie danced a minuet.

Our tour guide for the mansion

We then took a break for lunch and went back to the hotel for a bit, then back out to the courthouse and then to our ghost tour.  There were a couple of girls there from Chicago who Evie made friends with.  They were in 3rd grade.  It was so funny to watch their faces as our guide told ghost stories and to hear them discussing the stories on the walk to the next place (e.g., I bet it was the little girl who died who was haunting him).   I'm not personally a big ghost tour person, but Evie is the perfect age for it - old enough to not get too scared, young enough to let her imagination run a little wild.

Outside the courthouse

Our ghost tour guide

Evie and her new friends

 

When our ghost tour was over we tried to grab a late dinner at a quick eatery, but they weren't still serving food (it took them 15 minutes to inform us of this) so we walked to a place that said they were open til 9.  We told them we were not trying to be "those people" and we would order as quickly as possible.  It turned out to be a great restaurant, both for food and decor.  The Dog's Tale was decorated with dogs everywhere, which was perfect for our wanna-be vet.

She proclaimed that she wanted to come back to this restaurant as much as possible because it was so doggy

Fortunately while in Colonial Williamsburg, we located a clothes shop and found an undergarment dress that girls would have worn to sleep, so Evie got some colonial pjs.

Oh, this picture reminds me that I failed to mention that in addition to forgetting her pjs, she also left her stuffed animal companion at home.  She usually brings her small wolf (Myth) on trips, but we discovered in the security line at the Memphis airport that Myth had been left behind.  Fortunately, there was a shop that had some stuffies so Evie purchased this deer (which she named Song) so she'd have someone to cuddle on the plane.  I think it is the sweetest thing that she still loves to snuggle with stuffies.

Monday morning we got up early to check out of the hotel so we could make the drive to Appomattox Courthouse.  I remembered seeing this site before and it made a bigger impression on me then (maybe I was 10 or 11?) than this trip, but since Evie is about to get to the Civil War, I felt like it was a good location for her to see.

Then, we were on to Monticello.  On our drive, we listened to "Hamilton" which Evie is obsessed with, so we could hear the Jefferson song "What Did I Miss?"

Evie in front of the house

Thomas Jefferson had so many clocks!

Evie and her next new stuffie (named Katrina) in Jefferson's office

More clocks in the drawing room

Evie in one of the nooks of the playroom/grandchildren's bedroom

Family picture in the dome room

Evie and this other 4th grade girl were subject to being quizzed by our Behind the Scenes tour guide.  He really took a shine to them because they both knew a lot about Jefferson.

There's a door in the dome room that leads down to a little attic.  This space was taken over by Jefferson's granddaughters who dragged some furniture in there and had a little secret hideout.  This captured the imaginations of the two 4th graders.

Looking up at the dome room

On our walk down from the cemetery, Evie found a stump to sit on

Seth and Thomas Jefferson are birthday buddies, and also the same height, which makes it funny to think about Jefferson climbing up and down those narrow stairs in Monticello, because Seth did not enjoy that part at all

We really enjoyed our tour, and I appreciated that they expanded the information to be more about others who lived there, not just T.J. as it had been when I went in 8th grade.  They talked a lot about Martha Jefferson Randolph, Jefferson's daughter, who stepped in to oversee the household duties, and also about Sally Hemings and other people in slavery there.

When we finished our tour, we got a quick lunch and then headed to our next hotel in Harpers Ferry, WV.  West Virginia was a new state for all of us, and we were sad that there was no sign to pose with to commemorate the occasion.  Once we got settled in to our hotel, Evie went swimming at the indoor pool and then we had dinner at the hotel restaurant.

On Tuesday, we headed to the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park where we saw exhibits about Lewis's acquisition of provisions for the Lewis and Clark Expedition, and also about John Brown's rebellion.

We hiked up to the top point where you could look out over what should have been a spectacular view, except someone built their house there.

Merriweather Lewis exhibit

Some treacherous stairs

Looking out over the confluence

A view back from across the footbridge to Maryland

Her smile!

She loved playing pretend in this green wagon.  She "drove" us around for a while.

We headed out from Harpers Ferry and on to Baltimore!  We got a picture with the Maryland sign, which was Evie's last new state for the trip and her 37th state.

Our first stop in Baltimore was the B&O Railroad Museum.  Evie spent a good while playing on the trains in the roundhouse with some other kids who were there.  She was a little underwhelmed with the rest of the museum, but some of that might have been cause she was hangry.  She was sort of expecting lots of opportunities to play with the trains, but there wasn't much of that available.

Conductor Evie

All board!

Ceiling of the roundhouse

We got some food and then went on to Fort McHenry which was another site Evie had already learned about.  She told us a lot of her War of 1812 knowledge and we sang "Star Spangled Banner".

She found the cutest little hiding spot

After that, we headed to the hotel where Evie got to have another swim and then to dinner at Angie's Seafood which was recommended to us by the hotel valet.

She looks so little in this picture

Another toast

Absolutely the best tomato bisque

Evie was really into cracking the Maryland crabs

Back to the hotel for some shut eye and then the next morning we went to the National Aquarium which was a really wonderful experience.  Evie loved their hands on exhibits and she also bravely touched a moon jellyfish.

Posing with the Baltimore sign outside of the aquarium

She couldn't quite be convinced to touch the horseshoe crabs (I don't blame her!)

But she did touch jellies

How many catfish are in this picture?

Blue jellies

We wrapped up the aquarium visit and headed to the National Zoo in D.C.  To be honest, we were a little underwhelmed with the zoo.  Memphis Zoo is really great in its layout, whereas at the D.C. zoo, we felt like you had to walk a long way between exhibits with nothing to look at.

She wanted to ride the carousel and she chose to sit on a red fox.  She told me afterwards that she made it promise not to eat any wolf cubs (something that sometimes happens in her game Wolf Quest).

The Maynes with manes

Joining the Tumbling Bears

We were all ready for a break, so we got checked in to our AirB&B which was just off the mall, and then found some place with ramen for dinner (Nooshi in Dupont Circle) at Evie's request.

Outside our AirB&B

We noticed the D.C. license plates have "Taxation without Representation" in place of their state motto, and we found this decor in our AirB&B.  This gave us lots of good conversation with Evie about taxation.

In her little corner that she took over

She enjoyed the fireplace too

My delicious handroll since I'm not a ramen fan

My favorite dessert: mango with sticky rice, which our Thai food restaurant in Memphis has stopped serving for some reason

Evie got fried ice cream

On Thursday, Evie began the morning by reading a Hamilton graphic novel that was in our Air B&B.

we got up early and walked to a cafe that ended up being a little overly crowded for Evie's tastes, and we also learned that the locals are happy to take up the only tables just to sit and chat over coffee and have their bags occupy the seats they're not using.  There were no tables to eat our meal at, and when we finally found a place to sit, the food wasn't that great.  But that was the only disappointing meal in our whole trip.

We headed to the Supreme Court and the Capitol Building, both of which were closed to public, but we walked around and talked about the important things that go on in those buildings.

We had some time to kill before our appointment at the Library of Congress, so we walked down to the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian, which was a lovely and large building reminiscent of Native American style meeting houses.  The exhibits looked small at first, but they were laid out in a serpentine style so there was actually much more to see there than we thought.  Evie was particularly taken with a new exhibit one the tale of how Raven Boy loosed the sun, moon, and stars.  The characters and props were made entirely of shaped and colored glass, and were absolutely incredible.  There must have been more than 100 different pieces and they were large!

This was a beautiful moving projection onto strings

Wolf woman

This piece is meant to show camaraderie between the Native Americans and the explorers

This little girl is on the back of the bronze statue and Evie assumed the same pose

On to the Library of Congress which satisfied my obsession with gorgeous ceilings.  We also saw the Gutenberg Bible, an exhibit with Thomas Jefferson's books which tied in nicely with what we learned from Monticello that he sold his books to help pay off debts, and a lovely exhibit on Rosa Parks.

Then we were ready for lunch so we walked down to Buzzfeather which had some pub food.  Evie and I split a cheeseburger and Seth had bangers and mash in honor of St. Patrick's Day.  Then we got to the metro station and oriented ourselves to the correct train in order to go to the Air & Space Museum.  Sadly, we were pretty underwhelmed by this one, which most people say is their favorite, but that's probably to do with the fact that about 70% of the exhibits were closed.  They were still letting a large number of people in so the few exhibits that were open were obnoxiously crowded.  We did see Gagarin's space suit, which Seth and I were interested in and Evie cared nothing about, as well as several shuttles and a back-up Hubble telescope.  We explored the exhibit on time and navigation and that was truly all that was open except for the rides that simulate roller coasters/space launches which we reluctantly agreed to let Evie do even though she could have done one of those at Putt-Putt back home.

Waiting in line outside Air & Space for 20 minutes in the rain

The one exhibit Evie was interested in which took 10 minutes per child, so we waited a while to get to do this one

After agreeing we'd had enough of air and space, we walked across the Mall to the Art Gallery and enjoyed some sculptures, period furniture, and Degas paintings.

I loved this marble table top from the 18th century

This Puritan is quite pompous

We made sure Evie saw the Van Goghs as well

Seth and Evie were pretty tuckered out by this time so we went back to the AirB&B, ordered in some really delicious food and watched a movie.

Friday morning, we had breakfast in.  Our host had left bagels and muffins for us to enjoy and enjoy them we did.  Then we set out for another day of walking.  First stop was the metro to the Natural History museum.  Evie was completely in love with this museum because it had all kinds of taxidermized animals, and because her Science teacher had done a virtual field trip with them.  It was very cool to see her excitement as recognized the different animals she'd seen online in school.

On the metro

There was fog sitting on the mall which bisected the Washington Monument

Howling with her wolf friend

We spent a good 2.5 hours there and then walked to a sandwich shop for a quick lunch and then on to the White House Visitor Center, which is not at the White House itself.  I really wanted to get a tour of the White House this time because I've never been, but, again COVID-19 made that impossible.  But I did enjoy seeing a lot of the special artifacts and furniture they had there.

I happened to take this picture of the punch bowl used by the Lincolns, and this will come up in the next segement.

This was the desk used by the butler (they have another word for him but I can't think of it right now) with all the telecom buttons on the right hand side that were super fancy at the time.  This is also the desk where FDR sat to sign the declaration of War on Japan.

We walked down Pennsylvania Avenue and got a look as best we could at the White House exterior.  They have the sidewalk that borders the south lawn blocked off so you have to walk across the street and you can't see very well.  And they're currently doing construction on the north side, but if you step away from it (and from the crazy protestors who are sitting outside of it with their megaphones), you can get a view of it from Lafayette Park.  Evie especially enjoyed seeing the statue of Lafayette because she's familiar with him from "Hamilton".

This is your view from the South Lawn

And from the north, through the fence

From Lafayette Park you can see much more of the house

Evie and Lafayette

We headed on to Ford's Theatre where we had tickets that were supposed to get us into the museum and the theatre, but not the exhibits in the building across the street where Lincoln was taken after he was shot (building is closed for COVID or renovation, I'm not sure).  However, we learned that the theatre would not be available because there was a rehearsal going on, so that was another disappointing turn of events in my plans.  The museum was interesting, though, and had some artifacts from Lincoln, including more of the china that I had happened to take a picture of at the White House Visitor Center.

We went to a nearby restaurant to rest our feet (we'd been walking an average of 19,000 steps a day - well, Evie probably 30% more than that), with the plan to take the metro back to the AirB&B, but Seth was more interested in Ubering home to save his poor feet, so we did that.  I vaguely considered going out by myself to the American History Museum, but I chose to rest with Evie and Seth instead.  We got a look at the cherry blossoms in the front yard of the townhouse.

We rallied about 7 pm and got in the car to drive to the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials.  We watched the sun set from the Jefferson and then headed to Lincoln which was amazingly crowded.  We were enamored with the reflecting pool.

Jefferson Memorial at dusk

Lincoln Memorial at night

Reflecting Pool and Washington Monument behind us

We went home and had a late dinner of leftovers from the night before and headed to bed.  Saturday was our last day at the AirB&B so we packed up and checked out then attempted to find a garage to park the car in.  My plan was to have it close by the National Archives, but all the roads were closed off for a marathon or a festival, maybe both.  We finally found a garage and walked to the National Archives for our time with the Magna Carta, Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Bill of Rights, and cool exhibits on preservation of documents and the 19th Amendment.

The only picture you're allowed to take in the National Archives is in this portion of the 19th Amendment exhibit, which is set up like a voting booth and you answer questions about different topics like healthcare, women's rights, etc.  Evie had a good time casting her vote and taking her selfie.

My cousin Ben picked us up in his car and drove us to one of his favorite restaurants which features Peruvian chicken.  We very much enjoyed our meal and our time with Ben.  Evie was determined to beat him at Tic-Tac-Toe and he was a good sport about it.

We walked by the China Town gate on our way back to the car.

Ben kindly dropped us off at the Washington Monument for our time to go up to the observation deck (which was very hard to get!  I tried to reserve it for the day before when the tickets went live, but they were sold out in less than a minute, so I was ready to push the button quickly for the chance to go on Saturday).  Evie absolutely loved our time up on the deck, to the point she said she didn't want to leave.  Each window had a map of what you could see below so she enjoyed looking at the key and matching the buildings.

Looking east toward the Capitol Building

South, at the Jefferson Memorial

West, at the reflecting pool and Lincoln Memorial

And North, at the White House

Evie, pointing out the Jefferson Memorial

We strolled down the lawn toward the billion food trucks available to find one that would satisfy Evie's ice cream hankering she'd been having for the past 3 days and we enjoyed enormous ice cream cones while sitting on the lawn.

More cherry blossoms

With only a couple of hours to kill before we needed to go to the airport and our feet being very tired, we opted to drive to Arlington National Cemetery where we took the tram to see the Kennedys' resting places with the eternal flame, the grave of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and the tomb of the unknown soldier.  We happened upon a wreath laying ceremony at the unknown soldier, and I also learned that the remains of the soldier from Vietnam were actually identified in 1998 and he was moved to a resting place near his family.  

The seating area for the Tomb of the Unknown Solider

The mast of the USS Maine

We got a quick dinner, filled up the car with gas (which didn't take long - I haven't mentioned but it was the tiniest car with barely enough room for our backpacks and one small carryon.  Good thing we packed light.  And I think it had a 9 gallon tank.) and headed to the airport.  Unfortunately as we were parking the car, we were alerted that our flight to CLT was delayed.  We checked at the ticket counter and they thought we would still be able to make our connection to Memphis, but soon there came another delay announcement that ensured we'd miss it.  We tried to rebook our connecting flight, but they had nothing until Monday!  Seth finally found one for Sunday that would go from DCA to ORD to LIT, so we figured we'd just rent a car in Little Rock and drive home.  We got our seats all changed and then booked a hotel for the night.  I tried to get us a rental car for the next day but there were none in the whole Little Rock area!  Fortunately, Granna said she'd be able to come to our rescue, so we didn't panic and enjoyed our room at the Embassy Suites, which I got for free through hotel points.

This is our "Oh well" pose at our hotel which had a cool kaleidoscopic picture of the Pentagon

We had to be at the airport at 6 am, so it was an early night and an early morning, but we made our flights with no problem.  We even got upgraded to first class on the Chicago to Memphis leg.

Evie, owning the DCA airport at 6 am

Waiting at the gate after a breakfast of crepes

Last looks at DC

Chicago

My little traveler

1st class!

Obviously, we had a really wonderful and busy trip!  I am so proud of Evie.  She kept up with our pace the whole time without complaint, enjoyed so many of the more "grown up" sites.  She still appreciated the days at the pool, but unlike the kids in front of us at the Air & Space Museum, she wasn't complaining that she'd rather be at the pool than seeing museums and historical/political sites.  She is such an incredible little girl.  I hope this will be a trip she remembers fondly and feels was a good education.