I finally made a decision about when to attend Colonial Williamsburg's Homeschooler Experiences and my husband subsequently took his first two days off from his new job. To him, it was vacation time in Colonial Williamsburg!  For me it was going to be a chance to see some homeschool friends at my favorite place.  Little did I know who all I would meet, and who all would remember us from previous visits! For my kids it was a chance to have fun.  Always, the night before we leave for CW, my son starts humming "Yankee Doodle" and my daughter gets more fluttery and excited. When we arrived on Thursday, there was a sign greeting the homeschoolers...

     After getting our homeschool passes and schedules, we set out to meet with Lady Washington in a private audience with homeschoolers.  She was absolutely wonderful in engaging with the children.  When they ran out of questions, she filled the time with fascinating stories that we never would have thought to ask about, which revealed more about herself and her husband.

     Then we went to Kimball Theater for a presentation from the Marquis de Lafayette, which is always wonderful. During the Q&A, my husband told Lafayette that he (Lafayette) would one day go to Monticello and he (my husband)  wanted to hear about that experience.  Uh oh, the kids and I know better than to do this!  Lafayette gave him a hard time (in a fun way) that he could not predict the future. In the meantime I think he did tell us something interesting from Lafayette's timeframe, but now I forget. We were laughing too hard at my husband being called a "soothsayer!" At the end, my son wanted to meet with Lafayette to ask for a picture of the medal he received from King Louis for fighting in the American Revolution. Well, I told my son he can't just ask for a picture of Lafayette's medal. After all, he is always telling us that he is a statute in search of a pedestal. He might be offended to have a picture only of his medal taken! I told him we could ask for a picture of him with Lafayette and that would be more polite. He liked that, but when he got a chance he asked Lafayette if he'd mind a picture being taken of the medal.  I was surprised to hear Lafayette say that he remembered my son asking about the medal last time we had visited him and he certainly could take a picture of the medal. (He remembers my son?) In fact, he'd even purposely stand still for the picture. I thought that was an interesting statement, because we are always having trouble getting clear pictures of Lafayette because he is extremely animated. Now I'm glad my son got the picture, because the medal is gorgeous. The French really do know how to design medals. Hmmm, it doesn't show up as well here as it does in my photo program.

In the end, my husband did get a picture of the kids with Lafayette.

   Then we went to the Tucker House to meet with the crafter of the day. She used a spindle a bit different than the one I had at home. She got excited when she heard that. She said I needed wool to make it work. Um, I do have wool, although we've never used it.  "Why not?" she incredulously  asked.   Sheepishly I explained we simply did not have her knack for spinning.  The wool looks so beautiful now, but if we start pulling it apart, we'll ruin it and it won't spin well and it won't be pretty anymore.  She told me to bring the wool and spindle the next time she is at the Tucker House and she'll help us with it!  

        Then we walked down Nicholson Street to Botetourt to go to Revolutionary City. We saw the governor's footman posed dutifully next to the carriage in preparation for the first RC scene.  I had never seen them set up before. As I walked by, I realized this would be a great photo moment. I went back and took a picture. Hmmmm, he seems so familiar to me. Why? Can't you see the knowing look on his face? Um, well it shows up better in my photo program. 

     Quickly he stepped out of  character,  gave me a quick thumbs up and grin and then got back into character again! We did know him! He looked so serious posing, that I thought I couldn't talk to him and we went on to RC. In hindsite, I think maybe I could have talked to him, so I'm looking for him there next time.  And thus the entire weekend went, various people recognizing us and giving us pause to remember where we had seen them before.  It was funny.

     This blog entry is going to be extremely long, so I'm doing another entry just on Revolutionary City. I'm just going to share a few tidbits of it here.

     My husband was recruited to join the militia. He wasn't going to but he told me he was chitchatting with one of the actors who remembered him (one whom I had written about previously in supporting our homeschooling) and I guess this actor recruited him.

       That evening we attended a special concert to celebrate Constitution Day. This event was the driving force to schedule our time in CW as we did, as there are two full weeks for the homeschool events. While waiting for the event to begin, I talked with a lady sitting near us, who asked me tons of questions. She was shocked that I homeschool my daughter in high school courses.  She thought those level of courses would be too difficult for me. Well I've taken them myself in high school and college, so most of it is a refresher for me, except the Latin which we are learning as we go.  Also we have great curriculums that pretty much teach the kids.  I am mainly needed for reference or grading. However in the humanities (history, literature, government, philosohy) I am more hands on, studying more deeply to do the Socratic Discussions. She was amazed.  She was surprised that we dress in costume for history.  She kept asking questions and I kept answering (much of the same stuff I usually blog about) and she was speechless.  She asked how my husband handles all of this craziness.  I laughed and told her he goes along with it just fine, in fact, he encourages me.  Then she gave me her copy of a flyer from Christopher Newport University for senior citizens.  Um, I'm not a senior citizen. She said she knew that, but it was for my future reference. Um, I'm not planning on retirement. I'm not even old enough to think about it!  I'm dreaming of somehow working at Colonial Williamsburg someday. (She knew that because we had previously talked all about that.) She explained that I could teach the senior citizen classes at CNU. But I only have a bachelor's degree.  She said that was sufficient.  Hmmmm, precisely what did she think I should teach?  How to be crazy?  Honestly, she was a lot of fun.  Probably the one sane bit of information she heard was that my daughter was interested in one day attending CNU. She was elated because the gentleman seated next to her used to be a professor there.      

     Finally the program began.  My husband retired from the USAF after 24 years of service, so watching the USAF band play was terrific!  During one part, The Armed Services Medley was played. It is traditional that as each song is played, veterans from that service stand. When the USAF song was played, my husband stood up, which I know was a thrill to him. He had retired after 24 years of service last winter.  It's always fun to see who all represents the different services.  Also performing was the fife and drum corps...

and General Washington! Remember that George Washington was president of the Constitutional Convention.

The presentation was wonderfully patriotic.

   Friday morning we took the Gardens of Gentility Tour. This was extremely interesting. We toured the palace gardens, which represent the ultimate genteel garden.  We looked at their kitchen garden...

the orchard...

the peek-through windows...

and the symmetry of the pleasure gardens...

Being that CW is about living history, you never know who will walk by, like Patrick Henry. Incidentally, this was his home as the first governor of Virginia. 

Then we went to the Wythe garden (to represent gentility of the gardens on a smaller scale)

 and the kitchen garden behind the Geddy House to represent a middling garden. Then we were given an assignment to walk through the other gardens and pick out which type of garden it is.  My husband had left early to be certain to catch the next private homeschool audience speaker.  We decided to stay on and joined him later.  As a result, as we walked through  the historic area the rest of the weekend, my husband kept asking questions about the gardens that we were able to answer due to the tour. 

       Then we met up with my husband, who definitely had a private audience, all alone with Gowan Pamphlet. (We were so caught up in the talk we forgot to take a picture!) Pamphlet had received his freedom and was a Baptist minister.  He told us about the Great Awakening, which we had studied a couple of years ago. This was a great review, confirming to our kids that Mom isn't too crazy with her historical ideas.  I even told Gowan Pamphlet that we had studied it and had learned that it was one of the driving forces that unified the vastly differing colonies before the American Revolution. We talked about that for a while and other homeschoolers joined us. The time was wonderful! He told us how he became a minister and I asked him where he learned to read. He started talking about the Bray School and his teacher Ann Wager. Of course, I had forgotten.  I told him we had met her and she had mentioned him. He was delighted to hear that!

    Then we watched the end of The Challenge of Independence, about the Virginia delegation who had written the Virginia Declaration of Rights.

 Their scene was interrupted for the poignant "What Holds the Future?"

     Then we had lunch on the Duke of Gloucester Street. As we ate, a lady came over who acted like she knew me. I started digging deeply into my memory, trying to remember her. Actually we had never met before! She was visiting from Ohio and had seen my children's pictures on my blog. While planning her vacation to Colonial Williamsburg, a lady in her homeschool co-op suggested my blog for ideas. I was speechless.  Honestly, I never dreamed anyone would ever read my blog.  I actually started it becuase of some homeschool yahoo groups I'm in where ladies ask a lot of questions about what I do. It was easier to write it once here with pictures, then reference when the same questions get asked again and again.  It has surprised me over the years who has read my blog!  Additionally, I always thought I was incognito at CW. Well that was completely proven wrong this trip down!  We had a good laugh and I must say, her children were very well dressed, as the CW interpreters would say! 

     Then we went to the playhouse and watched a few skits, common to the era.

The cast of characters included a doctor named Dr. Gargle and a man in love called Lovewell.  These are the only names I remember, played by the man on the left, in two different plays. As they told us, characters were named according to who they were.  The next day we had lunch outside the fence.  We don't normally eat lunch here but my blood sugar had just crashed and I had to eat immediately. This was a nice place, and just in time for the fife and drum corps to march up the street. Then the plays here started, and they were different. I asked one of the actors about it and he said they always change them up!  How terrific! There's always new stuff to do here.  We quickly finished lunch and went in to see another play which recieved yells of "Encore!".   

     Then we went to the shoemaker, who is great! He works industriously (I guess he doesn't have any elves in the night to help him.) and speaks about anything we ask.  I like seeing the trades and seeing the various stages of the various projects. We had visited him a few weeks ago and told him how my son had made his own boots for costumes.  This time he told my son to pick up the cut out leather waiting to become a shoe.   This is the top part of the shoe...

which when folded up...

looks like this.

     We did Revolutionary City again, covering a different era of history. We had had fun the two days with RC. As much as we see it, we saw lots of new tidbits  this time that had been thrown in.  They do a terrific job. In fact, while walking to one of the scenes, one of the gentlemen looked down and smiled at me and welcomed me, remembering our family. (I remembered him too! I'm glad my husband got this picture of him talking to me.) Was he George Mason? Yes! We talked about the Virginia Declaration of Rights, which he wrote, and Gunston Hall, about an hour from where we live! 

My husband was quite vocal against Benedict Arnold, and so was this citizen from Williamsburg who stood in front of me...  

After meeting with Lafayette who reviewed the troops,

I met up with some homeschool friends who use the same history curriculum I do, TOG. In fact, we had been meeting up with each other throughout the day. Finally we posed for pictures, which were posted for our yahoo group where we initially met. In the time that we met, our husband's jobs brought us all to Virginia. The lady on the left I met for the first time at the Dallas geTOGether. The kids and I visited her and her kids at their house a few months ago. They are about an hour from us. The lady in the middle has recently moved to VA like we did and it was the first we met her. We form fast friendships at our TOG group, because we have so much in common.  We spent so long talking before saying goodbye, that my family had to rush to find a quick bite to eat to get to our evening program in time!

 With our kids...I have the smallest family!

That night we attended a musical concert at the Capitol, surrounded by candlelight. The Viola de Gamba was featured, while accompanied by the harpsichord. The music was beatiful. We cannot take pictures inside at night, but isn't the walkway inviting? My son took this terrific picture!

     Saturday we began the day with another garden tour, Through the Garden Gate.  This was another interesting tour, where we learned about architectural research to recreate the gardens with historical accuracy. We walked through a few gardens off Waller Street, land that had been owned by Mann Page! The guide was surprised to hear our exclamations of recognition! He's the man we see on the horse in Revolutionary City that made a fast and furious 100 mile horse ride from Fredericksburg to Williamsburg with pressing news, only to be asked to make a hasty return trip with new information.  That night, we got to meet the lady who lives in the house with this lovely garden! 

     The kids had been given picture cards of various dependencies (or small buildings like the white one above) to look for on each property. We also took turns reading various quotes about the gardens. Especially funny was reading about how two gentlemen went on and on in correspondence about this particular flower.  I can't think of any men today who would do that!

     During the tour, a man who takes care of the pigeons came over to show us one up close! Lancelot was incredibly gentle and soft. 

We learned a lot about pigeons.  I thought this horse was funny, looking into the pigeon coop! We went over to pet him and he kept sniffing us for food and even sniffed my totebag for food!  We didn't feed him because that is not allowed, but he was fun.    

    Then we went to the private audience with homeschoolers, Patrick Henry.  He was homeschooled himself, so I asked about that.  His father had a small Latin school at home for the area children. I had not known that.  He was asked to give his famous speech, "Give me Liberty or Death!" Well, that wouldn't happen until the future, but he is always willing to delve into the future, so he told us what he might say!  It was great! He always says he can talk to us about anything in the future, because history repeats itself. On many an occasion, I've heard contemporary questions asked, that Henry can answer, using stories from his era. 

     Then we went on a special 75th anniversary tour of the Governor's Palace. This tour is all about the archaeology and restoration of the palace. We toured with my friend who has ten children. Afterwards, her children and mine had fun playing in the palace gardens which has a maze and many "hidden" trails, surrounded by all boxwood.  They also played along the canal. 

    That afternoon we went to Basset Hall, which was the colonial home of the Rockefellers who provided the finances to restore the historic area. They lived there every April and October and had the gardens specially designed for those bloom periods.  The gardens continue to reflect that, so I told the family we need to tour the house again in those months to see the gardens.

    That evening we went to the Capital to dance!  We all got to dance as 100% participation is required. 

I got to dance with the colonel, who was alot of fun! He had a thick Scottish accent, and talked in my left ear, while the music was playing to either chit chat or give me direction.  (I had major head surgery many years ago and as a result, I lost a bit of hearing in that ear.  So I wasn't catching everything he said.) One of the moves we made was the gentlemen twirling the ladies!  The colonel twirled me most of the time but there is one part where I get passed off to another partner who twirls me as well. All that twirling was fun and surprisingly I wasn't getting dizzy. (That surgery also resulted in a cut balance nerve. I had to learn to walk all over again, so things I don't usually do like dancing and twirling can throw me off balance.) Well the colonel kept telling me I was an excellent twirler.  (I bet he says that to all the girls.)  Finally he started twirling me extra, making me dizzy! But I was laughing too! I said something about getting dizzy and he said, "Oh dear," held me extra tight, kept twirling me (The show must go on after all!), then passed me off and told the gentleman to be gentle in twirling me!  At the end he held onto me tightly while returning me to my husband. The dance is my favorite evening event of all. I definitely want to do this again, even double twirls! Surprisingly I wasn't dizzy for too long.  This is the colonel, who left before I could have my picture taken with him.

     My daughter danced with a gentleman we had met before and teased us greatly, so she wasn't sure about dancing with him. At the end she told me it went well.  I told her he was being a gentleman this evening.  While my son and husband were having their pictures taken with their partners, my daughter's dancing partner came to me (To my left ear no less, everyone likes to talk to me in my left ear!) and said that he thought he had met our family once before.  I refreshed his memory and he had a good laugh. 

     My son's partner...

This lady also danced with my husband...

And this lady danced with my husband...

This is my other dance partner, who also did a great job narrating for the evening.

We each got to dance two dances, while a few more were demonstrated for us.  My husband had hoped to dance with me, but I told him it was nice to dance with one of the costumed dancers, since they are trained in the steps. We've danced one other time at a historical place and it wasn't as fun because not everyone was guaranteed a partner, and some of our partners were other guests and we didn't really know what was going on. This dance at CW was extremely well organized, as always.  The first dance they ask for volunteers and they CW dancers go around looking for partners. Then the next dance they are certain to get the others who did not get to do the first dance.  No one will be left out!

     Sunday we began the day with a walk in the Palace gardens, looking for graves of the French and American soldiers, none of which we could find. On the way in, we met a "gatekeeper" who said a few things to my son, called him by name, and my son acted like that was perfectly natural. In essence, they acted like they had known each other for quite some time! We passed through and when we got out of earshot, I asked my son, "How does she know your name?"  "We danced together last night, Mom!"  She danced with my husband too. She was the lady in the red dress.  I went back to talk to her and compliment her on the Minuet she and her partner danced for us. Those are extemely complicated.  There is a version of it done by Felicity in the American Girl movie. We also looked at her stitch work, which looked a lot like one we saw last summer. A year ago in Aug we were at CW on summer vacation, met a "gatekeeper" at the Palace gate, sticthing nearly the same thing in more vibrant colors, she said because Patrick Henry is fiery. We told her about it and that was her!   

     Finally it was time for the private audience for homeschoolers with General Washington. He is very difficult to think of questions for, because he does an excellent job portraying General Washington, a stoic, private man who only spoke about public things. It really makes us realize how many private things we want to know!  My daughter asked Washington if new ideas or philosophies come out, does he like to read about them? Washington said he prefers to stick to the old, proven philosophies.  After answering several questions as Washington, he stepped out of character so he could answer any question. He asked if we knew who Cincinatus was and my kids and I acknowledged that we did. We learned all about him when we studied Ancient Rome a few years ago!  He seemed surprised that we knew about Cinncinatus, but he told the story of this Roman general who returned to the plow for the others. That was great because it's an interesting story everyone should know.  We did learn something new about Cinncinatus. We didn't know he was originally from Spain!  Washington often refers to Senaca so I asked who he was. He was a Greek stoic philosopher, opposite an epicurean philosopher.  He gave exellent comparisons of the stoic Washington to the epicurean Jefferson. We learned a lot that morning. 

     Then we took the 75th anniversary tour of the Capitol, again about the archaeology and restoration.  I got into a discussion with the tour guide about the different monarchs of England. We had studied them, but they all sort of blur together.  He gave extra information I did not remember studying. We learned a lot. 

      We took a visit to one of my favorite places, the milliner. We actually talked with the tailor and I analyzed, as usual, the garment he was sewing. My son told him I needed to make a new costume for him, since he's outgrown the old one. (He's grown 5" since moving to VA!) Then my husband told him I needed to make one for him. I was getting worried about all of the ideas the tailor was offering.  Fancy buttons, fancy vest, yikes! I made a mental note to visit the tailor without the guys next time!

     After some refreshment, my son borrowed some hoops from the Kings Arms Tavern and played up and down the Duke of Gloucester Street. Then he asked me to participate. How can I say no?  I had never played this before, but it was fun. Then my daughter got into it and the three of us were hitting hoops up and down the street. 

Then we went to the Geddy House to tour the home and his Silversmith shop. In the backyard are games like mancala, ring toss, hoops and nine pins.

Once again, you never know who might come by...

The last two days we spent time at the weaver's.  On Saturday he spun thread, gave samples to the kids, and told stories that had the kids mesmerized. Did you know the red dye comes from a bug called a kocheneil (sp?) bug? I learned that on my first trip to CW years ago.  This time I learned that it is the secret ingredient to various popular items and I couldn't take it.  He was having a lot of fun with my reactions! 

On Sunday he demonstrated weaving. He also told an interesting story, referring to my daughter's costume which has a flounce below her elbow.  In that era, a lady did not expose her elbows.  (In fact, one of the coachman has teased me about not being properly dressed and not covering my elbows. Apparently, elbows are a big deal!)  The weaver was saying that men back then must have had a thing for elbows, because the flounce was to tease a man, that they might get a peak at the elbow, but of course they wouldn't.  I never knew that about the flounce.

Well, it was another incredible time in CW. On the way back to the visitor center, my husband remarked at how subdued we all were.  We're looking forward to another trip back.