Magnus to Mass., with Jamestown Jaunt, Day 21

Tuesday August 26

Today I found the coolest thing! But first—

Ed and I walked Molly down to the canoe launch and this time, I got a chance to look at it carefully. It’s a rather long walk down from the parking area. If you had a kayak on wheels, like Bob’s, it would be excellent. For two people carrying a full-sized canoe, it would be easy going down but a bad return trip. Still nice, and the actual “chute” is designed for a disabled person to use. Which is cool.

The launch is into an estuary—a shallow place of brackish water that changes salinity with the tides. A very productive area that provides an excellent migration stop-over for those birds that migrate along the coast. Serene and beautiful…and a good bit stinky.   Oh well, it’s supposed to be.

 

After that we headed back to Jamestowne to take in the glass blowers. Apparently glassmaking was a short-lived enterprise at the settlement. I suspect they quit because no one had any money with which to purchase the expensive glassware., or else because all the skilled glass blowers died out in the starving winter.

Then we went over to Jamestown Settlement, a recreation of the original settlement with costumed workers manning the various stations.  There were very few visitors (first week of school) and so we could have had the demonstrator people pretty all to our ourselves--except that we weren’t feeling all that curious and didn’t have too many questions. There was a huge museum, too, but we didn’t stop in it.  We just used it as an air-conditioned route out to the outdoor exhibits. 

The ship reproductions were interesting to me, but they came before the time period I was familiar with. I’d read all of the books comprising the Hornblower Saga--my field of knowledge leans more toward big sailing ships of the 1750’s or later.  So these weren’t as riveting as they might have been.

 

 

Huts occupied by the natives 

 

 

 

 

By the time we’d had enough, it was after 1 pm and I was eager to return to my dog. So back we went for Molly’s big walk of the day. It was still very hot in the sunshine, so Molly and I took a trail that wound around a meadow and then went through the big trees near the river. It was a lovely, lovely trail. Every thing about this park so far is lovely. (hold that thought)

 Near the end of the trail, where it joined back into the canoe launch road, we passed this huge tulip polar enclosed in a wooden fence. There were no signs or information, but it was totally spooky.

Big tulip poplar

And then we went back, stopping to look at the signs in the soybean field in the middle of the park—Warning! Pesticides!  But how is that sensible? The park has a big pollinator garden, several in fact, but I didn’t see hardly any pollinators. Were those soybeans the kind they spray with the pesticide that makes the whole plant poisonous, so that any caterpillar that eats it will die instantly? If so, what’s the point of having a pollinator garden?

Human beings are so stupid. When will we ever learn?

We did Bubba’s Shrimp Shack again for dinner, this time as carry out. Again very yummy.