Richmond

We lived outside of Richmond the summer of 2003 when the girls were tiny.  We had a zoo we liked to go to and we visited Maymont House once, but other than that, we never went into the city.  Our friends, Rich and Jennifer, were in Norfolk this weekend; so we drove to meet them for the day.  We visited Tredegar Iron Works National Park (I have that name wrong, I know).  It's a museum and national park on the grounds of what was the largest iron mill during the civil war.  They made 1,100 cannons over the course of the war.  The kids' favorite part was the play area, of course.  

Allie would have loved living during this time for the dresses and bonnets alone.

They had several games that were popular during the civil war.  Pick up sticks has been around for a long time.

The favorite toy was the "gee-haw whimmydiddle."  I promise you, I'm not making the name up.  Depending on how your rubbed the stick, you could make the wooden "propeller" on the end turn.  They used it sort of like a magic eight ball.  I took a few pictures to see if we can't make a couple.

We watched a demonstration cannon firing. That was pretty cool and it would have been a great picture, but I had my fingers in my ears.  Sorry.

Thanks so much, Jen, for taking some family pictures.  They are great!

Next, we drove to Hollywood Cemetery.  Two US Presidents, Jefferson Davis, and several supreme court justices and Virginia Governors are buried there.

This the resting place for James Monroe, our fifth president.  I liked his cathedral like iron works open mausoleum thingie - for lack of the correct terminology.