Friday, January 13, 2012

Thursday in VA


Today was an exciting day. 
       (So, exciting it's taken over several months to write!)

Today was the day to have a conversation with Thomas Jefferson. Now, JJL was told when he got reserved tickets for Washington that you can only get them on the day of the "conversation". So we were off bright and early to get in line and while in line are told they were sold out! JJL literally looked like someone took his computer and shot it. I pushed us to go to the ticket booth where JJL was told the misinformation. Now you have to understand JJL has been studying James Leland and his contribution to ratifying the constitution, which includes correspondence with TJ. Before we the left the condo JJL studied!! And prepared his questions. He wanted the audience to be aware that TJ meant that the Church should be a separation OF the state but not FROM the state.

From that ticket office we went up the ranks. I was going to get us standing in the back if we had to but we were going to see Jefferson! Well, in the end we got tickets secured. Once that was done we were off to the palace! 


While we waited for the next tour we visited the kitchen.


Then we entered ... one intimidating room!



The VERY bright saturated colors is what impressed me - aquas, pinks, greens ... theses pictures do not convey how bright these colors were! I asked how that process was done and was told the Weaver is the place to go so that was put on our list of places to visit! 




We started to do the hedge maze in the palace gardens and realized this might take longer than we were willing to give considering we wanted to make sure we arrived early to get our tickets for TJ. Plus I'm pretty sure I was getting bit by bugs.

How different T.J. is to G.W.  - He is so much more open and wordy than G.W.


JJL Got to ask his question  - And the question involved knowing personal correspondence between T.J. and Leland. The actor played the part that JJL must be personal friends of Leland to know the subject matter of such personal correspondence.

And like with G.W. I took a quick sketch of T.J. and JJL together.


Now I had planned to go back to the condo for lunch but sometimes time warrants other plans. JJL really didn't like the deli from a couple of days ago and we also didn't want to go crazy expensive, so we broke our rule and had pizza. And well it was worth it! In the process we meandered through the candy store and browsed other little shops that I hear are all lit up for Christmas.



And our afternoon wasn't planned but there were certain things we wanted to see such as the Weaver! I took lots of photos that you can see on Facebook.


The weaver was fantastic! To make red they use bugs and is the hardest color to make. Blue is only colored on the outside of the fibers. That's why a person can wear away the color and it turns white.

The patterns and how to string the loom it takes a master - this particular weaver had to put on gloves to look at the book where an 18th century weaver had written for lack of a better word his "recipes". The tradesmen are so informative and so personable! This may turn into my retirement plan.
 
We now are off to church! This is cool because this church is still having service and has been since 1715. JJL didn't get to stand in the pulpit at this church. They have a statue as a podium and she is standing on a globe with one foot on America and the other on England. They also have pews with the names George Washington on them and of course near the front with cushions. In the back no names - no cushions.




We are now off to hear again the talk of Rebellion and the Declaration of Independence.

We talked to one of the "characters" and got the impression it was no big deal. That he had already heard of other - districts or states - I forget what he said - and I probably forgot if I would have written this that night - that had declared their independence already. Once again I'm struck how well history is known and the perspective that we get in school books but almost first hand accounts.


Well that must be all that happened that was exciting due to no more pictures to trigger what happened. There is still one more day that we walked the streets of Colonial Williamsburg!