Red, White & in Blues: Virginia

As you may or may not know, we are no longer actually in Virginia. We're already over here in Deutschland! But since we did some really cool things while in Virginia, I wanted to share them with you before we get to the Germany part of our life. We were in Virginia for a whole week, and we tore it up. The first day we got into Baltimore from Logan and Colin's dad, who we stayed with and who planned out our itinerary with all the cool things to do, picked us up and took us to see the Washington DC Temple. It is really gorgeous, and happens to be where my parents got sealed :)

This is the exhibit they had on humanitarian aid done by the church. It had a huge part about our vineyard in Madera!

After that, we went to see all the monuments in DC at night. They were all really cool. Colin's favorite was the WWII memorial, its pretty new and really cool.

The Vietnam memorial.

Washington monument

These two are the WWII memorial. One side was for the Atlantic theater, and the other the Pacific theater, surrounded by wreaths for all 50 states and a fountain in the middle. It also had some really poignant quotes on the walls.

Lincoln. The only memorial still bombarded with school age kids at 10 at night.

This is the Jefferson memorial. You have to walk around a lake to get to it. I asked if we had to go to it when we were going to go see his actual house, not just his statue's house, but Colin said yes. It was very pretty though.

Then second day we all drove to Michie's Tavern, which has been around since 1784, and they still feed you in the same way, buffet style with pewter plates, cups, and servers all dressed up in the clothing of that time period. After we ate, we went to Montechello, Jefferson's house.

This is Michie's Tavern, you eat in the small part by the fireplace, The big part is where they used to sleep.

This is Colin trying on an officer's wig from back in the day :)

Monticello.

Me in front of the back of Monticello

Holding hands with TJ. He's about the same height as Colin, must've gotten them mixed up :)

The third day we all went to Colonial Williamsburg to walk around and ate at the King's Arm's, a tavern there. I learned that if your family had a house in Williamsburg back in the day, as long as you pass it down to immediate family members, you can still own and life in your house today. So there are modern people living in their 17th century homes. Its pretty cool. That night we stayed in a hotel in the area called the Duke of York hotel, it's right at the mouth of the Chesapeake bay and the York River. Every room had a beautiful view

This is the House of Burgesses.

Some random volunteer fighting for American freedom from the Brits

If you can't tell, this is a fluorescent light bulb in an 1700s lantern. I thought it was pretty funny, but it probably helps keep the buildings from burning down, unlike a candle, which might speed up the process...

The good guys... or the bad guys depending.

The British are coming!

The view from our hotel.

The boat in the Yorktown harbor

The fourth day we visited Jamestown the first successful American colony settled in 1607. We visited both the original site and a replica created to look as if you were walking where the original settlers walked. I personally liked the real fort, as they were doing archaeological excavations there as we walked by, and told us how they were learning where they placed the buildings, how they built them, and why.

Some of the excavations of the old church where Pocahontas and John Rolfe got married

More excavating. This was a Civil War bomb proof built above the original town.

What the layout of the fort was like. For years they thought it had fallen into the river, but then someone came by and said I dont think that makes sense, and lo and behold they found it.

One of the boats we went on in the second Jamestown. It is a replica of the one some of the original settlers came to Jamestown in.

The fifth day we spent in Alexandria and at Mount Vernon. We saw Washington's home, which would be a lovely home even by today's standards, minus the old decorations on the inside. It was cool to learn that it has been maintained and a tourist site of sorts even during the Civil War. Also, Washington would have rathered his home burned than his housekeeper entertain a British Soldier. Too bad he wasn't home to enforce that when the soldier came by. This was supposed to be our last day in Virginia, but when we got to BWI to get on our military flight to Germany, they wouldn't let us on. Colin had to have an active duty card, but we had been told he couldn't get one until he had been received by his gaining unit. But we couldn't get to our gaining unit without the card. Luckily his dad was still pretty close by, so he took us back to his house and to get an ID card the next day.

the restaurant we went to in Alexandria. Colin got a free pastry :)

A paddle boat in the harbor near Alexandria. We saw it later on down the Potomac river by Mount Vernon.

Me in front of Washington's house.

Colin and I standing behind Washington's house. He had a great view.

The sixth day was spent entirely in getting the ID card and the flight to Germany. The guy who gave us the ID card also gave Colin and accidental promotion :)

The seventh day we spent in the Baltimore area so we were close by for our flight. We went to see some cool ships and a light house in the harbor. Then Colin's dad dropped us off at the airport, where we finally got on the flight. Ultimately it was a great trip, and we got to spend some time with Colin's dad, which was really nice.