Life Outside the Perimeter: Catching up, Episode 1, Part 1: Virginia

OK, I have fallen way behind on posting updates on here. A good bit of that is because there was a long gap in my travels After last year's trip to London, I didn't go on another trip really until this past July. Basically, just over 11 months. But I have made up for it by going on two trips in just under two months. No, I still haven't made it to Amsterdam or Brussels. I did go to Williamsburg, Va. And Washington DC for the Fourth of July. That is what this post is about. I also went to Anaheim in late August, but I'll get to that in another post.

So, I had decided I wanted to go somewhere patriotic for the Fourth of July this year. I had it narrowed down to a few places. One was Williamsburg, another was Washington and Philadelphia and Boston rounded out the list.

Boston was kind of a long shot because it is so far to drive up there and while it could be done - I pulled it off in 2010 when I drove up to Detroit, then over to Toronto, up to Montreal and then down to Niagara Falls before coming home via Columbus OH in the span of a week - that kind of long distance driving in one week is tough on the body. I've always had an affinity for Boston and every time I go, I want to see everything all over again.

Philadelphia was more manageable but I've seen much of it before and there only a few things left that I'm interested in seeing (the Liberty Bell, national portrait gallery and Ben Franklin's grave). Basically a two-day trip.

So it ended up being Williamsburg and Washington. I've been to both places before but there were still a few things I hadn't seen and what I had already seen was good enough to warrant seeing it again.

Let me start by saying Williamsburg must be the pancake house capital of the world. There was a pancake house next to my hotel. Another one a few doors down the street. Two more a half mile farther down the street.

One of the first things I did in Williamsburg was visit the Jamestown settlement for the first time ever. As you enter, you are greeted by flags from all 50 states and plaques listing when each state was admitted to the union. As you walk past these flags, they lead you to a fountain designed to look somewhat like the ship that brought the first Jamestown settlers to Virginia.

Of course, there are recreated villages and three ships that you can tour docked on the James River. They actually represent both sides of the story of Jamestown's founding. There is an indian village and a recreation of the early Jamestown structures. They also have demonstrations about musket firing and blacksmith work.

There is also a lengthy museum chronicling seemingly every detail of the life of Jamestown.

After leaving Jamestown, I headed over to Busch Gardens Williamsburg. This is the European-themed Busch Gardens. They have England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, France and Italy represented. Honestly, it's like Epcot Center with real rides. Of course, given my Irish heritage, I stopped by and got a pint of Guinness at a pub in "Ireland." Then I had Shepherd's Pie at a restaurant next door.

That night provided me with my first fireworks show of the trip. Every night, Busch Gardens does a fireworks show over Germany and Italy which draws plenty of oohs and ahhhs from the crowds.

So that was day 1. The next day took me to Colonial Williamsburg.

Colonial Williamsburg is a fantastic place to visit, even though I've been there a half dozen times in my life. Everywhere you turn, there is something cool going on. And I went on the Fourth of July, so there was a lot going on. One of the first things I did was pick up a tri-corner hat at a tent sale.

Now, I'm pretty sure they didn't have tent sales back in the colonial day. If they did, it probably wasn't filled with all of the zeal of people picking over items like they were shopping at a yard sale. Thats really what it felt like - as if you'd stopped off in someone's front yard and you were picking over their belongings. At least it was all colonial period-influenced items on sale. That made it cool.

But, as soon as I walked out of the tent sale, I came across a curious sight - the Colonial Williamsburg auction. Now coming from the south, you're kind of used to auctioneers rambling numbers off at such a high rate of speed that the words they are saying sound like unintelligible gibberish. I believe it was the comedian Stephen Fry who complained the sound of a southern auctioneer to that of a banjo. The auctioneer at Colonial Williamsburg broke the stereotype, and its good that he did. It's hard to take man dressed in the same vein as George Washington seriously as a historical re-enactor when he's speaking like some sort of mountain hillbilly slack-jacked yokel.

I bought nothing from the auction, but it was fun to watch. It was mostly little household items for which I have no storage space but the auctioneer was witty and lets be honest, it featured a bunch of people running around in colonial costumes. I tweeted out one of my pictures from the auction and colonial Williamsburg featured it later on its slideshow of tweets about the sites on the Fourth of July.

Most of the rest of the day was spent waking around, checking out the sites, doing a little shopping and being entertained by re-enactors. I guess you could also call them living history docents if you prefer a fancier name. Either way, there were a lot of them.

There really isn't much to say about the afternoon. I did get what has to be the biggest cupcake I had seen up to that point in my life. It was huge! The base alone was the size of my palm ( You can't tell that in the picture below because it was sitting on my finger tips at the time). Of course, being the this was a patriotic place, and it was the Fourth of July, they covered it in red, white and blue M&Ms. It was delicious although a bit rich because of all of the chocolate. I couldn't finish it.

I also got to see demonstrations from the drum and dude corps. Now, I have to admit the fife demonstration was insightful because they went over what all of the fife calls meant trips in the continental army were supposed to do. The drum demonstration however - not so insightful. It was mostly "When you play the drum, the basic rudimental playing technique called a paradiddle." Now, if you've never learned to bang a drum before, I could see where that would be interesting. I played the drums and other percussion instruments for seven years in middle and high school, however. Granted its been 17 years since i last really played a drum, but if they'd asked for volunteers, I could have done it. I would have been a little rusty, but I could have done a paradiddle, a double paradiddle and triple paradiddle. As it were, I kept my mouth shut and played dumb. "Oh, that's how you play a drum? That's fascinating. No, I didn't first learn how to do that 24 years ago."

Later on, the drum and dude corps gave a performance of the various states call to arms so ga from the Revolutionary War. These were basically the state songs before we had state songs. They had almost every state represented - EXCEPT GEORGIA. Now I know people like to make fun of Georgia because its the "Deep South" ( also now known on occasion as the "Dirty South"), but come on people. I swear I heard you introduce South Carolina, and the only things to come out of that state have been rice, Myrtle Beach, Strom Thurmond and the beginning of the south's secession from the Union. Hrrmmmpphhh

After a bite to eat at a pub, I watched the fire works show at Colonial Williamsburg. It had no musical accompaniment, even though the Virginia Symphony Orchestra performed right before the fireworks began.

On my final day in the Williamsburg area, I capped off the Patriotic trilogy by visiting the Yorktown Battlefield, run by the National Park Service. To be perfectly honest, there is a tour of the battlefield which reads something like a history class lesson. We had a good tour guide though, who made it entertaining by being animated in her description of the battle.

There is actually still a town called Yorktown, but its a small town. Just a few houses and a Congressman's office. I would suggest that visit the state of Virginia's Yorktown museum if you want a more fulfilling visit to the Battlefield. I'm just not sure about one of the signs that greets you as you walk into the site.

I won't call it racist, at least not intentionally racist, but hey promote their Living History farm with a picture of a white woman overseeing two modern-day black people working the farm. The farm is supposed to show people what life was like in Yorktown at a time when Virginians still owned slaves .... Yeah.

Despite that ... unique introduction, this place is actually pretty cool. They have demonstrations of how to make socks and due them different colors, how to preserve and cook food, how to farm (of course) and what life was like in a Continental Army encampment.