Historic St. Mary's City

As usual, our girls are cute and growing up quickly.  Here is Karina with Dolly and Leah the Lioness  (Lydia's stuffed animal).

Lydia reading one of her stories from Mormor.  The girls read a lot of books with us and are frequent customers of the library, though we are frequently concerned that Lydia will rip the pages from the library books. Both girls finished their summer reading program from the library recently and we are thrilled that they are learning that reading is fun at a young age.

Lydia dressed up as a fairy godmother.

We went to St. Mary's City, MD for the day yesterday. A friend tipped us off that it would be a fun place to bring the kids, and she was right. It's about as far south as you can go in Maryland on the western side of the Chesapeake Bay and it was the first place in Maryland settled by English colonists in 1633. They have rebuilt the historic district and staff it with guides in period costumes to interpret the history for guests. It is apparently a popular destination for kids on field trips learning about Maryland state history and we were very pleased with how well the girls did with the 2-hour drive there, long day touring, and then 2-hour drive back.

Here are Karina and Lydia helping dig out a canoe using oyster shells like the Indians would have done back then.  It had rained earlier and there was water in the hallowed out tree, so Lydia loved splashing in it and Karina liked using the oyster shells to scoop the water out and dump it on the ground.

The girls with one of the Indian dwellings and gardens in the background.

Karina and I were selected to help during a demonstration of the printing press.  Here she is inking the type that was set in the press.

Then I got to pull the lever to bring the press down and print the paper.

Karina was thrilled to see a table set with all the dishes and so she and Mommy had a quick 17th-century tea party.  Lydia had fun sitting on a little stool in this room too.

I was surprised Karina wanted to learn about guns and the muskets.  I think I need to work harder with gun safety with her, as she wound up pointing her wooden gun all around at people and things and not paying attention where it was aimed, but she'll get better.

The best part of the muskets was listening to her laughing hysterically when the demonstrator actually fired his musket.

Lydia enjoyed it too, and I was surprised she didn't cry with the loud bangs.

The girls both loved touring the tobacco plantation.  Feeding the chickens was a highlight.

Karina really got into it, and this guide was extremely patient and made the activity a lot of fun for both girls.  The hens apparently lay their eggs inside the house in the brick fireplace - maybe they just like having the soft ash. The guide had Karina walk into the fireplace and pick up two of the eggs in there.  Lydia kept going back into the house to see the chickens that came in there, even though we were moving on with the tour.  Here's Karina dropping some corn kernels for the chickens.

And grinding up more corn to give to them.

On the water of the St. Mary's River, near where the Potomac empties into the Chesapeake Bay, they had a rebuilt tall ship, recreating the Dove which was one of the ships that came over with the colonists. I was surprised at how small it was, but apparently this ship was owned by the colony and it's primary purpose was to be doing inter-coastal trade once the colonists came over. The colonists were riding in a much larger ship across the Atlantic Ocean.

Karina and I at the Dove after they had shot off one of the cannons at the end of a long, but very enjoyable day.

This was a really cool trip and I am glad that the girls both enjoyed themselves. It was a long drive to get down there and back, but they were good sports and we had a great time together.