The weather was sunny, bright, and mild to hike around Colonial Williamsburg with Katy and Ron Dalgleish. It was the perfect setting to start our day at the Governer's Palace Stage and hear from Reverend Gowan Pamphlet. The actor's booming voice never needed the microphone taped to the side of his head as he and the crowd confirmed his speech with many amens.
Katy's excitement about CW (Colonial Williamsburg) got Hubby Bill, and me excited too. When we stopped by the Bray School being moved to its final resting place, I was lucky to take a photo of the entire moving staff for this unbelievable project (the building, once a school for enslaved children for 14 years, was hidden in plain sight for 300 years on the campus of William & Mary). For more info, please take a peek here: https://www.colonialwilliamsburg.org/learn/research-and-education/architectural-research/williamsburg-bray-school-initiative/. Katy, a career educator in California, and her husband, Ron, made it their mission to be in CW for the initial move on February 10th. Many saw the historic building move from The College of William & Mary to its permanent home inside historical CW. The hope is to restore the school and have visitors inside by September 2024.
Our next stop was to see George and Martha Washington - reenactors sharing personal and human stories from their writings (letters), personal accounts by people closest to them, and folklore handed down through the past 300 years. The excitement all came down to the stories shared. The two actors were terrific in the Hennage Auditorium in the beautiful Art Museum of Colonial Williamsburg. After their To Purchase a LIkely Man performance, they solicited questions from the guests. Great questions were posed, so "George and Martha" delved deeper into the stories told with more details and insight into the thoughts and transformation of this brilliant First Couple.
On our way back towards Duke of Gloucester, the main road of CW, a larger crowd than before was gathered around the fencing near the Bray School. So, we stopped and watched as the building inched its way toward the ready-and-waiting foundation to "drop" it into place (the staff thought it would take a couple more days).
We are headed back tomorrow for one more day of sweeping us back to the 1700s. We are thrilled with our own private docent in Katy as she is an excellent tour guide in her own right of all things Colonial - from generals, presidents, and governors of Virginia to the culture and history of many interesting facts and tidbits. The more obscure the fact and tidbits are, the better!
bSoleille!
Terri