Today is Saturday … usually on Saturdays, we go to morning Mass and then spend the rest of the day doing chores around the house. If it’s a nice day, we do outside chores. Today was forecast to be gorgeous (80s), sunny and lovely. We opted instead to ignore the chores … and play hooky!
You see, we had heard about the first annual Traditional Trades Fair at Stratford Hall …. we google-mapped the location and found that it was about 90 min from our house, east onto the Potomac. Since dh and I are both teachers, we could get the educator’s discount (and dh could earn CEU’s), of $5.00 per adult. The kids would be free.
Sounded good to us!
After morning Mass, we headed east and came to the most beautiful spot on the Potomac, Robert E. Lee’s birthplace (as well as the birthplace of two of the signers of the Declaration of Independence) …Stratford Hall
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- Stratford Hall is just SE of George Washington’s Birthplace
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- Four of the kids (well, ok, Kotch is actually an “adult”) in front of the Great House’s Kitchen
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- Brickmaker showing us how bricks are fired.
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- Historic needlecrafters
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- Kit trying out a hand-sewn muff while a seamstress apprentice hand-sews millions of pleats
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- Seamstresses making a gown for “Mrs. Lee”
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- Grist mill running and grinding the corn meal we bought
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- Grist Mill flowing and running the grindstone
We got to tour the house, meet all kinds of cool, period-crafters, and just generally enjoy this lovely spot. As we were about to leave, we decided to follow the road down to the beach and gristmill … and the kids waded in the Potomac, searching for shark’s teeth (which they found) and seeing how an early 19th century grist mill works.
Very cool day … even if the chores are left undone tonight!
So, when was the last time y’all played hooky with your kids?
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