Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Return to the blog

Sorry about not updating. The end of the semester got very busy with a class project, research, grading, and teaching. I just never got around to updating my blog. It was on my todo list, but I just didn't get to it. Then I went on vacation - Virginia for about a week. And because I have nothing better to talk about it today I tell you about my vacation.

The trip was mostly to visit historic places in Virginia. Of course, there was a lot of shopping involved (hey, this is me we are talking about). I did a lot of book shopping on this trip actually. I purchased several books relating to each historic place and I have already started reading two which I will save until another blog (hopefully) later this week.

Mount Vernon - The home of the first President of America, George Washington.  During Christmas time they have an addition to the regular tour, you get to see the third floor.  There is also new museums and exhibits in the Ford Orientation Center and Donald W. Reynolds Museum and Education Center.  If you haven't been there recently, the new exhibits are totally worth the trip.

Colonial Williamsburg - This is were we actually stayed the bulk of the trip.  Although I have been before, it was different this time because I was an adult and I understand a lot more about the history time period.  I really enjoy this historical period.  The place was decorated for Christmas including many of the shops and houses.  There are also special dinner options, we went to this wonderful Christmas feast were I had a salad with the absolutely best ranch buttermilk dressing.  Fun filled fact: when the American revolutionaries stormed the Governor's Palace they removed the weapons on all of the walls, but only after they carefully cataloged each of the weapons.  Therefore, when you visit today they have replaced the weapons with reproductions based on the catalogs.  (Governor's Palace is also one of my favorite buildings to visit).  The Folk Art museum, which I had not visited before, contained many interesting pieces of art.  Although, I will never understand why anyone would want to collect mourning folk art.  However, another fun fact:  Mourning folk art became more common in America following the death of George Washington.

Jamestown and Yorktown - Each place had interesting exhibits.  Not much specific to tell, but interesting exhibits.  You can actually see the original foundation of Jamestown at the Jamestown.  For even more information see the America's Historic Triangle website.

Monticello - The home of Thomas Jefferson (president and author of the Declaration of Independence).  Although I have been before, this time we took the special candle light tour which included seeing the third floor dome room.  The view from Monticello is amazing, but even more amazing from the third floor.

The whole trip was a ton of fun and if you have never been, I totally recommend that you do.  I enjoyed the step back in time.  I also learned that there are many similarities in politics of then to politics now.  Hopefully, I didn't completely bore you during this blog.  I am really going to try and update a little more often - stay tuned.

2 comments:

smomma said...

Sounds like a great vacation. I was starting to worry because you hadn't updated!

Steph said...

Sorry about that! I keep meaning to and just didn't get around to it. School keeps me so busy at times. Hope you and your family is well and had a nice holiday!

I am also glad to know that people still read this blog :-)