Count down

The extended stay in DC has allowed for some idle time. There were still a few errands to run, arranging for new travel orders and trying to get our title for the car. But mostly we had time to reflect upon our stay here at the expense and hospitality of our generous government. We really are treated like dignitaries with luxurious accommodations, excellent training, a car loan, and per diem pay. After twenty-six years of patient care, in this past month, I haven’t seen one patient! How can this be work? It seems unreal, like I might wake up to find this has all been a dream and there is a waiting room with lots of people wanting to be seen.

We decided to go to colonial Williamsburg. This township has been preserved as a historical landmark. Thomas Jefferson resided and studied law there. The citizens wear 18th century attire. The buildings are all preserved and maintained to fit that era. There are shops and working farms and businesses just like they were in 1776. It’s an interactive step-back in time.

Camille rented a costume and Stefan wore a three-pointed hat, the kind the minutemen wore. We saw how they cooked in a kitchen\ on an open fire and used smoke houses and salt cellars. We watched how baskets were made from white oak trees and sapplings. We toured the home and plantation of a wealthy lawyer and saw the washrooms, laundry, and kitchen areas of the slave quarters next to the fields and livestock. The shoemaker, the wig maker, the iron smith, and general store were all in operation and horse drawn carriages moved down the streets. We bought slices of watermelon from an open market. We visited the courthouse and saw the stockades and heard how people were brought to trial and judged at that time. When Camille rented the costume, she was given a letter requesting her to run a few errands at the post office and book binders for Miss Betsy Woodruff (who had to go help her sister, who had taken ill, and care for her 10 children.)

I had made reservations for dinner at the Shields Tavern which served an all you could eat fixed meal in the style of that time: sesoned greens with vinaigrette served with biscuits, kettle braised beef with field mushrooms and vegetables, roasted sage-rubbed turkey, root beer glazed ham, cornbread stuffing with gravy, buttermilk mashed potatoes, stewed furits, green beans with tarragon-shallot butter, and pumpkin bread pudding with vanilla bean sauce and a fruit cobbler for dessert.

An evening stroll down one of the main streets concluded our day there. We really enjoyed it. At first, I expected it to be a real tourist trap but I liked how nothing seemed commercial and how the entire town is set up to give you the experience of eighteenth century Williamsburg. Even the people strolling down the street in costume say “good day sir” and tip their hats to the ladies and engage you in conversation of the day (1776). One lady (not a woman, said the printer) commended us on having taught our daughter to read.

The basket-weaver lady had made a woven bird feeder and cardinals were flitting around the feeder. It was a thrill to see cardinals for the first time.

Overall, it has been an incredible experience here in the Washington DC area. Tomorrow we will check out of the hotel and drive our car to Lana’s who will care for it until they pick it up to ship to Niamey. She will drive us to the airport. We will miss the museums and fireflies and continue to think about our friends and family.