Texas - Part 1

We spent our time over Easter exploring the great state of Texas. As always, we jammed a fair bit in and saw some some fantastic sights, ate fabulous food and learnt more about US and Texas history. No guns were seen but lots of hats and boots were counted.

We flew into Houston and hired a car to drive our way up to Dallas/Fort Worth. The map shows our route map and we stayed one night each in Houston, San Antonio, Austin, Waco and Fort Worth (Dallas).  The weather was warm, mid 20s C.

HOUSTON

We took the early morning flight into Houston and spent the day at the NASA Space Centre – this was 'a day for me' as Deb had seen enough space stuff in Florida at the Kennedy Space Centre. The Houston Space Centre was not as extensive as Kennedy but I still enjoyed it. The space center is very educational focused for kids so there were lots of activities and hands on things for kids to do. We looked around at the various exhibits and I can imagine how fantastic this would have been to see as a kid.

 

One highlight for me was seeing the shuttle on top of the shuttle carrier Boeing 747 aircraft. The shuttle is a replica of the Indepedence shuttle and together they are a huge couple of beasts. We climbed the stairs to walk through the aircraft and shuttle to read information about how they were designed and used. The aircraft carried the shuttles from its landing sites after space flight back to the Kennedy space centre and was also used to test the shuttles as they were being designed. I am always in awe of these achievements and love having the opportunity to see them.

The second highlight was taking the little tram trolley tour to see the former mission control center. This was used during the Gemini, Apollo and many space shuttle missions until 1992 when a new extension was built to control future space missions. The room was retrofitted back to the equipment used during the Apollo missions and it was cool to see the room where they controlled man landing on the moon and many other important space flights such as Apollo 13 "Hey Houston, we have a problem here". The memorabilia on the walls was impressive and again, I just looked at everything in awe.

We stopped by the Saturn V rocket display on the way back to the visitor centre. We saw this rocket in Florida and it is the biggest rocket made and was used for the Apollo missions and launching Skylab. This is a bloody HUGE rocket, massive. Pictures cannot justify its size that is overwhelming in real life.

We stayed the night with one of Deb’s work friends who lives in Houston. We enjoyed a Tex Mex dinner down the road from their house and it was the best mex food I’ve eaten so far. It was sensational and the guacamole was mmmm mmmmm. I love fajitas and these were the best ever. They say Tex Mex is the best Mexican food and that tastes pretty right to me so far. We didn’t see anything more of Houston and friends didn’t seem to rate it very high of interest so we just enjoyed the relax time.

SAN ANTONIO

It was about a three hour drive to San Antonio and our little car felt like the car ‘marker’ from the Monopoly game as we drove on the huge freeways amongst RVs, trucks and SUVs on steroids. We were in Texas after all - everything's big in Texas. We arrived late afternoon and walked around the Riverwalk area which was quite beautiful and unexpected. There were lots of cafes and shops and it was a nice few hours to browse around. We had an early Tex Mex dinner again but it was not a good as that in Houston. A margarita went down nicely and proved my inability to hold more than two sips of alcohol.

The key attraction in San Antonio is the Alamo. Note that Texas was not part of the US at this time - it was occupied by Mexicans and immigrants from the US at the time (Texians).

The Alamo is a former fortress and battle that played a critical role in the Texas Revolution. My brief summary is that the Alamo mission was first built by the Spanish as a mission to educate Amercian Indians after conversion to Christianity. Ten years later it became a fortress around 1803 and housed the Mexican para military. During the Texas Revolution the Mexicans surrendered the fort to the Texian Army in December 1835 following the siege of Bexar. The Mexicans were not happy and later attacked the fort in the six day Battle of Alamo (23 Feb – 6 Mar 1836). All 200 Texians defenders were vastly outnumbered and killed and the Mexican president was especially cruel. Famous names of those 200 Texians were beaver tail hat man Davy Crockett, James Bowie and William B Travis. 

In April, Texians were driven by revenge to drive all Mexicans out of Texas and joined the Texian Army to defeat the Mexicans. In April, the Texan Army attacked and defeated the Mexicans. The Texians were heard to yell ‘Remember the Alamo’ as they fought. The Mexican President was forced to order his troops out of Texas ending their control of the province. It’s been an interesting history lesson and I only have the learned the express version. But I finally appreciate who Davy Crockett is and what/why the Alamo is so important in Texas history.

We took the one hour guided tour throughout the Alamo and it was well worth it. There are lots of exhibits and information to read and look at and the grounds are quite big. The Alamo was a heroic struggle against overwhelming odds – a place where men made the ultimate sacrifice for freedom. For this reason, the Alamo remains hallowed ground and the Shrine of Texas Liberty.

After the Alamo, we took one loop of the hop on/off bus around the city and it was not impressive. San Antonio doesn’t have much more to look at besides the Alamo and the Riverwalk. I didn’t feel like we were in Texas but more like Mexico as the cultural influence is quite strong.

The Alamo

SALTLICK BBQ

Some of our US friends kindly offered some tips for our Texas trip and one big recommendation was the Saltlick BBQ. This was a must-see. It was about half hour before Austin so we arrived late afternoon and planned this as our early dinner. Crikey, it was busy. It was in the middle of nowhere and the wait was 2 hours for a table, or, we could order takeaway and sit in the grassy picnic area – we chose the latter. It was about 45 minute before we got food but it passed quickly as we took in the atmosphere, smells and conversation with local Texans. Thankfully, the BBQ was excellent. I love Brisket, Deb loves ribs and we got our carb and protein overload in spades today. I’m glad we were told about this place cause it was pretty nice food. Texas BBQ is different to BBQ in the south but it was still nice.

AUSTIN

The capital of Texas. 

We were full from our BBQ feed but I was scratching to go out and explore. I noticed a trendy 24hr donut place called VooDoo Doughnuts. I was laughing at the donut names – Gay Bar Donut (coloured accordingly), Cock and Balls (shaped accordingly), old dirty bastard donut, dirty snowballs donut. I couldn’t decide which ‘one’ so I got a few and ate a bit of each. Total sugar rush but worth the experience. 

In the morning we will hit the segways for a city tour and explore a bit more ourselves before heading to Waco.

I'll continue the Texas report in my next post but here's a few pics to finish with.

 

 

 

Baltimore Aquarium

I had the pleasure of taking a trip to the Baltimore aquarium (known as the National Aquarium) with the school that is being hosted by the Embassy this year. I've previously given them a presentation and had other activities with them. Baltimore is about 45 minutes away and the aquarium is huge and quite well regarded. Of special note, it has an Australian exhibit called Wild Extremes. It's a permanent display and the Embassy takes the kids here to see a small taste of Australia. The website says...

This exhibit depicts a typical northern Australia river gorge. This slice of Australia in Baltimore offers visitors a truly immersive experience: as you walk through the bottom of the gorge, get close to 1,800 individual native animals representing 120 species, including freshwater crocodiles, turtles, fishes, snakes, lizards, free-flying birds, and flying foxes. Many of these unique and unusual animals are found only in Australia.

I haven't seen a snake since I left home so I wasn't keen to see them again. The kids were amazed and loved the crocodiles and turtles. There is a kookaburra somewhere in there but we didn't get to see it unfortunately. I checked out the jellyfish display and oh my god, how beautiful that was. There were so many different types of jellyfish and they are very captivating to look at.

 

And another great part of the trip was that we travelled on a YELLOW school bus. American's don't understand our fascination with YELLOW school buses - we don't have anything like it in Australia so this is an icon for us. I thought the kids would break out into singing the 100 green bottles, hanging on the wall but no, these kids are much younger than me and instead, they were singing the latest pop music. I was quite shocked really. They just sang bits and pieces and all joined in. They get on quite well. I noticed when I got off the bus though that my hips were a bit stiff - the seats were a bit smaller than normal but I didn't appreciate that until the end. Over all, a great day out and I was thrilled to be the ridgey-didge Aussie for the kids on their day out.

Another highlight this week was that I made my very first pavlova !! One of the ladies at work had a 60th dinner party at home and it was a potluck = bring a plate. Many of the ladies were Phillipino, Malaysian, Singaporean so the food was just A-mazing. There were some very authentic dishes and it was such lovely food. There were empanadas, lamb curry, special pasta and other fried delights. So my pavlova was a huge hit at the end and I was very pleased with it. I loaded it with heaps of berries and mango and lashings of cream so who wouldn't like it. 

I thought these work ladies were quiet, reserved and mild but holy dooley, a glass of wine unleashed the real women and there were some great laughs and stories. We enjoyed the night and these ladies have become wonderful friends to me. They have worked at the Embassy for many many years and it was interesting to hear the tales of early days. 

 

We have both continued our healthy eating and the results are showing. We've both been searching the cupboards for clothes that fit again and it feels nice to just feel better about ourselves. We are both running strong and I am training hard for this relay race end April. I've probably talked about it before but it's a 200mile (316km) race from Gettsburgy to DC over about 36 hours. Most teams are 12 man but we couldn't get one organised so I opted for a 6 man team which means 6 legs each which totals about 50km each. Or strategy is to run single legs but a double in the night so that will make some hard distances to back up. Our team van will leapfrog as we run along and we will be running every 6 hours or so which will make it hard work to back up so soon after the previous run. It will be a hard struggle for me but I love a challenge and those who know me well, know that I like endurance and tough challenges. There are 4 men and 2 women on the team and we are all Aussies - at this stage our Team name is Aussie Drop Bears and we are hoping to get a team singlet made. I'm really looking forward to it and ramping up the training each week by running solid miles and sometimes twice a day and many consecutive days.

Funny story, we convinced our gym PT lady to watch The Dressmaker. We explained to her what a 'dunny' was and I'd made her lamingtons recently so was happy to recognise some Aussie lingo. She enjoyed the movie but said she didn't want to visit a town like that !

This week I bought tickets to see Aretha Franklin in July and Hall and Oates in June (who have Tears for Fears supporting them). I am so excited. Aretha Franklin is retiring after this tour and she's about 75. And I love Hall and Oates - seeing high caliber musicians is one of the big benefits of living in the US. The choice is huge and the venues are fantastic.

Baseball season has started to I'm very excited to start going to games again. I am quite sad though to not have my dear friend Aussie Bob with me as he's returned home. I had the best times with him and it won't be the same without him to enjoy a beer with and chat game stuff. He got me going to the baseball last year and I am forever thankful for the games we went to and the fun we had. I will miss not having someone to dance with as we try to get our faces on the big screen.

Well, not much else to report. We go to Texas in 2 weeks so the next post will likely be from there. 

 

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

It's been a little while since we ticked off a state but this weekend we visited the beautiful and deeply historical Philadelphia. I always hear Bruce Springsteen singing 'Philadelphia' when I hear the name and of course, think of Tom Hanks in the same movie all those years ago. And of course, Rocky was filmed here back in the 70s and for many of the sequels. And yes, Philadelphia cream cheese also gets its name from the city. It was actually made in New York but ‘Philadelphia’ was adopted as the brand name, after the city that was considered at the time to be the home of top quality food. It was distributed for the first time in foil wrappers. While we have previously visited Gettysburg in Pennsylvania, we have waited to visit Philadelphia before officially claiming this state as touched. 

Short History from Wiki. In 1682 William Penn founded the city to serve as capital of the Pennsylvania Colony. Philadelphia played an instrumental role in the American Revolution as a meeting place for the Founding Fathers of the US who signed the Declaration of Independence (from the British) in 1776 and the US Constitution in 1787. Philadelphia served as temporary U.S. capital while Washington DC was under construction. In the 19th century, Philadelphia became a major industrial center and railroad hub that grew from an influx of European immigrants. It became a prime destination for African Americans in the Great Migration and surpassed two million occupants by 1950.

We had little time here so our mission was to see the key sights. These being:

Independence Hall - finished in 1756, this is where both the Declaration of Independence (1776) and US Constitution (1789) was debated and signed. The National Park Service ranger does a quick tour and you can see the rooms and artefacts from the day. Out the front there are brass plaques on the ground where JFK gave a speech on 4 July and where Lincoln raised a flag. They both sit by the George Washington Statue. Note that the original documents are held in the Archives in Washington DC and I hope to visit there in coming months. I have gotta see those.

 

Liberty Bell - 1752, this is an icon of American independence. It used to sit atop the Independence Hall but now hangs across the road in a separate museum. The bell first cracked when rung after its arrival in Philadelphia, and was twice recast by local workmen. In its early years the bell was used to summon lawmakers to legislative sessions and to alert citizens about public meetings and proclamations. After American independence was secured the bell fell into relative obscurity until, in the 1830s, the bell was adopted as a symbol by abolitionists societies, who dubbed it the "Liberty Bell." The bell acquired its distinctive large crack some time in the early 19th century. Beginning in 1885, the City of Philadelphia, which owns the bell, allowed it to go to various expositions and patriotic gatherings. The bell attracted huge crowds wherever it went, additional cracking occurred and pieces were chipped away by souvenir hunters. The last such journey occurred in 1915, after which the city refused further requests. It is an icon for liberty and freedom and its museum house has some great information on its history.

Rocky Steps - these are the 72 stone steps to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I have always dreamed of running up those steps like Rocky did. 

So I did, like many millions of other people have. It felt so good and I actually thought there were twice as many steps. There is also a statue or Rocky down the bottom and it's like a rite of passage to do the steps and then get your photo with the statue. If you haven't seen my video before this post, go and take a look. Batman was there too !!

 

Philly Cheesesteak - just as we Australian's eat and love a meat pie, well the Philly Cheesesteak is 'the' food of Philly. We were given some recommendations of the best places to go and found ourselves waiting 40 minutes at night at the most popular place in town, Jim's of South Street. Can't say I'd have waited if it wasn't for the great chick behind us who assured us this was worth the wait. 

So for the un-Philly of us, this food is a long fresh bread roll full of chopped steak and topped with any topping you want - onions, a number of cheeses, mushrooms, peppers (capsicum) and mayo. Well, we kinda think it was pretty average. The steak was bland in taste and overall it lacked flavour. We're not sure what the real rave is about but we did not broadcast this in the local street. We tried another one for lunch the next day from a different place, also highly recommended in the local food market but again, it was the same even though we got more cheeses added. I think I'm more of a corn beef girl or brisket or turkey with some lettuce and tomato and cheese - they call these type of rolls 'hoagies', like a sub. Ah well, we came, we saw, we ate and we'll stick with our meat pies or hoagies or even hot dogs.

 

A few other interesting food finds was Federal Donuts which sells hot cinnamon donuts and fried chicken. We got both for a small sample. The donuts were nice but they were cake like, not light and fluffy like our donuts at home. Still, best donut we've had stateside. Walking home at night we found this very cool ice cream shop and I HAD to get one. Do you recognise the Golden Girl(s)? There was also a Bluestone Lane cafe in our hotel. These guys are in New York and are owned by an Australian from Melbourne so the coffee is great. They are opening a second shop in Philly soon. 

We finished our time in Philly with a loop of the city sights on the Big Bus Tour which is always great to get your bearings. There is so much more to see in Philly and I look forward to going back with my sister later this year. The Delaware River sits beside Philly and you can catch the ferry across to New Jersey. It's seasonal so hopefully we can visit New Jersey in a few months as well. Overall we liked Philly. The streets are narrow, it's an old city but its got a nice feel about it and people are friendly. The history is great and while we're not into art so much, there are plenty of art museums to explore. 

We drove home through the country rather then the highway like the trip up. We visited an Amish town called Intercourse - yes you read that right. It's named this because it was the joining or crossing of some major roads many moons ago. They say the town signs get stolen quite a lot given their appeal to riff raft like that chick in the photo.  We saw some Amish buggies and girls pushing scooters around - they don't seem to like bikes or pedals? They have fantastic markets on Friday and Saturday so given it was Monday, things were quiet. We did stop at a bakery and enjoyed a free amazing homemade ice-cream. It's only 2 hours from DC so we will definitely go back to see the markets later.

During the week we had some snow weather and while it wasn't as much as predicted, it was enough to keep us all happy and give me some cardio and shovelling workouts. The dogs just wouldn't go to the toilet on it so we ended up with a number 1 and 2 on the rug - they both looked guilty so can't be sure which one did either. Not much damage really but note to self is to cover some grass area before snow next time as they desperately need something green to use. I eventually had to shovel some snow away the next day so they had some grass area and there was much squatting and leg lifting going on after that.

Cricket seems to be ok running around in the snow but Macey was not impressed. I think it may be because the day we ventured out it was more icy than soft. We don't walk long as I worry about their paws. 

During the week I made 100 small size lamingtons for a farewell morning tea. A lady is returning to Australia so it was a real treat for her to enjoy some nice lamingtons. I forgot to mention that the Bluestone Lane sold lamingtons too but they were not as nice as mine or those at home. It had a little jam in it but it was thick and soggy like. 

We enjoyed a wonderful meal with friends too at a nice steakhouse called Ruth's Chris Steakhouse - yes commas are all in the right place. I had a voucher from the work social club as a thank you for my Happy Hour cooking efforts. The food was incredible, expensive but just the nicest steak we've eaten in a very long time. We had prawns on our steak and I have to say, the Creme' Brûlée for dessert was easily the best we've EVER eaten. 

I am currently planning a few travel trips and keeping quite busy with a little bit of work and cooking healthy meals as well as continuing our running training. We continue to lose weight and can see and feel the benefits. 

A few left over pics to finish with.

 

Rocky Steps - Philadelphia

Who hasn't wanted to run up those steps like Rocky did all those years ago? I certainly have and I ticked that box today, and so did Batman. Greatest feeling today. Check out the video.

Holocaust museum

The past few weeks have been quiet with little of interest to blog about - sorry for the absence. While I have not been working, I seem to fill the days quite easily. The dogs and I are doing some great walks and they love having company through the day again. I’ve been playing the guitar a little but my shoulder/neck muscle is giving me some grief again so it makes holding the guitar a bit difficult. I am now seeing a better physio who seems to be good but time will tell I guess.

 

The good news is that we have both been eating a lot better and finally losing weight which is a miracle here in the land of upsizing, sugar and fried everything. I joined the Michelle Bridges program (Aussies will know this) but only to access her recipes. These are excellent, calorie controlled and have improved a lot over the past few years. I plan our meals and lunches for the week and enjoy cooking different things. We have both been very disciplined and focused with our food and the results are showing. We have been running a lot also as part of a speed development program and it’s helping also. So far we have each lost about 4kg which is fabulous. Clothes are starting to loosen and we feel much better for it. I confess I am desperate for a pizza or three and a coke and some Georgetown cupcakes but I will get that at some stage once I’ve reached my goal. So I recommend Michelle Bridges’ 12WBT program if you are looking of a good way to lose weight – the recipes are easy, tasty and quite filling despite me wanting to eat 2 pizzas.

I signed up for a 12 week cooking course but it got cancelled. So they have a 6 week course (one day a week) which covers a lot of things I want to do. I plan to do that starting end March and keen to learn some new skills. I made my first tiramisu last week. It was ok but it wasn’t the coffee flavour I expected. I’ve not eaten a lot of it as I thought the biscuits had nuts in them so I’m not an expert at the taste. My biscuits were nut free and I could taste the coffee but the Marsala was more overpowering. I think next time I will use Kailua as a friend suggested. Needless to say it was all eaten by my guinea pigs at work. I did enjoy a small slab and it was very hard to stop.

This week I hope to experiment by making a Georgetown chocolate cupcake recipe and a peanut butter slice. I’ve got a non-nut butter made from sunflower seeds. It tastes like peanut butter and is so yummy. So the base is made from chocolate biscuits and I’m going to crush some pretzels in there to give it crunch. The filling is a creamy nut flavoured mix and it looks amazing.

Holocaust Museum. We haven’t ventured out much lately as Deb has been working long hours and the weekends have been a chance to catch up on rest for her. We did however go to the Holocaust museum as we waited until tourist season eased. It was still busy though given cherry blossom season is here and tourists are coming.  The museum certainly needs a few visits to read everything. We spent 3 hours and it was a very large and comprehensive museum. I liked that they covered the pre-WWII years to explain how the Nazis came to power through long term poor democratic leadership and how they treated the jews, gypsies and others they perceived inferior before WWII. It was unsettling to see parallels to today’s political leaders in some countries. History shows that people will follow a strong leader regardless of their beliefs and convictions and if the ‘good’ leaders don’t rise and lead the way, then ‘bad’ people float to the top. It was all just bloody terrible to read, listen and look at the information. We all know about it, we’ve all heard about it but it is disgraceful that this persecution still occurs today around the world. It’s complicated I know but we are human beings at the end of the day. How LUCKY we are to be born in Australia or another civilised stable country. Deb has seen some of the museums in Germany and said this museum was considerably better.

 

They gave us a card on entry – it was an identification card that told the story of a real person who lived during the Holocaust, and died at Auschwitz when she was 45. It puts a personal perspective to your thinking as you wander around. The artefacts in the museum were horrific, frightening, numbing and graphic. There was a pile of shoes from people who were murdered, the smell was overpowering. This was of course only a tiny sample but to think that of the number of people who filled those shoes is horrid!! And there was a massive pile of hair. From the museum website....Before killing women, the Nazis cut off their hair. Masses of hair were packed in bags. Twenty kilos, twenty-two kilos, raw material for German factories. Seven thousand kilograms of hair, 140,000 murdered women.

 

The Fascists traded in death. They made fertilizers of human bones. They sold hair to factories in the nationalized upholstery industry. Another branch of this same industry, the bandits tore out dentures from corpses' mouths to get hold of gold teeth. All such trophies took up the space of 35 storehouses. There was a train carriage that 100 prisoners would be transported in for days at a time, in the heat or cold with no food or water. There were models of the gas chambers and burners. Just horrific. The museum is a highly attended museum and an important part of history that all generations must see. I left feeling thankful for the life I have and so hopeless for those in the world who struggle for basic life.

The museum says, that the museum is NOT an answer, it is a question. And the question always is..... what is your responsibility now that you’ve seen, now that you know? Each individual must answer that question for himself or herself.

It’s hard to follow with something after writing about such an awful part of history. However, I will continue with a positive story about Cricket. We had his DNA tested by an easy mouth swab. We were expecting Kelpie genes but to our surprise he is mixed with a Koolie and a bit of Border Collie. I’ve never heard of a Koolie but I can see the similarities now that I’ve researched a bit. He’s 62.5% Kelpie, 25% Koolie and 12.5% Border Collie. Check out the charts with his results.

 









Went to a Texas steakhouse for lunch with workmates and this signed grabbed my interest. 

Another quiet week ahead. I got a call today to help the chef at the Amb residence for a function on Wed night. I'll keep you posted in the next blog post.

Monticello and Thomas Jefferson

We visited a place called Monticello which is the home of the third President, Thomas Jefferson. It's at a town called Charlottesville (Virginia) about three hours from DC. My best friend MB gave me a tour of Monticello as a birthday gift. It was a big day out but as always, a good history lesson and interesting things to see and learn. 

But, Thomas Jefferson has not left a nice impression on me. I have felt admiration and respect for Washington, Lincoln, FDR, Kennedy and a few others but Jefferson, well he is a 'paradox' to say the least. I read a little before our visit and went in with a low opinion which was further reduced as the tour progressed.

Monticello is Italian for 'little mountain' and is the name of the home of Jefferson as it's built on a small mountain with spectacular views. He was a man of many talents - architect, farmer, mathematician, lawyer and spoke several languages. He loved books, loved reading and his library was bought as the initial collection for the Library of Congress. The guy was clearly intelligent. We learnt he was meticulous and made records on everything from the weather each day, the productivity of his farm and slaves, duplicated every letter he ever wrote which is why they have such great information on the man. The home was impressive, it was built in the over 1768-1809 on 5000 acres of land. There are 20 something rooms in the house with 3 levels above ground and cellars below ground. It was quite interesting to see the different rooms, their features and see the little inventions Jefferson had created. He had spent five years in France as a diplomat and brought back many French inspired designs to his house. We took the Behind The Scenes tour which took us up on the upper floors where the basic tour only lets visitors see the ground floor. The tour guide was excellent and very informative.  We also took a slavery tour beforehand where the guide provided an excellent tour of the remains of some of the slave quarters and workshops. She provided fascinating insight into the lives of some slaves and life under Thomas Jefferson on the plantation. 

 

Thomas Jefferson was one of the Founding Fathers and the author of the Declaration of Independence. He was a Vice President first and then President for two terms from 1801 - 1809. The Declaration of Independence was the document that the then 13 US states wrote declaring their independence from British rule back in 1776. This document was approved by Congress on 4 July 1776 thus becoming Independence Day. 

Jefferson was a strong proponent of religious freedom, equality among all men and against slavery. He said that education could improve mankind and his love of books proved his passion. The key line in the Declaration that has been used in other independence documents for countries such as India, is as follows: 

We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

The absolute paradox of Jefferson is that what he said and wrote did not reflect in his actions. He owned around 600 slaves for his entire life and treated them like slaves - they were worked like trojans, had no rights and punished by whippings and other terrible ways. He also worked the young slave children so nobody really was 'equal' despite his Declaration saying so. Somebody on the tour asked if he was a 'good' slave owner. She said there was NO such thing as a good slave owner which is entirely true. The tour shared stories of the slaves and it really showed Jefferson to be a control freak with no compassion for treating them equally. I felt he was an egotist, ruthless businessman and control freak. Everything he did was for him and the plantation first, not for the benefit of his slaves. Yes some of the slaves learned a skilled trade but this was part of Jefferson's business cunning. 

While Jefferson had six children with his wife Martha before she died after 10 years of marriage, the recent revelation is that Jefferson, later as a widower, had six children to a slave woman called Sally Hemings. While this was known as a controversy from way back in the day, recent DNA tests have proven Heming's children come from the Jefferson bloodline. It was common in the day for white men to take a slave mistress (concubine) but they were to be discreet. I did some reading and one of the shocking things is that the relationship started when he was about 45, she was 15 - falling pregnant at 16 while she was in Paris with him and his daughters for a few years. She returned to the US with him and had more children by him. These children were treated as slaves yet earned their freedom once they reached 21, but this was not as easy as it sounds. I would encourage you to read about Sally Hemings on wiki to get a sense of the story.

So overall, we both left Monticello acknowledging the achievements of Jefferson but, we just couldn't look past the hypocrisy of it all. I certainly feel like the guy is a narcissist, control freak and paedophile. I appreciate it's hard to judge today when the times were very different back then but, I just can't get past the fact that he clearly knew what was equal, fair and right yet he chose to not act upon it. We heard today that he decided that it was not the time to enforce such changes and that future generations would have to do what he had outlaid in his Declaration words. I don't buy it really and I am very disappointed to feel this way towards a former US President. He clearly influenced incredible progress and good things but he also brought about much pain and sadness and terrible behaviour that I don't think were acceptable to any reasonable human even back then.

It seemed as if history prefers to remember him for those three things on his tombstone, as Jefferson had asked. In doing so, the other aspects of his life are overlooked as if the good outweighs the bad. It's interesting to see that. However, the tour guides were very open about Jefferson's 'paradoxic' life and I would expect that in years to come there will be more information about his 'other' life and children to appear in Monticello more than they currently do.

Now, to something on a more lighter not. We passed this KFC store in a small town on the way to Monticello. What do you notice about this store? When was the last time you actually saw the wording Kentucky Fried Chicken on the shop? Years and years because it became not healthy to say 'fried' chicken. But here it is, still in Virginia. It was a blast from the past.

On the home front, I'm enjoying life as a free agent now and keeping busy with cooking and entertaining the dogs. We are both running more and following a speed development program. We ran about 9k on Saturday and increasing each week. 

A few final pics to finish with. One is some kelpie gifts Deb gave me for my birthday. Look closely amongst the sheep. And the other is a nice vege quiche I made as part of our better eating plan. 

And finally, last post I wrote about Ollie the bobcat getting out of the zoo. Well they caught Ollie bobcat. Phew, he was only free for a few days but he's back safe and sound.