Thanksgiving 2011

What a priviledge to spend Thanksgiving in Williamsburg.  We  have so much to be thankful for and it was a joy to celebrate it with our dear friends and travel partners in crime, The Stevens family.  We started off the day with a glorious sunrise and then spent the morning at Williamsburg.  On the way to Williamsburg, Stefan was very talkative and shared that he was thankful for Grandpa Bell because "he can make things in the shop and he takes time to have me draw what I'm going to make.  He might be the best grandpa in the world.  I like Grandpa Israel for hunting.  When it comes to kid stuff, I like Grandpa Bell better, when it comes to hunting, Grandpa Israel better.")  Walking into the vistor center, we were greated with the glorious sounds of the trombone.  What a nice welcome!!! The orientation movie was awesome and put a face with Patrick Henry (Virginia's Sam Adams).  It  depicted the strife and hard choices Virginia was faced with after The Boston Tea Party.  It was moving to see so many prominent leaders come together (from the suggestion of Thomas Jefferson) to pray.  They met on June 1 in Bruton Church where we will worship on Sunday.  The movie closed with a great quote, author unknown for me at this point....."If one wants to be free, one must learn to choose."  We went to the Powell home that had a lot of hands on activities for children.  Janae and Stefan loved trying out the feather bed, they both learned proper bowing and courtsey technique and Stefan learned how to weigh colonial money.  We spent the rest of the day swimming, eating fabulous food and swapping trip stories with the Stevens.  We enjoyed getting to visit with Nancy (Susan's mom) as we think so much of her. They are  heading back to Colorado and we will miss them on the open road.  It has been a blast to hook up with them and have appreciated all their trip mentoring.  We wish them safe travels back home.

Visiting Cousin

Highlights today were settleing into a new gorgeous campsite, doing laundry, school and grocery shopping.  Tonight we got to have dinner with Sondra's 2nd cousin Joyce and her husband Steve.  It had been  years since last seeing them and it was wonderful to reconnect over a pizza dinner in their beautiful new home.  It was fun to get to know Steve better and learn of the big impact he's done with Royal Rangers.  Janae and I loved seeing Joyce's handiwork and Janae and Stefan loved playing games on her Ipad. 

Yorktown

• It began at Jamestown in 1607.  In ended and began anew at Yorktown in 1781.  174 years of hope, adventure, discovery, settlement, struggle, suffering, war, grouwth and development that saw the country expand from a lonely English settlement of 104 men and boys on the James River into 13 Bristish Colonies.  It ended for Great Britain in a port town on the York River, where independence for the new United States became a reality.                                                                                                                                                             Nov22nd-We had a wonderful day today meeting up with our dear friends Carolyn, Alex and Mac.  These are dear church friends that we met in Colorado.  Chris in in the Navy and they have temporarily  relocated to Virginia Beach.  They were so kind to drive over today and join us for our history lesson.  It was so great to catch-up albeit it was too short but we thoroughly enjoyed reconnecting.  Janae especially loved wearing her period dress that they brought and we all devoured the delicious  homemade chocolate pumpkin bread they made for us.  Always so thoughtful, Carolyn is an amazing cook and is passing on her legacy to her two awesome daughters.

We met at the Yorktown National Historic Site.  After watching the movie, we took a nice stroll into Yorktown,  It's a beautiful little colonial river town with a great Ben and Jerry's and beach!  We made it back to the visitor center just in time to take in the ranger talk on the battle.

Linda Williams was the amazing ranger that kept us spell bound as she portrayed the events that happened  here in 1781 and would be the start of our independence.  Some facts from her fabulous oration that stood out to us:

l.  When Continental Army was badly defeated in Charleston (Benjamin Lincoln was commander) they were not allowed to surrender with full honors.  Instead British made them give up all arms, become Prisoners and carry flags down.

2.  Washington had said "We're getting to the end of our tether and it's now or never".  He  had hoped to take New York and had spent months planning this but got a message that French Admiral DeGrais was coming up from Bermuda with Navy and didn't think he could make it to New York but could make Chesapeake Bay.  To switch gears for Washington at this point was risky since he hadn't researched a pla to go to south.  To  his credit, after 4 days, switched his New York plans and set sights on Chesapeake.  Able to move troops 450 miles without alerting the British in New York.  No easy task.

3.  On the way, Washington got news that the French had taken over the Chesapeake.  Washington who was normally so dignified, went nuts with excitement, his troops thought he had maybe gone crazy.

4.  The Battle of the Capes is one many Americans don't know about but is one of most important Navy battles.  General Grave of the British was so methodical and pedantic that it gave the nervous, disorganized French time to pull it together.  This victory was crucial for the success at Yorktown and without it, we probably wouldn't have gained our freedom.  Curious if this is where saying grave mistake comes from.

5.  Gabients-woven baskets filled with dirt then covered with more dirt were the earthworks used on both sides in this seige.  There is a book, when weather changed  history and in this case it definately helped.  Because it was raining, Washington's troops overnight put up a trench that surely took the British's breath away in the morning.

6.  Ranger told of a general who led readout number 10 in Yorktown battle that lasted 10 minutes in the 10th month of the year.  This person she announced is on the 10 dollar bill. "Who is it?"  Complete silence.  She asked again and Stefan quietly spoke, "Hamilton."

7.  Poetic justice happened when Cornwallis was feeling to sick to come to surrender so gave the honors to his second in command.  Washington felt it fitting then to do the same and his second in command was Benjamin Lincoln.  Remembering Charleston, Britain had to surrender with no honors.

8.  French interested in allies mainly to weaken the British.

Jamestown

Using sea shells to scrape fur off hide

On the Discovery with the Godspeed in foreground

Nov. 21st we spent the afternoon at the Jamestown interpretive center.  We didn't enjoy it as much as Plimouth paritally because the story wasn't  as compelling to us.  Also the Plimouth interpreters always stay in character and we felt like we were really stepping back and living at that time.  Jamestown wasn't quite like this but we really did enjoy the museum. It is first rate and we learned a lot.  Though Jamestown had a rough beginning, it is where our representative form of government began.  Though there are many things that happened that we're not proud of, it is part of our tapestry and journey toward democracy.  Mark and I especially valued learning the history of the slave trade involving the Portuguese colony of Angola.  It was disheartening to see and read how they thought it was so impt. to baptize them and convert them to Christianity even though they were warring and enslaving them.  Many of the people in Angola were literate and had adopted Christian ways.  Queen Njinga of Angola fought valiently with what was happening to her people.  Most Virginian slave holders felt that it was wrong to enslave baptized Christians because they were then now "free from the yoke of slavery" according to the Bible. Therefore, they weren't interested in slaves' religious background or instruction.  Stefan really liked the ship canon firing demonstration. It shook the whole dock and it blew the trees as it went 872 miles per  hour.  A book we will want to get is the Lion to Guard Us.

Summary of Jamestown
l.  1607-The ships Susan Constant, Godspeed, Discovery carried 104 Englishman and a few boys, Captain Newport.
2. Men coming over,  Most hired by Virginia Charter Company to colonize Virginia and send riches back to England. Didn't find gold, sasaphras (root bear made out of), wood, furs, fools gold)
3. Voyage took 4 1/2 months but were well prepared and didn't suffer like the Pilgrims
4. Feared Powhatan Indians and Spanish so built Palisade around fort (Tall, sharp-pointed fence)
5. Misunderstandings by both Indians and Colonists cause of lots of fighting
6. John Smith, bold young man whom not many colonists liked but was great diplomat with Indians.  After a gun fire wound.  Had to return to England and then Indians became very hostile.  The great starving time happened.  Indians had killed pigs and men were seiged by Indians.  After siege, many wanted to return to England, Met  Lord Delware as leaving Jamestown.  He ordered them back.  Church bells rang twice a day to call people to worship.  Big punishments if didn' go to church.  Martial law established order.
7. Pocahontas helped spare John Smith's life and would later marry John Rolfe and become a Christian.  John Rolfe began to experiment and grow tobacco, the variety from South America.  Popular with Englishman, became a popular crop to grow in Virginia. Started making lots of money
8.  1619 a Dutch ship overtook a Potuguse slave ship and brought 19 slaves to Virginia.  Not many people wanted to leave England for the harsh conditions of Virginia so need for slaves grew and grew. 
9.1622 masacre-angry Indians attacked. 
10.  Many Virginia charters. Fourth one dissoved martial law and legislative assembly came into being which is the predessor to Houue of Burgess and House of Representatives.
11.  Jamestown burned 4 times and in 1699 the Capital moved to Williamsburg then to Richmond.
12.  Staggering numbers in the Virginia region:
       IN 1607-104 colonists,estimated 20,000 Powhatan Indians, 0 Africans
       IN 1699-60,000 colonists, 600 Indians, 6000 Africans

Virginia Beach

November 20th-One of the beauties of traveling off season in the fall is seeing awesome places with no crowds and great weather.  We were priviledged today to wake up to a glorious morning.  After a special  home church service outside under the tree in our campground, we headed to Virginia Beach.  We went to Damneck beach which is on the naval base.  This particular beach is where the Navy seals train.  It was beautiful and we virtually had the place to ourselves.  The weather was around 70 degrees and perfect: Not a cloud in the sky, not too hot or cold.  We enjoyed just relaxing and walking.  Janae loved dancing in the sand and Stefan makes sand castles whereever he plops.  Mark and I both lost in our beach foot races.  Man, can these two kids run!!!

At dusk, we stopped by the boardwalk on Atlantic Ave., in Virginia Beach and rode our bikes.  What a glorious evening:  balmy summer temp, pink skies and Christmas lights to boot.  What was a special treat was watching the girl cantor a horse down the beach.  Janae and I could hardly contain ourselves.  It turns out, there is a horse rental business right on the beach.  This has always been a dream and we may go back to do this.

Happy Birthday Annelise

November 18th-Our precious cousin and niece turned 10 today.  We had a wonderful day celebrating.  We started with pumpkin pancakes, bacon and blackberries in Miss Jim B followed by presents.  Janae and Annelise enjoyed making duck tape wallets and then we were off to a young person's concert with the Harrisburg Symphony.  It was very good. Majestic Mountain-Havanehs was the favorite.  Afterwards we went out to a Mexican Restaurant.  We all love you very much Anneslise and can't wait to see you until Christmas!!!