Travels in History

Day Four: Colonial Life in 18th Century Virginia

Today we looked at the ways people lived in 18th century Virginia, starting on a middling size plantation. The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation has created Great Hope Plantation to show modern visitors what such a place would have been like, but it is smaller than they would have been, and much to close to the Capitol city. Other than that, however, they do everything they can to represent the buildings, crops, livestock, and work of a middling plantation in the 18th century.

We learned about the slave trade, and the conditions for slaves on small plantations. 

Of course the big topic was tobacco, how to plant it, tend it, harvest it, and what a big pain it is to work on. We certainly got a quick taste of how hot it was working in the fields. We were there first thing in the morning, but it was still amazingly hot and uncomfortable, and there was no way to get cooler unless a light wind happened to reach you.

We got a mini-lesson on splitting the tobacco plant and getting it ready to dry in the barn.

More later, it is time to start Day 5.

Day Three: Government!

Today was hot, no surprise, but we did not have long periods outside, and we drank water all the time, so we were all fine.  On our way to the Palace around 1:30 in the afternoon I checked the weather channel app on the phone, and it said 104. And then there is the humidity.

Bunny, our guide for the day, calls this a magic room, and she has a good point. That big chair in the back is original, it was here in the 1760s.  And we talked about the men who learned how to govern in this room: Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, James Madison, George Mason, Edmund Randolph, just to name a few. They were all here. Well, the building burned down several times, so this is a reconstruction, but they had all the plans. And the chair is the real thing.

We moved into the building next to the palace, the oldest government archives in North America, or so they claim, to do an elections activity. Then on to the courthouse for a trial.

We had good strong leadership from this fellow, who played the part of the chief justice himself.

He got some help from our teachers as the clerk and the other justices, as well as the plaintiff and the defendant, we are just to the right and left of this photo.

Then it was off to lunch, and then into Bruton Parish Church for a discussion of the third, and most local, form of government in the 18th century, the parish. On the way we stopped to enjoy the fife and drums.

Our next stop was the Palace, but we were really there first to take advantage of the AC, because our next program was also about religion. We heard from Moses, a "new light" minister. He was one of the two founders of the first Baptist church in Williamsburg, so he was a dissenter.

 

After our Great Awakening interpretation, including some excellent singing, we had a short break, and then a visit from Lady Dunmore. I have seen Darcy Tucker do Lady Dunmore on each of my previous visits, but as always she was impressive! Her command of the character is masterful!

She took us through the house, and briefly into the garden, and then back to Palace Advance East to answer more of our questions. At the end, she turned herself back into Darcy and answered questions about how she does the part.

She thought it was great that my photos of her from last year were in so many student projects.

We did some more work after she left, setting up a debate for a few days from now, and doing our application session, before it was time to head to Chowning's Tavern for dinner. As always too much fantastic food.

We had a little break to go back to our rooms, refresh, etc. before our 8:30 tickets to "Mama Said, Papa Said," a two person African story-telling show. It was fantastic again, and the story where the teachers are the four brothers had me laughing so hard I was crying.

I watched the end of the Tour de France time trial, and now am on my way to bed.

Day Two: How Do We Create History

Friday was a primary source, classroom focused day. Which was good, since it meant we spent more time indoors as the news forecast record heat. I don't know if it broke records, but I do know it was hot! We started out at Wetherburn Tavern for a behind-the-scenes look at an 18th century tavern and the family and slaves who worked and lived there.

I love this desk in the private room for rent. Wetherburn impressed his upper class visitors with his fine things, and provided the very best in private rooms to rent. He was very busy when the government was in session.

As we left the main tavern building we looked in the out-buildings:

Preparations for dinner.

Huge spinning wheel.

We went from there to the Dewitt Wallace Museum where we did an excellent activity on how to be more effective using political cartoons in the classroom (I did not take photos).

Then we walked around the collection of paintings, furniture, and other 18th century collections examining the objects themselves, but also how to use 3-d objects to teach history.

My favorite object:

Recognize him? Clearly it is Ben Franklin. But the English potter got it wrong, look at the name on the base.

We traveld to Bruton Heights School where there are classrooms we can use, and did an activity with more primary sources and then enjoyed a fantastic interpreter doing Ann Ashby. I have done this one before, but I enjoy it every time.

We finished the afternoon with an exploration of the electronic resources available on various CW sites, an application session, and dinner brought in to us.  Most of us took a trip to the visitor center afterwards to start our shopping at the bookstore there.

 

Our First Full Day

The forecast was for hot humid weather, and that is what we got. But it did not stop us from our first full day.

We started out after breakfast at the Williamsburg Lodge driving down the Colonial Parkway to Jamestown.  The site is owned half by the National Park Service and half by Preservation Virginia (formerly APVA). Every time I go there is more of the original fort uncovered.

 Here is one of the major sites of excavation for this summer. You can read more about it here.

Bill Kelso, the man who thought it was really worth looking for the Jamestown landing site, was there working when we visited.

It was close to 100 degrees.

Our next stop was for lunch at the Jamestown Settlement. This is the site of a memorial to the Jamestown settlers and a reconstruction of the fort, a local Powhatan village, and the three ships, the Godspeed, the Susan Constant, and the Discovery. 

The Native American reconstructed village.

The sun came down hard by the docks, it was 1:00, and just about as hot as we could stand. I must admit, since this is a place we visit every year on the Castilleja 8th grade trip, I did not feel too guilty cutting my visit short and spending most of my time in the air conditioned museum. It really is a fantastic museum, renovated completely in 2007 for the 400th anniversary.

 I walked through the reconstructed fort, but I did not stay long. I did stop in the church, and thought about how men must have felt coming from England, and maybe having seen churches there, like King's College Chapel in Cambridge, and then to come to what they saw as wilderness and listen services in a rough wooden church like this one. In some ways the small global world seems to start with this kind of change. A small group of Europeans coming to the Americas, and settling in, changing the world, but not living long enough to see the results.

We took the bus back to Williamsburg and took a short break. I came back to the room and happened to catch the exciting finish of Stage 15 of the Tour de France. We met back up at 4:30 and Paige took us on a tour of some of the historic district.

We walked from Brick House Tavern, where I am staying, and many of the other teachers are too, down to the Governor's Palace.  We were hot.

I imagine this guy was even hotter.

We had a wonderful dinner at Christina Campbell's Tavern, and then finished the day reading and discussing documents in the basement of Brick House Tavern.

Back in Williamsburg

I am back in Williamsburg for a third Teacher Institute. I am the Peer Facilitator for week 16. I got here yesterday, after uneventful flights from SFO to Atlanta and then Atlanta to Newport News. I was in time to have a quick lunch with my friend Claire, who is a post doc at William and Mary. I wandered around a bit yesterday, but spent a good deal of the afternoon in the air conditioned lobby of the Williamsburg Inn waiting for my room to be ready. There were several elementary teachers from Utah there (we came from Atlanta on the same flight). They were really tired, and several of them kept falling asleep! They had their orientation last night, so I hope they were able to refresh themselves a bit once they got in their rooms at 4:00.

I was put in Market Square Tavern for the first night.

My room was upstairs on the far left of the photo.

I met with my folks for a nice dinner, and then came back to my room to crash and watch the Tour de France. I am afraid I slept through most of it, and then turned out the light and slept until almost 9am.  I was both tired and jet lagged.  But today I feel all set, and am ready to go.

I watched today's tour before checking out of my room in Market Square Tavern. I wandered around and watched a bit of Revolutionary City, then had lunch at Chowning's Tavern.  But then I had work to do, so I headed for the AC in the William and Mary Bookstore cafe where I finished my handout for teachers.

Recruiting for the Continental Army in Revolutionary City.

Now I am settling into my room in the Brickhouse Tavern. I will unpack and get organized for our orientation tonight. 

It is not really this misty, I think there was fog on the lens after I came out of air conditioning and took this photo.

 

 

 

 

Back to Blogging

I realized that one of the things I liked about blogging in Cambridge was the reflective nature of even the quickest posts. So I am going to start blogging here again, even if the traveling I am doing is much more local!

And since so much of my Cambridge reflection was on bikes, I thought I would start with a quick bike post. 

Since we have been back we have tried to think more about bikes as a primary mode of transportation, and we have been pretty successful at biking the kids to school, and doing our shorter trips on two wheels. For example, I found a nice safe bike route to the Redwood City Target. It is less than 2 miles, and I can avoid El Camino. We have also biked to the YMCA, Alex much more so then me, which is a nice long ride to add to the weight training. It is over 14 miles round trip.

So here are some photos of my most frequent ride, to Peninsula School!

Along Bay Road, Daniel in front, followed by Elizabeth.

Berkeley Ave.

Our destination, Peninsula School.

I have done the trip up to three times in a day, it is 2 miles each way. Except for the current construction on Bay Road at the moment, it is a nice ride.

Our Last Day in Cambridge

We spent much of the day packing, and cleaning up the house. We have one more checked bag than we came with, which is not bad, I think. It is a giant cardboard box, just under the inches limit for checked luggage. Mostly it is filled with the giant wicker bike baskets we got, but of course the extra space around them came in handy for a few other things we bought over the three months. And we donated some items to Oxfam too, all part of the global flat world.

Off to the city centre.

So many of these bikes around Cambridge, such a sensible way to travel.

King's in more beautiful sunshine.

We saw this magpie on the way back to the house.

They raced up the street to the house, but have to wait for me with the key.

Flowers blooming out in the back yard.

We never sat outside, but I think if we had a few more days like today we would have!

The children are slightly addicted to my iPad. I think they are playing Angry Birds here, but it might be Harry Potter Scene It or Cut the Rope.

We are all packed, and we are optimistic that none of the bags are over the allowed 23 kg. The hire care will arrive at 4:45 am tomorrow to take us to Heathrow. Our adventures in Cambridge are coming to an end. But I can't imagine that we won't come back to England, somehow.

 

Sunny Thursday

In the morning Elizabeth and I walked to the knitting group. What a wonderful sunny day. I don't really recognize Cambridge with all this sun and warmth.

Sun in the backyard.

The market in the sun.

King's in the sun. There are green leaves on the tree!

The Mathematical Bridge. After knitting group, which included a potluck lunch today, we met the rest of the family in town and set off for Grantchester.

Elizabeth has become quite good at whistling with a blade of grass. But she says it is hard to find the right kind of grass here.

Lots to take photos of here.

Leading the way across the meadow.

No coat, but the hat stays on.

Relaxing outside at the Orchard.

Tea, scones, and photographs.

A bee landed on my bag. Elizabeth noticed that it could not fly because it had a dead spider stuck to its wing. We spent a long time trying to get the spider off. Alex got most of it, but we had to leave it in a tree. We hope it got the rest off itself.

"But Grantchester! ah, Grantchester!
There's peace and holy quiet there,
Great clouds along pacific skies..."

Rupert Brooke

Elizabeth and I walked back while the others took a taxi. I should have taken the good camera, the sky was amazing.

I could not stop taking photos.

Flowers in bloom.

Can I just stay right in this spot?

Back in town.

I wish American cities were this well sign-posted.

Dramatic sky over King's College Chapel.

 

Back to London!

Daniel had suggested going to the Science Museum, and we did not want to rush on Tuesday, so we decided to go back on Wednesday, leaving a little later, and packing a lunch for the train.

The sun is out and look, there are green leaves on the trees!

In the taxi on the way to the station. I love there there are plenty of cabs with room for six in the back.

We took the Tube from King's Cross to South Kensington and walked to the museums. I liked this poster.

Linda went to the V&A, while the rest of us went to the Science Museum. We were more awake this time, and more able to enjoy it.

Visiting museums on weekdays means more school groups. They are hard to miss. Some of them have on matching hats, rather than vests. And most of them have school uniforms too.

Back to the cool globe with the changing satellite images.

I loved the exhibit on "The Secret Life of the Home" with technologies and systems for every part of the home, from these automatic tea machines to home security, ironing, games, etc.

I think this is the look Elizabeth gave me when I said something about listening to records when I was a kid.

First generation iPod at the museum. You can read about how it got there here.

Time for a rest near the pontoon plane.

Cool stuff.

And blue sky above!

We walked over to the V&A to meet Linda and have some tea. 

Alex and Daniel discuss the next move.

The V&A really does have the most amazing decorations in the cafe.

One stop on the tube to Knightsbridge and Harrods.

We looked around the food halls a bit. Crowded, expensive, and amazing!

Then up to toys, where there were many fun things to look at.

We do not need more soft toys!

We had dinner down the block at a pub, then headed back to King's Cross where we got the 7:45 train back to Cambridge.

Trip to London

Today we set out to London with two destinations in mind: the Transport Museum and the Eye. We set out from a very crowded Cambridge train station on the 10:26.

That hat is really easy to see in a crowd.

We took the tube to Covent Garden and of course had a quick stop in the market. Then we had lunch at the Transport Museum Cafe. Not an amazing success with the kids! But they were good sports about the unfamiliar food.

Daniel followed the stamping map for kids. Elizabeth gave her's back, she is too cool for that sort of thing!

Mostly about public transport, bikes do make a few appearances at the museum.

   Great old London busses.

 Students on a field trip are easy to find in these vests!

Isn't that the truth.

Nice hat.

 Not sure why Elizabeth was giving me "the look" here in Covent Garden Market. We actually had a lovely time. The kids got leather bound journals. They are lovely, and Daniel has been writing a story in his!

Walking to the Tube.

Daniel was excited to go to Cleopatra's Needle, since it is so important in the Red Pyramid.

Daniel wanted everyone in the photo, Elizabeth was not so sure.

With the Sphinx.

Our next stop was the London Eye. We got very lucky, and had the entire flight to ourselves!

Daniel drawing in his new journal.

Elizabeth took this one of me.

You just can't beat the view from here! 

Plenty of room for us to spread out and relax. There were other people there, and even several large groups, but there was no line, and we just happened to walk up at a time when there were no others around.

Fantastic views, even with cloud cover.

Elizabeth took this one too.

 Almost back down, time to put on coats.

Next stop, a little refreshment.

We walked a little way along the Embankment to cross the river.

Elizabeth with Big Ben.

Working our way toward the bridge.

Maybe I should take a few more photos without the hat. But he wears it all the time.

The Eye dominates the skyline, but in a good way.

We took the Tube back to King's Cross, grabbed some quick dinner, and caught the 7:15 back to Cambridge.