A few days before we left for Charlottesville, John suggested that we might try to visit our friends Elsa and Carleton Bakkum in Yorktown, Virginia. Elsa is in charge of trainers for Education for Ministry, and her husband Carleton is the rector of Grace Church, Yorktown. This summer when I attended the Canadian Training of Trainers event in Kelowna, BC, John came with me and Carleton came with Elsa. The two spouses spent a day riding bikes around the lake and the smoky Okanagan Valley.
We left a little after twelve o’clock. Mike drove, but we used our rental car. John and I were both still a little tired, so we wanted a brief stop along the way for a cup of coffee. Searching for something like a Starbucks, Google Maps sent us to a strip mall outside of Richmond where we found Safari Coffee, a ministry of the Journey Christian Fellowship. Ellen and Mike were horrified and wanted us to go on, but John and I cheerfully went in and found that the people were quite friendly and the coffee reasonably priced. I gave them the change for their African missions.
About two hours after we left Charlottesville, we arrived in Yorktown. Before I planned this adventure, all I knew about Yorktown was that this was the place where the British surrendered and the American Revolution ended. I was surprised to discover that Yorktown, Williamsburg, and Jamestown are adjacent to each other. We are going to spend the night in Williamsburg and go to Colonial Williamsburg tomorrow.
Elsa met us at the parish hall. She explained that this is used for services as well as for social events because the seventeenth century church is so small and the congregation there is growing.
Elsa explained that much of the art work here is Carleton’s work. He creates using the colors and other idioms of American folk art. This cross on the wall of his office is an example of that.
Elsa also showed us a small house that the parish owns next to the hall. She has a room in it that she uses for spiritual direction. John liked it.
The church itself is indeed quite small and so plain inside that it could pass for a Congregational meeting house. But it is one of the oldest Anglican buildings in North America and as such subject to many historical preservation rules.
The churchyard is equally historic with at least one signer of the Declaration of Independence interred there.
The churchyard seemed particularly melancholy in the late afternoon sunlight of winter.
Elsa then took us on a little walking tour of Yorktown. She explained that this little community has been overshadowed by nearby Williamsburg. But what is here is perhaps even more significant for American history. This house was Corwallis’ headquarters during the siege of Yorktown
and a canon ball is still embedded in the wall there.
Despite the cold, John enjoyed walking about
and Abby seems to like her spiffy little winter jacket.
We saw the rather ugly monument erected in 1876 to make the centennial of the British defeat.
We drove down by the York River. Abby needed to take a stroll, but I did not need to get anywhere close to that cold-looking water.
Elsa took us by the Yorktown battlefield. We saw the redoubt where Hamilton had fought. This has become suddenly more popular since the musical appeared. Unfortunately, it was pretty dark by this time and hard to take pictures.
We went to the Bakkum house for drinks and snacks. We met Carleton there and Benjamin, the middle son. We had a wonderful time, and I wished I had taken some pictures there. After that, we went to a restaurant down on the river. Perhaps because of the approaching holidays, it seemed almost deserted. But we had a nice dinner and an even nicer time talking to each other. At the end of the meal, we asked the waitress to take a picture of us.
Tonight we are staying at a motel in Williamsburg. It is nicely located right by the Colonial Williamsburg Visitor Center. It is nothing special, but for less than 90 dollars a night it does not have to be.
