The four of us (Monte, Aleta, Mona and I) arrived in
Williamsburg, Virginia early Sunday afternoon.
We checked in and headed to the nearby Jamestown. This is where the first permanent
English-speaking colony in the Americas was established beginning in 1607 and
from where we learn of Captain John
Smith and Pocahontas. It’s amazing how
tiny the ships are that brought them here….can’t imagine being crammed into
those tiny holds for that long journey across the Atlantic. Once in the Americas the colony barely hung
on, losing many colonists to starvation, disease and battles with the Powahatan
Indians. Visiting here really brings it
home as to how incredibly lucky we are to live in this day and age.
Monday, brought a day trip to Washington D.C. For years, we’ve tried to time our trips to
see these elusive blossoms, but never with any success. (Yes, there was that one trip, where one
solitary tree was blooming, and we took thirty pictures of it, but that doesn’t
count!) This time; however, we were in
high hopes because our resident DC friend, Margaret, had emailed us just before
our departure saying the cherry trees were in full bloom! Our hopes were high as we drove 2 ½ hours
north, finally arriving at the Springfield/Franconia Metro Station. From there it was a 30 minute ride to the
Smithsonian and then a ten minute walk to the Tidal Basin.
It was overcast and had been raining….dare we even hope that
a blossom or two was still there?
Finally, we went over the last hill and the Tidal Basin was in full view….ringed
with beautiful pink cherry blossoms! At
last! It would have been nicer had there
been sunshine and it probably would have been better before the rain, but hey,
we got blossoms! We can finally check
this one off the list!
We spent the rest of the day traveling throughout the city
to visit some of our favorite DC spots…trying to cram in as much as possible in
our one day visit. Finished our day at
our favorite Alexandria restaurant, King Street Blues, where we linked up with our
resident DC friends, Margaret and Pete. After
a fun visit with them we drove back to Williamsburg, climbed the three flights
of stairs to our unit, and collapsed into bed around 11 PM. Whew!
Next up was Yorktown, where George Washington and his troops
defeated Lord Cornwallis and his
British troops in the final battle of the Revolutionary War. There a ranger took us onto the battleground
and gave us a vivid portrayal of the steps leading up the battle and then the
final battle itself. Did you know that
the Americans fired over 15,000 artillery rounds at the British before the
battle even began? This barrage did its
job, softening the British lines and helped keep American casualities to a
minimum in the final battle. If you’re
ever in this area, I highly recommend you visit both Jamestown and Yorktown to
get a better sense of how our country began.
I guess now is as good a time as any to tell you about the
frogs. Most of you know about our frogs
back home. I guess our home frogs sent word to the
Williamsburg frogs about how we “love” nightly serenades; because, each night we sit outside on our balcony and get to listen to a chorus of bull frogs with
their deep bass thrums. “RaaaUmmmmP. RaaaUmmmmP. RaaaUmmmmP. Doink!” Doink?!?
Yep, there’s one frog out here who has the wrong sheet music and he
loves to punctuate the other frog’s bass RaaaUmmmmPs with a high-pitched
Doink! Makes us laugh every time he does
it, and we’ve been laughing four nights
in a row. (Hmmmm, maybe those stairs are
affecting our sense of humor…or maybe it’s the wine, or maybe we should just
move to the next topic!)
On Wednesday, we drove to Norfolk, Virginia to visit the
U.S.S. Wisconsin, the last battleship to be built in the United States. This ship saw battle from World War II to
Operation Desert Storm. This amazing
ship is the largest battleship ever built and has nine 16 inch guns, and can (and has) launch Tomahawk cruise missiles. The
Wisconsin is now a museum exhibit, docked in Norfolk, and is a must see if you’re
in this area.
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| U.S.S. Enterprise |
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| U.S.S. Cole |
We then took a two hour cruise to the Norfolk Naval
Shipyard, the largest in the world. We
saw cruisers, destroyers, attack submarines, support ships and the historic aircraft
carrier The Enterprise. We also saw the
U.S.S. Cole, which was the destroyer attacked by suicide bombers while it was
stationed in Yemen back in 2000. 17
American sailors died in that attack and 39 were injured. This was the first time that Americans really
started hearing about Al Qaeda. (Note: Although almost sunk by the
blast, the Cole was repaired and returned to service.)
Our day ended with a night visit to the Powhatan Plantation
home. This manor dates back to colonial times and is
said to be haunted…and that’s why we were here.
At 8:30 we began with a guided tour of the home with stories of the
ghostly occurrences that have occurred in and outside the home. Along with the stories, we get demonstrations
of ghost-hunting tools. Electro-magnetic
meters, voice recorders, etc. My
personal favorite are the dowsing wires.
I’ve used these many time over the past 40 years to find underground
metal and water and never knew they were also used for ghost hunting. At 9:30 we were allowed to roam the house and
grounds at will, borrowing the ghost hunting tools to see what we could find.
I grabbed the dowsing wires and Mona grabbed an
electro-meter. The first room we tried
with no results. Then we went to an
upstairs bedroom. It was darkened, but
we could still see the wires. I asked
the wires to be crossed. They
crossed. I asked for them to be
opened. They opened. I asked for them to go to the left. To the left they went. I repeated this several times and others saw
it happen as well. This definitely
raised goosebumps on my arm! Then the
wire almost jumped out of my left hand! We went to another room and tried it
again. Same results and this time the
electro-meter registered some kind of activity.
We repeated this several times in the manor and on the grounds. At least 50 percent of the time the wires
moved as I requested. Three times the
wire in my left hand “jumped” out of my hand.
While at the plantation we took lots of photos without
flash. This morning I took a look. Note the picture on the right. No one in our group wore a white gown of any
type.
This was definitely an interesting night! Time to head back, climb the stairs and
listen to the quiet sounds of the night…RaaaUmmmmP. RaaaUmmmmP. RaaaUmmmmP. Doink!
We stopped at the first island on the complex for a
wonderful seafood lunch. Lunch got even
better when we spotted an American attack submarine crossing through the
channel. I grabbed my “Pete” camera and
got a great shot. First time we've ever
seen a submarine in the wild!
