I am on a mission to see Richmond. For nearly three years we have lived so close to our state capital, and we've seen so little of it. We made a last-minute decision to spend part of Saturday there.
Our first stop was the historic home of Maggie Walker, the nation's first female bank president. I didn't take a single photo of our tour through each of the 21 rooms of her double-row house where her sons, their children, and other family members lived. She was a woman who valued her education and worked hard to learn and progress in a world of business that was not welcoming to African-Americans or females. I hope our kids remember the stories of her pluck and kindness.
Our drive on Monument Boulevard proved to me that, in spite of all my practice shooting out the window on our road trip, I'm not really that great at taking moving shots of statues and Victorian homes. We will go back to the Fan District someday.
I'm not sure if it has come through on my blog very well, but we are hobby-amateur-wannabe Civil War historians. The Richmond area has so many opportunities to learn so much about that conflict. For some reason the understanding we develop as we visit these sites seems important in our role as parents, and so we traipse our kids in front of displays of cannons and battlefield maps. Our stop at old ironworks of Tredegar at the Richmond National Battlefield site was a great spot with shade and benches to picnic. I sometimes find it strange that we lounge in places that were formerly charged with war.
We were in luck and there in time to see the two o'clock firing of the cannon after a lengthy description by the historic interpreters of life in the Artillery Corp of the Confederate Army. They drilled the loading, aiming, and firing of the cannon twice between actually firing this "Napolean" smoothbore gun. I wish I had earplugs so that I could have had my hands free to photograph the explosion. I don't think I'll forget that blast in my lifetime, even though that shot used less than half the normal powder.Those men one hundred and fifty years ago all lost their hearing, I'm sure of it, from the constant boom of these guns. I feel so sorry for them.
When the kids could listen no longer to facts of battles, strategy, and ammunition, we ambled over the nearby pedestrian bridge (which sways in the wind because it is suspended beneath the Lee Bridge) to Belle Isle in the middle of the James River. We didn't enjoy all of the park's features, but we went down to the river to imagine the past uses of this location which now serves as a giant park.
The next installment of our Richmond explorations will be soon. I hope.
Tell Me This: Are there places your curiosity is compelling you to explore?
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