Jamestown and Yorktown

We left Deann's home Friday morning and headed up to Williamsburg, Virginia where we were excited to pick up my Mom who flew in to spend a few days with us. That night we played some miniature golf at our hotel, swam in the pool, and ate some delicious pizza. For all the touristy stuff we're doing on this trip, those activities are still some of the boys' favorites.

Friday, however, it was time to get down to business and see some sights. At breakfast we discovered there were going to be record high temperatures that day - 98 degrees - with the sort of humidity only a swampy coastal area can muster. So we braced ourselves and went touristing anyway.

In the morning we went to Jamestown, site of the first permanent English colony in the New World. The whole place was really impressive. There was a reconstructed Powhatan village with huts and skins and obviously non-Powhatan but very informed and interesting people dressed in animal skins that were completely inappropriate for the weather. The boys liked the village a lot.


There were also recreations of the three ships the English settlers came over on. Folks, they are small. It would have been a nasty, smelly, uncomfortable voyage, I can assure you.


There is also a reconstructed fort where they had some houses, a church, a blacksmith shop, magazine, etc. Again the guides were really excellent.


By this time of the day we were definitely feeling the weather. It was putting us in no mood to conquer the wilderness or drain a swamp or plant crops or befriend/trade with/go to war with the native Powhatan.

We went and got some lunch and then walked through the blessedly air conditioned, and also excellent, museum about the colony.

By this point we were basically all completely exhausted, me at least as much as the boys, but there is no rest for the weary on vacation so we sallied forth to Yorktown, which was also much better than I expected. We were just in time for the last artillery demonstration of the day, so we dashed to the back of the park where they have a recreated revolutionary war camp. We got to experience the firing of a cannon, which was, as you might expect, bone-rattlingly loud.

We also got to hear about the horrifying medical treatments available in the camp. More than twice as many soldiers died in the camps from infection, dysentery, etc as died in battle. There was also a late 1700's era farm to walk through and a Revolutionary War museum we skimmed before closing. Finally, we headed out to the actual Yorktown battlefield. At the end of a long, hot day like this, the obvious thing to do is to sprint all the way across the field.

There were some cannons to climb on that just begged for a cute pose for the camera.

And finally we had checked all the boxes and got to head home. But every box was more impressive, enjoyable, and interesting than I had expected.