Jamestown

Time for another educational adventure!

Jamestown was the first permanent English settlement in the New World.  The colony was founded in 1607, which is 13 years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth.  This is a source of pride with Virginians, but once I moved away from the state, most people don't know that. So now you know, and knowing is half the battle.  Go Joe!

Visiting Jamestown these days is a pretty cool experience.  The Visitors Center has a great film and exhibit.  You can also walk the grounds and see a recreated Native American village, settlement stockade, and ships like the colonists would have used to cross the ocean.  In keeping with our theme for this week, the temperature was near 100 degrees which limited our sight-seeing.

The visitor's Center was actually built for the 400 year anniversary of the settlement in 2007, when Queen Elizabeth visited!

Native American farming techniques.

Boarding the ship for the New World!

Aiming at some other tourists.

The recreated settlement chapel. It was so hot, Anne had to make shorts.

Take my word for it, you would not like to be sick in the 1600's.

Pretend to paddle this canoe and we can go eat lunch in the air conditioning.

All kinds of implements made out of the bones of a deer.

We were kind of smart and visited the outdoor things first before it got too hot.  Unfortunately that meant we were too hot and tired to see much inside.  After lunch, we watched the movie and left.  Hopefully we will make it back another time and see the indoor exhibit of artifacts.

That evening, Rob and I had big plans.  It was our 10 year anniversary and since we had babysitters in town (thanks Opa and Gram) we made fancy dinner reservations at the Williamsburg Inn.  If you ever find yourself in the area and you want a really nice meal, I cannot recommend this place enough!  We were in the Rockefeller Room, which is the smaller dining room with a better view.  The surroundings were gorgeous and the food was even better.  Happy Anniversary!

Look at Rob's camping beard! I love it.

Moscow Mule and Manhattan, love it!

Check out the coffee service! They brought out cream, sugar in the raw, and rock candy stir sticks!

After our amazing meal we picked up the kids at Opa and Grams cabin.  They were heading back to Kentucky the next day.  Thanks for coming along!  

We made it back to the camper and were getting in bed when the worst thunderstorm I have ever experienced hit.  The kids slept right through it, but the pounding rain and thunder kept Rob and I awake for hours.  Rob was watching the radar to make sure we weren't in danger of a tornado.  The good part of the storm was the heat wave finally broke!  And that was awesome because we had  actual fun planned for the next day.

Continue The Adventure