Minivan: Fully Loaded

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She’s growing so fast.  I have a bunch of other pictures to share, but this was one of my favorites!

[This is the next installment of our East Coast trip to DC & NY this past June.   Day 1  here. ]

Early Morning

When the alarm sounded the start of Day 2 it took everything I had to drag myself out of bed.  Though it was 6:30AM local time, my internal clock was screaming at me that it was 3:30AM – not a time to be awake.  To further add to my punishment I hadn’t managed to get to sleep until just after 1AM local time, so I was really hurtin.  And even worse was the fact that the air-conditioner in the room was barely adequate.  I slept in the bed next to it and had it running full blast all night and was still not very comfortable.

Sleep didn’t seem to be a problem for Milee but it still took a bit to get her going.  Considering how early she crashed this surprised me some, but I also wager her internal clock was a bit off as well.

First thing on the agenda was breakfast at 7:00AM.  It was a buffet hosted by the hotel and it wasn’t too bad.  I had some scrambled eggs, sausage, toast and juice.  I don’t recall now exactly what Milee ate, but for the entire trip she was pretty picky about her meals and usually ate “rabbit food” (as she called it).  While not an official vegetarian, she avoids most meat in general.  So most breakfasts consisted of muffins, toast, bagels, juice, and sometimes cereal.

After breakfast we quickly returned to our room to get our stuff.  The trip itinerary only had us staying in the Williamsburg area for a single night/day.  The remainder of the trip was to be spent up north in the DC area.  We therefore finished packing and I snapped a few more pictures of the room.

Milee was a little bored waiting on me to take pictures.

Jamestown Settlement Museum

With everyone loaded up on the bus, we departed for our first official tour of the day: The Jamestown Settlement Museum.

First thing to note – it was already very warm at just after 8:00AM, and the forecast for the Williamsburg area called for a high of 107 degrees and around 70% humidity by early afternoon.  Though a water bottle was on the packing list, we didn’t bring one.   I figured I’d buy one later instead, but hadn’t yet had a chance.  Thankfully our bus driver decided to stock up on bottled water, which he kept ice cold in a huge ice chest where all the luggage is stored.  He generously allowed everyone to take a bottle in exchange for $1.00, which turned out to be a great deal compared to the vending machine prices we encountered later.  Little did I know how many dollar bills I’d be forking over to our fine bus driver throughout this day/trip.

Water now in hand we all headed to the back of the museum to meet our tour guide.

Thankfully there was shade on this side of the building.  Everyone gathered up, divided into groups, and off we went.  (While waiting, I took loads of pictures.  Be sure to check more of them out via the slideshow link at the bottom of this post.)

This museum was great.  It is a re-creation of the original Jamestown settlement in the early 1600’s and is located about a mile from the present day Jamestown site.  I learned tons about the role Jamestown played in American history - it was fascinating.  There is no doubt that much of what I learned throughout the day was stuff I’d studied at one point in school, but it certainly didn’t have the impact that seeing it first hand did. Plus I’m sure my attention span is far greater now than it once was…

For the first part of the tour we enjoyed the cool air-conditioned environment of the building.  Unfortunately no photography or video was allowed inside, but trust me, the exhibits were awesome.  I only wish I’d had more time to spend looking at everything and reading the details provided.  But our tour guide had a schedule to keep so you pretty much had to stay with her or get left behind (this turned out to be a common problem throughout the trip).

Inside we learned about the early English settlers and the African slaves they brought with them.  We also learned a lot about the native Indians - the Powhatans.  It was also fun to learn more about some of the famous people of this time, such as Pocahontas, where the true story is a tad off from the one Disney tells. 

Once we completed the very quick tour inside, we headed out to a re-created Powhatan village (or “town” as the original English settlers called them).  Here we met with some of the “locals” and listened to them describe their daily life.  We looked at the housing they lived in back then, and boy was I further thankful for modern day air-conditioning!  These huts were called “yehakins”.

Moving on from the Indian village we made our way to to the docks and paid a visit to the (fully functional) re-created replicas of the Jamestown “founding fleet” – the Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery.  These three ships arrived at the peninsula on the James River on May 13, 1607 – thirteen years before the pilgrims landed in New England.  And on May 13, 2007 we celebrated the 400th anniversary of this event!  

Seeing these ships was very “cool”, even if it was crazy hot by this point.  (more pics in the slideshow linked below).

On that note - here’s a quick video clip taken onboard the Susan Constant.  Now before you watch, let me give some context.  Prior to this Milee had been giving me a hard time, telling me to “stop complaining” because she didn’t think it was that hot.  She was supposedly loving the weather because it had been “so cold” back home.  Well, if I didn’t know any better I’d say this young lady was a tad miserable.  :)

Yeah, she wouldn’t admit it, but she was hot.  :)

The final stop on the Jamestown tour was a visit to the re-created James Fort.  Originally built in 1610 it housed everything from guardhouses to the church and played a key role in the survival of the early settlers.  We toured the church and learned how the settlers were members of the Church of England and required by law to attend church service twice daily.  The church was also used for important town meetings and was the location for the first legislative assembly in 1619. 

After the church, we walked around a bit and took pictures. 

The grand-finale of the tour was a musket firing demonstration.  Loud, but fun.

Jamestown Glasshouse

After leaving the Jamestown Settlement museum we made a quick stop at the Jamestown Glasshouse.  This was the early settlers first “industrial factory” where they practiced the art of “glassblowing”. 

Today the furnace used to heat the glass is fueled by natural gas, but back in the 17th century that wasn’t an option.  They instead had to burn enough wood to construct a two story house and it took weeks to get it hot enough!

I really enjoyed watching these craftsmen work the molten glass into something beautiful.  We actually purchased a replica of the colonial pitcher we watched being made this day. 

With the glasshouse tour complete, we loaded everyone up and headed for lunch.  And where do you guess we ate??  Yep, good ol’ McDonalds.  Nothing to be impressed with as it is the same food we all know and love/hate.  The only reason it was a hit with the kids was the “all you can eat” clause.  They could order whatever they wanted on the menu – no limit.  Some of boys took it to the extreme and really pigged out.  Milee went with the rabbit food (salad), which was fine with me.  I went for a chicken burger variant.  It was ok.

Once everyone was well fed, we loaded up and headed out to our last tour of the day – Colonial Williamsburg.

Colonial Williamsburg

So by this point in the day the heat had nearly reached it’s maximum.  Just our luck that it turned out to be the hottest day in all of June – it was brutal. 

After arriving at Colonial Williamsburg, we divided back into two groups and away we went on our tour.  For this part of the tour we had two veteran tour guides.  One was 72 years old, the other 77 years old.  Walter (our tour guide) was the senior of the two and he started off by warning us (in a joking tone) that he wasn’t as young as Gayden (the 72 year old) and therefore wouldn’t likely be able to keep up the same pace.  I laughed at this initially, but then thought that there probably is a big difference between 77 and 72 when you’re that old, so who am I to judge?

Turns out Walter wasn’t totally kidding.   Gayden seemed to be far less impacted by the heat and certainly was in better shape.  At one point Gayden told the kids to stop complaining about being tired because if he could handle it, then so could they!  I really liked Gayden.  He was full of great historical data and told so many different stories and provided so many interesting facts that I wish I’d somehow recorded it all.  During one of our chats (while taking a break) I asked Gayden if he was originally from the area, and I learned that while he’d been living in the area for a number of years, he was originally from Maine where you get “10 months of snow, and 2 months of lousy skiing!”.

Anyway, the heat was brutal and it certainly took away from the overall experience, but we stuck it out.  The first building we toured was the Governor’s Palace.  This was definitely the highlight of the tour and due to the heat ended up being really the only thing Walter seemed to be able manage. 

The tour of the inside is done by an employee/actress playing the part of the Governor’s housekeeper.  She was great and even made the kids promise not to tell anyone (especially the Governor) that she allowed them into the house without his explicit permission.  She never went out of character during the entire tour and really made you feel like you had traveled back in time for a bit. 

Inside the house has been restored and furnished to look just like it did during Governor Dunmore’s time.  And I have to say, the decor was certainly unique.  Lord Dunmore seemed to have a love of weaponry and his house reflected it.  The walls in nearly all the halls and stairways where covered in rifles and swords.  He was certainly prepared for the worst!

Overall the Palace was amazing.  As I toured each room I was just in awe at the details in the crown molding and door trim etc.  The attention to detail was everywhere and back then it was all hand-crafted which made it even more impressive. 

Outside the landscaping detail equaled the interior detail. 

I would love to have spent more time enjoying the scenery, but it was just too hot.  So hot in fact, that I believe my camera started to overheat during this part of the tour.  I ended up with a dozen or more corrupted pictures like the following.

This was the only time during the entire trip that I experienced this problem, so the only thing I can assume is that my gear was just too hot.  I know, broken record – but man was it hot and humid!  :)

Overall the Williamsburg area was a lot of fun to visit, despite the heat.  I just wish we could have spent more time there when it wasn’t so miserable.   In the end the heat drove us to blow off parts of the tour and retreat to the shade while we waited for the bus to take us to dinner.

For dinner we ate at a local Italian restaurant named Sal’s.  Unfortunately the only thing “all you can eat” was the cold drinks and air conditioning, but that was just fine!   The majority ordered pizza while a few, like myself, tried the lasagna or spaghetti variants.

Once everyone was fed and refreshed, we loaded up the bus and took off for Washington DC.  From Williamsburg VA it was roughly 3 hours to our hotel, but it felt more like 5 hours.  Some managed to catch some sleep, but I just couldn’t get comfortable.  When we finally arrived at the hotel just outside DC I was beyond looking forward to a nice cold bed.  It was nearly 11pm by the time we got everyone checked into their rooms and down for the night.  It had been a very long day.

Slideshow of Day 2

To be continued - Day 3 (Washington DC): Ford Theater, White House, National Monument, Arlington National Cemetery…

When I was a kid (pre-teen) about the only way I ever earned any money was by working my tail off in my Grandma’s yard pulling weeds or hauling mountains of dirt one wheelbarrow at a time.  A buck an hour back then was good money and I believe in most cases Grandma received her money’s worth…

Well, the other day Tanner and his friend decided they needed to make some money of their own.  And soon a plan was formed.  Did it involve hard laborious work? Nah, they decided to gather up a few pockets full of gravel rocks, taking care to pick a few unique ones that may contain “crystals”, and then proceeded to go door-to-door on our street offering these fine stones to the neighbors for the bargain price of $0.50 each! 

And it worked.

They made just under $10.00 and had they not stopped at home to brag, who knows what their haul would have been.  I couldn’t believe it.

I won’t lie, my reaction wasn’t what they’d expected.  I was upset.   I wasn’t pleased that they would bother the neighbors with what amounted to “begging” in my book.  We already get enough “little beggers” ringing our doorbell trying to sell us overpriced candy or raffle tickets for some kind of fund raiser, and the thought of my kids selling worthless rocks really irked me.

So I set in motion the process of re-visiting each neighbor with Tanner in tow and having him return the money and apologize.  And that is when I realized I had overreacted a little bit.  The neighbors didn’t act annoyed in the slightest.  They just wanted to help the kids out, and one of them even said she thought it was good “Entrepreneurial spirit”.

In the end, they understood my position (even if they disagreed) and the money was returned.  I felt the kids needed to put in more work to earn the money, and offered to let the kids help with yard work or any other chores they may have.  One of them actually accepted and let Tanner pull some weeds from her flower bed (for which he kept the $5 she’d paid him earlier!).

I don’t know.  Maybe I shouldn’t have reacted the way I did to the whole thing.  Maybe I should have been proud of them. 

What I do know is that I have some very kind hearted neighbors living nearby.  I also know I’ll think differently the next time another “little begger” shows up at my door.

First, while I had hoped to blog about the trip each night before going to bed, it ended up not being feasible.  Besides having very limited access to free internet, the schedule we kept during the trip was crazy.  Up and going each morning by 6-6:30AM – back to the hotel by 9-10:00PM.  Rinse, repeat, each day.

Day 1 (June 23, 2010) was no different.  It started with a 6:00AM flight from Seattle WA to Richmond VA.   In order to catch a flight at this insane hour (and allow time to get ~50 people checked in and through security), we had to all meet at Monroe Middle School at 2:30AM for the airport bus.  One would think that a good plan would be to get some early sleep the night before, and I would agree with you, but unfortunately last minute packing and such prevented this from happening – at least for me.  Milee was sound asleep by 10PM.  Come 2:00AM I was a bit wiped, having only dozed for about an hour.

Up and going, we arrived at the school and proceeded to get situated with everyone else on the bus.  As we left the school it was immediately obvious the bus driver contracted for this job was unfamiliar with the area.  He was relying on a GPS to guide him to the airport, and the route it initially selected to get out of Monroe was quite interesting for a bus to maneuver.  Despite the extra travel, we still arrived on schedule and began the process of getting everyone checked-in and through security.

Soon everyone was boarding a Boeing 757 destined for Atlanta Georgia.  From Atlanta we had an hour layover and then finished our travel to Richmond.  While in Atlanta, Milee and I enjoyed a mondo size cookie.

Overall the flights were very smooth except for the final approach into Atlanta.  That was pretty turbulent and Milee loved it.  She said it reminded her of one of the rides at Lagoon.  The only real negative I had about the flight to Atlanta was our seating location.  We sat in the second to last row of the plane, and this happens to be very close to the bathrooms.  When we first boarded the plane the smell was horrible.  Shortly after take-off it seemed to fade (or we may have gotten used to it).  Once we landed however the stench returned, only far worse and it was torture waiting for everyone to exit the plane ahead of us. 

Thankfully the flight to Richmond was smell free and smooth.  We arrived on schedule at basically 5:00PM local time.  While heading  to baggage claim I groaned when  I saw this sign:

And I groaned even more when we walked out of the air-conditioned airport into what I can only describe as a perpetual sauna.  The humidity was murder and you could literally see the moisture in the air.  In Seattle I'm used to the constant "drizzle" of moisture we often get - where it isn't raining but you still get wet when you walk around outside.  Well this was the exact same thing but HOT.  Thank heavens the bus was air-conditioned.

Leaving the airport we headed to the Jamestown/Williamsburg area for dinner.  By 6:30PM we arrived at the College of William & Mary for our scheduled dinner, but due to a miscommunication our bus driver initially dropped us off at the wrong building.  While trying to sort out our proper destination, everyone decided to take a walk around the campus. 

Again I was miserable.  Dry heat I can handle.  I spent many years in the desert climate of Utah and getting "baked" I can manage.  Being "steam broiled" is entirely different.  I spent less than an hour outside and I felt soaked.  Little did I know that it was going to get far worse the next day.

Dinner turned out to be pretty lack luster.  We essentially received an all-you-can-eat buffet from the campus cafeteria.  It was ok, but not much better than you expect from a school cafeteria.

Certainly fell way short of a Golden Corral or Hometown Buffet, but the discovery of the soft serve ice cream machine certainly helped redeem it some - the kids drained it in no time flat.

After dinner we again loaded the bus and had one more stop to make before checking into our hotel for the night. 

This last stop was a visit to a local "Story Teller" by the name of Sheila Arnold.   She portrayed the character of Ol’ Bess, an 18th-century tavern slave owned my a Mr. Southall - the owner of the local Raleigh Tavern.  Her performance was incredible.  Funny and educational – we all loved it. 

I only wish I had recorded even more to share, but this funny video was all I captured.   I don’t believe she ever went out of character the entire evening. At one point she sat down and began telling a story about the day her daughter was auctioned off and sold, and her emotion and heartache was so real you believed she had actually experienced it!  It was gut wrenching to hear her recount the experience and helplessness she and her husband felt knowing they would likely never see their child again! 

It was truly an incredible performance from an extremely talented actress and historian, and great end to a very long first day!

To be continued - Day 2: Old Jamestown & Colonial Williamsburg

Milee and I made it back from our trip this week.  It was a great time and I took nearly 4000 pictures that I need to now wade through.  Sorry for not posting details each day, but we had spotty internet and the days were so long and exhausting that it wasn’t possible to stay awake much each night.

I’ll put together some posts of our adventure ASAP.

In a few short hours (3 to be exact) Milee and I will be heading to SeaTac to catch an early morning flight to Washington DC.  We’re going with another 50+ 7th grade students and parents as part of a school coordinated trip that’s been planned since the beginning  of the 2009-2010 school year.  Milee spent the entire school year saving money earned from babysitting and other work so that she could help pay for it.  I decided to tag along because it sounded like it could be a great experience and I’ve never been further east than New Orleans before. 

While we’re both excited, it’s going to be quite a whirlwind trip.  Our schedule each day is roughly 7am – 9pm every day, and there is very little downtime.  We’re being escorted all over the DC area visiting practically everything possible in only 4 days.  Oh, and it’s expected to be very hot and humid – unlike Seattle.

After the DC trip comes to an end, and everyone else is hopping on a plane for home, Milee and I are going to break from the group and head further north to New York City.  We’ll stay there for a couple days and do whatever we want before flying back home. 

I’m going to do my best to keep a record of our experiences, and I’ll also be taking tons of pictures.  When possible I’ll post additional updates.

It should be quite a trip!

(picture courtesy Wikipedia)

Far better than anything Hallmark can put out.

We have sooo many photos and videos I need to post and share.  Ciera just gets cuter every day!

Last week was supposed to be a short week.  Since this was Memorial Day weekend, and I therefore already had Monday off for the holiday, I decided to also take this past Friday off as well. 

But last week proved to be anything but short.  Oh it started off just fine.  Monday and Tuesday went well.  Busy as usual, but normal.  Wednesday however is when the week seemed to slow down, and it started during my commute to work that morning. 

See, normally I ride the bus to work, but for the past several months I’ve been driving on Tues/Wed/Thur because I’ve had to drop our oldest daughter off at school by 6:45am for early morning Jazz Band practice.  After dropping her off last Wednesday morning, I proceeded to work as usual.  It was also raining (yeah, as usual).

So what happened?  Yep, a car accident.  But it wasn’t my fault!  I was almost half way to work and had just come to a stop at a red light when I was struck (very hard) from behind by another commuter.  Talk about a good way to get the juices flowing in the early morning hours!  Thankfully no serious injuries.  Little stiff and sore on my part, but so far it hasn’t been too bad.  I should be fine.  The driver of the other car received a fat-lip from the air-bag, but otherwise seemed fine as well.

As for the cars – well, the car that hit me didn’t fair well and required a tow.

Our little Ford Focus on the other hand held up far better than I’d expected.  Considering how hard the impact was, I fully expected to see far more damage, but it (cosmetically) wasn’t too bad.

I was surprised that the trunk door opened and closed just fine with no apparent damage to it.  However the floor of the trunk certainly sustained damage and was partially crushed/tweaked.

So yeah, it was quite an experience and I’m grateful everyone was ok.  It was a little embarrassing being part of the reason traffic ended up VERY ugly for a bit, but there wasn’t much I could do about it.

Now since my car was still drivable, I decided to head into the office to take care of a few things.  I also scheduled a Dr. appointment to go get checked out.  Even though I felt fine, I didn’t want to risk it (plus everyone around me wanted me to go also).   Doc checked me over - no obvious concerns.  Told me to expect some stiffness, but likely would be fine.  Come back otherwise.  I went home for the rest of the afternoon.

The following day (Thursday), I woke up feeling pretty good.  Again, little stiff, but not bad.  I decided to drive the truck instead of the car and this time I made it to work just fine.  It’s a good thing I was driving the car when I was struck the day before.  Had it been the truck, I fear the other car (and driver) may have been even worse off! 

Anyway, as I arrived at work, I made my way to an open area in the back of my building’s parking lot. It’s not always easy to park a 1-ton dually truck in most parking lots, so the fewer cars near by the better.  I quickly selected a parking spot and proceeded to back the truck into it.  And so ended my accident free commute! 

When I heard the crunch, my stomach sank.  “What now!” I said to myself out loud.  When I jumped out to inspect, I found the following.

Yep, that’s a light post.  The trailer hitch I’d forgotten to remove from the back of the truck extended just enough to hit it when I backed up.  And it wasn’t just a little damage.  It totally destabilized the pole and required immediate attention.  You see, these poles are made of fiberglass and therefore damage very easily.  The hitch on the truck was unscathed. 

I therefore called campus security and they came out, roped off the area, called the electric company, and took down the pole.  It was so unstable that I almost knocked it over by barely putting my hand on it.  Scared the heck out of me.  Had it come down and hit the cab of my truck I would have been beyond upset.  So in that regard I consider myself lucky.

So far it isn’t clear if Microsoft is going to hold me financially responsible or not.  The security rep I worked with noted previous damage to the pole, but I gave it the death nail.  He also noted damage to other light poles nearby (though nothing like what I did), so it could be that others will get replaced as well and maybe I’ll be spared any expense.  Guess we’ll see.

Overall, the week didn’t pan out so well.  I did manage to survive it all, which is the most important thing, but the weekend was sure a welcome break.  I figure if I’d been required to drive to work on Friday, who knows what might have happened next!

I think I stick with the bus this week.