The squirrel and the Princess: Halloween

October 31 was Halloween and the girls had a great time, enjoying both the lead-up to Halloween and the night itself. Here are their accounts of the day.

Pia: I was a squirrel for Halloween. We went trick-or-treating with Ella Bella. We handed out candy to other kids! We got candy too! I saw a girl dressed up as a black cat. In the Haunted Hospital there was a sign saying 'Beware of Zombies' :(

Ella: I was princess Sleeping Beauty for Halloween. My favourite part was giving out lollies. I went trick-or-treating. I got some M and M's but I was allergic to the yellow packet but I could eat the brown packet. I also got Tootsie rolls, lollypops and a banana Laffy Taffy. I didn't like the house with the skeleton roasting over the fire. There was one house called the Haunted Hospital. A skeleton was in a pool drinking a drink with an eyeball in it!

A few days before Halloween we bought and carved our own jack-o-lantern.

Our pumpkin before being carved.......

during............

and the finished product!

On the Friday night before Halloween, the Capitol Hill neighbourhood we live in celebrates with 'Hilloween'. There is a street festival which had jumping castles, face painting, balloons and a hayride.


And here are some photos from Halloween evening itself:

The girls prepare our candy to hand out to trick-or-treaters

Trick-or-treating in action....

and some of the houses in our neighbourhood on East Capitol Street in full Halloween mode!






Scenes from the Haunted Hospital....

Our smiling jack-o-lantern lit up at home.

Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River: Virginia Part 2

By this stage of our trip we were now at Thursday October 21 and we could not leave Charlottesville without seeing the University of Virginia. Thomas Jefferson took great pride in being the 'Father of the University of Virginia', which he established in 1819. His aim was to create a beautiful campus, which he did, but a campus that was also an 'academical village'. He created a main quadrangle with a huge green lawn in the middle and around the lawn were 40 or so individual rooms for students and about 8 larger 2 storey houses in which professors lived. At the time when the university began, the professors would teach their classes downstairs and live upstairs. Because students and professors lived and worked so closely together, Jefferson hoped that learning and exchange of ideas would take place both inside and outside of the classrooms.

This heart of the university is the quadrangle, around which the student and professor rooms are housed. The main building is the Rotunda, designed by Jefferson, and which is also UN Heritage listed.


Today, the rooms around the quadrangle are reserved for 4th year students who apply to live in one. They must show that they have made a significant contribution to the life of the university in their academic and extra-curricular achievements. University professors still live in larger houses around the quad. Each is designed in a different classical style.

James, Pia and Ella crossing the main quadrangle....

and inside the Rotunda. 

At the time when Jefferson built the University of Virginia, it was unique in that it was the only university in the US that was not centered around a chapel. In fact, it did not even have one (it does now)and was not founded on any religious principles. Instead Jefferson chose to make the focus of the quadrangle the Rotunda, which was the library at the time.


After leaving the University, we then drove a few miles west until we reached the start of the Skyline Drive. This is a 105 mile road that takes you through the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the Shenandoah National Park. It was such a beautiful drive and the leaves, many of which had already fallen, were in gorgeous shades of orange, yellow, red and brown. We took the rest of Thursday and Friday to do the drive, stopping overnight in Luray. Here are some of our photos from the Skyline Drive, showing the diversity of the scenery, from mountain views and granite rocks to little towns and plains.









At the area called RipRap we did stop and do a 1 mile long hike along the Blackrock Trail. We were not treated to any wildlife (there are dear and bear that live in the park but we did not see any, unfortunately) but we were treated to some spectacular views.









As I mentioned before we stayed in Luray overnight and on the Friday morning, before continuing our drive, we visited the Luray Caverns. These are the largest underground caves on the East Coast and were truly spectacular.

Our favourite spot was the underground lake, which you can see in this photo. The stalactites are reflected in the water, which looks amazing.

In most parts of the caves, the stalactites and stalagmites are still growing due to the moisture levels in the caves. This 'ghost' in the photo, nicknamed 'Pluto's ghost', was formed when stalactites and stalagmites grew until they became one.

Pia and Ella listen to the Kid's audio tour. They loved the caverns and were sad to have to go back up to the 'outside' world!

This organ is in the Ballroom area of the caverns where dances and wedding are sometimes held. It is also the area of the 'singing rock', where certain stalactites which are tapped make their own music - the original 'rock music', so they say!

After the caverns, we continued to the end of the Skyline Drive, which is just over an hour or so from Washington DC, and then home. We had had another great trip and enjoyed seeing another part of the US and the beautiful countryside.


Mum and Dad returned from New York the following day, and on Sunday 24 October, Dad ran in the "Army 10 Miler" which is one of Washington's most prestigious running events. As the name suggests, it is organised by the Army, is 10 miles (16 kilometres) long, and is Washington's version of the City to Surf. It is limited to 30,000 runners and entries sold out within 35 hours last April, 6 months before the event was due to run. It starts and finishes at the Pentagon, and the course winds around the streets of Washington past the cities most famous monuments, such as the Lincoln Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, the Washington Monument, the Watergate Complex and the Capitol Building. Dad ran in a time of 85.49 minutes, and was quite pleased with his international debut! He received a nice medallion in the shape of the Pentagon for his trouble. At this stage I do not have a photo of him to add to the blog but if I can manage to get one I will post it on at a later date.

Virginia - Part 1

On Monday October 18 Mum and Dad left for their trip to New York and we set off on another road trip, this time around the State of Virginia, which borders Washington DC. We were headed to Richmond but passed by the town of Fredericksburg on our way. Because of its strategic position between Washington and Richmond, Fredericksburg became another focal point for a battle during the civil war. Pia and Ella were not overly thrilled to be doing another battlefield tour so we kept this one fairly brief. We saw the site of the Marye's Heights battle and the Sunken Road, the site of a huge battle in 1862. The Confederates held the heights here and many of the Federal soldiers were killed trying to reach them, having nowhere to hide.

Lee's drive

We also drove around the very scenic Lee's drive, the site of many battlefields and trenches from the war.

We then continued on our way to Richmond. Our purpose here was to see the State Capitol building, as it was designed by Thomas Jefferson. After his posting to France and having seen the Maison Carree at Nimes, Jefferson changed the design of the Capitol building part way through to reflect the style of architecture being built in Europe at the time. The Richmond Capitol building is credited with influencing the style of many of Washington's future public buildings, such as the White House and Supreme Court.

The statue of Thomas Jefferson inside the Virginia State Capitol building.

The Palladio inspired Capitol building was completed in 1788. As we first drove past it, Pia asked "What is that building?". It is set high on a hill and does look very impressive.

That night we arrived in Williamsburg, ready for a full day at Colonial Williamsburg on the Tuesday. When I was at university I wrote an essay as part of a history course on Colonial Williamsburg as an example of an authentic open-air museum so it was great to be able to finally see the real thing. Colonial Williamsburg is actually the old part of the town of Williamsburg. During the 1700's it was the capital of England's largest colony in the New World and today 88 original buildings still stand, as well as hundreds of recreated ones. You can visit many of the homes, shops, inns and buildings and talk to many of the 'townsfolk', as well as take part in recreated scenes from history.

We saw Thomas Jefferson give a public speech and later we saw George Washington in a public theatre where he answered questions from the audience about his views on politics and the state of the nation.

We did a tour of the Governor's Palace and saw some of the family's private rooms as well as the ballroom and kitchen.


We saw carpenters, blacksmiths and other tradespeople talk about their jobs and the sort of work they did each day in the colony.




The Union Jack still flies here and horse and carriage are the means of transport. Cars are not allowed into this part of the city.


The day ended with a reconstruction of the time when Virginia declared its Independence from England. The band marched past the Capitol Building and cannons blasted as the crowd cheered!

We had a great time in Williamsburg and the next day we made our way to Charlottesville. We did, however, stop in Richmond again, continuing on our civil war theme. During the Civil War, when Virginia broke away from the Union, Richmond became the capital of the Confederate States of America from 1861-1865. We visited the Museum of the Confederacy and also did a great tour of the Confederate White House. This was quite small compared to the White House in Washington and living space and office space were often quite close together. The girls were most interested in the children's bedroom, where they saw the real working cannon that the President's 5 year old son was given as a present and which he used to light and shoot in the garden!

The Confederate White House in Richmond, home to Confederate President, Jefferson Davis.

We then continued on to Charlottesville and arrived at Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, just as the rain stopped. Thomas Jefferson spent over 40 years designing, building and re-building his home, Monticello. He loved his home and estate and once declared, "I am as happy nowhere else and in no other society, and all my wishes end, where I hope my days will end, at Monticello". He finally completed the house in 1809 and Monticello in now the only home in America designated a UN World Heritage site.

We did a tour of the house and saw many of Jefferson's private rooms. He was innovative in his design and included many features uncommon in that day, such as an indoor calendar to tell the day of the week pulled by weights, as well as pulleys in the fireplace that allowed wine to be sent up from the cellar and a revolving cupboard that allowed food to be served easily in the dining room. Some rooms were designed in the shae of an octogon, a shape Jefferson loved as it eliminated dark corners. Pia and Ella were given the job of counting all the clocks in the house. They performed their task well and correctly found 7 clocks. This was at a time when most people still told the time by the position of the sun.

James outside the entrance to Monticello

The vegetable gardens at Monticello

A short walk away from the house lies Jefferson's grave. He planned the tombstone himself and wanted 3 things mentioned on it, the achievements of which he was most proud. These were that he was the writer of the Declaration of Independence, the writer of the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom and the Father of the University of Virginia. Even though he was Secretary of State and the 3rd President of the United States, to him these were just positions he held that other men would hold after him. It was the 3 things mentioned on his tombstone of which he was most proud and where he felt he had made a difference.

On our return to the Monticello Visitor's Centre, Pia and Ella visited the children's hands-on room in which they could practise using some of Jefferson's inventions, do a rubbing of the inscription on his tomb and dress up as a slave, as Ella did. She played the role well, looking suitably miserable! Jefferson was an interesting contradiction. He was the writer of the Declaration of Independence and declared "All men are created equal.." yet he owned many slaves and relied on them to work his estate and help build Monticello. He did express his discomfort with this situation yet did nothing to change it. His view seemed to be that his generation had done enough for change in America and that getting rid of slavery was a task for future generations to deal with.

Next post will be Virginia - Part 2: coming soon!