Sunday, August 25, 2024

Charleston, South Carolina

The last stop on the Princess Cruise East Coast trip was Charleston, South Carolina.  As our off-ship excursion, my husband and I decided to take a bus tour of the city, including a few stops at historical places. 

Charleston was founded in 1670 as Charles Town, honoring King Charles II, at Albemarle Point on the west bank of the Ashley River but relocated in 1680 to its present site.   Charleston adopted its present spelling with its incorporation as a city in 1783.


Charleston is now the most populous area in South Carolina in the US.  Its predominant antebellum architecture was charming to see as our tour bus drove around the city.


We drove around The Citadel's campus. 

The Citadel Military College of South Carolina is a public senior military college established in 1842.  It is the third oldest of the six senior military colleges in the United States. The Citadel was initially established as two schools to educate young men from around the state, while simultaneously protecting the South Carolina State Arsenals in both Columbia and Charleston





We could see some co-ed students participating in drills on the large central campus as the bus drove around the grounds.



Charleston is known as the “Holy City” for its skyline punctuated by steeples and is home to some of the most historically and culturally significant churches in North America. Our tour stopped at the Second Presbyterian Church of Charleston. It was built in 1809 by James and John Gordon, this edifice is known as the oldest edifice of the Presbyterian faith of Charleston. The church, built in the Jeffersonian style is the fourth oldest church structure in the city.



Please click on the photo to enlarge it to read the informational placard.

We also stopped to tour the Joseph Manigault House. 
 
The Joseph Manigault house was built in 1803 and was designed by Joseph Manigault's brother Gabriel, who also designed Charleston’s current City Hall. Joseph was a wealthy rice planter who inherited several rice plantations and over two hundred slaves from his grandfather, and married into a wealthy family. His wife's father, Arthur Middleton, was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. The house was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1973 and is now a museum. It reflects the urban lifestyle of a wealthy, rice-planting family and the enslaved African Americans who lived there.


The Gate Temple entrance to the Joseph Manigault House Museum--enlarge the photo above to read the informational placard about it.




Please click on  the photo to enlarge it,



The Manigault house's focal point is a "flying" staircase in the hall. The numerous rooms have been restored to their original color schemes and adorned with an exceptional collection of American, English, and French period furnishings.




I enjoyed seeing some beautiful flowers, window flower boxes, and  moss hanging off the many live oak trees in the city,




Our tour bus passed a horse-drawn carriage tour--I made a note to do this tour if we ever return to Charleston in the future.





A carriage ride would be a pleasant way to slowly pass all the magnificent Charleston mansions!




Another thing I regretted not being able to do was pick up a handwoven basket or other braided sweetgrass handicraft that was for sale! For more than 300 years, the Gullah people in Charleston have been weaving baskets using locally harvested bulrush, a strong yet supple marshgrass that thrives in the sandy soil of the Lowcountry. Originally used as winnowing fans to separate the rice seed from its chaff, sweetgrass baskets are regarded among the nation’s most prized cultural souvenirs.



The day we visited Charleston was my birthday so we celebrated at one of the specialty restaurants on our cruise ship and I enjoyed a delicious lobster tail!



We enjoyed watching sailboats outside the windows of the restaurant as we dined.


That evening we enjoyed listening to a fun Elton John impersonator's concert in the ship's theater.

 It was the end of a beautiful day!


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Sunday, August 18, 2024

The American Revolution Museum in Yorktown, Virginia



A replica of a Continental Army encampment during the Revolutionary War

In my last blog post--click here to read--I showed the first part of an excursion my husband and I took while on an East Coast Princess Cruise, It's third stop was in Norfork, Virginia, where we first visited historic Jamestown--the first British settlement in America. The second part of the 7-hour excursion was a visit to The American Revolution Museum in Yorktown, Virginia. The siege of Yorktown, in 1781, was the last major land battle of the American Revolutionary War in North America and led to General Cornwallis's surrender and his army's capture. The Continental Army's victory at Yorktown prompted the British government to negotiate an end to the war.



The American Revolution Museum at Yorktown is a historic attraction that tells the history of America's founding in Colonial Williamsburg. Their website states: "...this interactive museum is the perfect place to start your adventure of the United States' Historic Triangle. You will learn about the twilight of the colonial period, to George Washington and the Revolutionary War, to the dawn of the writing of the Constitution. Visit art gallery exhibits, participate in live reenactments, view amazing exhibit displays featuring period artifacts, learn about General Washington."



We did meet George Washington! 
We were able to go inside his tent and saw how the General ate and slept on the battlefield.




A revolution-era Farm was on display with re-enactors demonstrating the life of a farm family during the 18th century.



I also admired all the flowers blooming on the property, especially the large magnolias in the trees




We saw a demonstration of how a cannon was fired back in the 18th century--it required three people to load and fire it!




There were informational placards all around the outside museum grounds.....
Click on each photo below to enlarge it for easier viewing.







After touring the outside exhibits we went inside the museum building.




The museum displayed an expansive American Revolution timeline, hundreds of period artifacts such as weapons, paintings, maps, and furniture, and had immersive films while learning about the history of North America.



We first watched a short film about the Siege of Yorktown displayed on a 180-degree surround screen.



Please click on the photos to enlarge it

We then strolled through the galleries to read as much as possible in the time we had left.


A copy of a statue of George Washington located in the Virginia State Capital, and information about the General who was to become America's first President. 




Please click on the photo to enlarge it. 


We thoroughly enjoyed visiting both historic Jamestown and Yorktown. If you are interested in learning more about the early formation of our country, these sites offer wonderful immersive experiences.

We had one more stop to shore to make while on our ten-day cruise--next stop is Charleston, South Carolina--on my next post!


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Sunday, August 11, 2024

Norfolk, Virginia, and Historic Jamestown Rediscovery



Thank you to all who read my prior blog post about the wildfire that was in our community and expressed concern for the residents and firefighters. Thankfully, due to the extraordinary diligence and heroism of many local firefighter units, Specialty Wildfire"Hot Shot" crews, aerial support with helicopter and tanker planes dumping water, and our sheriff's department maintaining security in evacuated areas and keeping us informed with daily press conferences, the wildfire was brought under full containment by August 7th.  No loss of life or loss of structures occurred. We were all extremely grateful and relieved for all the efforts to keep us safe!

I'm continuing today on my blog to show another stop at our June Princess Cruise when we traveled from New York along the East Coast and back to New York.  We visited Peggy's Cove in Halifax, Nova Scotia, The John F Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston, Massachusetts, and our third stop was Norfolk, Virginia!



Norfolk, Virginia is home to the Naval Station Norfolk-- the world’s largest naval base!  There are many sites and museums dedicated to honoring the US military in the Norfork area, including the Nauticus and the USS Wisconsin. The USS Wisconsin is a battleship that participated in WWII, the Korean War, and the Gulf War.


We were fortunate to see many naval ships at the docks of the Naval Station Norfork as our cruise ship sailed toward the city port. 

 We chose to take a day excursion to visit historic Jamestown, the first colonial site of British America. 

On May 14, 1607, the Virginia Company settlers landed on Jamestown Island to establish an English colony 60 miles from the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. Discovery of the exact location of the first fort indicates its site was in a secure place, where Spanish ships could not fire point blank into the fort.

Please click on the photo to enlarge it to read the informational placard.

Our tour guide told us a brief history of Jamestown and encouraged us to first visit the Native Powhatan village re-enactment area. My husband and I visited Jamestown many decades ago and we were amazed by how much has been done in the later years to tell its story! Over 25 years of exploration have established the location of the fort and principal buildings and recovered more than three million artifacts. The archaeological site of the actual settlement is located one mile from the Jamestown Rediscovery Visitors Center.





A replica of a Powhatan Village.


 
A view inside of what a Powhatan home would look like in the 17th century.



Many re-enactors demonstrated the life skills of the Powhatan natives of the 17th century.



In June of 1606, King James I granted a charter to a group of London entrepreneurs, the Virginia Company, to establish an English settlement in the Chesapeake region of North America. In December of that year, 104 settlers sailed from London with Company instructions to build a secure settlement, find gold, and seek a water route to the Pacific. They sailed on three ships, replicas of which we were able to board during our tour.




A re-enactor described the Jamestown settlers' voyage west,




The Jamestown settlement has a stocked defense built around it for protection.



The replica Jamestown settlement had re-enactors that demonstrated everyday life during the early years.   To date, archaeologists have excavated approximately 80% of the original 1607 triangular fort and 50% of the expanded 5-sided 1608 fort, yielding some 3 million artifacts from the settlement’s early years, increasing knowledge about the site and the people that lived there.




We watched this re-enactor show us how a 17th-century musket was fired.  You can watch a YouTube of the process I filmed at this link.





After visiting the replica villages we entered the Jamestown Rediscovery Visitor's Center Museum to look at all the interesting exhibits.







Please click on the photo to enlarge it and read the museum's informational placards.



Please click on the photo collage to read the information about the early starvation the settlers faced and the story of Captain John Smith.


Jamestown is managed by two separate organizations, Jamestown Rediscovery (Preservation Virginia) and Colonial National Historical Park (National Park Service). Each location requires a fee to enter, so visitors should expect to buy both tickets to see the full site.

We spent two hours exploring Jamestown Rediscovery and could have spent even more time there, but we had a part two visit to our excursion which was visiting nearby Yorktown--the last battle of the American Revolutionary War.  That will be on my next post!


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Monday, August 5, 2024

A Wildfire In Our Community!

My husband and I were watching TV the evening of July 30th when an emergency "Smart 911" message came through on our phone that a wildfire broke out in open space wilderness to the west of our community. We were shocked and went to the end of our main road to see it. These were the scenes that greeted us--large walls of orange fire scattered all around the steep foothills in the distance. We were devastated and very scared.



If you look closely at the bottom left of this photo you can see two other people who came to view the wildfire--it gives some perspective to the view of the fire



This smoke-filled photo shows how close the wildfire was to our very populated suburban area.




My husband and I have lived through a few wildfires since we moved to Colorado eleven yeas ago.  One was also very close to our area and we were made to evacuate for a short time. When we realized how long it took us to gather our important papers medicines and other essentials we realized we had to do better, as fires can escalate very quickly!  After that experience, we centralized what we would need to bring with us.  We also digitalized all our old printed photos, home movies, and many of our important papers and we uploaded them to a cloud service to preserve them.


Click on this timed evacuation list to enlarge it

A neighbor posted this evacuation list on our neighborhood's Facebook page and I thought it was excellent. Even though our neighborhood was not asked to evacuate we prepared as if we were, just in case.  We had a few very stressful days of worry, especially when the neighborhood next to ours was placed on a pre-evacuation alert which meant the fire was getting closer.




This photo was posted by our region's firefighters' social media pages. They, and other firefighter units in our area, did an excellent job keeping everyone informed. Since the fire area is partially wilderness the firefighters had to contend with rattlesnakes, bears, and mountain lions, along with very steep rocky uphill inclines. Also, our weather has been very hot--in the high 90s, with low humidity, and we have been without rainfall for weeks.

The Director of Public Affairs for Jefferson County, Colorado, held a press conference every morning and late afternoon that was posted to social media with much information about how many firefighters and apparatus were fighting the fire, what the containment was, information for the 500-plus homeowners closest to the fire, and were evacuated, and so on. The information was very helpful to us all.




Thankfully, we had invested in HEPA air filtering machines when the last wildfire occurred so these machines kept our inside air cleansed when the outdoor air was unhealthy.



All week long we could see and hear much firefighting air power as water from local reservoirs was scooped up by helicopters and planes and sprayed from the air on the multiple fires, while LAT planes dropped plumes of fire retardant. We gained valuable insights into the handling of wildfires and deeply admire the skills of the courageous professional firefighters.




The fire continues to burn, but last we heard it was 30 % contained



We feel somewhat reassured that the wildfire will not reach our neighborhood, but we are still staying prepared. We've been informed that it could take weeks to even months before it is completely under control. Unfortunately, we've learned that this wildfire is believed to be caused by arson, which means it was started by a human or humans, whether intentionally or not, and there is an ongoing investigation. I'll update you on my next post.

Please keep all the brave firefighters in your prayers!


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