The Braswell Bunch: August 2012

Friday, August 31, 2012

Virginia is for Lovers Part 4

On Tuesday Emery and I went shopping for some new jeans. I found two pair and it only took one hour! The ease of shopping with only one child.

Then we headed over to James Town.

Then we drove down the James River and stopped at a bunch of plantation houses all the way back to Richmond. This was a five hour excursion covering about 30 miles. Again, Emery was a total rockstar! There is no way I could have done this with all my kids. What kid would LOVE looking at OLD houses all day? Seriously, I was in heaven. Here is some of what we saw...

This is the Berkley Plantation where a lot of cool things happened. Early settlers came ashore here and observed the fist official Thanksgiving in America. We toured the inside of this house but no photographs were allowed inside. It is amazing how well it has been preserved! This property served indian attacks, the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and time. The main house is VA oldest three story home. Nine of the first ten presidents of the United States have stayed at Berkley and two lived there. Benjamin Harrison was the second owner and son of the builder of Berkley. Benjamin was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and VA Governor three times. His son William Henry Harrison was the indian fighter from the battle of Tippecanoe and later the ninth President of the United States. He was only president for one month and then he died in office. His grandson Benjamin Harrison was the 23rd President.

Taps was composed here in 1862 while the Union troops were encamped at the plantation. 140,000 Union Soldiers were here with McClellan's army and President Lincoln came here to visit the camp.

This tree is 350 years old!

This is the carriage front of Berkley Plantation. The homes on the river had two main entrances. One from the carriage road and one from the James River. Most people travled by river because it was safer (less chance of an indian attack) and a more comportable way to travel

This huge house was spectacular! It is the Westover Plantation built by William Byrd the second, founder of Richmond, VA. It was built in 1730. This was a grounds tour. Here is a view of the carriage front.

This is the main entrance from the river. It was breathtaking.

This is the Shirley Plantation. I wanted to tour this house so badly, but I got there too late, and it had just closed. I got this picture though. This plantation is cool for a few reasons. The son of the original owner abhorred slavery and when he inherited the property he did all he could to make changes. This home has remained with the original family which I think is really amazing! I came home and read all about it because I was not able to go through it while I was there.

A few days before my trip I read Pride and Prejudice for the first time. Love that Jane Austin! It was really fun to see a bunch of these homes and reflect on the the time period. I know it was a bit of a stretch but can't you imagine that this is Netherfield Park?

Virginia is for Lovers Part 3

On Wednesday Emery and I went to Colonial Williamsburg. Trevor was in class so we did a little touring of our own. We went through this palace and some other shops and buildings. It was really cool to see how people lived in the early 1600's. I wish I would have taken more photos but I was overwhelmed by all the history and reenactments of the Revolutionary time period.

Later that night we meet up with Trevor for a fancy dinner at the Hard Shell. I think we both decided we are not huge fans of sea food.

Virginia is for Lovers Part 2

On Sunday we went to Monticello. The home of Thomas Jefferson. It was beautiful and the history was fascinating. Their was a woman on my flight to VA who highly recommended visiting this historical land mark. She claimed it was the best tour in Virginia. I whole heartily agree. The tour guides were very knowledgeable, dare I say scholars on everything Jefferson.

The grounds were so pretty. Can you imagine living like this? They didn't have to do too much work though. This was a plantation run by slaves. The stories were heartbreaking, but they are being told. That's the important part. Jefferson was a great man and president, but he was conflicted on the slavery issues facing his time. Our tour guide gave an excellent presentation and shared a lot of the history that has been scientifically proven in the past ten years about Sally Hemings. She was his mistress after Jefferson's wife died. Jefferson was the father of her children, who were slaves on his plantation. Some crazy history!

The front of Monticello.

Emery on the drive back to Richmond...

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Virginia is for Lovers! Part 1

FYI the next few posts are a travelog from my recent trip to Virginia. The Virginia travel slogan is "Virginia is for Lovers!" So fitting...

Trevor had a work trip in Richmond, Virginia. I joined him for five days. We left Carson, Paige and Garrett here with Grandma and Grandpa and took Emery. It was incredible in every way! Virginia is beautiful and we had so much fun! Here are a few of the highlights from our week.

On Saturday we went to Luray's Caverns in Shenandoah county. Check it out here for more info if you ever plan on going to Virginia.

Ohhhh the happy couple! Aren't we cute...

This is a reflection of the celling over a PERFECTLY still body of water inside the caverns. Amazing!

This place was huge! It took us over an hour to walk through the entire cavern.

Emery was a rockstar (get it ROCK star!) on the entire trip! She put up with so much car seat and stroller time.

The views were spectacular!

There was a little old town we explored after the caverns.

We spent the day with Trevor's sister Vanessa and her family. After a day at Luray's we had some yummy local BBQ.

These are a few pictures from our drive home. We went on the MOST beautiful drive in the country. It's called the Skyline Drive and it is quite famous. FYI Shenandoah Valley is on the top ten list of places to see before you die. We saw it and it was completely amazing.