Little Drummer Boy

I was able to get a little video of Lon playing the civil war drum. He is so cute and the drum sounded pretty good too.

The Virginia State Fair

I was disappointed that we could not go to the Puyallup this year. I love that Fair. I was even more disappointed when I thought that the Virginia State Fair started NEXT weekend. Well, it started yesterday. We all went to the Fair. Lon was very excited to be going to see cows, pigs, sheeps, goats and chickens. Yes, he calls them sheeps. Everyone else gets an s, why not sheep too?

The first thing we did was get some food. Yummy fair food. To be honest, Puyallup has better. Crusty Pups, scones and onion burgers, can't be beat! They do not have a signature thing at the Virginia State Fair.

While they were finishing up, Lon and I went into the goat barn. Tent, actually. In 2009, the fair is moving to another location. This year it was still being held at the Richmond International Raceway. Lon waved hello to many many goats. The fun thing is that they let you pet any and all animals. There are no signs saying do not pet. Very nice.

Pet me some more!! Lon got a bit surprised by the little goat.

After the goats, we all went to look at the fish, seriously, they have fish here. In tanks. Lon said hi to them and then made fish faces at them. He did that to all the animals he said Hi to, tried to speak to them in their native language. He mooed at cows, etc.

Lon got his roasted corn! Super yummy stuff.

One of the booths showed us about Rescue and Search Dogs. The rescue dog LOVED Lon. The main reason was the corn cob, with some corn and butter still on it was beside Lon in his chair. Lon told me he wanted a dog.

PIGLETS!

Goats. There were LOTS of goats at the Virginia State Fair.

This is Valentine, she is only 4 months old, but she won't get to be too much bigger. Lon thought she was pretty.

Most of Lon's animal petting was done in the Scholarship building. The area was called Junior McDonald's Farm. Cute. I was talking to a random stranger in the building, nice guy, and another lady also started talking about how she could no longer eat meat, the animals were just so cute. As I walked away, I whispered loudly to the nice guy that they were mighty tasty too. He laughed out loud. A little while later we saw him near the turkey pen. He said something about cooking a turkey, and I said it was just too hot. He told me, no they are really selling turkey legs out there. I smiled and said, you are right there used to be about 12 more turkeys in this pen. He walked over to his teen aged daughter and said told her what I said. The look on her face was priceless and I am sorry I did not get that on film.

The goat wants that red balloon for a snack!!

More piglets. They are just so cute and tiny.

After we petted all the animals we went over to the Virginia Heritage park. That was interesting. Lots of Civil War stuff.

One of the reenactors let Lon play his drum. How cool was that? We all had a wonderful time at the fair. I am so glad we got to go. I love fairs, the animals, the food, just being able to walk around and see it all. Lon was telling me all about it as he went to sleep tonight.

Jamestown -- Both of Them

I was unaware that there are TWO Jamestowns. One is called Jamestown Settlement and the other is Historic Jamestown. Jamestown Settlement is like Williamsburg, restored buildings, people in costume and in character, and Historic Jamestown is where they are doing the excavation on the real settlement, digging up all sorts of cool things. The news last night told me today would be cooler with a good chance of rain. Yippee! They lied. Today was 95 with 99% humidity. Despite that we had a good time.
We went to Jamestown Settlement first. At this point I am still unaware there are two. This is in the Native Village you go through. It is a circle of faces. The volunteer had no clue as to why they were there, some sort of ceremonial thing.



Lon rode in his stroller most of the time. In another part of the Powhatan Village they had a women cooking over an open fire, making corn cakes. Lon found this interesting till the wind shifted to blow smoke at him.

This nice lady was making apple pies. It was HOT inside the building. There is a fire going on behind her. She built up the fire to let it die down, so there were hot embers to cook the pie.

In another house, I liked the fireplace. The tiles all had different animals on them.





Inside the church.

Chickens were everywhere! Lon had fun saying Hi Chicken. He would wave at them. Or repeat the call when the rooster crowed.

The ships.

I have to look up what ship this was, I know it was not the Elizabeth, that one was behind us, or the Godspeed at that is touring around, and the Susan Constant is bigger. The Gentleman who was in character on the vessel was very nice. He let Lon move the tiller.

He showed Lon how it moved and that you could see the water from there!

He taught him how to work the windless to move the anchor up or down. There was no anchor attached. The ships were securely moored to the docks. He was very nice.


The mast of the Susan Constant. As you can see, to board the vessels Lon had to get out of his stroller. He did not get back in.

The captain's quarters.

Lon found the broom in the cook's quarters and kitchen. He still loves to sweep. We did not go below or between decks. The stairs were very steep, Lon wanted to RUN.

We went up to the Discovery Center. They had all sorts of wood working things, and no this is not sharp. Not even a little. Lon had fun playing there for a while. Then we went back through the Fort.

When we walked through the first time, there were lots of other people trying on the armour hats and breastplates. I did not even try to get Lon in the breastplate. The hat was heavy enough.

ByeBye Chickens

We had some lunch, I was still thinking this was nice, but where were the digs? We did get a smashed penny for Lon. Love those! Mommy got a charm. That was pretty much it. As we are leaving the main building I hear this couple talking about this was not the real Jamestown, and they should hurry up and get to the real one before it got too hot. I asked them what do you mean the real Jamestown. They told me that the one with the digs and the glassblower was just down the road a mile or two. REALLY? We were going there!

Our first stop was the glass house. Well away from the rest of Historic Jamestown. It is run by the National Park Service, so we did get Lon's National Park Passport stamped. He got two, one from the Glasshouse and one from Jamestown.

Reading the signs along the way to the Glasshouse.

They have a building that houses the ruins. Really interesting.

The window reflections.

The Glassblowers. This is a recreation of the glasshouse, and they sell what they make here. It is all very cool. I did not get anything as trying to bring it back would be difficult on this trip.

After going through the Visitor's Center, you walk on a boardwalk over a swamp and the very first thing you see is this.

The old church gates.

One of the digs in progress. We walked from there to the museum where they are putting what they find on display. It is not a cheeseball type thing, it is really amazing the work that has gone into the museum. There are no photos allowed inside it. Humidity, temperature and light controlled.

The ruins of the church. Inside is wonderful, they have the original foundation under glass, but they won't allow photos inside.

But I did anyway, I took one before I read the sign.

We were both getting dehydrated and HOT. I took about half the water, and gave the rest to Lon who drank some and then poured the rest on himself. Smart boy.

Looking across to Jamestown Settlement

We had a great day, even if we were hot, sweaty and tired at the end of it. Lon slept very well! Me too!