How we got from There to Here, continued...

Hello friends, it's Tim. Once again, it's been awhile since my last Posting.

At the end of my last Posting I said there is one more place and experience that I will share with you before I connect all the dots and complete the story of our Journey from There to Here. I gave you 2 clues about where that place is: 1) Patti already mentioned it in one of her postings and 2) this place has the following motto: 'That The Future may learn from The Past.' Did anyone figure out that I am talking about Colonial Williamsburg?

Our 25th Wedding Anniversary was in September 2004. I had planned our Anniversary celebration back in March of 2004. Patti and I always wanted to visit Colonial Williamsburg and we decided to spend our Anniversary week there. By starting to plan for this in March, I'd have plenty of time to reserve the perfect place to stay in September. When I checked out their website it didn't take me long to find the room where we would stay for our week in Colonial Williamsburg - and I mean IN.

If you've ever been to Colonial Williamsburg, you may know that they offer 'Authentic Historic Area accommodations' - Colonial Houses for the most part. They are described as follows: 'A rare way to experience the restored 18th-century capital of Virginia, the Colonial Houses offer 26 period accommodations in the Historic Area, where our founding families once lodged. Each with a unique history and appeal of its own, some guest houses are as small as one room within a tavern, others as large as 16 rooms.
Scattered throughout the Historic Area, many survey courtyards, charming gardens, or Duke of Gloucester Street, Colonial Williamsburg’s main thoroughfare. Furnished with authentic period reproductions and antiques, some Colonial Houses offer wood-burning fireplaces and canopy beds, others include sitting rooms.'

Wood-burning fireplace? Alrighty then. I told the person making the arrangements for me that I needed one of the Colonial Houses that had a wood-burning fireplace. He flipped a few pages in his book and said 'Chiswell-Bucktrout Kitchen'. I looked on the website and this is what I saw:

The Chiswell-Bucktrout Kitchen is located next to the Chiswell-Bucktrout House. It has one room with a queen canopy bed and a fireplace. It has a private, full bath. Eighteenth-century kitchens were detached from the main house to prevent the spread of food odors and extreme heat and to reduce the risk of fire.

OK - so we were set. We were going to stay in an old kitchen in Colonial Williamsburg for the week of our 25th Wedding Anniversary.

Once again, there is too much to tell you about Colonial Williamsburg - if you've ever been there you know what I mean. If not, just have a look at their website: http://www.history.org/. Patti and I were able to experience life in the 18th century for a week. We experienced a slower pace; a simpler time. We saw a printer using an old printing press to create pages for books and newspapers. We saw a blacksmith making tools from iron and steel. We saw a carpenter making chairs and tables. We saw bricks being made and dried in a kiln to be used for buildings.

We saw a lot of things being made by hand - with tools that were made by hand.

Patti and I had just moved into our old (1860) house here in Millersburg in September - the day before we left for Colonial Williamsburg. When we looked at the house and property before we bought it we barely noticed anything but the Brick house itself - of course we saw the separate building next to the house - we had to walk past it to get to the house - but with all the unpacking we had to do after returning from Colonial Williamsburg, we didn't really think much about it until after we'd been living here for a while. Once in a while we'd open the door and look inside - it was in pretty bad shape. But it had a cool porch that was in good shape. Patti asked me if I knew what this building was - I told her I thought it was a summer kitchen...