On most Sundays, Ashley is a junior tour guide at the Lenape Village at the Churchville Nature Center. Her knowledge of their pre-Colonial lives is vast. I specifically sought a Native American site for Ashley to visit. in order that we could compare the Lenape Culture with the Hurons.
My search yielded the Site Traditionnel Huron, located on the Huron-Wendat Reservation just outside of Quebec City.
The tour began with a native dance. It included several buildings including a long house, explanation of smoking food, a sweat lodge and a tepee with ritual masks inside of it.
We had a private tour. The guide was able to help us work through how the Lenape and Huron cultures were the same and how they were different. They were both matriarchal, and they both had clans. The languages were different. Lenapes were more nomadic, hence the structures built by the Huron were more permanent.
The tour was fine. It ended with an incredible gift shop filled with crafts made by First Nation people from all over Canada. It lacked the charm of Churchville Nature Center. I felt rushed through the tour, even though they said we could go back to any site afterwards, I still felt in the way.
Unless you have a strong love of Native American culture, I would not spend the 30 minutes driving to Wendat to visit this site. We had thought we would spend all day. However, the restaurant with lots of Native American food did not open until noon, and we were done with our tour by 11 AM. If you do decide to go, aim for later in the day in order to also feast on their delicacies.
Local friends, if you have a free Sunday afternoon between April and October, check out one of Miss Patti's tours at Churchville Nature Center. With any luck (or coordinating in advance) Ashley will be there helping Patti. The tour is only $5 and lasts at least 90 minutes. It is very interactive.
Our time in Quebec City was limited. I had hoped to visit the Museum of Civilization, but ran out of time. Also in the Old Port section of town is the charming Center of Interpretation of Place Royale, a low-budget museum about the 400-year history of Quebec City. Instead of a glossy brochure, the museum hands out a photo copy sheet with all the necessary information. Their website is not nearly a glitzy as others.
The museum has three main exhibits, plus a 3-D movie called "Facing Champlain" about Samuel de Champlain -- the man who discovered Quebec. The exhibits are hands-on. They are fun to play with, as well as educational. Fortunately (for us) everything is in English, as well as in French.
The real treat with this museum is the enormous dress-up area in the basement. There are costumes along all four walls in sizes ranging from toddlers to grown men. They also had hats and bonnets (which we skipped due to fear of lice). Our only issue was that Ashley's size did not seem to exist. They had dresses for little girls, and for teenage girls, but some were way too short and others dragged on the ground. We spied a group of teenagers hanging out in there and having a blast.
We each put on a costume. Then moved into the enormous play area. This section was designed like a house of a middle-class person -- or someone even more affluent. There was a master bedroom, eating area, play area. and large spaces in-between. For a while we had the space to ourselves (the teens had moved on to another part of the museum). We had fun taking pictures of each other. Fortunately an older couple came and took a couple of family pictures for us. The husband was deaf, and could only read lips in French. that added a small challenge for me.
After all that playing, it was time to hop in the car and head towards Montreal.
Wishing I could go to Quebec, somehow failed to translate into "what would I do if I went to Quebec?" A couple of weeks before we left I started searching websites, and asking friends for advice. After subtracting time for the drive, we were only going to be in Quebec City for two days.
I looked for something to interest each of us -- First Nation (Native American) site for Ashley, biking for Don, history for me.
The Morrin Center quickly floated the top of the list of places I wanted to visit. We were lucky in two ways. One, the Morrin Center is located down the stairs from out hotel (yes, stairs to cross streets), and two the Morrin Center started up tours on the our full-day in Quebec. A week earlier and we would not have been able to go on a tour.
Our tour guide, Ben, lead us through the Morrin Center's unique history. It started off as a military barracks (1712-1808) the the prison for the city of Quebec (1813-1868). They held the worst criminals of the day -- people who stole tea (which came from China), a horse thief, an indentured servant who ran away from his master, as well as the lesser criminals. They adhered to the most modern prison reforms of the day -- including separating inmates based on the severity of their crimes and prisoners bathed on a regular basis. Some of the criminals were hung out front off of a balcony that no longer exists. It was a pretty scary place to be sentenced. Unfortunately as the city grew, they outgrew their space.
A few years later (1862-1902), it was converted into the city's first English-language college. In 1885 they started admitting women to the program. The rooms that exist are stunning. In the far back corner of the science lab is a dark room that was donated by Mr. Eastman (of Eastman Kodak).
Today it is the only English-speaking library in Quebec City. Rather than waiting at our hotel room for our tour in English, Don and Ashley sat in the children's section of the library and read books.
This is the first collection I have ever seen that uses the Cutter System. They are quite proud of the fact that their entire fiction collected is sorted by author, and not by genre. I'd be interested to see how this kind of system could work on a much larger scale. I'm always curious as to how places organize their collections.
The tour was fascinating. I am glad it worked out so we could see the place, and have a tour in English. Don and Ashley were happy for a little bit of quiet time to sit and read. A win for everyone.
A weekend of bike tours in Montreal prompted us to go to Canada. After years of drooling over images of Quebec City, we decided to drive the extra three hours and also visit Quebec City.
Quebec was everything I heard it was -- more French than France (stop signs say ARRET instead of STOP), "Old World" charm in a relatively new city, and old walls to walk around. It was easy to pretend we were in Paris.
We stayed in the center of the Old City at the Jardin de St. Anne (Ashley cannot seem to avoid St. Anne wherever she goes we find Mary's mother haunting us). It was a quirky hotel with a spinning wheel decorating a hallway and lots of exposed stone walls. In addition to being downtown, one of its best features was that it had a dining room on the first floor where you could bring a meal and eat it at "home."
It is a wonderful city for walking, and a miserable city for driving -- which suits us perfectly. Once we parked the car, we did not need it until we left town.
It is also a very hilly city. Our first clue of how hilly it is should have been when we learned about the funicular and saw stairs and elevators linking streets together. Between the stairs and the cobblestones, it is not the most bike friendly city. I did see a lot of people out running, so it is a good place to go for hill training.
My favorite part of the city was just walking around and soaking up French. I chuckled when when I saw an "Ecoliers" bus. I rolled my eyes at phrases such as "fin de la semaine" instead of "le weekend," which the French use. I think I could have spent days just sitting on benches eavesdropping on conversations in French. In some ways, a foreign language is like riding a bicycle -- you might not use the skill for a few years, but it comes back to you.
Eating was another big treat. Lots of restaurants. We left our eating comfort zone and had crepes instead of sandwiches (so it wasn't a big stretch).
Beautiful weather also helps, and we had picture perfect days.
I love a good first person re-enactor. A good re-enactor can make you feel as if you have just traveled back in time. They make you feel as if you have met the person they are teaching you about. As a history buff, I have been enthralled by their stories. I often quiz them about their lives. I always learn something from them and feel an attachment in a way that simply reading about the "person" or watching a movie cannot do. I become engaged with their lives.
Over the years I have engaged with Stacy Roth in this manner. She has programs as part of her "History on the Hoof" business. A great way for a local organization to hire her is through a Horizon Speakers Program grant available from NJCH for such a purpose. We have seen Stacy as Molly Pitcher, and as a refined 18th centuryb lady educating us 20th century people about tea. Most recently, I saw her in overalls and a red bandanna as "Rosie the Riveter" in hyer "Soldiers without Guns: Women Defense Workers in WWII" program.
Technically, this was my second time seeing her as Rosie. The first time was at Peachfield a month earlier. I got lost. I got very lost. By the time I found Peachfield, Stacy was almost finished. She told me should would be reprising her role at the First Presbyterian Church of Woodbury Heights -- not far from Don's office. We all went. Ashley was asked to demonstrate the outfit welders would have worn. It was a bit big on her.
Stacy brought that era to life. All able women took jobs in order to free up the men so they could go off to fight the enemy. In "her" case she learned how to be a welder. Other women drove buses, made deliveries and took other jobs traditionally held by men. After her presentation, members of the audience were encouraged to share stories about their lives (or the lives of their parents) during WWII.
Her presentation made me think about life in America now. We've been fighting a war in Afghanistan and Iraq for over a decade. Few Americans are making enormous sacrifices. Many are making no real sacrifices. Back in the 1940s, scrap metal was collected to make weapons. People made do with what they had. They grew Victory Gardens. The war was huge news. Everyone did their part for the good of the country. Today most of us don't have that same connection. Personally I know one person who was killed in action (David Weigle) -- the son of our former pastor. I know of a few others who have or who are serving. Most days pass without my giving that part of the globe a moment's thought. I think that is true for most (not all, of course) of the people I know.
It is a different time.
We still need to support our soldiers, our vets and their families. They have many needs.
I do not wish enormous sacrifices on our part, nor did I start writing this planning to turn it into a political statement.
Thank a soldier, a vet, or their family today and every day.
Whoosh went the past couple of months. Last I wrote it was May 8th and all of a sudden it is almost the 4th of July.
Life has been crazy busy. Lots of fun. Some work. And more fun.
May is always busy in our house. May 15th Don and I celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary. May 17th Ashley turned 10. May automatically turns into celebration month around here.
Ashley celebrated double-digits with lots of sweets -- including my baking the Pillsbury recipe for Scotch Bars for her class, and brownies for sewing. This is more baking than I do most of the rest of the year.
On her birthday we had a picnic with food from Tiger Noodle in Princeton, and walked down the street to Purple Cow for dessert from our local ice cream parlor.
From the time Ashley was a baby until she was 8, each month I took a picture of her with "the bear" on this chair. Someday I'll scan the other pictures, but for now this will do.
There were other parties, including a family BBQ. It was a beautiful day, and not just because of the weather.
After May comes June.
We spent a few days up North -- three days in Quebec City and two more in Montreal. I'll write more about that trip in a separate blog entry.
June is the traditional end of the school year. As official class photographer, that meant chaperoning the class trip (to Jenkinson's Aquarium and the beach), taking pictures at the class party, putting together an album of pictures for the teacher, and juggling the odd end of school year calendar.
My freelance work with Patch was slow the first few months of the year. In its place, I started volunteering again in the PDS Lower School Library. That was a lot of fun. Too bad I can't convince them to pay me. They did, however, pay me to play with the Junior Kindergarten kids for a week as a substitute teacher. I smiled the whole week.
I also started serving on the Sustainable Lawrence committee -- think of it as a Roots and Shoots club for grown-ups. At our last meeting (I hate meetings, but these are fun) we discussed how we can join the bandwagon of states banning single-use plastic bags and implement a similar ban in Lawrenceville. The other big topic was what I think of as "Composting for Dummies" -- we have trash pick up solely for food waste, and yard clippings, which will then be turned into bio-fuel. It is a win-win as the fees for picking up food waste are a lot less (about a sixth of the fee) as picking up regular trash. This is a committee I support and feel excited about when I talk to people in town.
This month Patch has asked me to write a bunch of stories, and take a bunch of pictures. I interviewed Girl Scouts about the 100th anniversary of scouting (http://lawrenceville.patch.com/articles/troops-from-let-lawrence-ewing-trenton-celebrate-the-100th-anniversary-of-girl-scouts), local award-winning "Mustard Man" (http://lawrenceville.patch.com/articles/local-man-is-the-2012-grand-champion-at-the-world-wide-mustard-competition), and the Miss Amy concert (http://lawrenceville.patch.com/articles/miss-amy-rocks-kids-in-the-park#photo-10351149). The biggest coup, though, was when I took pictures of Lawrence High School's graduation from the floor of the Sun National Center (http://lawrenceville.patch.com/articles/photo-gallery-2012-lawrence-high-school-graduation#photo-10388619). The school liked it so much they gave me a by-line on the LTPS.org website.
Thanks to a friend from church, I recently received my first non-Patch freelance assignment. I've been asked to write a story for Chamber of Commerce publications in North Jersey. I am hoping this will lead to more work.
Ashley is now home for the summer. She wrapped up a week of Vacation Bible School at the Nassau Presbyterian Church. Next week (4th of July) we'll spend it together. I'm glad the work I do gives me the flexibility to spend time with Ashley as she grows up. Yes, the past two months have gone by in a giant WHOOSH, but so have the past 10 years. They are only little once.
The tour began with a native dance. It included several buildings including a long house, explanation of smoking food, a sweat lodge and a tepee with ritual masks inside of it. 
