Tag: Williamsburg

Posted on
by

image

For the last full day of the trip, I visited Colonial Williamsburg. The historical city aspect of it certainly isn’t new, but CW certainly has their own spin on it. There were interpreters aplenty, active smithing shops, and reenactments of key events of the Revolutionary War-era city.

I took a tour of the Governor’s Mansion and the Capitol, saw the gaol, the silver smith, and how the colonials made bricks for their buildings, sat down to hear some Q & A with Thomas Jefferson, and (partially) viewed a troop inspection and victory march. Perhaps most interestingly, I witnessed active archaeology at the hypothesized site of a market building.

I liked the site, but again expected all the interpreters/staff to be purely in-character. This wasn’t the case, though, as some people were, such as most tour guides, while others were not, and there seemed to be no particular rhyme or reason as to whom was or was not.

Still, it was very interesting to learn about the royal governor who was almost hanged after he removed the powder from the muskets, and that copper-based green over wallpaper was an ideal color for colonial-era dining rooms.

Well, everyone, this is the last post in this series, unless something of mention should happen on the train home tomorrow. It’s definitely been an interesting and challenging task to update this blog everyday on a vacation, but it was fun.

Posted on
by

image

When the Siege at Yorktown concluded 232 years ago with Lord Cornwallis’ surrender, General Washington recognized the impact of the American success by commissioning a statue to commemorate the battle. But did anyone think that all those years later Americans would still be visiting the site?

Perhaps. Perhaps not. But here we are in 2013, and we still go there, year after year, and for good reason. As I mentioned in the Jamestown update, it’s one thing to hear about the battle, and another to see where it happened.

Today, my cousin and I visited Yorktown, and it is still clear as day some of the conditions the American and French troops had to endure as they closed in on the British. Lots and lots of earthwork done to create a battlefield that perhaps neither truly knew would be the final one up until then last couple days.

Continue reading →

Posted on
by

Due to some weird WP app thing, this is being posted later on Wednesday instead of later Tuesday.

Today my cousin and I went to Historic Jamestowne and Jamestown Settlement. We first went to the archaeological site at Historic Jamestowne. I’ve always been a bit excited to see the ruins of a settlement and it was no different here, even if many of the earlier structures have disappeared. It’s one thing to hear about Jamestown, but another thing to see it in front of you. It just makes it seem more real.

The part of the site I found perhaps most interesting is that the settlers rebuilt their church not once, not twice, but four times on the same site, and oftentimes on top of the preexisting brick. It just goes to show that letting disaster not stop us from rebuilding is nothing new (two times were after fires).

At Jamestown Settlement, it was fun to see the full structures of the James Fort and nearby Powhatan village, but I was surprised to see that the staff wasn’t in-character. This was okay, though, as it allows one to relate the structures and ships to the 21st century. It was also smaller than I expected – it is suggested that everything takes between three and four hours to see, but we were to do it in two, including watching a presentation and demonstration of a 17th century piece of artillery.

All in all, we had a fun time and learned a lot about both the settlement and the people.

Posted on
by

image

Just a short one tonight, as there’s not much to say yet. The train to Williamsburg, though long, was relatively uneventful, though Amtrak could do with working on their communication skills when there are delays.

My aunt, my cousin (brother of the bride from the earlier wedding posts), and I left at noon and pulled into Williamsburg around 6:40, slightly earlier then my other aunt, uncle, and cousins, who left earlier and had a shorter travel time (gotta love I-95!). Once there, we headed to our lodging at the Powhatan Resort.

A former plantation, Powhatan now boasts timeshares, but sets some aside as super fancy hotel rooms, which are not that expensive for all they come with.

One thing that hit us all when we got here: the size. This place is very large, with plenty of activities, three pools, golf, and specially-planned activities each day. The rooms are big, too. Ours has two bedrooms and bathrooms, and some kitchen amenities, given its nature as a timeshare.

We’ve only really checked out the pool so far. At night they seem to have 18 and over restrictions on one pool, which is very nice indeed.

Only major thing of note is that my other aunt and husband and sons had a bit of a fight with a skunk, who tried to take some trash left outside their unit. Yep, someone just left their trash sitting on the ground. Who does that??

So, tomorrow marks the first of at least one day of the historical tour of Williamsburg and Jamestown/Yorktown. More on that in the next post.