The Lord's Day

  Sunday. We went to church at a moderately sized CREC service in the interestingly named town of Newport News. We didn't stay afterward; we had some more sightseeing to do. We drove by Fort Monroe, an old military post that has been fortified on and off since 1609. It was one of Robert E. Lee's first postings, and was used all through WW2. It made for an interesting combination of early American through mid-twentieth century buildings. But we were all tired and hungry, so we didn't stay long.

The goal for the afternoon was Bacon's Castle, recently brought to my attention by this costumed photo shoot. We had a very dramatic elderly tour guide who succeeded in putting Mom to sleep, even though the rest of us enjoyed his style. It's an old house.

The house, of course, has been altered since it's completion in 1669. But you can still see the original hand-cut beams in several rooms, and one of the six original seven-foot wide fireplaces.

Stairs. Really cool stairs.

The one-handed antique clock.

Once we got done with the hour long tour we were all just fried. A week full of touring and sightseeing is just tiring! So we tried headed out to take the ferry back to Williamsburg; only, we ended up waiting for the ferry for almost an hour. But we did get back to our apartment eventually! Tomorrow is our last day of sightseeing before we heard out for Presbytery, and I think we'll all be happy for the change. Seeing all these news things is great, but one can only handle so much walking, touring, reading signs, and eating PB&J for lunch.

Williamsburg, Last Day

 Today was our last day at CW. The weather was perfect. My tourist buddy and I started out at the Gaol, where some of Blackbeard's crew were held while awaiting trial.

 Not a complicated building, but a grim one.

We stopped in at the Cabinet-makers', which had more than cabinets in it.

After the fife and drum parade, we toured the Wythe house. There is a beautiful garden out back, with a vine-covered walkway, trimmed hedges, and a vegetable garden on the side.

Vine covered walkway. I'm generally suspicious of all vines because of my history with poison ivy, but these seemed safe.

Remember what I said about wallpaper? This was one of the more mild versions.

There was a stable, a chicken pen, a dairy, and a pigeon house. We ended the day at the Folk Art museum, which had way more items of antique furniture and household metalware and paintings than our numbed brains and sore feet could handle. So we went home!

Colonial Williamsburg

 Thursday we went to Colonial Williamsburg(CW) with our half-price three day tickets in hand. This first day ended up being pretty much wasted on me. I woke up that morning with congestion that worsened into a headache, that culminated into nausea(extreme nausea, if you know what I mean) and chills. I managed about four hours at CW, but all in all it was a miserable day for me.

Thankfully, the next day I was much better; still weak, but better. I wore my Colonial Grey Gown and Scotland-colored petticoat, along with my new straw hat that I purchased last year at Camden, tied with red silk ribbon. I was very glad to have the hat, because I would have burned without it!

CW is big and it takes a long time just to walk from one place/event to another. Also, the buildings are all open different days at different times, and there are different speakers every day. We visited CW for three days in a row, for four to seven hours each day, and we were always tired at the end of each day.

I think I most enjoyed the tradesmen whom I could talk to about my own reenacting needs or experiences, one the weekdays when there were fewer tourists around. We enjoyed the Capitol building tour and Governor's Mansion; Raleigh Tavern and the Wythe house. As to events, all the speakers were good, and the fife and drum corps was impressive. The gardens were pleasant. Everything in the area was exceedingly expensive, so I only bought one small vase as a souvenir.

Pictures were allowed inside. This was in the Governor's Mansion. The wallpaper and paint colors were fairly different from modern tastes; I like the Colonial blue but frankly find the green a little startling. Another thing different from modern homes is the size of rooms; the Wythe house is 3000 sq feet, which is close to the size of our house, but the amount of rooms in the Wythe house is much less than ours. There were just fewer rooms! Granted, they have a detached kitchen and "bathroom", but still.

There were several sweet little gardens back behind shops and homes that were fun to walk through. The family ended up splitting into groups and touring that way; Mom likes to read everything and some of us don't have a long enough attention span for that. Jonathan and Jeremy were my tourist buddies, and we got along pretty well.

Wednesday: Jamestown Settlement and Yorktown Victory Center

Wednesday morning we had an obligation. To get half-off Colonial Williamsburg tickets we grudgingly agreed to attend a breakfast and following "one hour" sales talk put on by our friends the Timeshare Resort. The breakfast we ok, but the talk was more like two hours. The boys got put in daycare, which was hilarious, and weren't allowed to leave without an adult, which was also hilarious. But we did finally escape, without spending any more money and with our half-price tickets.

 Then we were on our way to Jamestown and Yorktown. We visited Jamestown Settlement, the re-creation of Jamestown complete with interpreters(but minus Cannibalism). The actual site of Jamestown is an archeological dig.

It was hot out. There were probably about four interpreters in the Fort area and one on each ship; then several more in the Indian village. It was a pretty quiet day, and it was nice that there weren't too many people about.

Jeremy in armor.

It's always fun to see the elements of living in a different time.

There are three ships attached to the Jamestown Settlement. They're not large enough to make me want to ever live on one, but Jonathan wanted to climb to the top of the mast. They had cute little beds and cute little windows.

Trying to look like the face. This was part of the Indian village. We're not usually that "in" to Indians, if only because people today try to make them into a political statement, so we breezed through this area; plus, we were tired.

 Anyway.

 After sweating at Jamestown we decided to go sweat at the Yorktown Victory Center, which is a museum with a small American military encampment(with a cannon) and 1780's farm. It's a nice stop and doesn't take too long(unless you're like Mom and want to read and watch display in the museum). And we enjoyed the farm a lot if only because it had cooled down a bit by then. They are also adding a huge building for more displays.

Farmhouseing.

The farm had drying tobacco, a garden, chickens, and all the other farmy things that a farm has.

Which we all had to try out. After Yorktown we were all tired and thirsty, so we went to the Riverwalk to use some ice cream coupons, which may or may not have actually saved us money. It was pretty view, with a big bridge across the water and several ships in the dock.

And that concluded our long warm Wednesday.

Monday East to Tuesday Eastern

 The Rustic Mansion view from the back deck

We left the Rustic Mansion Monday morning and took the scenic route, ie, a wrong turn out of the backwoods which ended up taking an hour to get off very rural dirt roads until we finally got to the highway. We drove all day and got in to our accommodations around 11pm. For the next week we're staying in what is basically a small apartment, right near Colonial Williamsburg, only because last year Mom and Dad got sucked into a sales scheme and bought points for a timeshare hotel thing.

 Dinner break on Monday, still four hours from Williamsburg and way too much energy.

Tuesday we slept in, mourned the horrible internet service, bought groceries, grilled steak, and watched "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty."

Wednesday we went sight-seeing, but that's a post for tomorrow!

Travel, the first weekend

Our first day we drove through various states and ended up in Tennessee. Driving always puts me in a lethargic state and during the twelve hours I only read one novel and watched three episodes of Once Upon A Time Season 3; which was very unmotivated of me when I have a huge book on investing to read and a quilt to finish. Though after my car gets through at the shop this week I may not be investing any time soon.

TN Church- makes me miss living in the country.

As guests we got to stay in the pastor's parents-in-laws' currently vacant but very, very large and fancy house. The boys were thrilled with the heated towel rack and the motorized recliner and the fridge that tells you how many ounces of water it just put into your cup. And that was all before the sun came up and we saw the lake and the pool in the back yard. I got to stay in the Nautical-themed bedroom with a huge four-poster bed that had ten pillows, which took up way more room than I did.

I call it, "Nautical Room With Pillows"

Sunday we had church, lunch, more church, a nap, dinner, and dancing. There were a lot of tired toddlers by the end of that day!

Guys, this is the lookout from the guest house deck. This is the pool..

 ...and there's the lake. Not a bad view!