Colonial Williamsburg, November 7th, 2010 continued.....

Yes, I'm going backwards now just to add to your confusion!  I can't believe it, but I seem to have skipped this part of our day back on November 7th and jumped ahead straight to the Wright Brothers in NC.  I had it all set to publish at the time but I guess I forgot to do it!  Apologies apologies.....So here it is:

Jamestown wasn't the only thing we did on the 7th.  We managed to fill the day to capacity since, like I said before, and I'm starting to sound like a broken record, we were on a tight schedule....

Once we wrapped up Jamestown, Virginia colony's first capital, we took the short yet pretty drive over to Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia's second capital.  The official move took place in 1699 for a couple of reasons. First of all, a fire destroyed the Jamestown Statehouse for the third time.  Second, Williamsburg was a much more pleasant location to live in apparently, primarily due to its distance from the brackish water that brought along with it plenty of mosquitoes and disease.

In case you don't know, and this was news to me, one can wander around Colonial Williamsburg without paying a dime!  You can wander the streets, gaze at the buildings, talk to the characters, and generally just feel the vibe.  If you want to go into the buildings, well, that'll cost you a pretty penny.  Especially if you're 5 people...



Given the lateish hour and our desire to basically see it, soak it in a bit and get out, we did not hand over that big chunk of change.

Wandering the streets was perfect!  What first caught our eye was the local grocer, if you will, with his own little, or not so little, vegetable garden.  We were absolutely drooling at this sight...isn't it beautiful?!



We managed to pet the horses and chat with their driver (driver?)



Try on some period headwear,



Lead the bad guys to jail (and enjoy that gorgeous tree!),



And take the obligatory pictures.....





Then we chatted up some British soldiers.



All in about an hour and a half.  It was plenty and everyone was satisfied.

Then, just because we hadn't done enough that day, we decided to take this in:



From here,



A free ferry ride across the James River!  Why on earth not?!



Of course we had to take the ferry back again, which no one objected to.  We also scored a great view of historic Jamestowne from the ferry.  It gave us an entirely different perspective on it both visually and historically.



I'm happy to report that the ferry ride was indeed our final activity of the day.  Tomorrow we'd be crossing into

Wright Brothers, here we come!

Homecoming

**Pardon me as I skip ahead about a week and a half, but I'm just so excited about it I have to share!  I promise to go back and recount all our adventures between now and then.  Promise!**




I didn't grow up here, but Buffalo, NY is in my blood.

My Mom's from here.  Her parents were born here.  Their parents immigrated here.  My Mom doesn't live here anymore, and hasn't really since she went off to collage, but these are where her roots are (excluding 'the old country' of course).

I spent many many many summers as a child here visiting my gramma and grampa and cousins and such.

Niagara Falls was my back yard during those summers.  That, and Darien Lake, Art Park, the Boulevard Mall.  My grandfather grilling hamburgers outside, eating tomatoes from the plants my grandmother planted, watching Wheel of Fortune with my G&G, watching them play tennis, going to my Gramma's weekly ladies luncheons, enjoying all my grandparent's friends (they were an amazing bunch!).  All are people, places and things I remember so fondly from my childhood summers.

Later, Buffalo became central in my life once more.  When I came to the US for college, I chose SUNY Buffalo.  My grandparents were here, as well as my dear cousins.  It was like home.

On my first day on campus, while moving into the dorm, I saw the man I would marry and have children with.  A few days later we met and that was that.  We've been together ever since.  It wasn't so simple obviously ;-).

Can you imagine, if I would have gone down the road a bit to another college I was considering, it all never would have happened!

During our 4 years here we spent lots of time studying and working in our respective research labs.  We took every visitor that came to see the Falls.  We were so lucky to have adopted parents, my cousins P&A, to take such good care of us.  They were our home away from home.  We spent many an evening sharing spectacular home cooked meals around their dinning room table and enjoying some fabulous restaurants.  We were able to experience wonderful family holidays thanks to them.  Their most beloved dog Mellie, a wonderful yellow lab, was the first dog we loved together and influenced our decision togo out and find one of the same when we were ready for a dog.  They were always there for us.

S and I graduated with our Master's from SUNY Buffalo in '98 and left.  Not to return....until today....12 years later!

We made the decision to head east a few weeks ago, for several reasons, the main one being a visit from the in laws.  We will be seeing them in a couple weeks in NY.  The decision was not made lightly.  It's quite a drive from out west to, well, the east!  S was very nervous about driving our beloved behemoth out here.  The roads are worse, the traffic is worse, the streets are narrower.  It's the east!  But, here we are.  I'll go more into the drive in later posts, but we made it.

We pulled into Buffalo this afternoon, in the rain.  At least it wasn't snow!



We were both so excited about our return!  Seeing familiar street names, road signs, buildings.  All made me feel almost giddy!  The best part is seeing my dear cousins again and being in their house again.  It's almost like yesterday that we were here, except it was 12 years ago.....We have seen them since of course.  In fact it was May when we saw them last at a family wedding in NY.  But being here again with them, well, it just makes me feel like a college student again.  Except, who are these kids with me?!?!

This evening I already got to go to our beloved Wegmans!  THE grocery store!  Tomorrow, we'll go explore some of our old stomping grounds and visit other historical sights, such as the house my Mom grew up in, the house my grandparents grew up in and the house I spent so many summers in.  We'll visit with our former professors and walk around campus showing the kids where Mommy and Daddy met.  We'll go to the state park we went to for our first date, but on another day.

We'll OF COURSE go see Niagara Falls.  Though they won't get to experience it in the dead of winter.  Which, I have to say, was quite an experience.

Most importantly, we'll introduce the kids to part of their roots and continue instilling in them the importance of family connections and family history.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled blogging.....I'll return to sum up our Buffalo experiences in later posts, in the appropriate 'time slot'.

Moving day

There was more of Cody we still had to squeeze in before we headed east though.

Not to be missed, supposedly, was an extensive and detailed miniature wild west diorama!



It ran from the early American Indians up until the days of Buffalo Bill's show.  It included ancient Indians and their ways of life pre horses, later Indians -



Settlers, forts and battles -

The coming of the railroad (complete with a train you could operate inside the diorama), gold mining towns, cattle drives, etc. There was an audio explanation of it all along with some reading materials.

The mini museum, situated in the back of a gift shop btw, also included an extensive selection of Native American and pioneer artifacts.  We apparently were not tired of these things even after our two days at the Buffalo Bill historical Center. Go figure.

Finally, we were ready to leave Cody! And it's about time, given that our initial plan was to stay 3 days max and here we were on day 6.....

Stopping on our way out of town to dump (a necessity before beginning a long drive and a good idea anyway), some of us had lunch in the car, grumpy faces and all, while S was busy, um, relieving the RV. While there, another RV pulled up to do the same and the two men (it always seems to be the man. Not complaining here...) sat and chatted while their respective RVs were emptying out.  A cute scene.

Driving from Cody to Gillette, our next scheduled stop on our way to Devils Tower and South Dakota, we passed through dry desert, gorgeous canyons and very winding roads going down and then up said canyons.  The beauty was surprising!

We also passed through an important landmark for some of you, you know who you are, so I figured it deserved a shot of it's own :-)

See you in Gillette!