Leaves - Tanner Post

Tanner took this photo from his walk to school. He noticed the leaves all blow into drifts, like snow drifts. In Seattle they turn to muck, and end up being slippery and dangerous. It has been mostly dry here, so the leaves end up in real piles, they blow around. Just something from Tanner. 

InLight 2015 - Awesome Cheap Date

A few weeks ago in mid-November Tanner and I went on an awesome date in Richmond.

There is an annual art show put on by a non profit. The show is called InLight. This year it was hosted on the grounds of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (see earlier post about Japanese Tattoo art).

Looking down from the hill behind the museum, you can kind of see the crowds. The museum stayed open late, so you can see the lights from the museum cafes. 

 Down below, right behind the museum.

The front of the museum, crowds milling around

The art show is free. It takes place in the evening, when it gets dark. All of the art uses light as its medium.

Which made it really tough to take photos. We were surprised at how many people were there! And not just hipsters, though they were out in force as well. We really enjoyed it. It got cold, but not too cold, and it was nice and clear.

This was the largest piece of art. It was built around a walkway through the grounds of the museum

This was our favorite. Tanner took a video, but we haven't posted it. This group was playing instruments. These glass bottles, the bottom pops in and out, making a twangy noise. Spotlights were trained on the instruments, so as they played them they moved the reflections around on the screen. So you could see them as they played. It was much more interesting and fun then my description sounds. 

This was a giant tube, like a pipeline, that you looked into. This is over the shoulders of two girls in front of us, you an barely see the girl on the right with the black hair. 

In the pipeline. 

 Even though we tried twice, Tanner always looks surprised in selfies! 

We liked the show. Some of the pieces really intrigued us. Some were beautiful. Pieces I would love to have in in my yard, and watch while sitting on the deck in the evening, drinking some scotch. Tanner did a good job of talking to me, so we compared what we liked, didn't like, etc.

I was disappointed that more of the exhibits weren't interactive. Also that few of the exhibits really used light as the medium, many of them used it as part of the medium, and enhanced their work with it. Few of them really used light that changed, moved, grew brighter or more faint.

We walked, it was about 45 minutes away. That way we could stop and have a drink on the way home, without worrying about driving.

Those are all hot dog options on the left hand page 

The place we stopped was by campus, called City Dogs. It is a college hang out. They had cheap beer and fried snacks. We got a pitcher of Bud Light. Tanner managed to pour a whole glass on himself. 

Tater tots with cheese and chili

Green relish that looks like jello, pickle, peppers, tomato, mustard, it was really yummy!

They had live music scheduled, which I was really dubious about. But the band was great. They were playing a variety of music in a funk, slightly psychedelic style. They played a super long and interesting version of a Steve Miller song. 

We had a really nice night. It did feel like were "back in college." It was also really inexpensive! 

It was nice that Richmond is not very big that night. We could walk everywhere. Both the art show and bar were full, but not packed. There are less opportunities for things like that than in Seattle though. There aren't as many hole in the wall, cheap restaurants. Not as many art shows. So I have to pay attention and make sure we take advantage of the ones that are happening. 

Harvest Festival

Wow, I need to get caught up! November is almost over.

This is the second part of the day we drove out to Charlottesville. We went to James Monroe's home, then to a harvest festival. I was telling my mom about how pretty it is here in the fall, it is usually sunny and beautiful. My mom said we HAD to go a cider press! So I did a little research and found this festival. It was a bit farther then I wanted to go, almost two hours from Richmond, but there is a lot to do out there. We went to Albemarle Ciderworks and Vintage Virginia Apples.

It was nice, we had fun. The festival was well organized, people were having fun. There was a really diverse crowd of white people. Some were obviously from the area, different clothes and accents. There was some farmers from nearby farms. Also more trendy students, and yuppy families from town.

Apple orchard

 The apple orchard started off as a hobby farm. But the family just keep collected more and more varieties, then selling apples and fresh pressed juice. That was not really profitable, so they started the Ciderworks.

The local Ruritans got there early, they made apple butter and Brunswick stew over an open fire 

Fires were put out by the time we got there

First time trying Brunswick stew! It was really yummy

 There were booths from local farmers and businesses, it was like a farmers market. We were trying to make good financial choices, so we didn't buy anything except stew and apple butter.

Cute little boys, totally covered in mud 

These awesome men were making baskets while we watched

 Apples! They had about seven different apples to try. They were amazing! So many different flavors. They were all such a nice texture. I hate the mealy apples that you often end up getting at the grocery store. I loved the really sweet, tart apples.

People were shopping for apples, you could get two different sized bags. There were also people getting crates of apples. Most for the season had already been picked and sold, but they still had plenty for this festival. You can tell some families come to buy apples for canning, homemade apple butter and pie filling, etc.

Classic apple press! We got a demonstration. To make the apple juice they sell they use a contemporary machine press. The kids all went up and put in apples to get pressed, it was cute. 

Fresh pressed hot apple juice! It is a mix of five different apples. It was so good. I know it is called "apple cider" but we only call real cider, you know the ones with alcohol, cider now.

Then we got to tour the ciderworks! It was a really short tour. They are a small operation. But they make amazing cider. The stuff you get at the grocery store is way too sweet. Real cider is more like wine, dry and has notes of mineral, tannin, fruits, etc. But it's not a sugar bomb.

This is the cider press, where they squeeze out the juice. Thomas was our tour guide. He was great! He gave us enough real information, plus little stories and anecdotes. 

 Just some more shots of the cider works. It is made pretty much like wine. They use a chardonnay yeast even. One thing I learned is that they don't let it ferment long enough to produce it's own CO2, they add in the CO2, like they add it into soda. They are experimenting with fermenting for CO2, but it can be tricky. Also it tends to make it much more alcoholic, in Virginia they can sell it as if it was beer, with those regulations, as long as it is below 10% alcohol. Above that and they have to sell it as wine, with a different set of regulations.

We didn't take pictures of the tasting room. We paid $5 each and tried five apple ciders. They were so good! Tanner liked the slightly sweeter, fruity ones. I liked the really dry ones. They had suggestions for pairing them with food as well. They are a bit expensive, and you can still only find them in Virginia and bits of Maryland. So we didn't buy any cider to have at home. But when we need a treat we will go buy a bottle.

After the tour we hung around to ask Thomas more questions, the tour guide and assistant cider maker. His wife is from Yakima! We told him we were from Seattle, and chatted about cider and wine from Washington. Tanner asked a few more technical questions about cider making. We asked him what else he likes to drink from Virginia. We found out the the cider master is a retired nuclear engineer. We talked about Richmond and how many hipsters there are.

Tanner has since trimmed his beard again, it gets's so long! 

It was such a nice conversation. Reminded me that we are interesting, fun people, and we can get out and make friends here. Overall it was a nice day. It is fun to explore. It cost more than we can afford, so we have to be more careful about finding cheap dates, and cheap ways to explore.

James Monroe's home Ashlawn-Highland

Hey, sorry blog! Tanner and I did touristy stuff the first Saturday in November, I am only just now posting about it.

My mom really wanted us to go to an apple pres, harvest festival kind of thing. So I found one that looked fun. It was out near Charlottesville, VA. This is west from us, in the foothills. UVa is near this town, it is pretty famous in Virginia. Monticello is nearby, it has hip restaurants, and some arts and crafts type stuff.

I knew we wouldn't spend the whole day at the festival, so I decided we should do something else. I really wanted to go to Monticello, but is so so expensive! So we went to James Monroe's house instead.

It rained on and off that whole day, but it was in the mid 60's, so we considered it nice.

Pretty view from the car, lots of winding roads, once we got off the highway

Monroe's home is called Ashlawn-Highland. When he lived there these trees did not line the drive, they were planted later. The owners called it Ashlawn, after these Ash trees. But when Monroe lived there it was called Highland.
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Our trip to Highland was really good. The property is beautiful. Part of the house in intact, from when James Monroe lived there with his family. We were not allowed to take photos inside, so no pictures. 

 It is so much smaller than I imagined. Much smaller than Monticello. Our tour guide was interesting and personable, she loves history and has taught herself so much about Highland and the Monroe family. There was lovely furniture, including a writing desk original to Monroe. A fantastic vest he wore when he worked in Paris, embroidered in Paris, silk on silk. They have a cut away so you can see how the walls were built, since part of the house is original, and has stood on that same spot for so long. 

James Monroe was more of a self made man. He was born on a small plantation, which he inherited, but he sought out an education, worked and eventually became a lawyer. His close friend Thomas Jefferson suggested he buy the property next door to his own, so Monroe then bought Highland. So I imagine he was not as wealthy as Thomas Jefferson. His family lived here for years in between his foreign postings. He was unique in that when he was a diplomat for us in London or France he would take his wife and daughters with them. 

This part of the house was built later. But stands just where the original house would have stood, there was a fire that destroyed this part of the original home. The color is documented from the family that built this extension, I guess the owner was a bit eccentric, and  chose yellow. 

The white house on the left is part of the original house from when Monroe lived in it. It was unusual at the time for being two stories, the bottoms story was built into the hill. It had the kitchen, so the heat would rise up in the winter and keep the house warm. 

The kitchen is above. The room beside it had spinning looms. There was a docent sitting and showing how to card and spin wool into thread. The slaves only got one new outfit per year, and did all the sheering, carding, spinning and weaving on site. The Monroe family got to buy fancy silks and other cloth from overseas. The only founding father to free his slaves was Washington. Monroe and his family supposedly didn't approve of slavery, and that opinion is found in his writings, but didn't see a way to succeed in their society without it. 

He also started the movement to send freed slaves to Africa, raising money for the cause. Those slaves were settled in Liberia, the capital of that country is called Monrovia after him. 

I left Tanner in charge of photos. So there are some weird gaps. We don't have a photo of the little shacks here, the house slaves quarters. This photo is above the 20th century house next door, to the beautiful views and low clouds. 

Tanner's picture does show the hilly landscape. Highland made money from crops, it was a plantation. He originally grew mostly tobacco, but then found grains like barley more profitable. He built a grist mill on the property. But he also made money selling timber, he logged the hilly woods on his property. So he also had built a saw mill on the property. He probably had around 30-40 slaves at any given time, and around 200 in his life. 

Kitchen herb garden

Over the fence is the real kitchen garden. They had just plowed something under. A lot of food was bolting. I couldn't find anything on their website. I hope they donate the food they grow. 

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Cows out in the field! 

This is the view I am looking at in the photo above. They have a lawn with a large covered patio, they host weddings. 

The statue sits at the end of the boxwood hedge garden. They sell clippings from the hedges so you can grow your own. The boxwoods are over 100 years old, so not original to when the Monroe's lived here. 

Some nice color in the parking lot. We missed "peak leaf" but it was still really pretty all over the area. 

A lot of things mentioned in tour felt like review for me. The Monroe Doctrine, colonization for freed slaves, his relationship with Thomas Jefferson. His relationship with the elite families in Paris was news to me, a friend of his daughter eventually married Napoleon's brother. 

Tanner was impressed with what he learned. He feels like a lot of normal people, himself included, don't know much about him or his presidency. But he was very influential in the history of our nation.