Williamsburg

The next couple of days were spent exploring every inch of the endlessly fascinating Williamsburg living-history museum.  Williamsburg, capital of Virginia from 1699 to 1780, is known for the significant role it played in the American Revolution. In the state’s southeast, it forms what's called the Historic Triangle together with Jamestown and Yorktown. Its heart is Colonial Williamsburg, a historic district and living-history museum where actors in period costume depict day-to-day Colonial life in the streets, restored stores and workshops.

We spent a majority of the morning completing tasks on the Revquest, a fun scavenger type experience the museum has put together.  We gathered clues, spoke to spies, and completed puzzles, to help save the revolution. It was so much fun!

Thomas was so adorable asking spies for clues

Little signs of fall!

These two are seriously such a couple of cuties and are always so much fun!

We had lunch at the bakery in the middle of town. I loved all of their packaging, so pretty!

Solving some puzzles and finding more spies

These two cuties were enamored with the pretty girl in the leather shop. Thomas kept asking her questions and even told her she had pretty green eyes. 

]'

Karin had made reservations for dinner at Chrisiana Campbell's Tavern, this was something we were all looking forward too! There are many taverns at which to dine in Colonial Williamsburg, Karin chose this one because of it's prestige and special history. Christiana Campbell was owner and proprietress of one of Williamsburg’s most successful taverns which she opened in 1771. The business that bore her name still stands today to welcome guests and travelers. She provided rooms and food for people who traveled to Williamsburg to conduct business with government officials or who attended the regular meetings of the colony's merchants. When the General Assembly was in session, Campbell hosted members of the House of Burgesses, including Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. Washington recorded in his diary that he dined there 10 times in two months.

It had been a suuuuper busy day, it felt so good to sit down and rest our feet. We were all starving and southern tavern food sounded like the most amazing thing ever! It's tradition at Chrisiana's to tie your napkin around your neck to keep your entire front covered and safe from spills.

What an awesome day! We covered quite a bit of ground!

We didn't quite finish our RevQuest and there were a few other 

buildings we didn't make it to, so we made a return to Williamsburg

but we needed a relaxing day to recover from how exhausted we all felt after today.

A post of what we did with our "lazy" day is coming up next!

Jamestown

While I was in Paris, I got a phone call from my sister Karin inviting me on a trip with her and her adorable family to Virginia!!! I was so excited I immediately accepted! So, just two short weeks after we returned from Europe, I boarded a plane bound for VA to meet up with the Burtons! I absolutely love traveling with this family, they are SO MUCH FUN! 

Our first stop of the trip and our journey through American History was Jamestown. The Jamestown settlement in the Colony of Virginia was the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. William Kelso writes that Jamestown "is where the British Empire began ... this was the first colony in the British Empire." Jamestown was established by the Virginia Company of London as "James Fort" on May 4, 1607 and was considered permanent after brief abandonment in 1610. It followed several earlier failed attempts, including the Lost Colony of Roanoke. Jamestown served as the capital of the colony for 83 years, from 1616 until 1699.

We got to explore replicas of the ships on which the British sailed to America. The fleet consisted of  three ships, named Susan Constant, Discovery, and Godspeed, under Captain Christopher Newport. After a particularly long voyage of four months including a stop in Puerto Rico, they finally departed for the American mainland on April 10, 1607. The expedition made landfall on April 26, 1607 at a place they named Cape Henry. Under orders to select a more secure location, they set about exploring what is now Hampton Roads and an outlet into the Chesapeake Bay they named the James River in honor of their king, James I of England. 

Then we wandered into the settlement itself and met many of the hardworking people that brought the settlement to life. As you can imagine, starting a settlement in a foreign land was incredibly difficult. On May 14, 1607, Captain Edward Maria Wingfield, elected president of the governing council on April 25, selected a piece of land on a large peninsula, some 40 miles inland from the Atlantic Ocean, as a prime location for a fortified settlement. A defensible strategic point, due to a curve in the river the river channel was close to the land, thus making it navigable (and allowing for ships to dock near enough land for piers or wharves to be built).Perhaps the best thing about it, from an English point of view, was that it was not inhabited by nearby Virginia Indian tribes, who regarded the site as too poor and remote for agriculture. The island was swampy, isolated, offered limited space and was plagued by mosquitoes and brackish tidal river water unsuitable for drinking.

We had way too much fun trying on the type of armor they would have used during this time period. 

After thoroughly exploring the Jamestown Settlement, we ventured over to a Virginia Indian Village that showed the contrast of how the Native Americans lived compared to the British.

The boys had a great time playing a game made up of throwing a corn cob arrow through hoops made of branches.

James and Thomas were totally into carving this canoe with sea shells. It was really hard to get Thomas to leave, he is such a hard and diligent worker and this type of thing was right up his ally.