Athens to Crete

     Yesterday we made the hike from our hotel to the Acropolis and admired the Pantheon.  Ah how history repeats.  Christians destroyed much of the statuary before turning the Pantheon into a place of Christian worship and today ISIL destroys sites in Syria and Iraq.
    The Acropolis stands high above Athens offering a view of the city to the sea beyond.  A nice breeze accompanied us on a moderate day.  Temperatures are predicted to be in the 100s here in the next days.
    Athens is a city that eat outdoors with endless restaurants on the street.  Billed as a "food and wine tour" this experience will certainly fatten me up if I keep eating as I have.  Think "Greek wedding" type of food.  Last night, after climbing endless steps, we ate on a roof top with a beautiful view of Athens in one direction and  the Acropolis the other.
   I'd hoped to share some pictures but after waiting endlessly for this computer to upload them I gave so they will come later.  Today we leave Athens for Crete.

Greetings From Athens

     The Curmudgeonette and I are in Greece for 17 days having just arrived hours ago.  K. & B.G., from Iowa City are with us on a small group tour...8 people...billed as "a food and wine tour".  There are four foci of the trip; antiquities, food, wine and beaches.  We will visit the islands of Crete and Santorini five wineries.  Anna, our guide, runs the Gardens of Slonika restaurant in NE Minneapolis.  
    I'll post on this blog as time and internet access permit.

Perhaps Men Should Not Vote

Writer's Almanac 6/4/16

The United States Congress passed the 19th Amendment to the Constitution on this date in 1919. The amendment, which gave women the right to vote, had been a long time in coming. The women's suffrage movement had arisen along with the abolitionist movement in the mid-1800s. Many women were active in both causes, and Frederick Douglass often spoke at women's rights rallies. In 1848, Elizabeth Cady Stanton drafted her "Declaration of Sentiments," which adopted the language of the Declaration of Independence in calling for voting rights for women: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. [...] Now, in view of this entire disfranchisement of one-half the people of this country [...] we insist that they have immediate admission to all the rights and privileges which belong to them as citizens of the United States."

Stanton also drafted the original Constitutional Amendment, with help from Susan B. Anthony. It was first introduced in 1878 and languished in committee for nine years before it came up for a vote. It was defeated and, although individual states passed laws allowing women the right to vote, a national amendment wasn't considered again until 1914. President Woodrow Wilson backed it in 1918, saying: "We have made partners of the women in this war. Shall we admit them only to a partnership of suffering and sacrifice and toil and not to a partnership of right?" The 19th Amendment was ratified by the states and took effect in August 1920. It states: "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex."

Martha Washington; Writers Almanac 6/2/2016

Today is the birthday of Martha Washington, born Martha Dandridge on the Chestnut Grove Plantation in New Kent County, Virginia (1731). When she was 18, she married Daniel Parke Custis, whom she'd met at church. Custis was in his late 30s, and a prosperous landowner of a 15,000-acre plantation called White House. He had never been married because his father disapproved of every woman he had courted. He and Martha had four children, only two of whom - Jack and Patsy - survived beyond childhood. When Custis died in 1757, Martha inherited the plantation, including 300 slaves and well over 17,000 acres of land.

Martha was only 26 when she became a widow. Her marriage had been happy, and she hoped to have more children, so she planned to remarry. What's more, she was now wealthy and could follow her heart in matrimonial matters, rather than making a financially advantageous match. The 26-year-old military man and fellow Virginian George Washington had also recently inherited an estate - Mount Vernon - upon his brother's death. While visiting Williamsburg, he heard about the wealthy young widow. He paid a call on her, and made a point to tip her household slaves lavishly. At 2,000 acres, Mount Vernon was small compared to Martha's plantation, but money was not her first consideration. Colonel Washington was tall and handsome, and had a reputation for bravery and honor. Martha was petite, engaging, and had a cool head for business, as her efficient handling of Custis's tobacco business had already shown.

George resigned his military commission in 1758, and he and Martha married in January 1759. She trusted him enough that she opted not to draft a prenuptial agreement, as most widows in her situation would have done. She also made him the legal guardian of her two surviving Custis children. She ordered her wedding clothes - including made-to-order, high-fashion purple silk shoes - from London. Throughout their marriage, George took pleasure in ordering shoes for Martha, and was not shy about returning any that were deemed unsatisfactory. In one letter, he wrote, "Mrs. Washington's slippers and clogs have come safe to hand, the latter, however, are not as she wished to have [...] and will, by the first convenient opportunity, return the clogs to Mr. Palmer and get a pair of galoshes."

Martha expected to lead a quiet and comfortable life at home. But during the Revolutionary War, her husband did not return home to Mount Vernon for six years. He often requested her presence at the Continental Army's winter encampment, and she made the exhausting journey to be at his side. She made friends with the other officers' wives, worked as George's secretary, and comforted sick and wounded soldiers. She led a drive among area women to knit socks for the army, to keep them warm and dry during the brutal winter. She also hosted social events at the Valley Forge headquarters. But she missed her remaining son, Jack, and his children. Jack died in the war, and she raised two of his children; she had no more children of her own. In 1789, when George Washington was inaugurated as president, she became America's first first lady. Though she never sought out public life, and said she felt "more like a state prisoner than anything else," she made the best of it, knowing that she was setting the precedent for all the first ladies to come. She held weekly salons, hosting foreign dignitaries as well as ordinary members of the community. She felt it was important to show that the new government was accessible to all.

The Washingtons returned to Mount Vernon in 1797, after George declined to seek a third term as president. Her social duties continued unabated. When her husband died in 1799, she burned all of their correspondence. She often spoke of how terribly she missed him. She died two and a half years later