Mt Vernon April 24 early stop

Ann is shown with George and Martha Washington and Martha's grandchildren (George's step grandchildren). George Washington may have been the father of the country but he had no biological children.

His marriage to Martha was, by all accounts, a good one but one of the problems was that Martha's possessions, including slaves, were not common property. Thus, although George, by some accounts, wanted to free all the slaves in his lifetime, he was legally unable to do so (in  his will he freed what he could and Martha freed the rest a year after George's death.

Mt Vernon mansion from the front (Apr 24)

The mansion hasn't changed much since we saw it previously several decades ago.

What has changed is that there are more buildings open, more artifacts viewable, more interpretative displays and a cruise option (which we didn't take).

One of the oddities about GW is his teeth. He had 8 different sets of dentures. None of them was made of wood, notwithstanding the legend. Many of GW's teeth were stored at the U of Maryland Dental School Museum of Dentistry in Baltimore.

Yorktown Apr 24 PM

We drove to Yorktown from Mt Vernon and got there a bit before sunset.

Ann posed between General George Washington (left) and Admiral Francois DeGrasse (right). The Admiral brought the naval forces that defeated the British in a naval engagement on Sept 5, 1781 and effectively bottled up General Cornwallis in Yorktown. Actual records indicate that this meeting took place on DeGrasse's flagship Ville de Paris on September 17. Washington and General Rochambeau (a French General) then brought ground troops to Yorktown (from New Jersey) arriving on Sept 28 and Cornwallis surrendered on October 17, 1781.

sunset at yorktown april 24

We saw a nice sunset sitting on the dock at Yorktown. The boat in the image is the Schooner Alliance which offers sunset sails from the Yorktown pier.

I don't think they sailed at all that evening and in fact I don't think they sail until the 'season' arrives May 1 or so.

The image is taken from the Yorktown Romantic Sunset Cruises website.

Williamsburg April 25

We were one of the first people to arrive in the Historic District on April 25. This was a good thing as there was quite a bit to see. 

This is us in front of the Royal Governor's mansion. A district guide (I think he was a native of Germany who lived just west of Salzberg, Austria, across the Salzach River) who gave us an initial briefing, also took the image for us.

Back of the Gov's Mansion April 25

The back of the Governor's mansion is quite a bit better looking than the front. There is a gold shield with the seal of Queen Anne who reigned from 1702 to 1714 following the death of William III (husband of Anne's sister Mary).

The back of the mansion has lots of gardens of various kinds and large sculpted box woods.

We also were treated to a briefing circa June 12 1776 by an actor portraying Patrick Henry (the image comes from a post by a RW Daley of SC) who was very proud of the Declaration of Rights that was approved by vote that day (much of the language found its way into the Declaration of Independence and/or constitution) and made the point that the Republic was born that day in Virginia, not the next month in Philadelphia. The actor took questions (including those about women's rights and the issue of slavery) and nicely answered as Patrick Henry might have plausibly done so.

Duke of Gloucester Steet Williamsburg April 25

Ann was on Duke of Gloucester Street when a horse drawn carriage was coming by. Since it was also near an oak tree that is known to be over 300 years old, I took a picture.

There are a lot of horse drawn carriages in the Williamsburg historic district and by the end of the day, there is a lot of their waste. 

As it turns out, while the horse drawn carriages of this century frequently have large bags to catch horsewaste before it hits the streets, historic Williamsburg chooses the more historic method of letting it fall as it may (I presume they pick it up early each am or late at night).

Mock Trial in Williamsberg April 25

We were at a mock trial at the courthouse. They disposed of 3 cases fairly quickly: one was a girl apprenticing herself (the appearance in court was required since she was only 14), one was a tavern owner suing a man from NC who wanted to pay her with NC paper money instead of VA money or gold or silver (the judges ruled for the Tavern owner and admonished the N Carolinian with the words "welcome to Virginia" and one with a fellow complaining about the conditions of roads near his residence (he was appointed the new Road commissioner but at no salary - he would have to coerce his neighbors into helping fix the roads). The fellow pointing is the clerk of the court. The judges are gentry appointed by the Governor and they are advised on legal matters by the clerk.

The image is from a site created by a man named Richard Daley of SC. He has about two dozen nice images and some commentary on his visit to Williamsberg (but not much on any individual image). I didn't try to get an image in the court.

GWashington Reviews Troops April 25 pm

We saw a bit of 'reenactment' of a review of troops by General Washington. This would have been before the land siege of Yorktown in 1781. It is quite doubtful if such a review would have actually taken place as Washington had marched his forces from New Jersey and would have had little time for a side trip to Williamsburg before engaging at Yorktown. There is also no evidence that troops from Williamsburg participated in the siege of Yorktown.

FWIW, Washington's success at Yorktown is thought to have been, at least in part, because of a rouse. Washington produced a phony plan to attack the British in New York, built some phony siege stations, and arranged for the plan to fall into the hands of the British General Clinton. Clinton then decided not to reinforce Cornwallis at Yorktown.

The images are from RW Daley (of SC)'s website on Williamsburg.

Jamestown April 26

Jamestown was founded in 1607. 

Almost nothing was preserved from the first settlement which just barely survived the first three winters and did not prosper until several dozen years after its founding. 

No gold or silver was discovered and early efforts to grow silk and other cash crops failed. 

However, by 1630 tobacco was found to grown well, many settlements along the Chesapeake Bay were established and the fort at Jamestown became large enough to be imposing.

A statute of John Smith is in the park. Captain Smith kept the colony from breaking up some of the early years. He was injured in an accident and returned to England. His writing were important in reconstructing the history of the colony and also inspired the Plymouth Massachusetts landing in 1620.

These images are from a website built by Galen Fry Singer.

Ships at port in Jamestown april 26

Three reconstructed ships are docked at the landing in Jamestown. The largest is well over 100 feet long and the high mast is about 100 feet high.

These were the three ships that landed in  sailed from England in Dec 1606 and landed in what became Jamestown in May 1607 (they first sailed to the West Indies to get water and food before going north). 

As one might imagine, the living quarters are not great. They carried about 100 men (50 died within a year).

The image is from an aol travel site.

May 6 at Alexandria, VA harbor

We got to Old Town Alexandria in the am and parked (the May 6 trip as a whole was my combo birthday/mother's day gift).

Then we walked around a bit and got coffee and waited for a watertaxi to take us to the Gaylord Harbor.

The image is us at a pier near where the water taxi docks.

The watertaxi itself isn't much to look at but their website is here.

The other image is from that site with the water taxi nearing the Gaylord Resort.

May 6 - arrival at Gaylord Resort - about noon

The Gaylord National Resort has its own harbor which is bigger than the one in Alexandria with considerable covered area but no shops, rest rooms, etc.

It is a few minute walk to the resort. Uphill too but pleasant and with nice vegetation.

May 6 Gaylord Resort Front Yard

We got to the middle of the Gaylord National Resort Front yard. There are sculptured gardens so the path to the building itself is pretty nice.

You can see the Wilson Bridge in the background.

Near the Entrance

Near the front entrance of the Gaylord Resort is a little waterfall. It is along a little path with a little stream.

In back of the waterfall is the facing of the near atrium. There are two atria. The one you can see in this image is about 11 stories high. There is another behind it that is 18 stories high.

The waterfall is only about 4 feet high but sets off the atrium nicely.

M & A with the Babe

There is a Sports Bar in the Resort.

In the bar is a private dining room which has a statue of Babe Ruth (personally I don't see why they were unable to use a Washington Senator player but since Babe Ruth was born and grew up in Maryland, I suppose it could be considered appropriate).

The Sports Bar also has a pair of 30 foot screens. While we were there, they were covering an NBA and a MLB game. 

Beer was not too unreasonable ($6 for a Miller GD).

From the 2nd Floor Ballroom

 The 2nd floor ballroom is the bottom of the higher atrium. 

In the image Ann is seen with the smaller atrium in the near background and the Wilson Bridge in the far background.

On the 1st floor (the bottom of the smaller atrium) there are restaurants (including the sports bar) and shops.

Between the 1st and second floor is a mezzanine level with the Registration area and some banquet areas.

View from the 19th Floor

The elevator stops at the 19th floor. There is a little foyer there and some good views. The top image is of the National Harbor and the adjacent hotels and shops. The bottom image is of Gaylord Harbor.

Both images have the Wilson Bridge in the near background. In the bottom image the Virginia shore is in the far background. In the top image Washington DC is to the right (and north). The top image shows the VA shore on the left far background and the DC shoreline on the right far background. The Washington monument and the National Cathedral are actually visible from this point (although the image doesn't show it very well). 

back to VA May 6

We took the water taxi back to Alexandria.

We walked around a bit. One thing we visited was the garden of the Carlyle House.

The image is Ann near a row of Camellia Bushes.

As explained by the sign, this house once was at the shore line of the Potomac but is now 3 blocks from the River due to in-filling.

After this we returned home.

June 12 National Arboretum - Mount Hamilton

We went to the National Arboretum on June 10.

The first thing we did was take the tram through the place to get an idea of what was there - its a big place; about 900 acres.

Then we did our first activity. We hiked up Mount Hamilton (about a 1 mile round trip). This is the highest point in the Arboretum and also the highest point (236' above sea level) in SE Washington DC west of the Anacostia River. For comparison, part of Tenleytown in NW DC is about 400' above sea level but most of the 'Federal City' is between 5 and 20' above sea level.

There is a decent view of the Capitol and downtown (its a better view in the winter when the leaves are off the trees).  If it had come out, the Capitol would have been just above Ann's left shoulder in the image with only her.

June 12 - Trees from the Dinosaur Age

The images show Ann in front of trees called Dawn Redwoods. These are conifer trees that are deciduous. That is, they have cones but lose their needles in the fall.

Up to about 70 years ago, the normative view was that all such trees were extinct. However, a small grove of them was then discovered in China.

Since that time, seeds from these trees have been planted in several parts of the world. The National Arboretum has the largest grove of these trees in the Western Hemisphere.

Even though the trees are only about 70 years old, most of them are already over 150' high.

I like this quote from the wikipedia article on the Dawn Redwood (aka Metasequoia),


".. Metasequoia has experienced morphological stasis for the past 65 million years, meaning that the modern Metasequoia glyptostroboides is identical to its late Cretaceous ancestors".

June 12 - Capitol Pillars

In 1848 when the US Capital was built, these columns supported the East Portico. 

When a new dome was completed in 1958 with new larger marble columns, the old columns (which were sandstone) were placed in storage. In the 1990s, the old columns were moved to the National Arboretum. 

 

Across a field from the columns is one of the capitals which serves as the decorative top of a column.

June 12 - Ann's fav tree

Ann's favorite tree is the smoketree.

It is native to the South and the natural smoketree doesn't grow well this far north and even when it does grow, it is usually just a shrub.

However, at the National Arboretum, they have been breeding improved varieties of many plants and they have produced a subspecies that not only thrives this far north but also gets tall.

This tree was near the dawn redwoods. 

The Arboretum has also done a lot of work creating winter hardy azaleas (most of the azaleas in the DC area are offspring of Arboretum created subspecies) and a winter hardy camellia (many of the camellia currently being sold locally are descended from one plant that survived some harsh winters in the 70s in the DC area).

June 12 at the admin building

The national arboretum's administration building was closed for repair but the terrace around it was open.

There is a koi pond just outside the building with hundreds of koi in it (and some people were feeding them).

There is also decorative vegetation. 

The first image is of us in front of a desert willow which is holding spanish moss. There is also an agave plant in that little mini garden. 

The willow naturally only thrives in dry places and the spanish moss only in wet places so its an amusing choice for a combination.