Hi Everybody!
Today was a rather quiet one, we only walked 3 miles the entire day. For Jes we were practically couch potatoes! For reference we've been walking an average of 6 miles per day. This morning we got up early for our tour of the States Assembly building, the purple one that matched my purple pants! It used to be an old library but now it's their courtroom and states chambers. Unfortunately no photographs were allowed, so you'll just have to imagine everything I'm sharing with you or poke around their website below.
https://statesassembly.je/home
Our tour guide was a native Jerseywoman and she began the tour by telling us about her mom who was a child in occupied Jersey. England had decided to let the islands starve in order to punish the Nazis, but unfortunately that also meant starving the locals. If you can believe it, lobster was the poor man's food, so people here were starving on lobsters. There was a big push to allow the Red Cross ship onto the island, and at the last second after five years of petitioning, the war ended and the Canadian Red Cross packages were allowed onto shore. Ever single local was given a packages, and our tour guide's mom inspected the boxes and found a purple bar of chocolate! She had never had chocolate before so she grabbed all three bars from each of her family's boxes and ate them all under the table. Apparently she had an awful stomachache and doesn't really eat much chocolate anymore. Jes also added that bananas were included in the boxes and because the islanders had never seen them before they tried eating them with the peels on and thought they were awful.
We sat in their courts, and learned all about its procedures. I was such a nerd and enjoyed every bit of fact they were sharing. Unfortunately, Jersey is a bit behind times and there has yet to be a female bailiff (judge). But I did get volunteered by Jes to sit in the lieutenant's governor's seat for a demonstration as to why the chairs were positioned with one higher and lower (spoiler alert: it was to make sure everyone knew the bailiff was the most important person in the room with the highest seat).
Jersey has the second oldest library in all of Great Britain and they have books centuries old that anyone can go and ask to read, with white gloves and lots of care of course.
Did you know that New Jersey was land gifted by King Charles II to his brother, and named New Jersey in honor of Carteret housing and protecting the future king on Jersey during the English Civil War. They even have an old flag of New Jersey hanging beside the Jersey flag. Carteret was also gifted a mace that is proudly paraded annually on the island, and because it is a weapon gifted by a monarch, it can be held upright in the presence of a monarch.
I think we were all quite pleased with the tour and had a great time learning all about court and government proceedings on the island. We then met up with friends for coffee nearby. Jes and I have a tradition to get our nails done together when we meet up, and it was insanity trying to find a salon with walk in appointments. Apparently they get booked out months in advance! Thankfully at our seventh salon, someone had just cancelled, so we swooped in and grabbed their appointment, just in time too because it began raining on our way home. Honestly it wasn't even real rain, more like a mist, but we were absolutely soaked by the time we made it home. I told everyone to look "visible" but Pete heard look "miserable" and we had quite a laugh at the misinterpretation of my accent.
Until tomorrow friends!
Love you lots,
Carolyn
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