Virginia with Family

I'm not very close to my dad's side of the family. Not like I'd like to be. I was when I was very little, but not since then. My sisters and I always spent more time with my mom's family while we were growin up. Tim and I decided to go on a trip last weekend with some of my dad's family. We went to Virginia to spend time together and look a little deeper into our family's history. Tim and I came home a day earlier than the rest of the family because Tim had to work Monday.

My dad's family comes from several different places in the world and the American indian is just one of those blood lines. My cousin, Dan, is very much into geneology and history, especially involving our family. He shares this interest with my dad and to some degree with me. I'm interested, but not enough to go read a bunch of stuff that makes my eyes cross trying to figure it all out...haha! Anyway, one of the indian tribes (or whatever you call them) we are related to is called the Monacan Indians http://www.monacannation.com/ . Saturday, I went to my very first indian pow wow. There were booths full of indian crafts you could buy and there were booths with food to eat. I tried buffalo meat for the first time and was pretty excited about it.

I saw people that had all different skin colors and hair colors that belong to the Monacan indian tribe like me and my family. It was very interesting and very different to find a part of myself that I hadn't seen with my own eyes. I am not a Monacan indian but I come from them, as well as the Cherokee indians. I'll share pictures of the pow wow at the end of the post.

Monday, my family was suppose to go to a building and look up some family stuff for the geneology that Dan does and then go to see Walton's mountain from the old t.v. show. I'm very sorry Tim and I missed it. I'm sure they'll share pictures with me. My dad's been growing his hair out simply because he can now. All of his life, he's been involved in some kind of service or work that required him to have very short hair. My dad was a marine and he just retired from working as a state prison guard. For years, dad has dreamed of having long hair "like his ancestors" and now he's finally getting it. The whole weekend, we called dad "grandpa Walton" because the hair looked similar to "grandpa's". I hope someone took dad's picture on Walton's mountain. Too bad he didn't have a pair of bibs to put on for the picture.

We also took a scenic drive through the Blue Ridge Parkway and took some pictures. My dad has always reminded me of George Washington from the side. Now, with his hair growing longer, he really reminds me of him. My cousin, Angie, decided that dad's hair was just getting out of control and put it in a ponytail while we were taking pictures of the view. With that little ponytail, I just had to take a side profile picture. Dan and Angie also saw "George" in dad and took a picture as well. There are some other really funny pictures that were taken up there and I'll share them with you later if I get "the ok" from everyone. We laughed so hard and had a wonderful time together.

We all went to Monticello together and took some beautiful pictures there. It was very strange trying to grasp the idea that I was standing in the home of the 3rd president. The THIRD president! That's an old house! I learned alot about this president that caused me to fall in love with him. The tour guide talked about his love of his grandchildren and how he would read to them, etc. We were not allowed to take pictures inside the house so I will only be able to share with you the pictures of the gardens.

We went to see where "Stonewall Jackson" was buried because Dan, as well as my dad, is fascinated with old graveyards. It was a beautiful graveyard. I found a gravestone for an "unknown soldier" and it bothered me a great deal. I took a picture of it planning to blog about it.

The "unknown soldier" graves have always bothered me. There are friends and family who never got to see their favorite soldier because he/she was killed and they were unidentifiable. It bothers me that someone could die without proper recognition so I could live today with more recognition than I deserve.

This is a picture of my dad looking at the Blue Ridge Mountains. Tim took this picture of him because dad was pretending he was an explorer. :) That's my dad! I did some cropping and changed it to black and white because I thought it looked cool that way.

This is the "unknown soldier" who died fighting for what he believed in. I want to give honor to that kind of life. I wonder if this guy's name is written in God's book of life?

This is my favorite picture of one of the indians dancing. I was drawn to the bright colors some of the indians had on. Others had darker colors and everyone just looked fantastic! It was alot of fun.

We were told that this is the oldest living Golden Eagle in the country. I wish it would have turned around so I could get it's picture from the front. It was beautiful!

This is the indians lining up to start dancing around the circle. There was an American flag, a POW MIA flag and I believe the other flag was the indian flag. I can't remember for sure. Anyway, they gave honor to anyone who had fought in any war or gave their time in the service both past and present. It was very nice. Dad and Dan both got to walk around the circle with the other indians and service men and women at one point. No one was expected to dance but could if they wanted to. Dad and Dan did not. ;)

By the way, the chief of the Monacan tribe is the guy in the middle back with a few feathers on his head. He has glasses and a white shirt. When we first arrived at the pow wow, one of the family members pointed out who the chief was and so I told Tim. Tim took a look at him (dressed in jeans and a t-shirt) and said he was a bit disappointed. I have to admit I was too. Having never been to anything indian, you tend to expect the chief to look like the chiefs you always see on t.v. shows and movies. He spoke with a southern accent as you would expect from being in Virginia.