Bath -Part 2; Celebrating Independence Day

Yes, we celebrated the 4th of July, the day Americans celebrate independence from England....yes, we celebrated in England. In fact, we celebrated at the American Museum in Britain...the only museum outside the US that exhibits American history and artifacts.  It was started by two Brits that moved to the US. They wanted to show people back home that Americans were not wild and uncivilized. Where did they ever get that idea?

The reason we came here to celebrate was the fact that they advertised an American Independence Celebration with food, music, and demonstrations from the war.  I thought it would be the perfect time to go. Marcus would learn a bit about the US history from the museum (education); the boys would get to see some gun action; the girls would get to hear some music; we'd all be outside; and we'd get some good American food.
The museum is located just a few minutes from the University of Bath, which is where the Hub had classes. This is just outside of Bath with some walking trails that we didn't get to explore...looked like rain and the kids were tired by the time we finished the museum.  The museum was well done.  They had furniture sets from early colonial days to pioneer days. The girls were bored, but Marcus enjoyed listening to the audio tour that was included into the price.  So, my good man took the girls out and let Marcus and I enjoy.  I have to comment about the audio tour.  It was very pro-England with comments such as this, "As you can see, even though the Colonist fought for independence, they were still very loyal to the King by the style of furniture that they had in their homes. Take for instance the fireplace with the metal cover. It has the emblem of the King of England....or the tea cups were the English style..."  Very amusing to me...but educational...check.

The grounds just outside the museum was transformed into a campsite for the Red Coats.  They had their tents and camping gear there for all to see what it was like for them at that time.  The demonstrations were, again, pro-England.  It was a show of how they fought during the war. There was no sign of any American fighters, and definitely no mention of the loss.  This made me and my German Hub giggle...but gun action for the boys...check. btw, two girls HATED it.

Music...yes, there was some pretty good Creole music played by an older couple. They told a few stories, but mainly talked about the song they were about to sing, the history of it, etc. Kids got bored...and so did we to be honest. But, what was interesting was watching the crowd. One lady in particular sat down with her tray of food and her bottle of wine. So, the music wasn't the best, but...check, did that.

Food...expectation was a hotdog with maybe some baked beans...HA! No hotdogs at all. So, here is what we got...Baked potato with baked beans on the side, quiche, and chili. Sort of American, but not what you'd expect at a celebration like this.  But, eat we did do...check.

It wasn't all a loss...we did have some very good cookies!

The kids did have fun...there was a tee-pee the girls played in. And Marcus climbed a tree. AND, we spent the afternoon outside, which is always a treat!

And one last fact....Winston Churchill gave one of his first speeches here at Claverton Manor, the building where the museum resides.  Boy looks thrilled about that fact, ya think?  But still educational...double check on the educational.   So, that means we did everything on my "Must Do List" at the museum. Now we could cross that of our "Places to See in Bath" list.