First, a heartfelt thanks to my blog partner
Sam for taking up the slack here at
Always On Watch while
Mr. AOW and I took our first vacation since his stroke of September 15, 2009. We
ventured forth in the Crown Vic with Mr. AOW's scooter in the trunk.
Mr. AOW and I spent a week at
Greensprings Vacation Resort in Williamsburg. Our complimentary stay at the time share resort was the ultimate end-of-year teacher gift from a homeschool family:
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| Entry to our unit at the resort (08/18/2013-08/25/2013) |
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| My 1996 Crown Vic at the resort - the oldest vehicle in the lot |
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| The back porch of our unit at the resort condo |
Tammy Swofford and her husband met us at the resort, and the four of us toured colonial Williamsburg and Jamestown:
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| Tammy and AOW in the stocks |
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| AOW inside Jamestown Settlement (08/27/2013) |
We did much more than the above photos reflect, including attending
an organ concert at Bruton Parish Church,
a ghost walk as the moon shone down on the streets of Colonial Williamsburg, and taking the
Jamestown-Scotland Ferry to Surry County, where we shopped at
Edwards Virginia Ham Shoppe. After a hearty breakfast fixed every morning by Mr. Sofford, off the four of us would go to do something in the Willamsburg area.
Mr. AOW did very well on this major outing. He did have problems with a low battery in his scooter (I replaced the battery after we returned hom), and he took one fall when he overturned the scooter on the last day of our vacation. Otherwise, all went just fine, and we learned two things: (1) Mr. AOW is well enough now to take vacations, and (2) we need a minivan with a lift. I'm getting too old to lift that scooter into and out of a car trunk!
Mr. AOW and returned home to a freshly painted and rearranged kitchen (last makeover in 1982). Thanks to our house sitters — also the cat sitters, of course.
Cameo, our alpha cat, supervised the sitters. No joke!
Awesome! It's about time that the two of you caught a break! :)
ReplyDeleteIt's about time that the two of you caught a break!
DeleteAMEN to that!
great!
DeleteReliapundit,
DeleteNow you know why I've recently been so absent from TAB.
There will be secession and Civil War in the US --- if we invade Syria
ReplyDeleteI'm hearing all the chatter and channels among Progressive’s in the United States. Secession, blanket nullification and Civil War within the United States is at hand if the Progressive’s starts World War 3. This will be equivalent to suspending the Constitution or confiscating firearms. There is no Constitution if Obama starts World War 3 without Congressional approval. It will be time to restore the Rule of Law.
Progressives among the Nations started World War I.
League of Nations
Progressives among the Nations started World War II.
United Nations.
Progressives among the Nations are starting World War III.
Final Goal: New World Order
You will do no more harm to the Progressive’s . If you draft us into your corporate wars, in order to reduce the Freedoms of Mankind any further, in order to degrade our Dignity, in order to denigrate our Spirits; if you ignite this Earth with the flames of War and the Fires of Satan; we will Resist, we will Restore the Rule of Law.
Where is the UN on this. Didn’t you Progressive’s Bitch amd Moan when George Bush went into Iraq WITH the approval of Congress? And now your Man wants to do the same thing without Congress!
The UN was founded in 1945 ... at the end of WW2.
You have the right to form your own (ignorant) opinions, if you wish to not your own facts.
What are they gonna do, send some drafted Libtard Obama bedwetters off to fight? We Conservatives want NO part of it.
We had a wonderful time with Mr. and Mrs. AOW!
ReplyDeleteThe Candlelight Concert at Bruton Parish and the Ghost Tales Tour are cherished memories!
*We deserve the stocks. You know we do! smile
Tammy
And don't forget DEATH BY CHOCOLATE at The Trellis Restaurant! That dessert after the concert was also a highlight of our trip.
DeleteDid you go on the Ghost Tale Tours? If so I would love if you would write a post about it AOW - I am a mystery/ghost addict! I will have to remember to take that tour if I ever get there! :)
DeleteNo ghosts appeared because the tour was more of a history walk by moonlight with tales of ghost stories related to Williamsburg.
DeleteCongratulations, you guys! Death by chocolate??? What a way to go!
ReplyDeleteThe supervisor of the homeschool group for which I teach classes insisted that I try that dessert Death By Chocolate. It was so rich that I couldn't eat even 25% of it. I brought the rest back to the condo, where all of us ate it bit by bit over a period of a couple of days.
DeleteLooks like you and Tammy (and the two hubbies) had a great time. The weather looks great too. I'm so glad for you all.
ReplyDeleteDebbie
Right Truth
http://www.righttruth.typepad.com
Debbie,
DeleteThe weather wasn't the typical August for our region -- in other words, not boiling hot. The overcast skies suited us most of the time except that we didn't get any good swimming in at the resort pool.
I am happy for you both. How awesome and what a blessing! I sent you a card with something for you in it back in February and never heard back. What happened?
ReplyDeleteI just began blogging again and I am taking it slow, but enjoying. The job market is horrible, but maybe I will find seasonal work since thank God my favorite time of the year is just around the corner. I hope it does not go by so fast. You look great, but it would have been nice to see your face!
Layla
The HILL Chronicles
http://thehillresilience.blogspot.com
Elizabeth,
DeleteYou sent me a card in February? I never got it! If I had, I'd certainly have send you a reply.
OMG!!!!!! I will send you my number to call me!
DeleteI am so happy to hear it went well and you caught a break. I am sure you are renewed. Nothing like a vacation.
ReplyDeleteBunkerville,
DeleteWe are certainly renewed. However, we are exhausted! The older we get, the longer it takes for us to recover from a road trip.
Glad you enjoyed the R&R, AOW.
ReplyDeleteMr. AOW still drag racing his scooter?
Not really drag racing. But he DID crash his scooter one time. Close call!
DeleteSo glad you had a successful "getaway." Williamsburg has always been a favorite place of mine. Used to go there quite frequently when friends I had there were still alive., and I lived not too far away.
ReplyDeleteLooks like a lot of new modern sculpture has been placed at Jamestown. When I knew the place there was nothing there but the ruins of a brick church the settlers built in the early 1600's, and the graveyard attached to it. I hope it's still there?
Did you ever find the cream of peanut soup? Christiana Campbell's Tavern was famous for it when I first went to Williamsburg. I'd forgotten about The Kings Arms Tavern. Did you eat there? Also Chowning's Tavern. Those were the three "authentic colonial" restaurants attached to CW.
I was sorry to learn The Cascades -- a fifties-modern style building with big plate glass windows overlooking a series of waterfalls -- has vanished. I suppose people prefer pizzerias, Taco Bell and bear gardens to "fine dining" today? (;-x
My Mom and Dad honeymooned at Williamsburg when it was practically new. Somewhere among all the loose pictures no one ever got around to putting in an album is a picture of my parents standing at the gate to the Governor's Palace just like you and Mrs. Swofford.
Williamsburg had a big influence on their marriage and our domestic family life. I've carried on the tradition to even greater heights by fulfilling some of my parent's dreams at houses I owned subsequently after they passed on.
Did you get to The House of Burgesses and The George Wythe House -- two of my favorite restorations?
I was hoping you be able to see Stratford Hall not far up the road on Old Route 17 near Tappahannock. Besides being the birthplace of Robert E. Lee, it is a magnificent example of "colonial-baronial' architecture from a time that predates Williamsburg. A great place to go for a weekend from the Washington Metro area. The sold brick house, which is all original by the way, is built in the shape of an H with all the bedrooms on the ground floor and the sitting rooms and reception rooms above.
Mrs. John F. Kennedy had a lot to do with furnishing the place with the very best period antiques imaginable. The guides there will tell you, however, that the Lees never lived quite so well as Mrs. Kennedy's work would have you believe.
It must have been wonderful to return to freshly decorated kitchen.
Hope you find the way to get that lift van very soon. It will open up whole new worlds for you both.
So glad you're back. I'll bet the cats are too. ;-)
FT,
DeleteI see that you got signed back into Blogger, which is notorious for "burping."
Tammy and I ate lunch at King's Arms Tavern last Friday. That particular tavern offers peanut soup every day! Chowning's does not; Christiana Campbell's Tavern is open only in the evenings during the week (I don't know about on the weekends).
You mentioned: the ruins of a brick church the settlers built in the early 1600's, and the graveyard attached to it. Are you referring to Bruton Parish Church? Bruton Parish Church is both an attraction and an active parish now -- with 1800 members and frequent services and recitals.
We didn't go inside many of the buildings such as the House of Burgesses and The George Wythe House because they were not handicapped accessible for Mr. AOW. Colonial Williamsburg, the type of architecture that it is, is not handicapped friendly, but the Jamestown Settlement is. Actually, the Jamestown Settlement is a reproduction (see the link in the body of the blog post); the original Jamestown, still there but not the same site that we visited, is not handicapped accessible.
I wish that we had visited Stratford Hall. Alas! We ran out of time to do everything that we wanted to do!
As for the handicapped van, I've been trying to find out how to get one without spending over $50,000. Everything that I've seen so far on the web is high priced. I need a car broker!
Welcome back you two. It was getting quiet in the interwirz without yous guys.
ReplyDeleteOdie,
DeleteWe did a bit of blogging, but not much. We needed the vacation from the web!
Barack Obama, as the first black president, could have made transcending race Job One. He could have used the bully pulpit to promote a values revolution in the black community. Instead, he has promoted the statist programs that have perpetuated its economic misery.
ReplyDeleteAt the 1963 march, the great singer Marian Anderson inspired the crowd with “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands.” As a child I listened to her rich contralto on TV at my grandma’s house. By contrast, Obama has honored at the White House rapper Jay Z. The lyrics of his songs, replete with references to “niggas,” “motherfuckas,” and “shit,” would perhaps be appropriate for the 2013 event featuring Jesse and Al.
Speaking of gangsta culture, in the week before the 50th anniversary of the march, two black teens and a white teen shot to death a white jogger in Oklahoma City because they were “bored.” In Spokane two black teens beat to death an 88-year-old white World War Two veteran. No sign of Jesse or Al on the scene. But, then, they’ve been equally unconcerned about some 400,000 blacks murdered by other blacks since King’s march.
A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself.
Free Thinke 2013
On this 50th anniversary of the MLK speech, I also have a Dream, I dream that one day soon we will rid this country of the cancer that we currently have sitting in the White House...............unless he's on another vacation.
ReplyDeleteMust be nice to take a vacation. We can rarely break away from the work. The best we can manage is to sit by our pool and pretend we're away. BTW right now I'm wearing very much what you're wearing... t-shirt, khaki shorts and tennis shoes... except my hair is dark brown.
ReplyDeleteCube,
DeleteMr. AOW and I haven't taken a vacation since 2007. We have, however, taken several "staycations." The pool is good, too, because it creates the illusion of being on vacation.
My hair used to be a darker shade. Then, it went almost completely gray, and my hair dresser and I designed a new color for me.
Pickled tink y'all finally got some time away...and what a great place to go! I grew up in that area, and just love it. Use to..on rare occasion, mind you...skip school and drive to Williamsburg and Yorktown. Shhhh.... :D Now that y'all have worn yourselves out playing patriotic tourist...rest, recuperate, and smile!
ReplyDeleteKate,
DeleteYou grew up in that area and surrounded by all that history and the man opportunities to see the displays and talk with the various "characters"? How wonderful!
I am trying to recuperate as quickly as possible. The classes that I teach resume on Tuesday.