Wine Rack Store Blog

I have always wanted to see the document our country was founded on, the Constitution. This document resides in the National Archives in Washington DC. We were able to view this as well as some other very important documents while visiting DC.

We rode the train into the city and headed to the National Archives building first so we wouldn’t get caught in a line later. There was a museum within the building explaining the role and history of the National Archives. There were also examples of what was contained within their collections. One of these items on display was the Charles Ingalls’ homesteading papers. He was the father of the famous Laura Ingalls. I read all her books when I was young so I was really excited to see this.

It seems like they have absolutely everything in the archives. I don’t recall see anything wine or wine rack related though.

Our last stop in the building was the hall that contained the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and the Bill of Rights. It was really neat to be able to be close to and read something you have heard about your whole life. It was very dark in there for document preservation purposes. I was very surprised to see how the documents were faded. You could barely read them.

Labels: History, traveling, wine rack, wine rack store

In attempt to learn some more about American history, we took a trip to Yorktown. The last major battle in the American Revolutionary War took place there. We first toured the battlefield and than walked around the town where original buildings still stood. We walked through the cemetery. There we found as gravestone that was planted there in 1674. That is the oldest gravestone I have ever seen in America. You never see anything that old back home in Washington State.

Next we went to the neighboring museum. It was pretty well done but it didn’t draw me in like the one at Jamestown. They also had a recreated war camp and village. They didn’t have any recreated wine racks in any of the tents. We did get to see them shoot blanks out of a mortar and cannon. It was really loud. Those soldiers must have been deaf when they returned home.

Labels: History, wine rack, wine rack store, Yorktown

When you think of the ships that the original English colonists traveled to America on you imagine they are pretty big right? Wrong. This weekend we were able to tour and go into 3 different recreated ships. They were incredibly small. I can’t believe they could stuff the amount of people they did on there. I also can’t imagine weathering a big storm in one of those. It’s amazing they even made it all the way here at all.

The inner rooms of the ships were very small. I couldn’t even stand up with out hitting my head. They probably had casks of wine because there definitely was no room for a full size wine rack. We were told that the holds were so full you had to basically crawl around on top of all the supplies. You’d also have to be very comfortable with your fellow riders because the sleeping areas were very small and you had very little space to share.

If I was alive at the time I don’t think they could ever convince me to get on a ship like that for a 4 month ride.

Labels: History, virginia, wine rack, wine rack store

This weekend we explored the Jamestown Settlement museum in nearby Williamsburg. Here in Virginia Beach we saw where the colonists landed initially so we wanted to complete the story by seeing their final landing place. The museum was incredibly well done. Probably one of the best I have ever been too. That had many informative displays and items from that time.

It traced the histories of the English, Africans, and American Indians affected by these colonies. You were able to see how all the different groups lived, worked, and suffered.

England wanted the colonies to be prosperous and export materials. The most lucrative exports were tobacco and furs. The colonists also tried to grow grapes to make wine. Although they were able to fill up many wine racks because it wasn’t as successful as the tobacco industry.

It was a bit pricy but I would suggest this museum to anyone looking to learn about the roots of American history.

Labels: History, virginia, wine rack, wine rack store

I think we visited more stuff in Washington DC than most tourists do. After touring the Lincoln Memorial and war memorials, we set our sights on the Capitol building. Our goal for the day was to see the outdoor memorials and than come back for the Smithsonian museums on another weekend. We couldn’t resist going into a few of them though.

The first one we went into was the Aero and Space Museum. I had a little bit of interest in it but most of the displays were only interesting to my boyfriend. We saw displays about the history of astronomy and space exploration. They had some of the original space suits used on the moon. They also had recreations of space vehicles and satellites.

The other museum I wanted to see was the Natural History Museum. My goal was to see the dinosaurs and the Hope diamond. The building was incredibly crowded. It was hard to navigate around the people and strollers. I did briefly get to enjoy the T-Rex skeleton. It was very big, much bigger than any wine rack I could ever dream of owning.

The Hope diamond was spectacular but smaller than I imagined. It was hard to see because there was a crowd 6 people deep around it. Good thing I am tall so I could see over everyone. We left after that. I wanted to see the other exhibits but the crowds were to frustrating to deal with.

Labels: History, Washington DC, wine rack, wine rack store

We braved inclement weather this weekend and ventured to Seattle. We armed ourselves with umbrellas and heavy coats because the weather forecast called for snow. Luckily we were only bombarded with a few flakes early in the day.

Our reason for visiting Seattle was to see the “Lucy” exhibit at the Pacific Science Center. It was the final weekend of the exhibit. If you haven’t heard, Lucy is a 3.2 million year old fossil of a female Australopithecus afarensis. This fossil was found in the 1970’s in Ethiopia and provides further evidence that walking upright preceded larger brain size in human evolution. I still can’t wrap my mind around the 3.2 million year part. Think of how many wine racks you could fill with 3.2 million vintages of wine.

The exhibit was beautifully done. Before you reached the fossil, you learned about the history and cultural origins of Ethiopia. There were also many other ancient items on display from the country. You then had the opportunity to learn about archeology and how it played into the knowledge of the evolution of human beings.

This exhibit really caught some flak from critics because of the expensive and possibility of damaging the fossil. I thoroughly enjoyed it and am glad I saw it because it is a once in a life time sight because usually this fossil is locked up in a vault in Africa.

Labels: History, seattle, wine rack, wine rack store