lilydarais – Page 16

North Carolina Museum of History, Sitta Restaurant, and Museum of Natural Sciences

On Tuesday morning we got an early start. Abe and I actually did the 400–in my case quite a few less than that– and sweat up a storm before the day started. The humidity here is crazy! We then dropped Abe off at work and arrived at the Museum of North Carolina when they opened at 9am. I asked the kids to figure out genuine questions they have about North Carolina and see if they could find the answers in the museum. Mary wanted to know more about North Carolina’s military history, and Lydia was interested in figuring out what distinguishes its culture. If I were only traveling with my two oldest girls, museums would be a dream! They are so interested in all of the displays, they read the captions, and they linger to study the artifacts. It is a great joy to take these two places.

Ammon and Clarissa, on the other hand…are quite a bit younger. They spent the three hours we were at the museum literally running in circles and occasionally screaming with excitement. I had a lot I wanted to learn about North Carolina myself, but that took a back seat to making sure I didn’t lose my youngest children and that they didn’t actually do damage to priceless artifacts and beautiful displays. Sigh.

Lydia is jumping for joy because the tea caddy on display once belonged to a woman named Lydia.

After this museum we ate lunch at a Lebanese restaurant called Sitti, and the muhammara was deliriously good. I also ate a salad with oranges and figs that I want to try to recreate at home.

Then we headed over to the Museum of Natural Sciences and saw some great skeletons, displays, and watched a 3D movie on volcanoes. Ammon was sure the photographer in the movie had died when the volcano erupted and would not be quieted on this point. Luckily there was only one other group in the theater.

After the museum we spent two and a half hours at Pullman Park where the kids played with local kids. The weather was perfection and I loved the 1920’s music that was piping in against the natural sounds of the park.

Abe walked over and joined us at 6:30, and around 7 we headed to Irregardless Cafe for dinner. We enjoyed amazing food there (Abe said it was his favorite restaurant and meal of the trip) before heading to a gelato place for flower ice cream. I have been neglecting my diet and honestly forgot that I gave up ice cream, which made the gelato that much more tasty!

Here is what Mary captured about today:

Errands and homework

On Monday the kids and I tried to find a fun breakfast place to eat while Abe went to work in the Raleigh office, but we were too late and everything was closed. So we ate breakfast at Whole Foods and went to Target for some things I forgot to pack.

The kids were confused by why I took a picture of them in the bathroom, but seriously, when traveling, we go to the bathroom a *LOT*. Ammon made–no exaggeration–five trips to this bathroom in Target alone.

Back in our Airbnb the older girls wrote essays to questions I asked them about our Charleston trip. I made edits and after they complete the edits I made I will post them to the blog. I also helped Ammon with the mountainous pile of homework he got right before the trip. I was not planning on having to do three million worksheets while we are traveling and had a slightly testy exchange with his teacher about this. But I am very glad his teacher feels extraordinarily invested in his education. She did not really give an inch when it came to what she expects him to learn and complete while gone. At the end of the day, we are lucky to have her for his teacher and he has been learning an astonishing amount of things from her all year long.

Here is Mary and Clarissa working on a puzzle together

Playing with the pecans from the tree in the back yard. We did not know what they were at the time of this picture, but Ammon insisted we all smell them because they do smell, in his words, “**amazing, right?!**“

Fort Sumter and Middleton House

On Sunday we wanted to attend one of the historical churches in Charleston, but I was the only person awake on time for this to happen. Saturday was a big day, and after everyone woke up we packed up and headed over to the visitor center at Fort Sumter. We bought tickets for the ferry over to the fort and waited about an hour for it to come. While we waited the kids played on the dock and collected shells next to it.

Fort Sumter, the site of the first shots of the Civil War.

This national park guide delivered one of the most moving speeches I’ve ever heard. Abe and I were exchanging astonished glances while he talked, and by the end I had tears in my eyes. I can’t do justice to his speech, but he spoke about the enduring power of Fort Sumter as a symbol to people from the Civil War until today.

Ammon enjoyed running all around the fort examining the cannons. I felt sobered by all of the fingerprints of slaves in the bricks.

After Fort Sumter we drove over to the Middleton House plantation. We started off part of a garden tour before heading inside for a house tour. At Middleton House I was struck by how cultured the Middletons were–and at the same time how depraved! Arthur Middleton was a signer of the constitution–and yet he owned a thousand slaves. His son or grandson (I forget which) was an ambassador to Russia for ten years, and he and his family were present at the coronation of a Russian Tsar. Their art collection evidences a family with culture and taste. And yet they owned almost two dozen plantations and a thousand slaves.

To me this means that travel, culture, education, and good taste have nothing to do with a person’s worthiness or character. I am very proud of my ancestors who gave up being slaveholders once they woke up to the realization it was morally indefensible. I hope I can have “eyes to see” areas of my own life in need of moral reform and the self-discipline to make vital changes so that my descendants do not have to be ashamed of me.

After Middleton House Abe and I talked a lot and decided we need to cut out red meat (again) from our diets. It’s not slavery, but it’s also not morally defensible. So here we are, trying–again–to edge toward becoming vegetarian. Here’s hoping we actually do it this time. I know it’s a baby step, but it’s also one of the areas of my life that I can both see and change. There are weaknesses I have that I can see but can not seem to change (like losing my temper, swearing too much, being quick to judgement, occasionally to jealousy, and often to imprudence)– but a lot of my weaknesses are personal. Being overly absorbed in my personal flaws is, ironically, one of my major flaws! It’s its own form of self-centeredness. What I am interested in after reflecting on the plantation are changes I can make to extricate myself from involvement in societal depravities that I might take for granted. Or better yet, I would love to wake up to a way I could actively be involved in improving our current societal issues.

Clarissa gave us a great monologue about how the statue was going to give her powers to be a princess. Videos below:

After Middleton House we ate dinner at a restaurant called The Ordinary. It was delicious, delicious food.

After dinner we drove back to the French Quarter to try to get a carriage tour, but they were sold out. So we got more pralines and drove the four hours home. In the parking lot our rental car’s key battery died, so we set off the alarm and could not get it to stop for what felt like forever. When it finally stopped the entire square cheered. (There is a lot of outdoor and rooftop eating around the square, and our alarm was very, uh, loud.)

Here is what Mary captured in her travel journal about today:

First day in Charleston

On Saturday morning we drove to Charleston, South Carolina. I think most of the pictures from this day are on Abe’s phone, which I can’t find at the moment. (It is 4am and I have been up for hours because I drank too much coffee today and could not sleep, so I’m catching up the blog five days later.)

On the way down we listened to two podcasts from the Charleston Time Machine. One was about the history of pirates in Charleston, and the other was about the rise of slave marts during the 1840’s and 50’s. Before that time slaves were sold openly on the streets. The auctions clogged up roads and looked bad to visitors from the north, so eventually the city’s government felt ashamed enough to try to clean up the appearance of slavery in the streets. Instead of addressing the problem of slavery to clean up its appearance, they decided to build marts so that the auctions could be held indoors–away from public view. This did not sit well with slave traders, and for the next two decades there was a constant flip-flopping of rules about where to sell slaves.

During this trip Abe and I keep discussing the problem with people getting caught up in superficial things like appearances. My appreciation for people of substance, character and integrity has deepened a lot while we have explored what happens when individuals and societies exploit other people for money, power and status. I think the desire to look good to others naturally occurs in most people, but people who recognize this in themselves and discipline their response to this desire have my deepest respect.

After arriving in Charleston, we ate lunch downtown and then walked to the Aiken-Rhett house, the home of a major Charleston slave owner. The audio tour of the grounds included a very moving section on the slave quarters.

Abe and I took turns keeping an eye on Ammon and Clarissa but both found time to complete the audio tour. Lydia and Mary were also both completely absorbed in the tour, and we let them exercise their independence exploring the house and grounds while we lagged behind them.

Ammon and Clarissa both did a scavenger hunt the house provided. Ammon was obsessed with finding everything on the hunt. Clarissa, though less personally addicted to the thrill of finding the objects of the hunt, nevertheless took her cues from Ammon and filled out her pages too.

The kids enjoyed running down the avenues after restraining themselves during the Aiken house tour.

We tried going to the visitor center but it was closed. Somehow this happened and I managed to take a picture of the cuteness.

After the tour we drove to the French Quarter where the kids marveled at the enormous draft horses. Then we all took a ghost tour of the city. The guide led us to the city dungeon and told us all about its history with pirates and the American revolution. Charleston is where Stede Bonnet, the “gentleman pirate,” was executed. We were standing next to the wall where his head was then displayed while we learned the grisly details of his story.

We also saw a part of the dungeon where American patriots hid powder from the British. Although the British ended up taking Charleston, they never found the powder. I also learned that the Americans in Charleston had their own patriotic tea party, but instead of dumping it all in the harbor they only dumped one box–and then they sold the rest to fund the revolution. Clever.

After the dungeon we walked to a park by the bay and the guide told us ghost stories about a huband-wife serial killer team who lived during colonial times, as well as about the execution of a woman who had escaped the Salem witch trials–only to be burned at the stake in Charleston by Judge Trotter (the same judge who executed Stede Bonnet).

Walking around Charleston felt almost like walking around a different country. The fingerprints of enslaved children can still be seen on the bricks in the sidewalks and on buildlings, and everywhere seemed to remind us of the time when Charleston was the heart of the slave-holding, secessionist South. It is a pretty city, but its history made that beauty disquieting.

When we finished the tour we spent what felt like an hour trying to find an open restaurant that didn’t have an hour-long wait. We finally settled on an oyster house across the street from a city market. The kids are crazy about shrimp and Clarissa could not get enough shellfish. Then we walked over to a candy shop for some locally made pralines before heading over to the Hyatt in Mt. Pleasant for some sleep.

Flights to Raleigh

On Thursday I was still feeling sick and moving slowly, so Abe and I were up until past 2am packing and cleaning the house. Then we were up by 4:30 so that we could make it to the airport in time for our 7am flight. We had a slight snafoo with the parking situation and had to make a last minute decision to park right next to the airport–and even still, we just barely made our flight with only five minutes to spare. It was close!

We had a layover in Dallas, and there was an issue with the plane from Dallas to Raleigh. We ended up being stuck on the runway for over an hour before deplaning and then re-boarding a different plane an hour later. We ended up arriving in Raleigh over three hours later than planned. When we got to the car rental in Raleigh, we discovered I had accidentally canceled our rental and forgotten to re-book it. Thankfully the Budget people were accommodating and found us a car on the spot.

Making up fun handshakes and dances while waiting for Abe to rent the car.

After we rented the car we drove to Benny Capitale’s, a pizza place (with yummy but scorching hot pizza) that was still open late at night. While running from the car to the restaurant, Ammon tripped and bumped his head hard on the pavement. Here Clarissa is petting his boo-boo and trying to help him feel better. I am grateful his sisters were so nice to him when he fell. I am usually upset when Ammon injures himself because I always feel like he is doing unnecessarily risky, active things. But Ammon, although endowed with every inclination toward inadvertent-yet-certain self-destruction, is the sweetest child. Happily his sisters seem to recognize this and offered him lots of comfort when he hurt himself.

Here is what Mary captured about today in her travel journal:

Abe felt really bad that we didn’t do a special breakfast on Mary’s birthday, so he made one today. (On Mary’s actual birthday morning I had to take Basil to the groomer and Abe had work.) Mary, we love you!

Mary’s piano competition and The Secret Garden

While Mary spent the morning practicing and playing for friends and family over Facetime, the other kids dressed up and danced to Dance Macabre by Saint Saens. Major shout out to Lydia who did their face-painting! They first started dancing to it earlier in the week and then spent the whole morning listening to it again and again while they danced and acted to it.

While Abe took Mary to her first round, I turned on Saint-Saens’ piano concerto no.2 and the other kids danced and acted to that. Here is Ammon after going over a musical waterfall and Lydia attempting to revive him.

This is Mary during round 2! Out of her division, six children were chosen for the finals. Here she is playing beautifully.

She got third! We were all so, so proud of her. Way to go, Mary!!

After the competition we drove to Salt Lake to return some things. Some returns took time so the kids played on the sidewalk while Abe and I took turns going into the stores.

After our errands we went to the Doghaus for dinner because Mary was in the mood for burgers.

And then we went to a bakery for dessert.

While out and about, Abe and the kids had a lot of fun rapping together. See below:

In this clip and the clip below, Mary is on beat-box. She was feeling too shy to rap.

After the bakery we went to the Hale Theater in Sandy to see the Secret Garden, where I neglected to take a single picture. It was an incredible play, though, and we all enjoyed every minute. Well, Clarissa was a little wiggly and tired, but the rest of us were riveted. Such a good show!

Fall Festival

In the morning after dropping the kids off at school I took Basil on an eight mile walk in Provo Canyon. It was a beautiful morning.

We ate our dinner on the playground. Abe was both taking this picture and restraining Basil from stealing his favorite food–pizza!

Ammon was not allowed to ride the ponies because he was so wet.

After the festival we dropped by my mom’s so Mary could play her her competition pieces in person. It was fun to see her, and Mary did a fantastic job. She has really prepared a lot and no matter how she does during the competition we are all so incredibly proud of her.