The thing about history is, a lot of the time, it's alien. It can be really hard for people in the 21st century to imagine what it was like to live a long time ago. Which makes it hard to understand why people thought and acted the way they did. That's why living history museums are so valuable. But it's even better, when instead of just watching re-enactors playing characters from the eighteenth or nineteenth century, you can become the characters yourself!

That's why we went to the Genesee Country Village and Museum, outside of Rochester NY and lived the history as a family, over the Fourth of July weekend. And when I say we lived it, I mean we got into the costumes, cooked over the open hearth, roped our beds and stuffed our mattresses with straw, slept in a 1790s one-room log cabin, hauled water, and tended the farm and animals. The slideshows and videos capture some of the place, our experiences, and our thoughts about them. I'll keep adding them, as I make them -- so check back from time to time:


Slide Shows: (click on photo -- may take a little while to load)

A Short Village Tour

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Log Cabin Life in 1802

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Videos:

Dan at work in the blacksmith shop: