Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Day 2 with NIAHD

Yesterday we went to the Yorktown Victory Center. I have been to Yorktown but this was my first visit to the Victory Center, it's a fun site- at least the students all seemed to like it.

This picture was actually taken along the Colonial Parkway (which links the Historic Triangle; Colonial Williamsburg, Yorktown, and Jamestown)- we stopped along the way to kill some time as we were going to get there before they opened.



Here are some photos from the outside of the museum where they have recreated what part of Yorktown may have looked like around the time of the Revolution.

This is a garden- an organic garden, they try to grow things that may have been grown here in the late 1700s and using methods that would have been used then.







Here are some turkeys that were chillin' in the shade- the students weren't too fond of them, they were all talking about how stupid turkeys are (one of them said they are stupid, but delicious).



This is a kitchen.



Laundry (I really hate doing laundry- but we are really rather lucky, laundry has always been an unpleasant chore but it has gotten much easier).



This type of house would have been owned by someone rather well off (not gentry but pretty wealthy).














These are some of the toasts patriots made while celebrating the Declaration of Independence- my favorite is the last one- "Perpetual Itching without the benefit of scratching, to the enemies of America."



I like this quote almost as much- "No Man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into a jail: for being in a ship is being in jail with the chance of being drowned... A man in jail has more room, better food, and commonly better company." Samuel Johnson, 1759

Liberty Park (Utah love cont.)

There is an amazing fountain in Liberty Park in Salt Lake City called the Seven Canyons which recreates the canyons in the Wasatch Valley. I tried to take pictures but the shade made it difficult so they didn't turn out that great plus the water wasn't on so it's not the same- but on the bright side that means there were less kids climbing all over it (they were all playing in the "Great Salt Lake" pond).

Litte Cottonwood Canyon



Big Cottonwood Canyon



Millcreek Canyon



Parley's Canyon



Emigration Canyon



Red Butte



City Creek



This represents the city...



It's a cool spot- Liberty Park is a great place to hang out, here are some more pictures from my walk through the park.









Tuesday, June 29, 2010

The Wren Building

For our first NIAHD field trip we toured the Wren Building on campus (can you call it a field trip if you don't leave campus?) Apparently it is the oldest college building in the United States- see I am already learning stuff. I didn't take a lot of pictures but here are a few- I took some better ones but they had some of the students in them and I didn't feel right about posting their pictures on the internet (though the backs of some heads will be featured here- exciting I know).
















And the fanciest room of all....

Monday, June 28, 2010

Senator Robert Byrd

Well, this is undoubtably a new record for me (3 posts on the same day!) but this one is brief. I just want to share a link to my friend Katie's blog post on Senator Robert Byrd- she wrote a great entry on him and I think it's worth reading.

Park City (a.k.a even more Utah-love)

While in Utah I also had the fortune to spend the afternoon in Park City with my sister, brother-in-law, 2 of my nieces, and some cousins.

First my sister, her family, and I walked Historic Main Street.















Our cousins were vacationing in Park City so after walking Main Street we headed over to the resort where they were staying- which was amazing...







NIAHD

I am working for NIAHD (National Institute of American History and Democracy) this summer- and it started yesterday. We had our "opening ceremonies" in the brand new School of Business Building. I took a couple pictures, I should have taken more- the building is ridiculously beautiful- meanwhile the American Studies building is being de-aspestosized this summer. Remind me again- why did I go into the humanities?





I could use some of that Business School money about now- here's my car being towed away for the second time in a week...



Here's Rusty in yet another loaner car- he doesn't look too happy about it.

Saturday, June 26, 2010

More Utah Love

While in Utah I also took a drive up Emigration Canyon, this time without the dogs so I was able to get out of the car and take some (hopefully) better pictures...