Spring! Is there anything more wonderful (as long as you ignore the fact that sweltering humidity is beginning its seasonal slow, menacing weather coup), I ask? If I were Mr. Rogers I would answer myself by saying, no, indeed there is not, it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood; now would you be my neighbor? It makes me think of Emerson's essay Nature, "To the attentive eye, each moment of the year has its own beauty, and in the same field, it beholds, every hour, a picture which was never seen before, and which shall never be seen again." The weather has been particularly beautiful these past couple of days. "Balmy" is the word that comes to mind, "...Beautiful. Gorgeous. Wish you were here." Which would have been perfect to put on a postcard from Williamsburg, Virginia, from where I just returned. Every spring (and fall, winter, and ocassionally summer) I come down with a rather severe case of wanderlust. The siren call of the open road begins to sound as good as Benny Goodman or Louis Armstrong. Which is why last Wednesday I made the spontaneous (well, spontaneous for me) decision to take a little jaunt up to Virginia for the weekend. Never having been to Williamsburg and remembering very little from my last Jamestown visit, it seemed the ideal place. So, 3:30 a.m. Friday morning I packed my travel-size contact solution and camera bag and by the time the sun arose had passed the Virginia state line. My dad was kind/crazy enough to agree to join me, so we spent a few hours blasting "House of the Rising Sun," some James Taylor, Gordon Lightfoot, and the Boxtops. The first stop was Williamsburg, which was very charming in its spring pastels. Next was Jamestown. It was incredibly interesting; we spent quite a bit of time wandering around on the ships in the harbor. At first I thought maybe I could understand why young boys would run away to sea in the old days. Ships are extremely beautiful things. The neatness and compactness has a certain charm. It made me think of Walt Whitman's poem In Cabin'd Ships at Sea: "Here our thoughts, voyagers' thoughts./Here not the land, firm land, alone appears, may then by them be said,/The sky o'earches here, we feel the undulating deck beneath our feet,/We feel the long pulsation, ebb and flow of endless motion,/ The tones of unseen mystery, the vague and vast suggestions of the briny world, the liquid-flowing syllables,/The perfume, the faint creaking of the cordage, the melancholy rhythm,/The boundleess vista and the horizon far and dim are all here,/And this is ocean's poem." It was all very intoxicating, I'll admit. I can see how people were drawn in by the sense of adventure and excitement, the promise of something new and wonderful, barring death at sea, sinking ships, various illnesses, starvation, dehydration and mutiny. I was converted....and then I went belowdeck. Being crammed into a four foot square space with nearly fifty other Nike-promoting tourists I went from "Captain Ron" to "Mutiny on the Bounty" in about four seconds flat. That's got to be some kind of record. However, ships do seem to be very photogenic little things, so here are a few from Jamestown and Williamsburg. Beautiful. Gorgeous. Wish you were there.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Spring! Is there anything more wonderful (as long as you ignore the fact that sweltering humidity is beginning its seasonal slow, menacing weather coup), I ask? If I were Mr. Rogers I would answer myself by saying, no, indeed there is not, it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood; now would you be my neighbor? It makes me think of Emerson's essay Nature, "To the attentive eye, each moment of the year has its own beauty, and in the same field, it beholds, every hour, a picture which was never seen before, and which shall never be seen again." The weather has been particularly beautiful these past couple of days. "Balmy" is the word that comes to mind, "...Beautiful. Gorgeous. Wish you were here." Which would have been perfect to put on a postcard from Williamsburg, Virginia, from where I just returned. Every spring (and fall, winter, and ocassionally summer) I come down with a rather severe case of wanderlust. The siren call of the open road begins to sound as good as Benny Goodman or Louis Armstrong. Which is why last Wednesday I made the spontaneous (well, spontaneous for me) decision to take a little jaunt up to Virginia for the weekend. Never having been to Williamsburg and remembering very little from my last Jamestown visit, it seemed the ideal place. So, 3:30 a.m. Friday morning I packed my travel-size contact solution and camera bag and by the time the sun arose had passed the Virginia state line. My dad was kind/crazy enough to agree to join me, so we spent a few hours blasting "House of the Rising Sun," some James Taylor, Gordon Lightfoot, and the Boxtops. The first stop was Williamsburg, which was very charming in its spring pastels. Next was Jamestown. It was incredibly interesting; we spent quite a bit of time wandering around on the ships in the harbor. At first I thought maybe I could understand why young boys would run away to sea in the old days. Ships are extremely beautiful things. The neatness and compactness has a certain charm. It made me think of Walt Whitman's poem In Cabin'd Ships at Sea: "Here our thoughts, voyagers' thoughts./Here not the land, firm land, alone appears, may then by them be said,/The sky o'earches here, we feel the undulating deck beneath our feet,/We feel the long pulsation, ebb and flow of endless motion,/ The tones of unseen mystery, the vague and vast suggestions of the briny world, the liquid-flowing syllables,/The perfume, the faint creaking of the cordage, the melancholy rhythm,/The boundleess vista and the horizon far and dim are all here,/And this is ocean's poem." It was all very intoxicating, I'll admit. I can see how people were drawn in by the sense of adventure and excitement, the promise of something new and wonderful, barring death at sea, sinking ships, various illnesses, starvation, dehydration and mutiny. I was converted....and then I went belowdeck. Being crammed into a four foot square space with nearly fifty other Nike-promoting tourists I went from "Captain Ron" to "Mutiny on the Bounty" in about four seconds flat. That's got to be some kind of record. However, ships do seem to be very photogenic little things, so here are a few from Jamestown and Williamsburg. Beautiful. Gorgeous. Wish you were there.
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Wow - how right you are - beautiful, gorgeous, wish I was there. You know you're going to have to go back with your crazy mama don't you. There's no way I can pick out a favorite. I LOVE these. All of 'em. Love the ship pictures (was Johnny Depp anywhere in sight?).
ReplyDeletegreat pictures! I'm sorry I wasn't able to come (and that I never got back to you)
ReplyDeleteit looks like you had a lot of fun. the details you captured are simply gorgeous!
What wonderful pictures, and quotes, and musical references...Thanks.
ReplyDeleteGive me a ticket to an airplane, ain't got time to take a fast train,
Lonely days are gone, I'm a goin' home
My baby, she wrote me a letter...
You are funny, and fun. Why no pictures of people?
Hey, Happy Birthday - your mom's blog. I have identical twin sisters also born on this day. Much earlier but beautiful and brilliant people are born on April 19th.
ReplyDeleteP.S. They are not MY twins. That would make us triplets. Twins to each other. But you already had that figured out.
ReplyDelete