Harborfest and Hikey-Hikeys

*** Note: Sorry guys! I tried to post this from DC, but the internet was too spotty. Better late than never, right? ***

On the 7th of June, the Honor Guard and I headed down to Norfolk for Harborfest/Sail Virginia (an annual tall ships festival) for a few days. This year’s Harborfest featured over thirty ships, more than in years past, with the Godspeed as the ship that led in the others in the Parade of Sail on that Friday morning.

However, we arrived the night before after being onsite at Jamestown in the morning to settle into our hotel and seek out some yummies. After very little debate, we decided on a delicious-sounding German restaurant called “The German Pantry.” We thought it was in walking distance (which it was, just through some slightly dubious areas of Norfolk), and we began the hot trek down the side of the road with thoughts of shnitzel waiting for us at the end. The German Pantry was located in a small strip mall and was decorated in all sorts of German travel posters, beersteins, German imports, etc. with the table for the locals clearly labeled in the center of the restaurant (just like in the great beer halls of Germany!). We all had a fantastic (& cheap!) German beer with our Jaegershnitzel and spatzel. Mmmmmm… We definitely needed the walk home after eating tons of tasty food, and had no sooner started the hike home before discussing how and when we would return. (photos: Too few hands and too much to carry! Jack with our free welcome cookies, free apple, and his shoes upon check-in; Kai, Mike, and Jack in front of the German Pantry; Mike and I showing our German spirit (Bavarian pretzel and all!); and mmmm... shnitzel...)




The next morning was the parade of sail, which was a bit delayed arriving in port. We did get to see some of the really neat tall ships come in from around the world (including countries like India, Uruguay, Brazil, Germany, England, and the Netherlands) and even had the ridiculously cute engagement of one of our crew members to a former employee via signal flags. Over the next few days at the festival, we did informal tours of the ship, schmoozed around the “historical” tavern and “historic area” of the festival, and sang a lot of sea shanties while braving a couple of days of intense heat and humidity. In between working and interpreting, we had some time to wander around and actually visit the ships and enjoy the festival. On Saturday night Jamestown friends joined us for the big fireworks display and roving fun around the festival. Sunday night was a big reception for the ships’ crews with Monday being the day to finally get home after a final, mellow day. After a day off, we were back on the road on Wednesday to Portsmouth (the town just across the Elizabeth River from Norfolk) for a day-long festival, much more low key than Harborfest. (photos: Jacks in Space; me with the giant sparkling pirate; Godspeed coming in with the Parade of Sail; the Uruguayan and Brazilian ships; and yeah, I wouldn't pick them up either.)





(photos: the German sailors furling at the top of their main mast; a view of the "historic" area where we were stationed when not on the Godspeed, with the German ship in the background; fireworks from the Godspeed; the USS Wisconsin; and the ship parade with the crew of the Picton Castle tying flags to their deck brooms.)





(photos: Yup, that's my boss after a hard day's work...; me and my partner in crime for the evening; Mike, Jack, and Todd; German sailor guy, Martin (one of our ship crew that's also Polish), and Jack; and me on the Brazilian ship.)





I then had a day back in Williamsburg/Jamestown before heading out with friends to go camping. We left Friday night to drive to Harrisonburg to the house of one of the camping brigade members as a jumping-off point for the hiking extravaganza beginning on Saturday. However, after an evening of cards and organ playing (the latter was all Jeff), we discovered a jousting tournament and renaissance “fayre” at a nearby park. The “fayre” was about five booths of vendors with the jousting happening quite separately. The jousters themselves weren’t in costume, but rather were your average Appalachian farmers on horseback riding full tilt at rings as small as lifesavers, trying to spear them on their lances. Best $1.50 I’ve spent in a while. (photos: Some of the games from the Fayre, including the Sheep Toss; yup, that's the entire "fayre"; jousting announcers with the sheilds of all the different jousting clubs; one of the jousters trying to catch the ring on his lance; and I can't even explain how this one works...)





After jousting, we had to get a move on to actually get to camping. We loaded our cars and headed to try to find a campsite near the hike we had planned to do. After nearly two hours of searching and a round of frozen custards, we decided to camp someplace entirely different – Shenandoah National Park. We got in around dusk, found one of the few remaining campsites, and set up camp. Little did we know when we chose our site that we would be between a group of singing student hippies and a large party of Mexicans rocking quite a bit of tejano music and Mexican techno til the wee hours. Sunday hiking we did a big hike up Rocky Mount (9+ miles down, up down, and up a mountain with a bit of dehydration for all of us at the end) and Monday morning we hiked Old Rag (7+ miles up and down a mountain over massive rock scrambles, including a close encounter with a black bear). It’d been a while since I’d been on a hike, which I had missed quite a lot. After finishing our hike on Monday, we returned to Williamsburg via my first Chik-Fil-A (pronounced “chick fillet” – delicious!) in Charlottesville.(photos: Heading up Skyline Drive to the Rocky Mount trailhead; Jeff looking really hard for those fossilized wormholes we read about; Jeff also really liked the supposedly rare lichen; me (at least my feet) at the top of Rocky Mount; and the view into the Shenandoah Valley from Rocky Mount.)





(photos: The first woodsy part of the Old Rag trail; rock scrambles! We had to follow the blue arrows down, through, up, and around lots of huge boulders; view from the top of Old Rag up the Shenandoah; view east with those rocky parts being the scrambles we'd just finished; and another huge boulder with the supposedly rare lichen.)





After camping, there was definite need for recouperation time, since I spent the next day at work at Jamestown hobbling around for the morning like an old decrepit woman after scrambling all over house-sized boulders the day before. My time in Williamsburg would only last a week before I was back on the road to Washington, DC for the Smithsonian Folklife Festival.

Non-Stop Commemorating

Of the Honor Guard, I was the only one who had to work the day after Anniversary Weekend. Staff that day was exhausted, relieved, and very laidback. However, after work, it was off to karaoke night at the pub for a bit of unwinding. The next day, Stephanie and I were going to play in Surry for a bit of fun. We hoped to find something quaint and local to eat, but ended up at a crappy restaurant known for their horrible service, and not in a tacky yet fun Ed Debevic’s kind of way. Then it was off to Bacon’s Castle, one of the only 17th century brick structures remaining in North America, for a tour, before introducing Stephanie to the wonder that is Claremont. We didn’t have time to visit the Nuclear Information Center at the nuclear power plant that has fake Geiger counters and such, but we were hungry for dinner and banana splits and decided to save it for another trip. We played around most of the day off, but ran some errands that evening as well before completely acknowledging our exhaustion and calling it quits.

(photos: Sally (my future roommate) and me; Sally, Mark, and Kai really feeling the karaoke spirit; Bacon's Castle, and hark! Is that a Dutch gable I see?; Stephanie showing her love of trees; and the front of Bacon's Castle.)






It was back to work for a couple of days before prepping to go to Henricus and Richmond with the final part of the Journey Up the James commemorative sail that weekend. I was feeling a bit exhausted after all of the sails and Anniversary Weekend and had an evening of blowing off steam with some friends, which involved doing about seven laps up and down Duke of Gloucester St in downtown Williamsburg at very late hours that evening. That Friday, we left for Henricus, a historic site just south of Richmond. While killing some time in the afternoon, we went to buy beer brewing supplies for Jack and discovered an article featuring us with a quote by Mike (my boss) describing us as a “traveling band of gypsies that follows the ship in our minivan” – extremely accurate and hilarious, we adopted the gypsy identity and nicknames, including my own as “Madam Zola,” “Scrumpy” Jack, and Mike the “Gypsy King.” Kai, more of a 12-yr-old stowaway boy than a gypsy, has yet to find an appropriate nickname. Henricus itself was extremely disorganized and extremely busy, resulting in me losing my voice after the second day of nonstop guided tours (the hoarseness lasting over a week, until we got back to Jamestown). We did enjoy a couple of evenings on the patio next to our green and swampy pool and the oh-so-classy hotel’s Hooter’s restaurant attached directly to our hotel. After four nights in Henricus, we returned to Williamsburg for about twelve hours before leaving to go to Richmond the next morning.

(photos: Finding the local paper at yet another location with Kai and Mike on the cover (and the gypsy quote inside); the Godspeed preparing to receive the masses at Henricus; Jack watching the Lady Maryland saild by to Richmond; Mike trying to make a hammock; and me and Kai resting until we open, though not quite reenacting the Starving Time.)






We reconvened the following morning for a scenic drive up Route 5 to Richmond where we prepared to meet the Godspeed as she sailed in to port. Richmond was going to be a larger festival than Henricus and included four other tall ships, taking a lot of pressure off our ship. The evenings in Richmond included much frequenting of a pub called “Poe’s”, a wonderfully low-key pub with a friendly staff and within walking distance to the ships, thus allowing many of the other ships’ crew to come join us in the evenings. On Thursday, two other ships came in during the day, one of which collided with the yards and rigging of the Godspeed, causing a bit of a ruckus for the evening. Friday evening, The Roots had a free concert at the festival. Friends from Williamsburg came up for the show, and using our credentials from the ships, were able to get un-crowded and still excellent spots to view the incredible show before hitting Poe’s afterwards.

(photos: The Lady Maryland and the Godspeed at Rockets Landing in Richmond, with downtown visible up river; the gallery on the Kalmar Nyckel, a recreated 17th-century Swedish ship from Delaware; the ships in Richmond (from left, if distinguishable: Kalmar Nyckel, Lady Maryland, Godspeed, Virginia, and Pride of Baltimore); and The Roots concert.)





Saturday morning, however, I had to get up early to head to Dayton, OH for former college roommate Cadi’s wedding. The 9-hour drive from Richmond was made all the more exciting when my “Service Engine Soon” light came on after just entering West Virginia. After arriving in Dayton, Jenny (who was my date for the ceremony) and I checked into our B&B and frantically called any garage we could find so that they could look at my car the next morning before the wedding (a difficult task on Memorial Day Weekend). That night, we went to an Irish pub for some food and live music. The next day, it was up to take my car into the shop (which was a 2+ hour event, though the staff was extremely friendly and thorough) before rushing back to our B&B for food and wedding preparations. The ceremony itself that afternoon was beautiful and much fun. It was both of our first Jewish wedding, and we were hooked by all of the traditions and the chupah. For the recessional, some Men’s Glee Club friends sang a classy version of the UofM fight song, which took all of the Ohio State fans in the temple by surprise, especially when all of us UofM folk started pumping our arms to the chorus. It was a beautiful moment. After the service, Jenny and I made a couple of quick stops before heading to the reception (also beautifully done) for a night of fun and dancing. In the end, we were too exhausted from the day and from work the previous few weeks to go out with friends that evening. The next morning, we were up and checked out early for our long drives back home.

(photos: Jenny passing time at the service station with Dale Earnhardt; feeling very relieved that my car was fine; at the temple, with the chupah visible past the yamukahs; Jenny excited about the fruit tree; and the maize and blue table settings, each table named after a UofM landmark significant to Brian or Cadi.)





(photos: Friends from school, most of whom I hadn't seen since graduation; lots of dancing, with Brian and Cadi in the bottom right of the photo; the happy couple; the New Orleans room (our room) at the B&B, complete with a light-up street scene and a mural of historical New Orleans; yes, those are sky chairs in our common area at the B&B!; and yup, that's a dog sitting in a chair in the back of a pickup truck driving down the highway in southern Ohio (practically Kentucky/West Virginia).)







This past week, I’ve finally started to feel recovered after the past intense month or so. I’ve had days off where I could just sit and read. This past Friday, some of us went up to Richmond for a free concert and the next day went to the Blackbeard Festival in Hampton (reminded me of a pirate-themed and less-$ version of the yacht races on the Island). My plants didn’t die in my absence, and I’m at last able to catch up on things like my blog. It seems that there’s been quite a bit of drama around the past few weeks, but that too has been settling itself. Tomorrow, the Honor Guard heads to Norfolk for five days for HarborFest and to Portsmouth for their tall ship festival and then we’re going to DC at the end of the month for the Smithsonian Folk Life Festival. July and August are thankfully uneventful.

(photos: Ready to go to our pirate gig at Kingsmill (someone paid us to come sing sea shanties at their event) -- Jack, me, Mike, Kai, and Judy; Jack and his parrot; Mike and Judy rocking out to some shanty while waiting for the guests to arrive; and Kai in front of our friend the Kalmar Nyckel at the Blackbeard Festival.)