Happy 27th Birthday, Ben

Ben turned 27 yesterday. We can hardly believe how old we're getting! I made him pumpkin pie for his "cake," since that is what he wanted, and we went to a couple of historical places during the day; then, we rounded out the day by going to the James River for a little bit so Ben could try out his new crab trap that I got for him. We have much to learn about how to go crabbing, but having the right equipment is a start, and our "Let's Go Crabbing" how-to book should help as well! We'll let you know how we progress in this new skill. Meanwhile, here are some pictures from our day yesterday:

Below is the first place we went - Bacon's Castle. It is across the river from us near the town of Surry. It's famous for being the oldest documented house in Virginia, dating back to the mid-1600s, and also for the guy - Nathaniel Bacon - who led a rebellion against the governor of Virginia after taking this house over and using it as his "base" during the rebellion. The guy who built the house (Arthur Allen) was a very affluent man, and the house - though simple-looking today - would have been considered huge and opulent at the time. It was originally smaller than it looks below, but an owner in the 1800s put an addition on the right-hand side of the house when he bought it (to the right of the right-hand chimney). The garden shown below matches the one Mr. Allen built in the 1600s with the house. More here on the history of the castle.

Next stop was Sherwood Forest Plantation, the home of 10th U.S. president John Tyler. President Tyler's grandson and family still own and live in the house today, so house tours are expensive. We just toured the grounds. The house is apparently the "longest frame house in America" - which you can see when you look at the side view below (there are long wings on either side of the middle part of the house that make the whole thing extremely long!).

This is the picture of the day... this squirrel was either too hot to do anything, or he could hear the distant rumbling of the thunderstorm that struck soon after we left the plantation!

The backyard:

The smokehouse, where they would have hung hams (and herbs) to be cured:


Some pretty flowers against the wine house:

This mulberry tree on the plantation grounds dates back to the 1700s. I guess we might all look like this if we were 200+ years old:

Later in the evening, we went crabbing/fishing on the James River just before it got dark:

Me smiling despite the fact that I have sand flies all over my legs and feet - you just don't go out at night here without bugspray!!