We did the Richmond Capitol volksmarch today. The start point was Legend Brewing, a micro brewpub on Southside; we had lunch there but skipped the beer in deference to Passover.

The route took us to the Manchester Floodwall Walk and over the James River on the Potterfield Memorial Bridge. There’s a rock-climbing area just before crossing the river, and it was a busy day there.

While crossing, we saw the remains of several bridges that had been used in the evacuation of Richmond at the end of the Civil War.

Our first stop on the North side of the river was the Virginia War Memorial (dedicated to fallen veterans of wars from WWII to the “Global War on Terrorism”). En route, we saw Ethyl Corporation HQ, where my Mom used to work.

Even though my Grandfather had a store only a few blocks from the War Memorial, I’d only been there once or twice in all the time I lived in Richmond, and today was undoubtedly the longest time I’d been on the grounds.

We returned to the river and walked down the Canal Walk to Brown Island.

The walk took us to Shockoe Slip; my mother used to work at Virginia Elevator Company at 1210½ East Cary, which is now Sam Miller’s restaurant.

We continued to East Main Street and passed the former location of Branch Cabell in the Ironfronts (where my brother worked for many years as a stockbroker).

The next stop was Capitol Square, where we walked past the Capitol, the Washington statue, the Stonewall Jackson statue (Old City Hall is behind him), the Civil Rights memorial grouping, and the Executive Mansion.

We left Capitol Square and walked down to Main Street Station; it still has a little passenger service, but it’s mostly being used as a tourist center today.

We continued on Main Street to 20th, passing busy restaurants and the Poe Museum on our way.

On our way back to the river, we passed the Virginia Holocaust Museum and discovered that we had been taking the Richmond Slave Trail for a good part of our walk.

We returned to Legend Brewery and our car via the Mayo (14th Street) Bridge and the western section of the Floodwalk, enjoying the views of the James along the way.

I’d been in Capitol Square and on East Main Street many times while I lived in Richmond, but most of the rest of this walk was new territory to me. Who knew?

We’ve taken the AmaWaterways “Tulip Time” cruise out of Amsterdam twice – the highlight is the day we get to spend at Keukenhof admiring the amazing tulip displays. I’ve been there a couple of other times, too, and I hope to return.

Somehow, though, I’ve never posted any of the photos I took there to the blog.

We couldn’t go to Keukenhof this year, but we did the next best thing and spent the afternoon at the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden here in Richmond with Jeff, Cliff, and Michael Ann.

We started the afternoon by wandering around their tulip beds, which were in full bloom.

Our next stop was the butterfly exhibit in the conservatory. Our timing was good – today happened to be Opening Day.

While we were in the conservatory, we visited the orchardium (Michael Ann volunteers there).

The conservatory was quite warm, so we enjoyed the slightly cooler air outside. There were more tulips, of course.

Love was in the air all over the gardens!

Syndor Lake was pleasant to see.

No spring trip to Virginia is complete without seeing some dogwoods.

Just before leaving (through the Gift Shop, of course), we enjoyed one last tulip.

I want to get back to Keukenhof in the not-too-distant future, but Lewis Ginter Botanical Park is a great place to enjoy the spring, too.

I drew heavily on my stock of travel karma this morning. When I called the bell desk to arrange airport transportation, they said it might take as much as 30 minutes to get someone, which didn’t thrill me. But I thought I’d give them a chance before calling for a Lyft, so we headed downstairs.

I expected to have to wait the usual several minutes for the elevator (the Francis Marion is a nice hotel but the elevators leave much to be desired), but there was one waiting for us – and we didn’t have to stop before reaching the lobby. We had to take the stairs the half-flight to the exit because that elevator was broken, but it wasn’t a big deal. And when I found the bellman, he said that the shuttle was ready – we were at the airport and checked in at least ten minutes earlier than I would have believed remotely possible.

This was our first flight on Breeze; we’d sprung for the “Nicer” fare, so we had lots of legroom and overhead bin space. There was even plenty of space under the seats in front of us – so much that I didn’t have to put my backpack in the overhead. The flight left on time and got to Richmond early, too.

And then I ran out of my day’s supply of karma. The first hint came at baggage claim – the belt started moving and then stopped with a loud bang. Twice. Then an agent came out and said they were having belt problems and to move to the next belt, which did work.

Hertz offers “Ultimate Choice” in Richmond, which means we didn’t have a pre-assigned car and could choose from any of the four cars in a certain area. I wanted the Mazda CX-30 until I discovered it didn’t have CarPlay (or at least it didn’t seem to have it), so I went with a Chevy Malibu, which seems to be OK. But when I drove to the exit booth to get my contract, no one was there – there was a hand-printed sign saying “Bathroom Break, back soon”. By the time someone came to the booth, there were eight cars stacked up behind me!

Jeff’s flights were delayed, so we had to kill an hour or so, and then we were off to my brother’s house for Seder. It was a full table with four generations present. They’d gotten a new set of Maxwell House Haggadot for this year – using the original translation, which was awfully dated and hard to follow. But we persevered; dinner was delicious and it was great to see everyone in person.

Passover always begins with the full moon; it was nicely visible from their backyard.

Chag Sameach Pesach!

Today’s touring began with a short bus ride to downtown Charleston and a walk to the Nathaniel Russell House. On our way, John Meffert showed us Rainbow Row, which was one of the first areas successfully preserved by Susan Pringle Frost, who founded the Preservation Society of Charleston.

Our next stop was the First Presbyterian Church (aka the “Scots Kirk”) and its graveyard.

The church is right next to the Nathanial Russell House; Russell was a merchant and slave trader from Rhode Island who made a fortune in Charleston and stayed there; he built the house in 1808. It’s a large three-story “single” house, with an amazing free-flying three-story cantilevered spiral staircase (off limits to visitors).

The house is furnished appropriately to its period (though most of the pieces weren’t original to the house); I wish I could have the desk in the office!

We heard about all of the research that they did to ensure that the colors are faithful to the house’s history. The work continues – currently, they’re restoring the kitchen.

We spent a little time in the garden, but it was only a prelude to what came next.

Our next stop was across the street – we were invited into the garden of the Pruett House. It’s a small garden by Charleston standards, just 240 feet deep (and maybe 60 feet wide); the owner came out to greet us.

It was nearly the end of camellia season, but a few were still blooming.

The garden is divided into four rooms – two mostly grass and two with some hardscaping, ideal for parties.

It was a very nice place to visit.

Our final stop was another private home – it was furnished in beautiful antiques and had been updated with air conditioning and other modern conveniences. I didn’t take any photos because I was overwhelmed!

We returned to the hotel, had a quick lunch at a nearby pizza place, and walked down to Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim synagogue for a tour. The congregation has a long history, going back to 1749. Their first synagogue was built in 1792 and burned down during the Great Charleston Fire of 1838.

The current synagogue dates to 1842 and was done in Greek Revival (unusual for a synagogue!).

The tour included a video about the congregation’s history and a visit to the sanctuary, social hall, and museum. It was well worth the time.

This evening, we had our group farewell dinner at 39 Rue de Jean, just a couple of blocks from the hotel. It’s hard to believe that we all met just three days ago!

We were on the bus at 8:30am so we could be the first guests at Drayton Hall, a plantation in the Low Country that was founded in 1738. It’s the only plantation house on the Ashley River to survive the Revolution and the Civil War, and was donated to the National Trust for Historic Preservation by the Drayton family in 1976 when a new generation inherited the property and decided they didn’t want to live there because it was lacking modern conveniences like indoor plumbing and electricity!

We were met at the visitor center by our guides for the morning, Carter Hudgins (the CEO) and Eric Becker, the Manager of Landscapes and Horticulture (our tour was sponsored by the National Trust, so we got VIP treatment). Eric gave us a quick tour of the garden at the visitor center and explained their philosophy on the landscape throughout the estate.

Carter then took us to the house itself, which is under active conservation – they’re currently repairing the staircases, so we could only visit the rooms on the first and second floors.

We looked at all of the rooms on the first floor, where most visitors would be received. Drayton Hall has the only hand-carved plaster ceiling in the country, as well as a Rumford fireplace in the rooms which served as the office and library.

He talked about the choices they made to conserve the property as they received it in 1976 versus restoring it to an earlier period; one big question about restoring is the choice of period – should it be 1738, when it was built, or the Victorian era, when it was painted white, or some other time or mixture of times?

After the house tour, I went down to the Ashley River to enjoy the view, both of the river and of the house.

And then it was time for a brief visit to the gift shop before getting back on the bus for our second plantation, Middleton Place. Middleton is the seat of the Middleton family; they made their fortune from rice cultivation. Rice is a labor-intensive crop, and that meant slave labor; there was a lot of discussion (not defense) of slavery during our visit, and it was evident in many of the exhibits.

Middleton was the first landscaped garden in the United States, patterned in some ways after Versailles, so it was only natural for our Study Leader, John Meffert, to lead us on a garden walk. We started at the Reflection Pool, which boasts fountains, alligators, and turtles.

The gardens have quite a bit of sculpture scattered about, mostly Italian (some donated by the Italian branch of the family, who chose not to return to South Carolina when they were in line to inherit the plantation), like this wood nymph.

After our garden walk, it was time for our tour of the House Museum. Originally, it was the “south flanker” of the three-building main complex; all three buildings were burned during the Civil War, but this was the least damaged, and the Middletons restored it and moved into it in 1870. The other two buildings collapsed completely during the Charleston earthquake of 1886.

The museum has been almost entirely furnished with authentic Middleton-owned furniture and clothing (some of which was buried during the war); some of it is on loan from other branches of the family, so photography wasn’t allowed – our docent was very thorough and informative. We were on a “Behind the Ropes” tour, so we were able to go into some of the normally off-limits rooms; the docent even showed us the actual clothing that Henry Middleton (the founder) wore for the Benjamin West portrait that was on display in the house.

After lunch, we had a little time to explore the outdoor exhibits, including Eliza’s House, a freedman’s cabin from the 1870s, where I met another Middleton – he was descended from people who the Middletons had enslaved and was looking at his own history.

And then it was back on the bus for a quick driving tour through The Citadel, South Carolina’s Military Academy. There was a competition of some sort happening on the field we drove around – but it was hard to see because the field was lined with military equipment like this jet!

The Charleston Holocaust Memorial is in Marion Square, about a block from the hotel; Diane and I walked over there after the bus tour. It’s very simple, based on the use of a tallit (prayer shawl) as a burial shroud. I thought it was very moving and far too relevant.