Yahoo . . . Dave is flying in tonight and we are so excited to see him!! Also I have to start today’s post with saying that the Williamsburg KOA is the best yet! We’ve had all different types of KOA’s . . . big, little, rural with dirt, close quarters with cement, clean, beautifully green, good & bad service, and one with extremely dirty bathrooms. This KOA’s information/guest service building is an adorable log cabin and the grounds are rural but very clean & beautiful. They have the best playground area & pool that we’ve seen, and they have a giant blowup pillow for the kids to jump on. It was great motivation to get them going this morning that if they got ready quickly they could go jump on it . . . and boy did it work.
Today on the agenda is Jamestown & Yorktown. Jamestown was the first settlement of the new world and was led by Captain John Smith. Most everyone has heard of Pocahontas the “Indian Princess”, even the young kids who have seen Disney’s animated movie know of her story . . . well this is where her story begins with the English settlers.
We first watched the 15 minute movie and then browsed through the incredible gallery of artifacts and displays of the timeline of events during the Jamestown era. We were dying because we couldn’t take pictures.
Next we met an Indian docent to guide us through the Indian village.
Every Indian chief was called a Powhatan, so instead of trying to pronounce the complicated Indian tribe name the English people would just call them Powhatans. We walked through a hut where they displayed all the types of skins & tools they would have for hunting & fishing
In the center of the village is where they had their kitchen. We learned that the fire would be started in the morning and as they collected fish & game and it would be added to the pot throughout the day to make a type of stew. The Indians didn’t have a set time to come and eat . . . they would just come & get some food when they were hungry throughout the day and then go back to work.
Next we were ushered over to the Jamestown part of the settlement with a new docent dressed up in English attire.
He walked us through the “Common House” where they all gathered to cook & eat and then the “Store House” where they stored the food & tools.
Then we went into the church where they were all REQURIED to gather to worship the Lord. They had strict rules about church attendance . . . the first time they missed church their food rations were cut . . . the second time, they got a whipping . . . and the third time, they were hung! Wow, what a difference from today! I would imagine that nobody missed church! J
As we walked out of the fort down to where the ships were, we walked out of the fort walls, which is a wooden fence surrounding the colony in the shape of a triangle. I’ve had my kids draw this picture of the fort walls so many times that it brought back many memories of homeschooling them when they were little . . . Aw . . Sigh . . . a little nostalgic moment!!
The three ships that the Jamestown people sailed over on were at the dock on the James River . . . The Susan Constant, The Godspeed, and the Discovery. The Godspeed was not actually there because it was in dry dock to get some work done on it, but The Elizabeth was there and it was the only ship that actually sailed all the way from England, and the docents were very proud of that fact. We were able to climb aboard each one and imagine how they lived in such tight quarters for 5 months. It made us feel better about our small quarters especially after we were told that each person had to bring their own ceramic pot to go to the bathroom in, and they could only empty it overboard when it was full. YUCK!!
On the James River!
Right before we were getting ready to leave they were doing a canon firing demonstration which was fun to watch for the kids.
After the canon firing, we left to travel over to Yorktown. We followed the signs through the beautiful Colonial Parkway roads which they called the Colonial Triangle (Jamestown, Yorktown, & Williamsburg). It followed along the James River and was beautifully landscaped with greenery – I told Shelley it looked like the roads around Disney World . . . immaculate & beautiful!
We arrived at Yorktown, showed our tickets, and went right out to the encampment area.
The demonstrations going on today was the rifle shooting and the medicine doctor. Since there weren’t many people there at Yorktown we had a private viewing of each one – quite a nice change from Jamestown which was packed with people. After the artillery man shot the rifle twice, he let us each hold it to see how heavy it was. Wow . . . it was a whole lot heavier than I expected.
We finished up Yorktown with the beautiful gallery displaying the entire Revolutionary War victories and losses. Yorktown was truly a brave, intelligent, and amazing battle to win a great victory that would begin this country’s freedom . . . HIS Story!!! I loved seeing each of these places.
We had 3 hours to kill before we picked up Dave at the airport, so we decided to take a stroll through adorable & beautiful downtown Yorktown which is right on the banks of the James River. Every building was brick and old fashioned colonial style.
As we walked down to the water we noticed that Ben & Jerry’s was having free scoop day, so of course we had to get into that line, and we all picked out a yummy ice cream. They were raising money for a Christian missions type organization, so of course we added some $$ to the pot.
We took many pictures all over the town, and on the beach which was on the Chesapeake Bay and then headed out to go get Dave.
We still had a little time before we needed to get him so we found a Costco to do a much needed shopping run. . . Hallelujah . . . food. The kids are eating everything very quickly and we don’t have much time for shopping or preparing food, so major snacks is the key!!
Yeah . . . .Time to pick up Dave!! We arrived at the Richmond airport and he was waiting outside for us. It was a great relief to see him and know that he made it here safely and actually that we have too. Next one to fly in is Brandon on the 15th. He flies into Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and I’m very happy that we all came to a compromise and figured out that he could come for 3 weeks. I know that he won’t regret it and neither will we! Praise God!
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