More photos of Historic Jamestowne

This year marks the 400th anniversary of the settlement of Jamestown, aka, Historic Jamestowne. While visiting this island, Red and I attempted to absorb the richness of our country's history and realizing that this was the place where it all started. We walked the pathway that pointed out the ruins of a number of buildings which once stood, and we tried to visualize what this colony of English settlers must have looked like in the early 17th century. Below are photos of what we saw while walking around. And if you click here you will be directed to Red's blog which also has photos of Historic Jamestowne.

This is a depiction of rowhouses that were built (I think in the latter part of the 17th century), when Jamestowne became a bustling outpost.

This photo shows the foundation of where the rowhouses once existed.



Along the pathway while walking around and viewing the ruins and foundations I found this "family" of Canada geese. I guess they were eating seeds found in the grass. I know it's not a really sharp photo, but this was the best shot I could get. It's not easy getting photos of birds, albeit large birds, in a very tall grassy area.


Due to the muggy weather, which Red and I are not used to, we decided to take a drive around the island and cool off in our air conditioned car. In doing so, we came upon an area called Black Point. Time to get out and see what this area had to offer. What we saw beyond all the trees was a small beach setting looking across the James River toward the mainland. There were several dead trees, some still standing while others were fallen over. While heading back to where we parked our car, a deer ran across our pathway. I guess she was wanting a drink of water. Of course, we did not have our camera ready, and she disappeared rather quickly. But we were able to get a picture of the bald eagle who kept eyeing us.

East Coast Vacation

Red and I have returned from our week long vacation back to the Mid-Atlantic states. We visited what is known as the Historic Triangle, which includes Colonial Williamsburg, Historic Jamestown, and the Yorktown Battlefield. We also visited George Washington's boyhood home, called Ferry Farm located in Frericksburg, VA. This is where we did some tour guided bird watching on the property. We then drove to New Jersey to visit relatives and participate in a family reunion. The following day we drove back south again to continue our vacationing historic areas. We managed to visit Annapolis, MD, Washington, DC, and Mt. Vernon, VA. And as usual, never enough time to visit everything we wanted to see. Nevertheless, we did enjoy our vacation and we have spent the last several days going through and editing our photos - a very time consuming activity. Red has posted about our flight to Richmond, VA and posted a few pix of our visit to Historic Jamestown.

Here are my photos (with comments) - sorry if some of them are repeats of what Red posted.

This is a view of the James River. As you may note, the weather was mostly cloudy, very warm and humid, quite muggy for most of our trip.This is a close-up of the sign seen in the previous photo. I think you can see an enlarged view of this by clicking on it. If you can see the enlarged view, you will note that there are quite a few archeological digs going on there in Jamestown. The most active one (photos below) was located between the Memorial Church and James Fort. Here is the sign regarding the most recent excavations. If you want to be able to read it, click on the photo to get an enlarged view.

Here is the statue of Pocahontas.

And here is Captain John Smith's statue.

These are views of the James River with a cannon (not sure if it is authentic or a replica) used to protect the people of Jamestown.

We saw this boat go by on the James River - is this a barge?

And this stone is a tribute to the original settlers from England (1607) given by the Society of Daughters of Colonial Wars (1928).

And this "house" is a research center which is private, not open to the public. I was so attracted to this building and its landscape I just had to post it. Not only is the building itself very attractive, but the lawn and the crepe myrtles around it were breathtaking.

Vacation time

My daughter, Heidi, aka Red, and I will be flying to Richmond, VA early Wednesday morning. We are planning to visit Jamestown, Yorktown and Williamsburg Thursday and Friday.

Friday night we'll probably stay in Fredricksburg so that early Saturday morning we can attend a birding tour at Washington's Ferry Farm. The tour begins at 8 a.m. and lasts for 2 hours. It will be led by Paul Nasca, a birding enthusiast. There have been over a hundred species sighted at this location, so I hope to see a few that I can add to my life list.

After the birding tour we will drive up to New Jersey (southern end) to attend our family reunion. This family reunion is on my mother's side where the majority of this family has lived and stayed in the Norristown-Philadelphia area for many decades.

Last week I went shopping for a new piece of luggage. My old luggage does not have wheels except for the largest piece. I think it's a 29-inch bag, large enough for a two-three week trip. But this trip is only for one week, and I don't need anything that big. So I got myself a Samsonite 21-inch upright.

It certainly has plenty of pockets on the front, as well as several more pockets and pouches inside the bag. And there still seems to be plenty of space for clothes, too.

Sunday we will drive in a southerly direction. We are hoping to visit Annapolis before heading to Washington. Can you believe this native of Baltimore has never visited the capital of her home state?

When we get to Washington we are hoping to visit the Museum of Natural History (a favorite of mine), and the Library of Congress. We also want to visit the memorials on the mall and hopefully will visit one of the Smithsonian buildings. I'm also hoping we'll get the chance to visit Arlington National Cemetery. I haven't been there since I was in high school, the year after John F. Kennedy was buried there. There's always so much to see and do in Washington and the surrounding area.