After much hard work on the house, it was time for another weekend away. Honestly, I had 21st century overload and was more than ready for some time in the 4mph society. My husband agreed. 

     Since it was time to renew our season passes, our first stop was the Visitor Center to purchase passes and book reservations for special events of the day we wanted to see.  There is a special discount on season passes this month for Virginia residents. That's us! When the cashier found out that I was a homeschooler, she said that was the magic word, because educators get a better discount than anyone.  Now I recall that I got an educator's discount last year too.  Be sure to mention that you're  homeschooler when purchasing your passes!  It's a great value, good for one year, and you can tell from my blog articles that there is always lots to do and quite often, something new!

      We were prepared for a leisurely day.  My husband had been wanting to visit the cooper for some time, so that was our first stop. 

We'll never forget our first visit to the cooper when we were first married.  My husband's family had a tradition of making hand crank ice cream, so someone gave us an antique hand crank ice cream maker for a wedding gift. My husband thought it needed to be cleaned up, so he took it apart and freshened it up. He thought it was poorly made, because there were no nails or glue.  After cleaning up the wood and staining it, he used glue to secure the staves when he reassembled it. Well, at the cooper, we found out that these barrels are designed to not need glue or nails. Pressure of the rings on the wooden staves securely hold the barrel together. My son asked lots of questions about hogsheads today.  I was impressed when even my quiet daughter asked some questions!

     Then we had lunch under the trees on Botetourt St and it was s-o q-u-i-e-t.  Because of electrical work being done on the Coffee house near the Capital, Revolutionary City has been rescheduled to be spread throughout the town, throughout the day, for the next couple of weeks....and nowhere near Botetourt as it usual.  The usual hustle and bustle of the city was sorely missed. Although I thought it would be interesting to see the RC scenes in new venues, we missed most of the action.

     Eventually some families came over to pet the horses that were resting between carriage rides.  A little girl came over to talk to my daughter, thinking she was Tinker Bell.  The parents said they were walking by and their daughter saw my daughter in her long pink dress and said she was Tinker Bell.  I thought Tinker Bell had a short green dress but the parents gave me the look that said, "You know that and I know that but our daughter has her own firm ideas about it." LOL  So we went along with it!  She was really cute!

      We could hear RC scenes from "A Court of Tar and Feathers" in front of the Courthouse. We were not in the historic area in time to see the previous scenes.  Feeling a need for some action and revolution, we hurried over and caught the end of the dramatic scene. It was fun to see them in a different setting.  When it was over, we decided to go to the Coffee House for my husband to check their progress, since there wouldn't be another RC scene for a couple of hours.

    On the way we stopped at the printing shop where my son got to  card wool and all the kids got some of the cleaned wool to  try to pull into thread/yarn.

    As we walked further down Duke of Gloucester Street, my son went into the Silversmith Shop. I was surprised but followed him in. He went straight to the lady at the back counter, pulled out a sheet of paper with a sketch on it, and asked her for an estimate for it to be engraved on his historic compass/sundial from CW.   So that is what he was working on all week!  I've been so busy running up and down and through the house, trying to tackle projects, that I keep forgetting to peek over his shoulder to see what he was drawing.  Isn't it terrific?

 The lady wasn't quite sure, so she brought the machine engraver over. She wasn't quite sure, and they said the hand engraver would have to do this one, and she wasn't in that day. They gave us their business card so we could mail a revised copy for an estimate.  We all agreed there was too much for one side. I suggested he design this like one of the medals he saw at the "Washington and His Generals" exhibit last week. He could do the monogram on the front and the verse on the back. He liked that idea a lot! So he is going to redo this and we'll mail it in to the Silversmith.   

     On to the CoffeeShop and well, it looked good to me! LOL I was wilting. It was soooo hot and muggy. In Northern Virginia we had had some heavy thunderstorms, especially early Saturday morning and we got little sleep. I was exhausted. Surely none of that was due to Hurricane Bill, which remained in the Atlantic, proceeding north. In San Antonio, when we had hurricanes in the gulf, we usually saw little rain, if any. A lot depended on which side of the storm we were sitting. I still have a lot to learn about weather patterns in Virginia.        

     After my husband got his fill of the Coffeeshop construction, I voted to go to the milliner. I was glad that I did because I learned a lot! We talked about the difference between the milliner and the mantua maker, how stays and bustles were worn, the development of the bustle over time, and more. I was surprised to learn that the bodice is often pinned together, digging the tips into the stays. I have to hold a lot of our costumes together with pins, and safety pins at that.  I always lamented that I was not being historical.  I was glad to learn that I am not the only one who pins. That is my favorite trade. 

     Finally it was time to go to the museum, to meet with President Jefferson. We were excited about this program and was a key reason for visiting CW this day. He is giving a special talk on how he wrote the Declaration of Independence. This is only presented certain times and I wanted to be sure we attended.  The kids and I prepared especially for this session, which I will blog about next. For now I will just say that it was a wonderful time!

     After leaving the museum, we went to visit the St. George Tucker House for the very first time. This is open to donors to the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. (I'm only one of the minor donors.)  As we entered we were immediately greeted by an extremely friendly volunteer, who made us feel quite welcome. He had me sign the register and he gave us a tour of the building.  Descendants of St. George Tucker lived in the house until the 1990's, when the CWF turned it into a donor reception center. Special historical characters like Thomas Jefferson, George Washington or the Marquis de Lafayette visit during the week.  We were shown the library for the donors like to use at their leisure. We were given refreshments of lemonade and cookies.  Then we were invited to sit and visit with the carpenter who told us about his work restoring outbuildings at the Randolph Peyton House. That was interesting, because my husband remembers a time when the outbuildings weren't there. 

     By the time we left, a storm had blown in. At least the temperature had dropped to a refreshing level.  I had hoped to at least see the final scene of RC, which features the Virginia delegation which drafted the Virginia Declaration of Rights. We had studied this in preparation for meeting with President Jefferson, since it was influential on the Declaration of Independence.  We stayed dry in shops near the Courthouse, but the rain never dissipated.  RC was canceled.

     My husband wanted to have dinner at Chownings, up the road. Our waiter was great! He had a Scottish accent and took our order with dry humor. When he gave us the drink menu, he mentioned tea that had floated in from Boston. I quipped that I hoped it wasn't British tea but that fell flat.  When my husband ordered tea, the waiter confirmed the order, saying he'd serve him the tea that had floated in from Boston. I got it!  This time I quipped, "I hope it's not from the Boston Tea Party!" The waiter grinned and said it was fresh with a salty tang.  Then my husband asked for Sweet and Low and the waiter said it looked as though someone sweet and low was sitting next to him. My husband looked at me and said something back. I forget now. But they bantered back and forth. There were lively colonial musicians and a magician. The magician gave us some of his equipment to inspect and that was fun, to make a big deal out of.  Chownings is the most affordable of the taverns.  I'm not a fan of most of the food outside of Texas (gasp). We think that is why I've lost a lot of weight. So I just nibbled off my husband's plate. I also nibbled off my son's plate. Their cornbread is great! And I do like Virginia ham.  I wonder if there's a way to create a new plate? Anyway, I had plenty of room for their tasty peanut pie. We usually get two slices to share.  Then our waiter gave my kids souvenir pins.  Then he taught us a colonial game with dice, called Ship, Captain, and Crew. You roll the dice and get three tries to roll a 4, 5, and 6. If you get those numbers, the remaining dice are your score. The one who gets to 100 first, wins. I was in the lead until the end, when my husband edged me out.

     It's nice to at least almost win, because my son usually wins. The other night we played Blokus. Influenced by Colonial Williamsburg, my kids have now named the colors.  They handed me yellow and I asked who that was.  They grinned and said Lafayette!  Blue is Washington, red is Cornwallis and green is Tarleton. My son had blue (Washington) and he kept blocking me. I kept saying, "General Washington, how can you do that to your adoptive son, Lafayette?" My son would grin and say they are just names of colors.  In the end, Washington won and Lafayette came in second!

     By the time we left, the rain had stopped but everything was wet and drippy. We walked through some shops at Merchant Square, then returned to the Lumber House for our evening tour, the Lanthorn Tour. Do you know why lanterns were called lanthorns? Instead of glass, they used the thin layer of cow's horn in the lantern.   My son got to carry the lanthorn for the first leg of the tour.

We went to four trades: the blacksmith, the cabinetmaker, the binder and the printer. We enjoyed the tour a lot, learning a lot more than we ever do when we visit the trades, unless we get a chatty tradesperson or know which questions to ask. The tour guide modeled how tools were used, but you really want to go back the next day, armed with great questions from newly found information from this tour, to see everything in action.  We liked going at night because it held a certain charm.  Most interesting, as my husband said later, we got to see for ourselves precisely why tradespeople only work from dawn to dusk. There were several authentic lanthorns at each trades shop and we saw very little. Definitely, sunlight was necessary to work by.

     Interestingly, during the tour, a huge fireworks show began behind the Governor's Palace.  When I asked what the fireworks were for, I was told it was a special reception for the governor. Dumbfounded, I just looked at her and then asked, "For the modern governor?" She smiled and said yes. We heard more than we saw because we were either in the building or walking in the midst of town. The sky was red in the distance and smoke wafted our way. It was easy to imagine that the Battle of Yorktown was in process. In fact all the guests pretended that was the case. We really got into it. As we walked down one of the narrow side streets from the carpenter shop to the binder, I caught a glimpse of the fireworks next to the cupola of the Governor's Palace. That was a Kodak moment! I tried to take a picture but it was the wrong setting, being at night. I have a special fireworks setting, but I couldn't find it in the dark and the tour group was leaving me behind. Alas, it would have been a terrific picture!

     Stay tuned for the highlight of our day, the Declaration of Independence and Thomas Jefferson. After that I will blog about Jamestown, which we visited the next day!