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Published: August 17th 2008
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Governer's Coach - Williamsburg
...not just buildings but loads of enactments to bring history to life...here the Governer arrives to givehis views on the Rebellion Well this will be the last blog from the US - we have driven down to Williamsburg from Richmond - only an hour or so and into yet another part of the American personality. We then flew to Miami from Washington DC. Altogether we have driven about 5000 miles in the US and flown about 10000 miles including Hawaii. Bizarrely the blog is getting harder to write even though every day is filled with different incidents and memorably sights and insights. I think we are running out of superlatives.
We have had a really interesting time including only the second jaw dropping moment of our trip caused by a man made wonder.(Read on and you’ll find out what it was!) Hopefully our understanding of the USA has moved along as well. There are many different currents in this society driven by religion, money, demographics, their sheer enthusiasm and positive energy as well as history.
This has been really evident in our visit to probably the most significant 10 mile triangle of land in the US - Jamestown (the first permanent English settlement in North American), Williamsburg (where you can walk around a complete town as it was in the
William and Mary College
... built in 1700's and still a working college with over 7000 students early 18th century) and Yorktown (where the Brits lost to the French/American forces for the first time which signalled the start of effective independence for the USA).
Jamestown was a small fort that the Spanish thought would fail very quickly. It was badly sited (no Indians would live on the swampy island) and the water supply was very poor. We had a good day there looking at the different parts of the forts as well as the three full sized replica ships that brought the colonists. They were each very small - and to think they crossed the Atlantic in them!!! The worst bit was that they were becalmed in the English Channel when setting off and spent the first 6 weeks of the 140 day voyage within sight of England.
Williamsburg was fantastic - a full town as it was - and with different workshops where you could see wheel wrights, milliners, silversmiths, cabinetmakers, and cobblers working. There were also guided walks and concerts - we heard a candlelit harp concert one evening in the original church which is still functioning as a church today - and we sat in the same pew used by George Washington!
... flying whales!!!
I will not reveal how many pictures I took to get one decent picture of a whale in the air...thank goodness for digital cameras There are no cars in the centre of the town just horse pulled coaches and oxen wagons. During the day there are different re enactments - e.g. the Governor reacting to events in the Revolution. All in all a great place and really attractive buildings as well.
Then to Yorktown with a very dry ex US Navy guide and author of several books, who admitted that the French beat the Brits - and again a walk around the battlefield and the little town that has been substantially restored. All of the sites were really well presented.
After a week of history we felt well and truly stuffed and so Florida came as a real change with visits to SeaWorld and the Kennedy Space Centre.
I wasn’t expecting much at SeaWorld and so it came as a very happy surprise that there was so much to see and understand. The Killer whales were awesome and the performance they put on was astonishing. They would push the trainer through the water at speed - then by diving deeply come up completely vertical out of the water with the trainer standing on the whales nose at which point the trainer
Dolphins
....taken underwater dived the 30 feet back into the water. (Is that clear?)
The dolphin show was equally spectacular with a trainer standing up riding two dolphins around the pool. There were lots of other things but they were the highlights along with the fireworks to close the proceedings in the evening. It was so good we went two days running. The sea lions stank though!
The Kennedy Space Centre was a good contrast - to see the site that the rocket took off for the moon (I remember it - as well as our neighbours going out with a pair of binoculars to see if they could see the astronauts on the moon - I kid you not!) was like seeing not just history but the future as well. We went on the space shuttle simulator - good fun - and saw two 3D IMAX films which again were interesting and inspiring. I think it was here that a number of different points came together on the American Dream. It is not an airy fairy Disneyland thing - it is real. If something can be imagined then with the right approach and effort then it can come true. The
Saturn 5 rockets..stand well clear after lighting
... if all the fuel in a Saturn 5 rocket it would be the equivalent of a small nuclear explosion apparently... last man to walk on the moon put it very well - when he was walking on the moon he thought that every dictionary should have the word “impossible” crossed out - because what he was doing was thought impossible and yet it had happened. Good on you. The down side is that just thinking something doesn’t make it happen.
There was also the second jaw drop - this was when we walked through the doors into the main hanger where the Saturn 5 Rocket (all 363 feet of it) stood. 2 million different systems and still probably the most complex construction made by man. All in all another iconic moment - particularly when we saw the famous photo of the earth taken from the moon - a fitting image for our trip around the world.
After that we rove back down to Miami and enjoyed a day there - as we were walking along there wee a group of people taking photos of the Georgio Armani house where he was shot on his own doorstep - sad.
So as we are sitting here in Miami airport waiting to “fly down to Rio” what are our thoughts
perfect car for Miami
... Miami seems to have its own colour palate.. where else could you fit in with a light turquoise coloured car?? about America.
Well - the food is really good and really cheap (do you know that England has the most expensive food of ANYWHERE we have been to - why is that?????? - the farmers don't get the money.)
The people in the US are amazingly polite and well mannered (especially in driving manner towards pedestrians) and we have really enjoyed talking with them.
Their road signs are useless however and probably the worst we have come across - why is that?
And finally - we can understand why the Americans don’t travel much outside the US - it’s because they have pretty well everything in their country - which is fantastic.
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Carl
non-member comment
British Food
Ian, Carol, Perhaps British food is more expensive becuase it is of better quality, more 'organic', with flavour whilst being healthy and appetising....then again, perhaps not! Hope you have been tracking British success in the Olympics? All our winning sports so far involve sitting down!