The Guns of Lexington

I've been watching a lecture video series by Dr J Rufus Fears on YouTube. It is called "The Story of Freedom". I have been learning so much and wanted to record some of that on my blog both for my own review and perhaps others would enjoy my insight, links, or even the original video.

 

The first video is titled "The Guns of Lexington" and covers some of the early events in the Revolutionary War. From my notes and put in my own words...

 

On April 19th, 1775, the British elite were stationed in Boston. A rebellion was starting and Governor Sir Thomas Gage was under orders to put down the rebellion. He was given a two-part mission: to arrest John Hancock and Samuel Adams (in Lexington) and to capture some of the weapons the colonists were stockpiling.

 

Marching under Sir Francis Smith, about 700 Red Coats sat out in the middle of the night on a 20 mile march. There were two locations where they knew weapons were being stored - Wooster and Concord. If they were going to go to Wooster, they would travel the entire way by land. But, if they were going to Concord, they would launch boats and travel part of the way by sea. Thus, the famous saying "One if by land; two if by sea." And, they went by sea... towards Concord.

 

Now, these colonsits were British subjects! But, cannons were weapons of mass destruction and there was no need to be in possession of them... except for war! As the Red Coats approached, they expected to see dark, sleeping villages. Instead, they were greeted in Lexington by 77 colonists who had been warned (becaues of spies like Paul Revere and Samuel Adams) that "the British are coming!" This was at about 4:30 in the morning, and as the 700 British soldiers faced the 77 colonists, a colonist leader (Parker) said "Stand your ground! Don't fight unless fired upon! But, if they want to have a war, let it begin here." Then, someone, no one knows who or on which side, fired "the shot heard round the world."

 

Eight colonists, British subjects, were killed! The Red Coats headed down the road towards Concord. Now, they needed to find cannons to justify the spilling of British blood! While they leave 98 British to dismantle the Old North Bridge, the rest march into Concord and search for weapons. But, they've been removed and so they can't find any!

 

By noon, hundreds of minutemen from nearby towns arrive. They start shooting at and killing the British soldiers who begin a retreat to Boston. Even though the Red Coats receive backups near Lexington, the colonists continue to follow them all the way to Boston... shooting and killing... They are now a force about 16,000 colonists strong.

 

When the Red Coats reach Boston, the minutemen surround them and put them under siege. A British General, William Howe, decides he needs to get some cannons on top of some of the hills in Boston so he can fire down on the colonists surrounding the city. But, during the night, the colonists take Bunker Hill and Breeds Hill.

The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker's Hill, June 17,1775 by John Trumbull at Boston Museum of Fine Arts(from Wikipedia)

 

Twenty two hundred Red Coats march up the hill in rows of three. Knowing the colonists weapons will shoot farther than the Red Coats, Prescott (a colonist) says "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes!" The British in their formations are heavily attacked. They make several charges and eventually take off their heavy red coats. They have some cannons, but they have the wrong sized cannonballs! Eventually, though, the colonists run out of ammunition. Half of the British soldiers are dead or wounded.

 

Meanwhile, the Continental Congress is meeting in Philadelphia. They have decided that they are at war and need troops and a leader. On July 1, 1775, General George Washington takes command of the troops under an elm tree in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Now, the colonists are at war with the British.

 

 

 

Other resources:

• A poem by Emerson (1803-1882) coins the phrase "the shot heard round the world" and is sung at the Concord Monument on July 4, 1837
• "America: The Story of US" has a 12 minute clip about Lexington & Concord
• Liberty's Kids has an episode called "The Shot Heard Round the World"
• Johnny Tremain, both the book (which I haven't read) and the movie (which I watched last week on Amazon Instant Video) are about these events & more
• Visit the Paul Revere Heritage site to read Longfellow's "Midnight Ride" poem and learn about some of the myths from this poem

Learning JavaScript at Khan Academy

I have been working with Khan Academy for the past few weeks, and yesterday discovered that they also have a computer programming course! My first introduction to computers was in high school - on computers that just had black screens and green lettering. And, we learned some programming in BASIC. I've wanted to learn to do a little programming, and now I can! For free!

 

This was my first creation. There was already a green turtle on the screen. I worked on making him rainbow colored, moving him to the left of the screen, and moving his eyes, head, tail, arms & legs.

 

 

Then, I made Kirby! This was from scratch!!! Of course, it is just a bunch of ovals with coloring, but it was still an accomplishment!

 

 

Next, I made my punk dude. For this one, I manipulated a face that was already there. I moved the arms to be ears, changed the color, added a neck and shirt, and added hair! Oh, and I learned how to make a colored background... and went back and added colored background to the other images.

 

 

This guy was from scratch! I was learning about points & lines.

 

 

And, my Pac-Man. For this program, I was learning how to set up variables. So, on these dots, if I increase the size of one, they both increase! I'm having so much fun! My next lesson is to set up a program where all of the pieces are attached and move as one piece. I'm thinking of a teddy bear...



One more... Ms Pac-Man!!!

Wet & Rainy Roatan (Honduras)

When we woke up on the morning of our excursion to Roatan, an island of Honduras, we were thrilled to see the rain forest! And, both of our days in Mexico had been very flat. So, seeing the lush hills was quite a site! We were ready for our day... of ziplining & then playing with some monkeys!

After a lengthy checking in process, we headed up the hillside. And, once again, it started raining. We were sad to see the poverty that was so abundant. But, the people we passed seemed very happy.

There were different types of tours which were in line to go down the multiple ziplines. Our group was the very last one. And, by now, it was raining pretty hard. Alex and others were getting quite cold. There were more than 100 people in front of us as we waited to start our journey down. But, in the end, the cold & rain got too much for us and we asked for a bus back to the starting point.

That was quite a disappointment! The day before was supposed to be our first zipline experience, and we hadn't even made it to our port. And now, we missed our second chance! We were dropped off under a large pavillion and started to dry off and warm up.

At first we were just going to go back to the ship. But, the rain quit for awhile and then we just had sprinkles off and on. So, we decided to go and see the monkeys!

We were at a place called Gumbalimba Park. I didn't realize we would go on a tour and see a lot more than monkeys! We walked through the rain forest and saw hummingbirds, and waterfalls, & then arrived at the Insectarium. This little cave had a nice assortment of insect displays and insect facts.

Then we went into another cave where there were murals on the walls telling the history of Roatan. And, in the middle, was this relief map of the island. You can see Gumbalimba Park (in yellow) on the far west of the map. And, on the south side, a little to the right of the middle of this photo, you can see Mahogany Bay where our ship made port. The history of the island was very interesting complete with invaders, pirates, and buried gold!

Next, we headed to a rope bridge to cross over to the monkeys. As we started across, we saw 3 iguanas! They were quite large and all lying on branches sunning, I guess. I was thrilled to see them!

And, we could hear... and then SEE... scarlet macaws flying through the sky!

Time to cross Pirate Bridge... 5 people at a time!

I walked with one hand on the rope and the other taking photos. Near the end of the bridge the planks were farther apart and I'm glad I noticed before I had a problem!

On the other side of the bridge are the macaws. There are scarlet macaws and military macaws (which are green with blue tails). A man was holding this scarlet macaw and would let you take photos with it on your shoulder or on your arm.

My turn!

 We were warned that, with the rain, the monkeys might not come out. But, after we were there 5-10 minutes, someone saw a monkey coming through the trees! We were told she was the alpha monkey and that all others would follow her. (I think there were about 13 in the group.) And, the alpha had a baby!!! Can you see it's little hand?!?

 With a little encouragement, the monkeys would jump on our shoulders... or heads! The mommy with her baby jumped on me!!! It was such a neat feeling!!!

 And then the mommy was coaxed onto Alex's shoulder with a little drink.

 We were told not to bring anything, or even wear glasses, because the monkeys would steal things and take them up to the trees to play with. As you can see, this little monkey stole someones Gatorade. I'm sure it isn't the best thing for a monkey to drink, but he sure did look funny! He would drink some - and spill a lot! And, then he'd wipe his face on the tree. When he was done, he just dropped the bottle down on the forest floor!

 We left down a different path and I got a photo of the Pirate Bridge we'd crossed earlier.

 Alex and her friends in our beautiful yellow raincoats as we walked back to the pavillion.
It's time to leave the RAIN FOREST!

Cruisin' Mexico

Because of the propulsion issue, we ended up making two stops in Mexico.
 

A dolphin experience we watched in Costa Maya, not Cozumel where we did ours.

When I get our disposable camera developed, I'll tell you more about our first stop in Mexico: Cozumel. We started with a dolphin experience where, besides the 'normal' dolphin encounter, you also got a "pull" (hanging on to her fins) and a "push" (using a boogie board and her pushing on your feet... what a thrilling ride!) After the dolphins, it started raining really hard and getting cooler. We did walk around some Mayan sculptures, visit a Mayan hut where we sampled fresh tortillas, and watch our friends come in on their glass bottom kayak adventure. We also had a nice Mexican buffet. But, we ended the day early because of the rain and cold.

Although the cruise line put together some last minute excursions, we decided to not take any in our second port of Costa Maya. Instead, we went with our new friends - Jill and her college-age daughter, Natalie. We first visited the high-pressure shops and Alex bought some sunglasses which she needed. Then we climbed this tower. There wasn't a lot to see, but we could see our ship!

Natalie went back to the ship while Alex & Jill hung out in beach chairs and I visited the tide pools that were right there at our port! I LOVE tide pools and enjoyed exploring these. I found several chitons which are mollusks with hard plates. They are about 2 inches long.

Dozens of shells - probably hermit crabs?

A little bitty sea urchin!!! I believe this is my first in a tide pool. It was about the size of a marble!

This is what I believe is a piece of coral. It was about the size of my hand.

Gorgeous! And so fragile looking! It reminds me of a leaf skeleton.

And, a little striped fish that got caught in the tide pool.

A self-portrait by the tide pools. You can see our ship in the background!

Alex & Jill relaxing by the ocean.

After this, Jill headed back to the ship and Alex and I found two hammocks! We had the BEST time hanging out in these! I could have stayed for HOURS, but we hadn't put on sunscreen because we thought we'd just be shopping for awhile.

Just relaxing! (Alex loves to take angled photos... they do turn out neat!)

And, a zoomed-in view of Costa Maya from our balcony. We took that little red trolley back. You can see the flag that I took a photo of, the yellow tower (behind the orange building) that we climbed, the shops (brownish triangular roofs) where we shopped, the beach (in front of umbrellas) where I looked at tide pools, and right behind the umbrellas were the hammocks where we laid out.

We Were "Stranded in the Caribbean"

Yes, we traveled on one of the Carnival ships that experienced difficulties recently. For Spring Break, we flew to Tampa, Florida to set sell on the Carnival Legend cruise. Our 7-day cruise was to visit four places: Cozumel (Mexico); Belize; Roatan (Honduras); and Grand Cayman. However, after our first stop at Cozumel, the ship just sat there...

We ended up leaving 1.5 hours later and didn't think too much of it. But, the next morning, we learned we were having "propulsion issues" and our ship was not able to go at top speed. So, instead of reaching Belize for our 2nd day on shore, we stopped for a second day in Mexico - this time in Costa Maya which is about 120 miles south of Cozumel.

After Costa Maya, we did make it to Roatan, Honduras for our 3rd day of excursions. Later that day, we were told they were unsure if we'd make it to Grand Cayman or Belize for the 4th day on shore. But, then, we got the disappointing news that we wouldn't be stopping anywhere - we were headed back to Tampa.

Carnival did compensate us for our messed up travels. We received $100 per person to spend onboard or take home. And, we received vouchers for 1/2 off our next cruise! There are guidelines, though... like it has to be 7 days or less and take place in the next 2 years.

Will we travel with them again? Maybe. Alex is eager to go on another one next year with some of her new friends. But, for now, I think we'll wait and see what happens on future Carnival cruises. I hope they get all of their problems fixed quickly!

Images of a Baltic Sea Fortress

While visiting Finland, we took a ferry tour out to the island sea fortress of Suomenlinna, "fortress of Finland." This fortress was originally built by Sweden starting in 1748. In 1808, the fortress was surrendered to Russia during the "War of Finland." And, after Finland's declaration of independence in 1917, Suomenlinna was officially a part of Finland starting in May 1918.

 

Part of the island fortress.

 

A seagull that flew alongside us during our ferry ride.

This is Neck, a Nordic water spirit. According to tradition, he lived in the sea and parents used him to scare children to keep away from the water. He could also attrack people with his magic songs. He is now a 'guide' at a museum on the island fortress.

This poster is showing the channel of Sarkaa during the Crimean War. An underwater obstruction was built here to keep ships from passing through the channel.

The fortress island has museums, shops, boat docks and more!

In this building, they were building a boat!!!

And I loved this paint-splattered floor.

There were LOTS of baby geese! Some of them as big as the mamas & papas!

And, I loved this old building...

And this one, too.