First of the jamestown Posts
May. 21st, 2007 06:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
isabelladangeloThis is going to be a week long project. But here is the first couple of days. Did I mention I've recently gotten back into writing?
Friday:
So Thrusday I knew there was no way I could leave Friday morning because I had yet to do laundry….and I had lots of laundry. You see, I tend to do laundry when I get to the point of realizing I only have one pair of jeans left that are clean. I have five pairs of jeans and numerous skirts so doing laundry is a once in a while thing. I had to do five loads and yes, it’s just me at my house. Ginsie only had her blanket to wash.
So I started on the laundry Friday because Thursday I had to work and then go to do household (SCA) stuff which lasted until 10 pm. I cleaned up the house, vacuumed, and mowed the front lawn while doing laundry. I also washed the dishes, cleaned out the fridge, and planned my vacation to a certain extant.
So around noon my Mom calls wondering where the heck her grandpuppy is. I only had one more load to do and told her I’d be there soon with the pup. Mom and Dad always watch Miss Ginsie when I go anywhere. I watch Shiloh is they go anywhere. It works out well.
I finally get out of the house sometime that afternoon (2:00 ish) with my bags packed with all sorts of nice clean, freshly washed, laundry. It wouldn’t be until that night I realize I left my swimsuit behind. Doh! And I have a nice new pretty swimsuit too!
So I get to my parents, drop off the dog and her supplies (Ginsie’s medicine, bowls, and Squirrelly & Bunny. Ginsie had her own luggage for “Grandpaw and Grandmaw’s house. Yes I know; cutsie overload. Sorry.) So I get on the road….at 3 ish….yeap. Traffic.
Now, I knew perfectly well I’d get stuck in rush hour traffic. And I knew it would be bad going from Bethesda towards Quantico and down to Richmond…I just didn’t realize how bad. It took about 3 and half hours to go what is only 30 miles. At one point, I got off the highway to get dinner at a drive thru (chicken fries!) only to get right back on three cars back from where I had been in the first place. It was that bad. Once I got past Quantico is was fine but that was like at 6:30? I got to the apartment at 8:00 that night.
The apartment. It was simply GORGEOUS. It was an all red and green tropical interior. It had a full kitchen, dining room, living room, two bedrooms, and two bathrooms. One of the bathrooms was simply amazing within itself. It had a Jacuzzi tub, a separate shower, a separate water closet for the toilet, two sinks, and took up basically the space of the master bedroom. Each bedroom had it’s own tv but I only watched the one in the living room. The place was incredibly comfortable and felt “homey”. So much so that at a couple of points I wanted to get up to go check my email only to realize it wasn’t my house and my computer wasn’t in the other room!
They did have computer service at the resort/apartment. I haven’t had a laptop in a couple of years (mine blew up…literally) so I used their computer systems. The problem was that you could only get 20 minutes of online time through their computers and their connection was slower than window glass….and that was if you waited around long enough to sit at a computer.
So that was Friday.
Saturday:
I had so much fun Saturday! Jamestown 400 had sent out packets of information with the tickets for the celebration. Since there were so many people, they had special parking lots for everyone to park at. I was to park at the blue lot even though my hotel was closer to the orange lot. (All the lots were all around Williamsburg). I’m really glad I spent the time looking and found the blue lot because when you got to the site, the blue lot was the second “stop” when you walked back to the buses. The orange lot was nearly a block further down (which could be very painful).
And speaking of pain…So I get to the blue lot and step out of the car to see my favorite pair of bronze sandals broke. Right then and there. Luckily I had another pair of shoes in the car that I knew might be painful but I figured I’d have a chance to sit down and didn’t really care. So I put on my wedge heel canvas silver glitter shoes and get on the bus to Jamestown. They give you a hospital like wrist band before you get on the bus to show you belong along with a program. The program was actually very helpful for once since it had a map as well as many other things in it. Most programs only give you show times and I tend not to pay much attention to them because I have such a short attention span.
Anyways, get to the site and wander around Jamestown. I went through the Indian Village first and noticed that they had reed walls so I asked about that. I’m currently more use to Caribbean and Missisippean Indians who had daub or clay and mud walls over the reed. Turns out that was a later invention for the Powhatan Indians. I guess the reed alone worked really well! …was probably easier to burn when the place got infested with termites…
So wander down to the dock and got a gorgeous view of the ships coming up the James River. Now that was a sight! I saw the Susan Constance, the Godspeed, and the Discovery coming up with the billowing sails right towards me. It was truly amazing and I’ll post some pictures later. I got a few really good ones of the Susan Constance and I think the Discovery coming into port.
There was, of course, a whole production about it. In between the reporters, and the cameras, some of the re-enactors came out and “shot” out the welcome to the ships. The ships replied with cannon fire and I did get a picture of the smoke from the cannons coming out of the Susan Constance. I had an amazing spot on the dock.
So once they came in to dock, I went up to the replica of the fort and wandered around again. It was just fun to see everything; the garb, the homes, the smells, the chickens… I loved going through the houses and just talking to people who actually know what they are talking about.
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attack_laurel was working at the governor’s house. I didn’t want to bug her too much but I did introduce myself as Isabella D’Angelo and drooled over her pretty new garb. It was really stunning upper middle class garb. …and very pretty fabric too. I didn’t want to bug her too much so I walked over the next room to drool over the hand carved canopy bed. Very very pretty stuff.
After that I went over to take the shuttle to the archeological site of the actual fort. Now, remember; Isabella has been trained as an archeologist and has conducted archeological surveys. I am a total geek/nerd when it comes to this stuff. So I started to walk over to the shuttle when I realized my shoe felt funny….really funny. The canvas shoe on my right foot had started to come apart at the seam on the inner left side. I checked out the gift store really quick to see if they had any Jamestown flip flops (considering they had Jamestown sunglasses, lollipops, t-shirts, and hats, why not flip flops). Apparently that was the one article of clothing they hadn’t considered…they even had Jamestown umbrellas.
So I took the shuttle over figuring I might be able to fix the shoe somehow on the way over without any luck. I limped my way to the fort and shuffled around. I love the reconstructed interior of the old church and got to ask a question of one of the archeologists. I asked if they were taking organic samples from the various test sites to see if there were any traces of plant or animal matter left within the soil. You could tell that she was happy to answer something other than “so, what are they looking at over there in that hole?” …and that I confused the rest of the general population again. I do that. A lot. Turns out there are conducting a lot of various tests of both the soil and the ground water. They had actually found that some of the soil had such amazing preservation qualities that in what was thought to be a well; the found a 400 year old leaf that was still green. I’m hoping that they find at least some sort of textile. When I mentioned that however; the idiots swarmed in. I know, I know, I have zero patience with anyone but really….you’d think the average Joe could figure out that after the archeologist had discussed finding a leaf perfectly preserved that finding a piece of a textile wouldn’t be far fetched. However, average Joe had to chime in and say that that wouldn’t happen and that they wouldn’t find stuff like that after 400 years. I reinterated the above point 400 year old green leaf equals possibility of preservation of other organic matter. You could see the light bulb slowly come on in his head. It was just sad.
So I hobbled over to the next area which was where they had a military encampment going. It was fascinating listening to the various characters talk about their life in Jamestown around 1614. I listened to one of the captains and his first mate talk for about a half hour. They were just amazing characters. They talked about Pocahontas and her capture and travels up to the Potomac…just neat stuff. And then I walked over to the spot where various characters were discussing weaponry of the period. Enter idiot two. This time is was a women. Stupid doesn’t even begin to describe the absurdity of her comments. First she was complaining about womens roles within the 17th century without any contextual argument to back up her statements like “yeah, well, you didn’t let women do that now did you, huh” with such an air that I wanted to smack her. You could tell the poor re-enactor was getting frustrated with her but he handled himself amazingly well. He explained that the Indians to the north of them did things a bit differently…especially when they traded. He managed, in a 17th c persona, to explain that the Indians to the north were basically a materlocal (versus paterilocal) society. Everything you were depended on your mother’s family; not your fathers. Then she went into how they didn’t have it as great as he was making it sound because they lived in teepees. ::head desk:: Umm…teepees didn’t come around in North America until the horse was in wide spread use. I managed an ummm…no and he stated that they lived in long house that were actual quite nice. He started to try and address me rather than her (because I’m actually interested in this) and began to talk about how the “naturals” didn’t use metal for anything other than decoration and yet they had chunks of iron ore lying in the river beds.
Again, idiot has to pipe in. She could not get why the Indians didn’t have iron arrowheads if they had the iron ore all over the place. It took myself and the poor re-enactor a good five minutes to explain that the iron had to be smelted to make an iron arrowhead. Yes, it was really really sad.
So I decided to leave idiot and go over to another encampment where I learned a bit on period weaponry that was pretty neat. Despite my experience with fencing and firearms, I really just don’t get into the fighting side of the SCA that much. I prefer the pretty stuff; probably because of a couple of bad experience within fencing.
Anyways, learned a bit more and then realized how bad my feet were hurting so I limped back to the shuttle and went back to the hotel. I forgot to mention that inbetween going from the recreation of Jamestown and to the actual archeology site; I had gown to the 400 field and played around there. I bought some gorgeous turquoise and magenta yarn (blanket!) and some other miscellaneous stuff. I spent so much money on this vacation it’s sickening. Thank God for credit cards!
So tomorrow, hopefully, I'll get around to finishing up writing on Sunday and Monday's activities. Did I mention I got back into writing after having a what? two year dry spell?::insert evil grin here::
Friday:
So Thrusday I knew there was no way I could leave Friday morning because I had yet to do laundry….and I had lots of laundry. You see, I tend to do laundry when I get to the point of realizing I only have one pair of jeans left that are clean. I have five pairs of jeans and numerous skirts so doing laundry is a once in a while thing. I had to do five loads and yes, it’s just me at my house. Ginsie only had her blanket to wash.
So I started on the laundry Friday because Thursday I had to work and then go to do household (SCA) stuff which lasted until 10 pm. I cleaned up the house, vacuumed, and mowed the front lawn while doing laundry. I also washed the dishes, cleaned out the fridge, and planned my vacation to a certain extant.
So around noon my Mom calls wondering where the heck her grandpuppy is. I only had one more load to do and told her I’d be there soon with the pup. Mom and Dad always watch Miss Ginsie when I go anywhere. I watch Shiloh is they go anywhere. It works out well.
I finally get out of the house sometime that afternoon (2:00 ish) with my bags packed with all sorts of nice clean, freshly washed, laundry. It wouldn’t be until that night I realize I left my swimsuit behind. Doh! And I have a nice new pretty swimsuit too!
So I get to my parents, drop off the dog and her supplies (Ginsie’s medicine, bowls, and Squirrelly & Bunny. Ginsie had her own luggage for “Grandpaw and Grandmaw’s house. Yes I know; cutsie overload. Sorry.) So I get on the road….at 3 ish….yeap. Traffic.
Now, I knew perfectly well I’d get stuck in rush hour traffic. And I knew it would be bad going from Bethesda towards Quantico and down to Richmond…I just didn’t realize how bad. It took about 3 and half hours to go what is only 30 miles. At one point, I got off the highway to get dinner at a drive thru (chicken fries!) only to get right back on three cars back from where I had been in the first place. It was that bad. Once I got past Quantico is was fine but that was like at 6:30? I got to the apartment at 8:00 that night.
The apartment. It was simply GORGEOUS. It was an all red and green tropical interior. It had a full kitchen, dining room, living room, two bedrooms, and two bathrooms. One of the bathrooms was simply amazing within itself. It had a Jacuzzi tub, a separate shower, a separate water closet for the toilet, two sinks, and took up basically the space of the master bedroom. Each bedroom had it’s own tv but I only watched the one in the living room. The place was incredibly comfortable and felt “homey”. So much so that at a couple of points I wanted to get up to go check my email only to realize it wasn’t my house and my computer wasn’t in the other room!
They did have computer service at the resort/apartment. I haven’t had a laptop in a couple of years (mine blew up…literally) so I used their computer systems. The problem was that you could only get 20 minutes of online time through their computers and their connection was slower than window glass….and that was if you waited around long enough to sit at a computer.
So that was Friday.
Saturday:
I had so much fun Saturday! Jamestown 400 had sent out packets of information with the tickets for the celebration. Since there were so many people, they had special parking lots for everyone to park at. I was to park at the blue lot even though my hotel was closer to the orange lot. (All the lots were all around Williamsburg). I’m really glad I spent the time looking and found the blue lot because when you got to the site, the blue lot was the second “stop” when you walked back to the buses. The orange lot was nearly a block further down (which could be very painful).
And speaking of pain…So I get to the blue lot and step out of the car to see my favorite pair of bronze sandals broke. Right then and there. Luckily I had another pair of shoes in the car that I knew might be painful but I figured I’d have a chance to sit down and didn’t really care. So I put on my wedge heel canvas silver glitter shoes and get on the bus to Jamestown. They give you a hospital like wrist band before you get on the bus to show you belong along with a program. The program was actually very helpful for once since it had a map as well as many other things in it. Most programs only give you show times and I tend not to pay much attention to them because I have such a short attention span.
Anyways, get to the site and wander around Jamestown. I went through the Indian Village first and noticed that they had reed walls so I asked about that. I’m currently more use to Caribbean and Missisippean Indians who had daub or clay and mud walls over the reed. Turns out that was a later invention for the Powhatan Indians. I guess the reed alone worked really well! …was probably easier to burn when the place got infested with termites…
So wander down to the dock and got a gorgeous view of the ships coming up the James River. Now that was a sight! I saw the Susan Constance, the Godspeed, and the Discovery coming up with the billowing sails right towards me. It was truly amazing and I’ll post some pictures later. I got a few really good ones of the Susan Constance and I think the Discovery coming into port.
There was, of course, a whole production about it. In between the reporters, and the cameras, some of the re-enactors came out and “shot” out the welcome to the ships. The ships replied with cannon fire and I did get a picture of the smoke from the cannons coming out of the Susan Constance. I had an amazing spot on the dock.
So once they came in to dock, I went up to the replica of the fort and wandered around again. It was just fun to see everything; the garb, the homes, the smells, the chickens… I loved going through the houses and just talking to people who actually know what they are talking about.
attack_laurel was working at the governor’s house. I didn’t want to bug her too much but I did introduce myself as Isabella D’Angelo and drooled over her pretty new garb. It was really stunning upper middle class garb. …and very pretty fabric too. I didn’t want to bug her too much so I walked over the next room to drool over the hand carved canopy bed. Very very pretty stuff.After that I went over to take the shuttle to the archeological site of the actual fort. Now, remember; Isabella has been trained as an archeologist and has conducted archeological surveys. I am a total geek/nerd when it comes to this stuff. So I started to walk over to the shuttle when I realized my shoe felt funny….really funny. The canvas shoe on my right foot had started to come apart at the seam on the inner left side. I checked out the gift store really quick to see if they had any Jamestown flip flops (considering they had Jamestown sunglasses, lollipops, t-shirts, and hats, why not flip flops). Apparently that was the one article of clothing they hadn’t considered…they even had Jamestown umbrellas.
So I took the shuttle over figuring I might be able to fix the shoe somehow on the way over without any luck. I limped my way to the fort and shuffled around. I love the reconstructed interior of the old church and got to ask a question of one of the archeologists. I asked if they were taking organic samples from the various test sites to see if there were any traces of plant or animal matter left within the soil. You could tell that she was happy to answer something other than “so, what are they looking at over there in that hole?” …and that I confused the rest of the general population again. I do that. A lot. Turns out there are conducting a lot of various tests of both the soil and the ground water. They had actually found that some of the soil had such amazing preservation qualities that in what was thought to be a well; the found a 400 year old leaf that was still green. I’m hoping that they find at least some sort of textile. When I mentioned that however; the idiots swarmed in. I know, I know, I have zero patience with anyone but really….you’d think the average Joe could figure out that after the archeologist had discussed finding a leaf perfectly preserved that finding a piece of a textile wouldn’t be far fetched. However, average Joe had to chime in and say that that wouldn’t happen and that they wouldn’t find stuff like that after 400 years. I reinterated the above point 400 year old green leaf equals possibility of preservation of other organic matter. You could see the light bulb slowly come on in his head. It was just sad.
So I hobbled over to the next area which was where they had a military encampment going. It was fascinating listening to the various characters talk about their life in Jamestown around 1614. I listened to one of the captains and his first mate talk for about a half hour. They were just amazing characters. They talked about Pocahontas and her capture and travels up to the Potomac…just neat stuff. And then I walked over to the spot where various characters were discussing weaponry of the period. Enter idiot two. This time is was a women. Stupid doesn’t even begin to describe the absurdity of her comments. First she was complaining about womens roles within the 17th century without any contextual argument to back up her statements like “yeah, well, you didn’t let women do that now did you, huh” with such an air that I wanted to smack her. You could tell the poor re-enactor was getting frustrated with her but he handled himself amazingly well. He explained that the Indians to the north of them did things a bit differently…especially when they traded. He managed, in a 17th c persona, to explain that the Indians to the north were basically a materlocal (versus paterilocal) society. Everything you were depended on your mother’s family; not your fathers. Then she went into how they didn’t have it as great as he was making it sound because they lived in teepees. ::head desk:: Umm…teepees didn’t come around in North America until the horse was in wide spread use. I managed an ummm…no and he stated that they lived in long house that were actual quite nice. He started to try and address me rather than her (because I’m actually interested in this) and began to talk about how the “naturals” didn’t use metal for anything other than decoration and yet they had chunks of iron ore lying in the river beds.
Again, idiot has to pipe in. She could not get why the Indians didn’t have iron arrowheads if they had the iron ore all over the place. It took myself and the poor re-enactor a good five minutes to explain that the iron had to be smelted to make an iron arrowhead. Yes, it was really really sad.
So I decided to leave idiot and go over to another encampment where I learned a bit on period weaponry that was pretty neat. Despite my experience with fencing and firearms, I really just don’t get into the fighting side of the SCA that much. I prefer the pretty stuff; probably because of a couple of bad experience within fencing.
Anyways, learned a bit more and then realized how bad my feet were hurting so I limped back to the shuttle and went back to the hotel. I forgot to mention that inbetween going from the recreation of Jamestown and to the actual archeology site; I had gown to the 400 field and played around there. I bought some gorgeous turquoise and magenta yarn (blanket!) and some other miscellaneous stuff. I spent so much money on this vacation it’s sickening. Thank God for credit cards!
So tomorrow, hopefully, I'll get around to finishing up writing on Sunday and Monday's activities. Did I mention I got back into writing after having a what? two year dry spell?::insert evil grin here::
