Happy Birthday USA!

This year Independence Day was a little weird for me, since usually I spend this holiday with my family.  We all would go up to the lakeside cabin my parents have and enjoy a big picnic-barbeque with friends and relatives.  Then we would watch the fireworks over the lake that evening.

This year, since I was going to be in Williamsburg, I decided to take a stroll through Colonial Williamsburg and see what was going on there, since there all the interpretive actors would be acting like it was July 4, 1776.  I took my camera along and took some photographs of some of the historic buildings in the area as I walked around. The first historic building that I passed as I entered the historic area was Bruton Parish Church,  which was a center of activity in the colonial capital and the church that founding fathers such as  George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Patrick Henry attended when the House of Burgesses was in session.  I also took this picture at a rather more interesting point-of-view of the steeple tower.

After I passed the church, I wandered down the common toward the Governor's Palace.  On the way, I passed the house of George Wythe, who was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and one of Thomas Jefferson's teachers.

I also took this lovely picture of the Governor's Palace.  There were a bunch of kids in the field attempting to master that colonial-era game where you run with a stick and try to keep a hoop rolling along.  They were having a great time attempting it, since it is much harder than it looks.

After passing the home of the royal governors of the colony, I wandered down one of the side streets, along with a throng of tourists.  I stopped and took a photograph of Peyton Randolph's very red home on the way.

As I wandered up through the heart of the town, I took these photographs.  The first one is of a general store (Prentis store), and the next one is of a milliner's shop (Mary Dickinson's Shop).  You can see a cart adorned with ladies' straw hats located in front of it.  I also took this photograph of Josiah Chowning's Tavern.  My grandfather's name was Josiah, so I have always been partial to the name, and it is cool tavern to eat in.

After leaving there, I passed the colonial Courthouse.  There a bunch of tourists were happily trying out the stocks and the pillory, which seemed like a weird activity on a day celebrating the nation's freedom.  :)  Across the street is the Magazine where the colony stored its gunpowder and weapons.

After taking my tour through the US colonial period, I wandered through the campus of William and Mary and made my way home to get ready to go and have a picnic at Yorktown Battlefield as part of the opening ceremonies for the Franco-American Film Festival 2005.  A few years ago, some of my friends (including Paul and Julie) decided to organize a film festival that celebrated Franco-American friendship through film.  The festivities run from the opening ceremony on July 4 (US Independence Day) to the closing ceremonies on July 14 (Bastille Day for France), and for each night in between movies that have ties with France and the United States are savored and enjoyed.  We voted on the movies to be shown this year over the last few weeks, and I am looking forward to several of them, although sadly I will be leaving for Maine in the middle of the festivities.  And what better way to celebrate the ties between France and the USA than to watch the fireworks at Yorktown on July 4th?

We had a wonderful time at the picnic.  As nightfall came, hundreds of fireflies came out, which was very cool.  The fireworks were great, even though the barge that they were being fired from kept drifting around haphazardly in the York River, which was also rather funny to watch.  It was a lot of fun!

Happy Birthday USA!