Williamsburg and the Historic Triangle

We got back last night from a vacation in Williamsburg, Virginia. We had a wonderful time. We spetnt 3 1/2 days in Historic Williamsburg, a day and a half in the Jamestown Settlement, and a half a day in the Yorktown Victory Center.

The girls have the whole week of Thanksgiving off from school this year. Since Tacie can't have any unexcused absences from school (she'd get a zero for anything missed those days), we do all our traveling during the school holidays and this week-long holiday gave us the opportunity to travel a little further from home.

We drove up to Williamsburg on Saturday, the 22nd and stayed for the whole week at the Historic Powhatan Resort. It was a perfect location, centered between Williamsburg and Jamestown - only a couple of miles from each. We bought week-long passes so we could go to any of the historic venues in the area as much as we wanted all week long.

Sunday and Monday we spent in the Williamsburg. It was chilly and we all wore our warmest clothes but it was a little chillier than we were used to! After Williamsburg closed, we stopped at the outlet mall near there and bought long underwear, warmer gloves, and turtle neck shirts.

Williamsburg - We really enjoyed all of the town. It has been recreated to what it looked like just before the Revolution. We spent Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning trying to see everything! We strolled through the 18th century houses and shops. We spoke with the townspeople (all in character and in costume) about what life was like for them. We ate some good food at the taverns.

Tuesday, we started the day at the Yankee Candle factory store. The girls and I got to dip candles. It is a huge mall-like store, with all the candles you could hope for plus toys, Christmas decorations, gifts, Santa in his sleigh, and a room where it really snows!

Jamestown - After lunch Tuesday, we headed for the Jamestown Settlement. The actual Jamestown is an ongoing archaeological dig but nearby, there is a huge museum and living museum to see. First of all, the galleries are huge and wonderful. There are life-size dioramas depicting the Powhatan native village, an English town, and an African village. Then there is information on the boats, and what life was like after all three groups came to Jamestown.

Outdoors is the living museum, built to be just it was here in 1607 with the founding of the English colony. We took a 90 minute tour but didn't have much time for any more the first day. We came back again on Thanksgiving Day when they had a cooking demonstration at each of the three areas outside - Powhatan village, Jamestown fort, and waterfront ships. The museum has built dwellings, buildings, and ships that are like the people built from the same materials and techniques they would have had available in 1607.

First you come to the Powhatan village. There are costumed interpreters who told us about what life was like before the English settlers came. They were roasting a duck over the fire, cooking squash soup in clay pots in the coals, and corn cakes in the ashes. The dwellings are filled with the furniture and tools the Powhatans would have owned.

In the next section of the park, is a whole recreated fort like the English built. It is full-sized with a number of typical buildings, again built as they would have been in 1607. There were houses, barracks, storerooms, a smithy, and a church. It was just like stepping back into the 17th century. Here they were butchering a pig, making sausage, and salt pork. They were baking pies and demonstrating muskets. The kids liked the chickens and rooster. There was a set of armor that Talia got to try on!

Beyond the fort, was the waterfront with 3 fully functioning ships that are the same size and configurations of the three ships that first came to Jamestown! The Susan Constant, the Godspeed, and the .... They were colorful and had officers and seamen on them to explain how things worked. There was an artillery demonstration on the dock that shook everyone for miles, I'm sure.

Yorktown - Yorktown is of the same type of living museum as Williamsburg and Jamestown but on a much smaller scale and really depicting life during and after the Revolutionary war. Here a man demonstrated an army "kitchen". There were more musket demonstrations. There was a battlefield surgeon with his implements and army tents. The museum here was good too but much smaller than at Jamestown. There was a special area just for kids to try on costumes.

Outside, they have a recreated farm from 1780, where most of the patriots would have gone home to. There were more things to try out and people to speak to from this time period.


We had a wonderful trip and there is more to do for the next time we go back - the plantations, the folk art museum in Williamsburg, Monticello not too far away.

Perfect weekend

We had a nearly perfect weekend as far as I'm concerned! We didn't go anywhere and got some things accomplished that had been neglected for some time.

Saturday I worked on cleaning up the piles of papers in my kitchen. Tacie worked on a project for school. Talia played and read her Unicorn Chronicles book. Tacie and I went and had our hair cut in the afternoon. Afterwards, she drove us home, about 13 miles. Later, Talia had a friend over to play with their American Girl dolls (it was supposed to be their book club meeting but only one ended up being able to come). Bruce worked on some metal art projects at the old house (involving welding).

Sunday morning I read the paper over breakfast. Tacie, Talia, and I played the American Girl board game (Tacie won!). Tacie finished her school project and felt great relief to get it done before the end of the day! It is a poster that illustrates a book she read, "Johnny Got His Gun". The girls played together for a while.

I spent all day cleaning out the basement. After spending so much time helping Mom with hers, I was inspired. You would truly not believe the amount of paper and craft supplies I have down there. I'm not done but I've made significant progress and found a few things I'd been looking for. Bruce went skydiving; when he got home he played Barbies with Talia.

It is a good thing that Tacie's school isn't far from my office. Her teacher instructed her not to roll the poster so I needed to drive her today.

Today Talia has a busy day. This morning she had Recorder Ensemble practice. After school, she has Chorus practice. After Chorus, she's helping out a Brownie troop as part of the Junior Aide patch she's earning (she planned a tongue twister activity to do with them). Tomorrow will be even busier for her. It is yearbook picture day so she has to take both her Art Club and her Chorus T-shirts. Then, after school, she'll be working with another Brownie troop. This time she'll be teaching them some Chinese calligraphy. (Part of what I'd been looking for in the basement were our calligraphy brushes and special paper).

Beginning again

I've been writing in this blog sporadically for over 3 years now. My sister, Lynne, is moving to Montreal next month so I'm going to start writing at least weekly to share our times with her.

This week:

I attended a Girl Scout Service Unit meeting (organization of the 40 troop leaders from the nearby schools). I am on the Service Unit team as the Event Coordinator. We're planning a big "World Thinking Day" event in February and a Cookie Rally before that. I'm trying to get a troop to plan a father/daughter event in the spring.

At work, I've been going to lots of meetings, as usual. The development process we've started using, called Scrum, dictates daily 15 minute meetings but I can't seem to keep them below 30 min. with my 8 members. Today I'm taking my recertification for First Aid/CPR. I am part of the Emergency Response Team at work. I figured I'd volunteer since I have to be certified already to be able to take Girl Scouts anyplace. They're bringing in a trainer and it'll be from 12:30-6.

I've been working with other Girl Scout leaders this week to find places for my troop to volunteer and help other troops. They're going to earn the Bronze Award (think Eagle Project for this age/sex) and as part of that need to help with younger girls at three meetings. Since I have 15 girls I've been scrambling to find 45 places for them to help out. It's been interesting working with the other leaders. Some are ultra-organized and some fly by the seat of their pants.

Tacie has had a lot of projects this week at school. It is interesting that all her grades are posted online by the teachers very regularly. Sometimes I know what a certain test or project grade is before she does. Bruce took her to the doctor on Wednesday to check her arm. The cast had come off 3 weeks ago and she's wearing a removeable brace. The pins will stay in until spring break or next summer as it'll require surgery to remove them. Tacie and her Girl Scout friends are all excited that next week is the Premiere of the movie, "Twilight". We're all going to see it Friday night before we go out of town.

Talia is so active this term. I've been taking her early to school because she's an alternate on the News Team that does the morning announcements on the closed circuit TV every day. She's enjoyed that. She's also in chorus which practices every Monday and Art club which meets alternate Thursdays. She also just made the Recorder Ensemble and will be performing with that group. She's started her own book club with several special friends. They started reading "Series Unfortuante Events" but they decided the books were just too sad. Now she's reading the Unicorn Chronicles and is totally in love with unicorns. This is the biggest book she's ever read with over 400 pages. In addition to all of that, she got straight A's in the first term for the first time so I bought her another American Girl doll to celebrate.