Thursday August 31, 2006 7:00 am Williamsburg, Virginia. Day 16 of our trip to Virginia.

A. Morning Musings

7:00 am As expected, we spent much of yesterday at the Colonial Williamsburg site. The mornig began with a 1-hour tour of the "Palace" gardens by Thomas Jefferson. It was a genuine delight. The actor portraying Jefferson was spectacular and the entire hour just flew by. The script was a superb blend of history and botany. We then walked through the town and ended up at one end of main street where we saw a re-enactment of the reading of the American Declaration of Independence. This was followed by a series of skits along the street that portrayed different aspects of how the war was progressing and how it was affecting the people of Williamsburg. We came back to the house for lunch and a little bit of genealogy work. Then it began to rain fairly steadily so we abandoned plans to return to the site and also realized that the evening outdoor performance would likely be cancelled due to the weather.

For me, this turned out to be okay as Bob drove me to the William & Mary bookstore. It is a grand bookstore and I ended up buying a number of books. There was a tropical storm in Florida yesterday that is now coming north and heavy rain is forecast for this area for the next few days. Our original idea was to spend much of today back at Colonial Williamsburg, but we make some adjustments as we check the weather and the forecast for today. It is not raining at the moment.

B. Plan

Visit to Colonial Williamsburg.

C. Actual/Notes

3:00 PM Phyllis and I are back from our tour of Colonial Williamsburg. There has been a light rain all morning but it didn't interfere with the walk. We watched the movie on the Making of a Patriot and then had a tour of the Governor's palace. Following that we wandered through the town taking photos of the buildings and fences and then stopped for a lunch in one of the nearby restaurants. I managed to stop into the William & Mary for a quick scan of the philosophy section (4 more books) and then another quick stop at the Visitor Center (2 more books). We now consider our trip to the east coast to be over, although we plan to go out this evening for dinner at a local restaurant. Then tomorrow morning we head north toward Canada and Windsor. However we are currently under a hurricane watch and there is a forecast for heavy rain and wind so we will see how this all unfolds.

Here are the additions to my book collection:

• Wittgenstein Flies a Kite (2006) Sussan G. Sterrett.
  • This book looks at parallels between models of flight and models of language. Should be interesting, as my interest is in models of all kinds.
• The Confessions and Correspondence, Including the Letters to Malesherbes by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1995).
  • Once again, this should be a nice complement to my reading of "Citizens".
• The Columbia History of Western Philosophy (1999) Richard H. Popkin (Ed.)
  • I have been looking for a good summary of western philosphy that I could refer to quickly. This looks like it should meet my needs. It is a large book with over 800 pages but the price was right at $30..
• Daniel C. Dennet (2006) Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon.
  • I have noticed this book on shelves for a few months and have finally succumbed to the temptation.
• The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin (2004) Gordon S. Wood.
  • I have been reading excerpts of this book while here and have decided to buy it and another book by the same author.
• Revolutionary Characters (2006) Gordon S. Wood

D. Reflection