Author: Lowell

Colonial Williamsburg

Yesterday, we enjoyed some of the natural wonders in Virginia. Today, we decided to take in some American history. We spent the day in Colonial Williamsburg. Colonial Williamsburg is a recreation of Williamsburg, Virginia as it would have appeared during the War of Independence. The exhibit was impressive. The main street of the town ran about a half mile and there were several streets that ran off of the main one. The buildings were fully furnished with period furniture and there were many tradespeople at work in various buildings throughout the town. There was a gunsmith building a musket, a carpenter working on a harpsichord, silversmiths working on silverware, and others. All the work was being done with period tools and techniques—pretty impressive.

Just as impressive as the exhibit itself was the price we paid to see it—Pam and I each paid $40 to get in. I’m sure it costs a lot of money to pay all the actors, guides, and tradespeople. And I’m sure keeping the place looking the way it does also costs a lot of money. However, I began having doubts that the high admission was justified when I saw the welcome center. It looked like an airport terminal. There were about half a dozen electronic ticket-purchasing stations and about 30 of the more conventional kind. Above each one, there was a large, flat-screen TV hyping the exhibit. I’m more than happy to pay money to hear a knowledgeable person talk about the history of a place. I’m not quite so happy to pay for large TVs that don’t enhance my experience of the place in any way.





Shenandoah National Park

Yesterday, immediately after the Palm Sunday hoopla was over, we got into the car and drove to Front Royal, Virginia. Never heard of it? Neither had I before yesterday. It just happened to be near to where we wanted to start our day today. The drive went smoothly; L was a trooper and the traffic around New York wasn’t too bad.

We started our day on the north end of the Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park. As the name of the drive suggests, the road snakes along the top of the mountains that are in the park. The drive treated us to many wonderful views. L wasn’t as impressed with the views as he was by all the whitetail deer at the side of the road. After we saw our first group of deer, he kept on asking for them. Eventually, we had to tell him that, after deer finish their breakfast, they take a nap and don’t want to be seen.

By 11 o’clock, we found ourselves in Luray. We made our way to the Luray Caverns where we paid lots of money to walk around in a large cave. The stalagmites and stalactites in the cave were spectacular. Our favorite part of the cave was a room that had a large pond in it. The water surface acted like a mirror, which made the floor look exactly like the ceiling. The tourist literature for the caverns boasted that the cave had an organ in it. In the 50s, some guy went around the cave tapping the crystal formations with a rubber mallet. When he found enough crystal formations that vibrated at the right frequency, he rigged up a keyboard and some electrically controlled mallets so that he could play music in the cave. We were treated to a rendition of “A Mighty Fortress is our God.” As musical experiences go, it wasn’t all that impressive. A novice could have made the same sound on a marimba with a single mallet. Good thing we didn’t go there for the musical experience. Anyway, we really enjoyed looking at the crystal formations.


After seeing the Luray Caverns, we got back on the Skyline Drive and headed further south toward a trail we wanted to hike. The hike was about a 4.5 miles (round trip) and included a nice stop by a waterfall. L probably enjoyed the hike more than we did. When he wasn’t singing to himself, he was busy tugging at the hair and ears of whoever his saddle happened to be attached to at the time. And when he wasn’t busy “loving” his packhorses, he was busy…

…sleeping.

First Steps!

L finally decided to do some walking today. He took a few steps on his own in the past, but today he decided that he could walk on his own initiative. We would have posted some pictures of L’s first steps, but we were too busy making sure that L wouldn’t fall and hurt himself.

Another Movie Recommendation

Pam and I rented Amazing Grace on the weekend. The movie chronicles William Wilberforce’s efforts to abolish slavery in England. John Newton, one of Wilberforce’s mentors, also plays a prominent role in the movie. For those of you who don’t know, John Newton is the author of the hymn Amazing Grace–hence the title of the movie. Newton was the captain of a slave-ship until his conversion. He then became a prominent Anglican clergyman. The movie was well-made, and was of particular interest to Pam and me because it made an important part of Anglican history come to life.

Dangerous Profession?

It seems as though the preferred way to end your life nowadays is to get your hands on a gun, take it to the nearest institution of higher learning, shoot as many people as you can with it, and then take your own life. Given that I spend a significant amount of time lecturing in front of university students these days, this trend has not escaped my notice. Yesterday, this trend struck a little too close to home. I was working in my office when I received a broadcast email from the university’s administration. Someone had scrawled a message, a message threatening violence with a weapon, on the wall of the men’s restroom located on the floor below my office. A prank? Probably. There are a lot of people between the ages of 18 and 25 around here, and some of them can’t tell a good prank from a bad one. A seriously disturbed person planning the worst? Possibly. Nowadays, you can’t shrug these things off. The university, of course, took the threat seriously and had cruisers patrolling the campus nearby and officers walking the building. This morning I received an email from the administration saying that the time frame outlined in the note had passed. For some reason, I’m not all that comforted by it.

Lowell, Massachusetts

Our night in Lowell, Massachusetts wasn’t as nice as it could have been. L came down with a plugged nose and couldn’t sleep for most of the night. When morning finally arrived, we were prepared to pack up and go home without doing any sightseeing. But after L got some food into his stomach, he was a reasonably happy tourist. We decided to carry on.

Lowell (the town, not the author of this post) is the self-proclaimed origin of the American industrial revolution. It is a mill-town if there ever was one. The first mills were built in the 19th century, and many of them were still in operation 50 years ago. Now, most of the mills are empty or are being renovated for other uses. Some of them are being turned into “luxury lofts” like the ones below.


Our primary reason for going to visit Lowell was to see the Boott Cotton Mills Museum. The first floor of the museum has a room filled with about 50-75 fully operational looms. We could hardly hear ourselves think, but it was really cool to watch them in action.


How’s this for a case of hat-hair?

Taking Advantage of the Long Weekend

Tomorrow is President’s Day, making this a long weekend. We decided that, since we hadn’t been out much since we got back from our Xmas break in Manitoba, and since we didn’t have a chance to celebrate Valentine’s Day on Thursday, we would take advantage of the long weekend, so we drove into Boston today and took in some of the sights. First, we stopped by Trinity Church.


Then we crossed the street to the Boston Public Library. It’s the nicest public library I’ve ever been in.



We’re spending the night in Lowell, Massachusetts, which is about a half hour northwest of Boston. Tomorrow, weather permitting, we’ll do some sightseeing around here.

A Chair That’s Just the Right Size

One of L’s aunts bought him something from IKEA for Christmas. He’s getting more use and enjoyment out of it than Pam and I thought he would. He’ll sit contentedly in it for 10-15 minutes while he watches his farm videos–he has to keep in touch with his farm roots somehow. L also has at least one bruise courtesy of the chair. He was sitting in the chair, leaning over the front of it to get something that had fallen on to the floor when the back of the chair lifted up and dumped him over the front. He hit his head on the ottoman on his way down.