Day 5: Monticello

At Mr. Jefferson's home

A different view

Jefferson's grave. He wanted to be remembered for the Declaration, the Virginia religious freedom statute and UVA

Day 4: Yorktown & Shirley Plantation

Checking out Continental Army accommodations at the Victory Center

At the battlefield (James River in the background)

Shirley Plantation main house

Won't Do?

Class of 2018?

Day 3: Williamsburg Again

Our wonderful docent Miss Virginia laces G into a corset

At the Governor's Palace

Maze at the Governor's Palace (no blast-ended skrewts in sight)

G and Patrick Henry (a truly inspirational presentation)

Evening 2: African American Music

No cameras were allowed inside at this presentation in Williamsburg, but here's part of the group before this amazing event

Day 2: Williamsburg

Parlor dancing at the Wythe House

Group at the Magazine


Playing a colonial game

Sketching at the Governor's Palace lawn

Day 1: Jamestown

We visited Jamestown Settlement, the Glasshouse and Historic Jamestowne.

With our guide Hugh outside a Powhatan hut

Inside the hut


Aboard the Susan Constant

Memorial to John Smith

Something to do with Rev. Hunt, a figure G was familiar with because of a book she'd read

Class Trip

G and I just got back from a week-long class trip to Virginia. It was a dense itinerary, so we got to do a lot. Lots of walking, lots of fun.

We stayed at the 4-H camp in Jamestown

G's bunk

The camp was on the James River

Click, Clack, Moo

G and some of her classmates presented a "Readers' Theatre" at the local library during Preschool Story Time today. They performed Click, Clack, Moo, Cows That Type, a story about some cows and chickens who demand electric blankets from a farmer by composing messages on a typewriter. Afterward they helped their audience make paper plate farm animals. Even if they hadn't had a blast, it got them out of school for two hours!



Narrator G with assorted disgruntled cows, chickens & ducks and the farmer

Girls & Women in Science

G, her science teacher and I attended Beloit College's "Girls & Women in Science" camp. It is a conference to encourage sixth grade girls to pursue science studies, show parents how to support them and provide teachers innovative ways to bring science to the classroom. The Beloit student organizers and presenters did a really nice job and it was a fun and informative two days.


Group shot!


G participates in the "Mayan Treasures" lab

Mrs. Meler & G at the poster presentation

Class of 2018?

Rvr Frnt Prprty w/Vue

Anyone interested in acquiring some river front property? Thanks to all the snow and rain, the local river has overrun its banks, headed into the adjacent marsh and joined our flooded marsh. A few more inches and it will come over the road ... then we'll be able to canoe into the neighbor's cow pasture!

The tree line on the horizon abuts the river, so it gives you an idea of how flooded everything is here

The Freshmaker

For her birthday, G got a tube that facilitates the Mentos-and-Diet-Coke stunt. We tried Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi. The Diet Pepsi worked better, most likely because the tube was screwed on tighter.

Blueberry Hill

My dad bought three blueberry plants, so Dan & G helped him plant them while we were there.

Other ActiWiities

We took the Wii along so that G & my parents could play with it. My mom Wii-bowled from her wheelchair (sorry, no photographic evidence of that!). My dad and G played several games, though tennis seemed to be their favorite.




Mike & G playing Wii tennis

Cake 4

Mini Chocolate Chip Cheesecakes

Wall of Sound

When I wasn't watching Cash Cab, I was downloading as many of my brother's non-essential CDs into iTunes as I could. (You can only imagine what the essential collection at his house looks like ...)



Sam Phillips anyone?

Packer Backers

Birthday Girl

Cash Cab

Don't ask me what rock I've been living under, but I'd never heard of the game show Cash Cab. My parents watch it, and I got totally hooked on it. (Fortunately for me, there was a Cash Cab marathon on one day). I may have to spend my next vacation in NYC, hailing cabs at Union Station or Columbia, so that the years and years of trivia stored in my head can finally be worth something!



Dan reenacting Cash Cab for me during a period of withdrawal

Spring Break

We spent G's 10-day Spring Break in PA with my folks. (We left a day early in order to get ahead of a winter storm ... turned out to be a good idea, since it dumped a foot of snow here.) While it was cooler there than we would have liked, there were flowers, green grass, budding trees and mostly blue skies.



The nice weather allowed G to stroll around the neighborhood with Nana & Pop-Pop