Disneyland Adventure!

Yesterday Scott and I went to Disneyland! He works nonstop and so it's hard fro him to find time to go, so since we both had the day off and were planning on going, we decided to go all out and spend the whole day there! We were initially going to go last week, but it ended up raining all day long, so I was really glad we decided to reschedule. We had planned on leaving our houses at 7 am, but then decided to push it back to 8, since neither of us are morning people and because we wanted to be able to last the whole day without collapsing from fatigue. We made excellent time on the drive there, but traffic really backed up as we approached the parking garage. Then, as we turned into the parking garage, we discovered that they had blocked off the entrance and were diverting everyone to the parking garages at the Convention Center. We had no idea where we were going; we just kept following the signs. Eventually, we made it and waited in line for the shuttle to take us to the parks. once we got to the parks, it took forever to get through security. We rolled with it, for the most part, remembering that all of our best adventures happened when everything we planned went wrong. Our day followed that same pattern and we had an amazing time! 

Once we got into the parks, we discovered that it wasn't nearly as crowded as we anticipated! We went directly to California Adventure to get Fast Passes for World of Color and then went on The Little Mermaid Ride and then we decided to do California Screamin'. Next, we headed to Disneyland and the plan was to get Fast Passes for Space Mountain, but they were all gone and the wait time was 150 minutes! Ridiculous! The rest of the day ran super smoothly, though. The night prior, Scott had put together a schedule so that we would be sure to see all of the shows and parades we wanted to see. First, we watched the Disneyland Band and Dapper Dans and then got lunch at Jolly Holiday and ate while we watched the Christmas Fantasy Parade. 

The floats were pretty and it was a fun parade to watch!

Next, we hit the Jungle Jingle Cruise, which was decorated for Christmas! My favorite part of the decor was when the natives were all wearing ugly Christmas sweaters! Hilarious! Our tour guide was actually pretty funny too! 

It was during this time that it started raining unexpectedly. Fortunately, we were covered in the boat and when we got off the ride, the rain stopped! Perfection!

Next, we headed over to the Haunted Mansion and the line was hideously long. Then, we noticed that there were still Fast Passes available and that the current return time was between 5:30 to 6:30, which worked perfectly with our schedule and would save us more than an hour of wait time! So, we got our passes and went over to the Snow White Wishing Well, where we made our wishes and then headed to It's A Small World. The line stretched almost all the way to Toon Town, and as we waited, it started raining. Fortunately, the rain was short lived and not too hard and we were able to brave it by wearing our hoods! Small World is magical at Christmas! After Small World, we went to Peter Pan, which is always amazing and then found a place on the steps of City Hall to watch the Paint the Night Electrical Parade. It was a pretty good spot for viewing it!

The second the parade ended, we rushed to Haunted Mansion to use our Fast Pass and were SO happy that we had gotten it because the line was even worse than it had been earlier. After riding it we went to dinner at Rancho del Zocalo and then rode Big Thunder Mountain. We both love that ride! It's seriously one of my very favorites! 

Of course, it wouldn't be a Scott and Rachel adventure without some type of ice cream/frozen yogurt, so we went to the Golden Horseshoe and got hot fudge sundaes. When we finished, it was just about time for Fantasmic, but the viewing areas were full, so we went shopping instead. Scott had told me ahead of time that he wanted to get my Christmas present at Disneyland and that's what he did! He bought me the most amazing Snow White purse! Love it!

After that, we saw the Disneyland Forever firework show and then went to California Adventure to see the World of Color show. We were in the yellow section and we ended up standing on the pier right on the water. It got so cold being there with all of the moisture, but we survived and enjoyed the show!

That was the last thing we had planned to do and it was time to go home! We were pretty much able to do everything that we had planned to do that day, despite the delays we experienced in the morning and we had a great time!

We took one last picture before we left and then got back on the road!

It truly was an amazing day!

Savoring the Little Things: Halloween Getaway in San Diego

Stress. The struggle is real. Don't get me wrong: I LOVE my job! My students are really starting to do great things, I work with the best people in the world, and my school, though technically in the ghetto, is wonderful! I feel like my kiddos and my co-workers and I are a little community with many trying so hard to ensure a bright and happy future! BUT OH. MY GOODNESS. Working in schools these days in HARD and STRESSFUL. I truly feel that people that don't work in schools can never understand the immense pressure to perform and to achieve perfection with all students at the same rate, while also working non-stop for free and then being criticized and beaten down along the way...not by my school administration, but by the folks at the district office...ya know, the ones that DON'T work with kids? Or maybe that's just in my district. Anyhow, the first part of the school year was really stressful, but after deciding to make a change in my perspective and mindset, I'm feeling much better about things. One of the changes I decided I needed to make was that I really needed to put myself first in certain situations. For example, I don't need to take work home every single weekend or every single night. If I need an evening to myself, I should take it, And when I leave stuff at work, I need to also leave my work thoughts at work and not feel guilty about all of the stuff that's not getting done. That stack of papers to grade will still be there the next day. Also, I decided to take a cue from Frozen and "let it go"! I have TAs who can grade stuff and do a bunch of things that I've always done on my own; now, I let them do more "stuff" and guess what! It's fabulous! Further, I need to do preventative stuff and not wait until I'm on the verge of a nervous breakdown to take a little time for myself and I need to savor the small stuff! So that's what I'm doing! I'm doing "me"! And with that loooong intro, I will now dive into my magical San Diego weekend!

I've been super exhausted and needed a little San Diego (my happy place) in my life to prevent myself from getting too stressed out and overwhelmed, but after looking at my schedule, I realized that I wouldn't have time to go for about 3 months, so I decided to wait out the three months because, ya know, there was stuff to do. Then, I remembered my pact with myself and decided: NOPE. I will make time. So, I booked a room in San Diego for Friday and Saturday (October 30th-31st)- Halloween Eve and Halloween! I decided that I wanted this trip to be a little different and that I would do stuff that I had never done or hadn't done in a while, mixed, of course, with the things that I absolutely love and want to do every time! On Friday, I left work and got on the road. After battling through about four hours of traffic, I made it to my hotel! I had phoned in my order to Phil's BBQ (the BEST BBQ I have ever had! You should try it!) and picked up my food, along with one of their delicious pumpkin whoopie pies (a must) for dessert! I stayed at the Rodeway Inn by Qualcomm Stadium and it was really nice, especially since the room was very inexpensive. 

I've stayed here with my parents before and, among the reasons it's so nice is that it's kind of in a neighborhood and off the beaten path, so it's not among heavy traffic and it's SO dark outside so you can see a million twinkling stars in the in the night sky! So, I ate my dinner while watching a little TV and then changed out of my work clothes, touched up my make-up, and headed over to Old Town.

 I had booked a ghost tour with Haunted San Diego! I've always wanted to do this, like seriously, since I was a small child and had seen the fliers for these tours in Old Town, I've wanted to do one, but never thought I really ever would! That was changing tonight! Once I found parking, I located the meeting place for the tour (a "must" when you get lost everywhere you go!) and then walked around Old Town! I had no agenda and just took the time to look around. Some stuff had already closed, but I went to Gepetto's Toy Shoppe, which was a childhood favorite for me, and then I got a root beer float and just took my time with it. When it was time, I went to the Best Western Hacienda Hotel to meet the tour guide.

We went to the Whaley House, Montezuma Villa, The Horton Grand Hotel, the William Heath Davis House, and El Campo Santo Cemetery. Our tour guide/storyteller was awesome and I had a really fun time! We even had a few creepy things happen that, pretty much, everyone in our group experienced at the same time! It was about 11:15 pm when the tour ended and I had to walk through the courtyard area of Old Town when it was completely deserted. It was SO creepy! When I got back to the hotel, I pretty much went straight to bed.

The next morning, I did not set an alarm at all and I put my phone on "Do Not Disturb" mode. I slept in until almost 9 am! It was SO nice! Then, I just laid in bed and watched TV for a while, which I never, ever do, so that was really nice too! And, of course, a girl's gotta eat breakfast, so I went fancy and heated up a frozen breakfast burrito I had grabbed at 7-11 the previous night and I drank a red Mountain Dew...I know, I know, I'm wowing you with my nutritious menu selections. ;)  I really wanted to take time to relax as well as have some fun, so that's exactly what I did. I didn't really have an agenda for what I was going to do. I knew I wanted to tour the Whaley House and I knew I wanted to spend some time at Silver Strand Beach, but other than that, I kind of wanted to do things I hadn't done before. When I first checked into my hotel, I grabbed a bunch of fliers for things to do from the lobby and decided that I would pick a couple of those things to do.

First, I drove into Old Town and went to the Whaley House and browsed around a few of the shops.

 

Then, I drove out to Little Italy, which was right on the coast. Oddly enough, there wasn't much "Italy" stuff, but I did see some Argentinian stuff and a Little Brazil store, even though it was supposed to be Little Italy. I stopped in at Little Brazil because Scott served his mission in Brazil and I wanted to see if they had any of the things I'd heard him talk about; it turned out that the store was pretty small and they didn't really have much,but I was still glad I went. 

After that I went back to my car and I decided to look at the fliers I had gotten from the hotel. One of them was for harbor cruises and I looked at the departure times and decided to get there in time for the 3:00 cruise. I got there and bought my ticket about 10 minutes prior to boarding, so it worked out perfectly! The boat was pretty big and, actually, really nice. I decided to sit outside and went all the way to the very back of the boat. It was a beautiful day and it was so relaxing to be there. We saw a bunch of California Sea Lions and got to hear a lot about the coastline and the history of San Diego.

After the harbor cruise, I drove out to Coronado Island to hit up my favorite beach. I walked along the beach for a while, marveling at how vast the ocean is and what an amazing creation our world is! So beautiful!

I also took some time to explore the Hotel Del Coronado. Afterall, it's known to be haunted and it was Halloween, so I decided to do a bit of ghost hunting. First, I went into a cute little shop that can be accessed from the outside of the Del, by the café. I bought a few Fall leaf plates and a super cute Thanksgiving hand towel. Then, I ventured into the hotel a little further as I browsed the Shops at the Del. Just for kicks, I asked the ladies working in the shops whether they were familiar with the stories about Kate Morgan haunting the hotel and they all said yes. One of them told me that she likes to mess stuff up in some of the shops after they're closed and that there's a shop upstairs that is often visited by her. It was kind of fun to hear some of the stories! It turns out that the place where they found her body is no longer there; the staircase where she was found has been removed and additional restaurants and cafés have been built in its place. I didn't experience any ghost stuff, but it was fun just to forget about what people might think and just have some fun!

I watched the sun set over the ocean and then drove back to my hotel room for the evening. The following morning, I drove home so I could make it to church on time. The weekend was so, incredibly relaxing and exactly what I needed! Can't wait until my next adventure!

Digging in the Dirt and Other Magical Adventures!

On July 21st, I checked into the Ontario Airport super early in the morning and began a journey that I will never forget! After a layover in Dallas, I landed in Richmond, Virginia, picked up my rental car, and drove to Laurel, Maryland, where I'd be staying for the next couple of days.

Hello Richmond!!!

The next morning I woke up pretty early and prepared for a day that was a little daunting because I would be navigating the Metro (subway) and Washington DC all by myself. If you know me well, you know that I get lost everywhere I go! Seriously, everywhere. So, as you can imagine, I was a little bit nervous. I made it to Greenbelt Station and, with my Metro card in hand, I dove in! I quickly learned that Metro "regulars" are the kindest, most helpful people ever! Before going to the trains, I stopped to check my map just to make sure I knew exactly where I was going and, as I did that, this man stopped and asked me if he could help me. I told I was new to the whole train station thing and where I was headed and he insisted upon walking me all the way to my train before heading over to his train. On the way, he gave me some helpful hints, like that people who want to stand on the escalator stay to the right, so the left is clear for people who are in a hurry and need to walk/run up the escalator; he told me that it's not a big deal, but that some people get pretty bent out of shape if someone's in their way. I'm glad I didn't have to find that out the hard way. He also pointed out the different lines and other things that helped me a ton during the trip! I'm so grateful for the kindness of strangers!

My first solo Metro ride ran seamlessly and, as I ascended the out of the Metro station and onto the streets of Washington DC, I remember getting this rush of excitement! I love it here and it had been so long since I'd been here last! 14 years, to be exact! I saw the Navy Memorial statue and knew I was in the right place. The first place on my itinerary was Ford's Theater and the Petersen House. How amazing to be in such an important historical place! 

 After that, I went to the National Archives to see the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, among other documents.

 As I was waiting to go through the metal detectors a news crew came up and started filming. Apparently, the little girl, two people ahead of me, was the millionth visitor to the Archives! I don't know if she was the millionth of this summer or if this year, but she was taken out of line and got to meet the National Archivist and be interviewed. If you know me well, you know that I do not enjoy being filmed and ending up on the news would be my worst nightmare, so I'm glad that I wasn't the one millionth visitor, but I'm glad I was there when it happened because it was kind of a cool thing to watch!

I waited in line for about 10 minutes, which was not bad at all, and then got to see those amazing documents! I love history and am particularly interested in the making of America, so this was a very inspiring and almost sacred experience for me. I thought of those brave men who pressed their hand to the parchment to sign a document that changed the world. A document that was inspired by God so that His children would have a land in which they could worship Him freely, according to the dictates of their conscience. It made me sad to think of how these freedoms are now being stolen from us, despite the efforts of those men, who risked everything and put their lives on the line to create and then preserve a land choice above all others, a land prophesied about! What an amazing experience!

Last time I was here, we spent a lot of time in the Smithsonian Museums and I loved it, but this time, there just wasn't enough time to see everything, so, before the trip, I did my research and narrowed it down to the things that I really wanted to see. In the Museum of Natural History, I really wanted to see the Hope Diamond! What a beautiful jewel! The fact that it's so old, and the history of it, makes it so fascinating!

Next up: the Smithsonian Museum of American History! There were tons of amazing things to see and I couldn't possibly include them all here, so I'll just share some highlights. This is George Washington's uniform! I seriously geeked out over this one, especially since there's a very famous painting of him wearing this very outfit!

Here it is!

And here's one of the sunstones from the original Nauvoo Temple!

The original Kermit!!!

These are just a few of the very cool things in the museum! Another highlight was one that isn't allowed to be photographed. It's the flag that inspired the Star Spangled Banner, the one that was still there, flying proudly over Fort McHenry after the battle. It's huge, symbolic, and rich in history, and I love it!

My next stop was the Air and Space Museum! Since my grandpa Wheeler was a tail gunner in the Air Force, I've always been fascinated with aviation and old planes. This means that I've been to a ton of air museums and seen a lot of cool stuff, which also means that, with such a short amount of time, I would probably skip the Air and Space Museum. That was the plan until I did some research and discovered that the Spirit of St. Louis was sitting on the ground! It's usually one of the planes suspended in the air and you can't really get a great look at it, but it was having some restorations done to it and so they put it on the ground for a while. This immediately put the museum back on the itinerary. I have to admit that I was kinda starstruck when I saw it!

After wandering around the Mall for a while, I took a tour bus to the dock to take a river cruise of the Potomac. It's a very long story, but it took about two-hours to get across town on that thing (awful experience) and I missed the boat I wanted to take and had to take the next one. Then, I almost didn't make that one either, and it was the last cruise of the day. As the bus pulled up, I ran out and down the street to get to the boat just as it began to pull away. I screamed for them to wait and told them the bus took forever to get there. I was able to convince the guy to stop and come back (the boat had only pulled away a tiny bit). They did not, however, pull down the gangway and I had to make a little jump over the water into the boat. Fortunately, I made it! At first I was mad, but then I decided that the little unexpected things are what make life such a great adventure! Such beautiful views from the Potomac!

After the river cruise, I got back on the bus (ugh) and headed to Lafayette Square, which is right behind/in front of the White House. I had scheduled a DC ghost tour just for fun and Lafayette Square was our meeting place. The tour didn't end up being quite what I was looking for, but I did get to hear a lot of historical stories, which I love, so it all worked out! This picture was taken before the sun set, but the ghost tour did take place in the dark!

After the ghost tour, I made my way back to the Metro and then drove to the Baltimore Airport to pick up Diane. It was a late flight,so when we got back to our hotel in Laurel, we went right to bed to prepare for an early morning and a very full day!

The next morning, we woke up earlier than anyone should ever wake up while on vacation, but we had a ton of cool things planned, so we were up and out before the sun! We took the Metro to the Mall and visited Washington Monument, before heading to Union Station to check our bags in. Both the Capitol and the White House (especially the White House) limit what you can take in, so we checked our backpack/purses in and walked to Diane's Congressman's office. 

We had scheduled a tour of the Capitol and we were the only two on the tour, so it was awesome! Our guide took us all over and told us a bunch of cool stories!

 After the Capitol tour, we were able to tour the White House! I have ALWAYS wanted to do this!

The East Room! 

So much amazing history in this room!

This is the painting of George Washington that Dolley Madison saved from the White House as the British set it on fire during the war of 1812. I'd heard that story all my life and was SO excited to see it in person!

 The Green Room!

 The Blue Room!

 The Red Room!

Next, we went to Arlington National Cemetery. We took the tram around to the different stops and went up to the Lee Mansion/Arlington House, which is where Robert E. Lee wrote his letter declining the offer to lead the Union Army. There's a cool story associated with this event and I have always wanted to see it!

 The view from the house is not too shabby!

 In front of the Lee Mansion!

 The desk in the corner is where General Lee wrote his resignation. He was asked to head up the Union Army in the Civil War and he was very conflicted about it. He was a Southerner and Virginia was his home. He shut himself in this room and paced, fasted, and prayed, and would not come out of the room until he had made the decision. When he emerged from the room, he had penned the letter that changed history! I'm a huge nerd and am a sucker for a good history story and feel it's so important to know the little stories behind big events and to actually come to know the people involved. I love history! Diane and I were a little bummed because we didn't have time to see the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and we didn't get to see the Iwo Jima monument, but we were really in a time crunch, so we just had to miss them. We headed back to our tour bus, where we embarked on a looooong journey around Washington DC, so that we could get back to Union Station to pick up our belongings and meet up for our Monuments at Night Tour.

 We actually had a lot of fun hanging out on the bus ride together! We rode on the top of the double-decker bus so we could see more stuff!

 DC's China Town

This is The Willard Hotel, where the terms "lobbyest" and "lobbying" became popular. Ulysses S. Grant used to hang out in the lobby drinking brandy and smoking a cigar and people would come and ask him for stuff. Hence the term LOBBYist.

We finally reached Union Station where Diane and I picked up our stuff, grabbed some dinner and then met up with our evening tour. We weren't especially fond of the hop on/hop off bus tour we had during the day, but we absolutely loved their Monuments at Night Tour. It was seriously one of the coolest things we did during the entire trip and that's saying something because we got to see/do a lot of cool things! It started off rocky when the microphone wasn't working and we couldn't hear the tour guide. So, we had to wait until someone brought a new mic. Then, we finally were able to get on our way. DC is beautiful at night with all of the brightly lit monuments and, of course, a beautiful sunset. The tour bus was a double-decker and everyone sat on the top so we could see everything. It was pretty hilarious because the streets are all tree-lined and, at times, we would have to duck down so the trees didn't hit us in the face! We had a couple of close calls and Diane and I got a good laugh about it. It really was just the perfect evening. Watch out because I'm about to blow up this blog with a million pictures!

Lincoln Memorial and WWII Memorial

Jefferson Memorial

FDR Memorial

MLK Memorial

Iwo Jima/Marine Corp. Monument

There's a cool story here. We desperately wanted to see this during our tour of Arlington National Cemetery (where the statue is located) and we just ran out of time. We were so bummed, but realized that we still got to see some pretty cool stuff and we knew we would have to make cuts someplace. Sadly, this was one of them, or so we thought! The tour guide told us that we would be getting on the freeway to see a monument in Arlington and Diane and I were hoping it was this one and it was!

Incredible!

We also saw the Vietnam Wall and other monuments, but these were the main highlights!

After walking around the last monuments of the evening, we all boarded the bus around 11 pm and were ready to get back to the hotel. Then, the tour guide came up to the top deck and told us that the bus wouldn't start and that we would need to wait for a replacement bus to come. It had been such a great evening that no one really cared and we all laughed it off.

The next morning we woke up super early and went to a session in the Washington DC Temple. It's such a pretty temple!

After that, we went to Mount Vernon, where George Washington lived.

It was under construction, so it didn't look as pretty as it normally would, but we still got to go inside and take the tour and it was still gorgeous inside! I love the bright colors used inside, especially the bright green rooms!

Next, we walked around his property for a while and got to see a demonstration of the horses working in his 16-sided barn.

Then, we got to meet one of the horses!

After this, the plan was to rush over to Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. Instead, we got on the road and I realized that I could not stay awake behind the wheel. I got off the freeway and took a nap in a Subway parking lot while Diane had lunch inside. I slept for about an hour and then went in and had lunch before we got back on the road. We decided to try to still make it to Harpers Ferry and we got there just as it was supposed to close. Fortunately for us, the shopkeepers there weren't paying attention to the time and we got to go into some of the museums and shops. We both felt like we had seen everything that we would've seen if we had gotten there earlier. It was a miracle for us and we were very happy to be able to visit West Virginia for the first time.

The following morning, Diane and I headed to Monticello, where Thomas Jefferson lived. I love Thomas Jefferson! He really was an amazing man!

After touring the house, we had to go play in the kiddy section of the visitor center.

Then, I took Diane to the airport in Richmond and drove to Montpelier, James Madison's home, where I would be working/staying for the duration of the following week.

It was too early to check into the archaeologist housing, so I went to this little church in Orange, which is a teeny-tiny town right next to Somerset, where Arlington House is located. This church was of interest to me because it's where Robert E. Lee attended church during part of the Civil War. It was after hours, so I didn't get to go inside, but according to the website, the pew where he always sat is still there and now has a plaque commemorating his attendance there.

St. Thomas Episcopal Church

From there, I decided to go take a peek at Montpelier!

My first glimpse of Montpelier!

I was so excited!

After browsing around the visitor center and gift store for a bit, it was time to go check in at Arlington House.

Arlington House was built in 1850 and it's on the Montpelier property. It's old, but beautiful, and well-restored. A but of interesting history is that it was used as a recuperation hospital for WWI soldiers. There were about 20 people staying there, including the archaeology staff and interns, as well as volunteers like me!

When I first got there, I was shown to my room, which was right at the top of the stairs.

I thought it was cute how they put all of our names on the door! Catherine never showed up, so it was just the four of us. First, Cassie, who was from Kentucky and majored in Anthropology and Geology, so she had an interesting background. Next, Julie, who is a history teacher in Chicago (or right near Chicago). Then, Grace, who is a seventeen year old about to start her senior year and is from Virginia, near Montpelier. I am not used to having roommates, so I was pretty nervous about this whole situation, but my roommates were awesome and we all ended up getting along great and having a wonderful time together!

Julie, Cassie, Grace, and me on the last day of the dig

This was our room for the week!

My bed was right in front of the window (the bed with the bag in front of it), so I got to hear the rain and thunder storms and watch the lightning as I was falling asleep nearly every single night. It was amazing!

Right after everyone got there, we had a kick-off barbecue and just got to know each other. There were a lot of great people there and we all came from extremely different backgrounds, so it was really interesting! After the barbecue, we all hung out in the living room and had a brief orientation and went over the house rules and what to expect over the week.

The next morning, was nerve wracking and exciting. There was one thing that was for certain, however. This place was gorgeous, unlike anything I'd ever seen before in my whole life. This is what I walked outside to as I was heading to the dig site.

Green for days!

We went to the lab for another orientation and met with Terry Brock, who was the lead archaeologist for the week. Matt Reeves is usually the head guy, but was out of town, so we got Terry; he was awesome! We got our group and unit assignments and our schedule for the week. Then, we headed out to the field. It was seriously right next to Montpelier. It was the coolest thing to be able to work just beside James Madison's house and to be able to explore and roam the property. It was surreal! I love history and this was just too amazing for words! It was close to time for one of our tours, so we didn't start digging right away. We were taken on a tour of the grounds.

Montpelier

This is referred to as the Montpelier Temple. It sits over an ice house. James Madison used too sit under the canopy and read all the time. It was, basically, air conditioned because the vast amount of ice stored beneath it kept it nice and cool, so it was a comfy place for him to go and relax.

This statue of James and Dolley Madison was right behind the house and right beside our dig site. The grounds were beautiful!

After our tour we got to work!

You can see the dig site and Montpelier just beyond it!

Pretty soon, we found out a storm was coming. It's Virginia and the rain comes and goes as it pleases, so they were constantly using weather tracking apps. We had to hurry and get everything covered up and all of the dirt/artifacts sorted and sifted, so we took screens and through them over wheelbarrows so that we had extra places to get the screening done more quickly.

The rest of the day was spent in the lab. I did something called picking, where you look for specific things in varying size categories, like charred wood, bone, brick, etc.

It all looks like pebbles, but there was actually a lot of "stuff" in here. At first, it was difficult to figure out which stuff was important and which wasn't, but as the week progressed, it became much easier. That night I slept pretty well! It was exhausting, but so much fun!

The next day as we got to the dig site, this is what we were greeted by!

You just don't find stuff like this in California! So pretty!

This day, I actually found something! I found the bottom of a very, very old wine bottle. It was pretty cool to get to pull it out of the ground!

It was also this day that the stone path began to appear!

Around 1850, the stone smokehouses with brick foundations were leveled and, rather than move the debris off the property, they just spread it out to make a pathway. This pathway has been covered up for a long time, and I got to be one of the people to find and uncover it! It was awesome! They're actually going to use the stone we pulled out of the ground to reconstruct the smokehouses, which means that when I go back to visit, I'll be able to see them! I can't wait for that to happen! 

Though I was excited to find the pathway, it turned out that it was A LOT of work to excavate it! Basically, the entire thing had to be cleaned out, so we spent hours upon hours cleaning the dirt out of the rock crevices. Then, once that was done, documentation was done, pictures were taken, and then we pulled the rocks out of the ground. It took hours to clean, but only minutes to pull them out of the ground. It was still worth it!

This is what it looked like when the path first began to emerge.

This is mid-process

Still cleaning!

The two units I worked on! Picture perfect! 

(This day 4 of the dig, so I skipped a little ahead, I suppose.)

Yay! It took a ton of work, but it was worth it!

Day 3 was my day in the lab, but it started off with the archaeology staff having to bail water out of the excavation site because of the heavy rains the night before! We were also giving an extensive grounds tour, which was awesome!

We visited the Madison Family Cemetery.

In the lab, I started off cleaning artifacts. There were a lot of bones and teeth found because they were found at the smokehouse site, where animals would've been.

I had lunch at the visitor center.

Then, I went back to the lab and learned a new (to me) technique, called floating, to separate very small charred bone fragments, etc. from grass and other tiny materials.

Then, we toured the Gilmore Farm and a Confederate Civil War Encampment, which was on the site. It was pretty cool!

That evening, I decided to explore the property around Arlington House. I looked around the dilapidated slave quarters, the barn, chicken coop, and a few other buildings that had been abandoned for quite some time.

In the picture below, you can see the window that was right by my bed. On the side of the house with the chopped wood, my window is just above the pitch in the roof. I got to lie there and listen to thunderstorms as a fell asleep almost every night! It was so different from being in California and I loved it!

It was just gorgeous all around!

Here's a selfie. I just felt so happy here! I love being in nature and seeing all the beauty that was created for us! This was also the night I saw my very first real firefly! Up until this evening, the only fireflies I had seen were the fake ones at the beginning of Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland! They were pretty amazing and I was SO excited! I remember telling some of the people in the house that I was excited to have actually seen a real firefly and they were amazed. They're so common there that they never even imagined that some people had never seen them.

Also, this was the night that I invited my roommates to join me for dinner in Charlottesville. Grace was exhausted and stayed home to sleep. She was still knocked out in her bed when we got back!

The next day (day 4) was when we finished cleaning the path and all of that. Then, we had a monster thunder storm. It was supposed to be just drizzle, but all of a sudden, the skies opened up and we didn't even have time to cover up the site. As a result, we had to hold taps up to protect the site until the storm passed. First, it was just the archaeology staff holding up a tarp on one side. Then, the wind came and the rest of us had to hold up a tarp on the other side to shield the site from the horizontal rain! It was crazy because we had to hold those tarps up for a good half hour or so, until the storm finally passed. We were covered in mud! This is me after having cleaned up a bunch, but you can still see some of the red clay soil on my legs and on my face!

The last day of the dig was rough for me. I was starting to get a bad earache, so I went into town to get some meds to help me and, while I was gone, the photographer came to take the group picture. I missed it and I was SO sad! Life goes on, though, and I have all of my own pictures to document the experience, so it's all good!

After I got back from town, I worked in the lab. This day, I got to sort artifacts and it was pretty fun!

After work, we all went back to the house to pack up our stuff and take some pictures. I already posted the one of my roommates and me and here's one of the archaeologist I was paired with on the dig. We were each paired with someone and it was nice because David and I became friends over the week and he taught me how to do all of the archaeologist stuff!

Lastly, we had our farewell banquet and awards ceremony at the visitor center and then we all went our separate ways.

Me with Terry Brock, getting my certificate!

I flew home the next day and it was bittersweet! It was a trip full of amazing new discoveries and lots of hard work! Worth every moment and I'm SO grateful that I got to have this amazing experience!