Burg and OBX

 Finally in April we had a few nice days to get outside. Tessie hadn't been to Bunker Hill

or touched the end of the Freedom Trail

Wow it was hot outside

Now in Williamsburg, we cooled off at a candy store. Later we learned what a Moon Pie is.

It had been a while since we'd visited NC and its lame Carl Sandburg NHS. After some fantastic boiled peanuts from a roadside stand we were ready for the Outer Banks

 At the Wright Brothers site they were running a program with kites. Our urban kids had never flown a kite and Kitty Hawk couldn't have been more perfect for their first flight. We learned that the Wright Brothers spent hours with their own kites studying the principles of aerodynamics.

At least Tessie will still pose for these photos

Fort Raleigh NHS is really about the lost colony on Roanoke Island. Modern archaeology has raised credible evidence that the colony was overtaken by the Algonquins and forced into slavery.

Since not much remains from the 1580s settlements, they built English gardens to commemorate the lost colonists 

That is one big QE1

Only Caroline and Dad climbed Cape Hatteras light at Cape Hatteras National Seashore

The wrought-iron stairs were rickety

We stopped at a place on the Great NC BBQ map

 and learned that Moon Pies taste like smores that came from a plastic wrapper

We spent a night in Duck

The beach was great and we even saw a pod of bottlenose dolphins

Back in VA, in the Hampton Roads area there is another historic fort, Fort Monroe, famous for its policy to shield slaves that made it there safely during the Civil War

In addition to housing R.E. Lee and Jefferson Davis as prisoners, it was a post for a young American author. Hint, look above the window.

 There's always something to climb on at the old forts

Redoubt #10 at the Yorktown battlefield site was a must-see site

 where Hamilton achieved military glory

The W&M old campus looked as beautiful as ever

with the same old tree to climb on

and cannons that once were confiscated from the British at the surrender of Yorktown

Hmm, not sure that is the World's Largest Gummy Bear. Was it carved by gummi artisans who work exclusively in the medium of gummi?

We almost made the mistake of visiting Historic Jamestown

with its fancy visitors center

and plaques

 but we moved onto to the actual Jamestown settlement, where we saw dozens of turtles and one Pocahontas

first flight for Erin

and Tessie

4th of July in DC

The day after school ended we kayaked around the Concord River

 

then Dave, Caroline, and Erin flew to Maryland to spend 2 weeks visiting sisters. At Boxwood Farm there is always great grilling

and while I worked during the day, Charlie and Erin delivered me lunch. (I actually read that 1884 1st edition of US Grant's memoirs. Quite a general was Grant and one of those great American stories of a kid from Ohio earning an education and rising to the highest levels)

We dog-sat for tenants of a house even older than Boxwood Farm. Sudley house dates from the 1720s and had huuuge fireplaces in the great hall and bedrooms. 

General Bobblehead George, you have come to the end of the road. You've seen your birthplace, Fort Necessity where you led your men into a massacre, the Cambridge common where you received command of the Continental Army, your winter headquarters at Morristown and Valley Forge, Yorktown, Federal Hall, the C&O canal, Fort Washington, and now your beloved home plantation of Mount Vernon.

All the cousins except Charlie made the trip

That is flax drying so its fibers can be harvested and spun into linen. Among the 3 natural fibers used for centuries in clothing, we'd seen cotton and wool demonstrations, but this was the first time seeing flax. It takes a lot of work to process the stalks into thread, but the interpreters who wore all-linen outfits loved the durability and softness.

Those are the fireworks for the DC celebration being loaded on a barge. I would guess that George's ghost approves of his docks use to commemorate an event from his lifetime.

And there is the original tomb and final resting place of GW

At Claire's we were treated to delicious meals and played many games

and the kids created a quest for me. In this one we had to direct the model to recreate famous paintings. Watch those arm and leg positions, Erin, you're a pre-Raphaelite.

The finale was a disarming of the "poisoned" soda bottle using Mentos

We knocked off the remaining unvisited NPS sites in DC. Here are the beautiful, ahem, Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens on the Anacostia River. At least they were very green.

and there are always new monuments going up. This is the Dwight D. Eisenhower memorial shoehorned next to the Dept of Education and across from the Erin Space Museum.

and when Tessie and Heather flew into DCA, why wouldn't we brave the heat and humidity to see the Jefferson Memorial?

Dinner at Jerry's house was much better

Katy had a bumper crop of honey from her bees. She's streamlined the harvesting operation, which entails cutting off the caps of the boxes, spinning out the honey, filtering it, and then pouring it into bottles to give to friends and family.