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| Receiving a birthday gift from one of my ancient ancestors - Human Origins Exhibit |
Tuesday, July 2, 2013: Yep, I'm 65 and Still Alive! Where has the time gone?
Greetings from the East Coast of America. We arrived the last week of June. Rather than travel geographically (Virginia, North Carolina, Virginia, Delaware, Maryland,Virginia, DC, and Virginia again), it seems with all that we have seen and done, it might be better to share our experiences as time travelers through history, since the East Coast of is filled with the stories and artifacts of our past, our present, and our future.
So let's start with the
National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.
There is so much to see and do in Washington, D.C. We bypassed some of our favorite places that we had visited before, Air and Space Museum, National History Museum, Art, and Archives.
This time we chose to visit the Natural History Museum. And we are so glad we did! After our trip to the Creation Museum in Kentucky where the super natural and allegory reign over evidence and facts, and visitors are filled with nonsense, it was heartening to see beautiful scientific exhibits laying out the past with solid evidence that makes sense. Natural History Museum exhibits were crowded with people from all over the world.
Let's start our travel 13.6 billion years ago!
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| We are awed and alive because of the heat, warmth, and energy from the sun on our planet. |
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| Archeology, geology, anthropology, chemistry, and genetics come together to tell the story of our origins |
1.5 million years ago
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| The Genome Project confirms that all of f us today carry the DNA of early ancestors...not space aliens. |
Russ's brother Ted recently had his genomes analyzed by the human tree project in which he discovered 1% of his DNA was Neanderthalensis. Who does this look like?
Over millions of years ago, our early ancestors left Africa and migrated across the continents and land bridges to inhabit the earth. The Americas were inhabited early on by indigenous travelers, Native Americans - Indians.
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| Native Americans were in varying stages of cultural and technological developments when Europeans |
The first colony of the Americas in the late 1500's (1585-87) was on Roanoke Island in North Carolina. Sponsored by Sir Walter Raleigh. This fledgling colony was established but disappeared when the governor returned to England for supplies and suffered a three year delay return because of the English and Spanish war. It is known as the Lost Colony. There is not enough evidence of bones through excavation (yet) to indicate that the settlers died here. They may have moved on and died elsewhere, but where....no one knows.
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We attended the symphonic play of the Lost Colony. Longest running play in America....Over 70 years. |
Twenty years later, in 1607 the Virginia Company charter in hand from King James I, tried again to establish a colony in on the East Coast of America, this time a little further north in a swampy area we now call Jamestowne. These early colonists 104 men and boys came to develop products for the Virginia Company. Ill prepared as colonists in a a new and strange world, the colony barely survived it's first year and did so only from the help of the Indians. Women and children came to the colony to help establish permanence, but by then relations with the Indians had broken down. Fighting and the lack of food nearly wiped out the colony of 300 down to 60.
Eventually, these colonists did survive and established a new capitol away from the swamp in Williamsburg. Today there is both the recreated Jamestown, and the original site that is being successfully excavated. Just recently, one of the skull bones that was found here during the "starving time in 1608 and 1609, indicated that a young adolescent girl had been cannibalized, most likely after her death. Some of the artifacts and ground shadows indicate that the recreated village from earlier records may have actually differed a bit from what has actually be excavated.
Williamsburg, 1775: Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, and many of the other Virginia statesmen hung out here prior to the Revolutionary War, formulating the Declaration of Independence. It must have been an exciting place. Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence is one of our favorite founding fathers. He was a brilliant man. Bringing domed buildings to America along with his genius, education, and the Declaration of Independence that guarantees us rights of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness are just a few of his achievements.
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| Jefferson Memorial in Washington D.C. |
Back to Willimsburg
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| Royal Governor's Palace |
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| Show of British Arms |
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| Not true to form as women didn't get to sit on the jury back then, but today was an exception in this recreated trial. |
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| Colonists gear up for the Revolutionary War |
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| And the War is On! |
The last battle of the Revolutionary War was fought not far from here in Yorktown.
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| Russ and George confere on the battle plans |
Once the Revolutionary War was over, the US Constitution was adopted in 1787, ratified by 11 states and went into effect in 1789. The Bill of Rights was ratified in 1791. The first amendment covered five very important rights which we still cherish today. Freedom of Speech, Press, Religion, Assembly and Petition.
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| Freedom of Religion and Freedom From Religion - To Believe or Not is a Matter Left up to Individuals, and not the Government |
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| A Free Press is Critical to A Democracy - Newseum in Washington D.C. |
America has always been a country of diverse opinions and cultures. Nothing divided us more than the issue of slavery. African Americans were an integral part of the development of agriculture in America. Unfortunately, it was at a terrible expense to the African Americans who were slaves in this endeavor.
Abraham Lincoln's abhorrence slavery preceded his presidency and the southern states began to formulate their plans to secede from the Union. At Lincoln's inauguration on March 4, 1861, the new president said he had no plans to end slavery in those states where it already existed, but he also said he would not accept secession. He hoped to resolve the national crisis without warfare. Unfortunately, Lincoln was unable to stave off the warfare in which Americans fought each other in a bloody battle until 1865. Today Lincoln is honored for abolishing slavery and keeping the union in tact after the fall of the confederacy.
Shortly after the Civil War, Cape Hatteras Light House was built in 1870 on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, to warn away approaching ships from treacherous reefs. It is the second tallest light house in in the world. (Tallest is in Yokohama Marine Tower, Japan)
Having withstood many a hurricanes, the erosion became so great and so close to the base of the lighthouse it was moved to its present location nearly a half mile up-shore in the late 1990s. It was a remarkable feat of engineering.
Hatteras today is a beautiful seashore habitat with beautiful sunsets, not necessarily over the sea but to the west.
In 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright conquered the air with the first airplane. Our visit to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina was inspirational.
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| This is where the first real flight began! |
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| The Beginning |
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| Flight is one of human's greatest achievements, and it started here! |
Today, our flight history is captured in the National Air and Space Museum in Chantilly, Virginia.
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| Satellites |
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| Space Shuttle Discovery |
Thank you Wright Brothers and all the courageous men and women who followed in their footsteps. Before we get to far into the future. We visited our nation's capitol where history comes alive through so many wonderful monuments and museums.
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| Smithsonian Castle |
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| Washington Monument |
Memorials to our soldiers.....World War II,
Korea, Viet Nam and to the men and women in law enforcement who protect and defend our freedoms. As always, we are saddened to see the names of all who died, and particularly so when we knew them personally. Office Bill Bean from Colfax is memorialized in Washington, D.C.
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| Wall of Honor |
And of course there are tributes to Presidents and Leaders of Peace and Civil Rights.
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| President Franklin D. Roosevelt |
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| Dr. Martin Luther King |
The travel through time that was most poignant for us was our visit to the Newseum. Where we vividly relived some of America's and World History that occurred in our life time. Once again, we mourned the assassination of President Kennedy and the loss of our innocence in a violent world.
We cheered when the Berlin Wall was torn down.
the Soviet Union collapsed and nations of the USSR became independent.
And we cried as we relived 9/11.
Freedom of the Press is such an important right. We often take it for granted as we have had it for so long. Unfortunately, America is slipping in our grasp of being a truly free press. Consolidation of media by a few corporations, big money, and slanted reporting are chipping away at these freedoms. It is more and more difficult to trust that what the media is telling us is really the truth, and objectively vetted through multiple sources. Good news reporting is not blogging where subjectivity sneaks in, nor is it manipulated to isolated sound bites out of context that skew a story to favor a particular viewpoint.
America is more than half way towards not being a truly free press. It's sad when Russ and I can get more news about the world and what's really happening in the United States when we are out of the country.
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| America is 18 out of 30. Numerous countries outrank our Freedom of Press. |
If we as Americans accept all that we are told without skepticism, we are doomed. Checking your facts from reliable sources is paramount. Otherwise, our freedom and our rights will be manipulated and diminished. Keep faith with the first amendment. A free press is the 4th branch of a democratic government....executive, congressional, judicial, and the press. Okay folks...so much for the journalism and history lesson and our travel through time.
We are on our way to Philadelphia to celebrate our nation's independence. Happy 4th of July. More later from the Worrall Travel R's.
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