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July 16, 2013

Virginia Vacation - Colonial Williamsburg

Get ready for a ton of photos... on our Virginia Vacation last month we hit up a ton of tourist attractions today we'll explore Colonial Williamsburg.  This is a life-size village with actors in costume and all showing you what early America would be like at the brink of the Revolutionary War.  

We had to get the $40/person tickets and then take a shuttle to the town.  Here's what we found when we go there.

Here's the Tinshop
 The blacksmith shop


Drew climbing on the wagon outside the blacksmith shop.


You never know what you'll spot walking down the street... here was an ox!


And horse carriages...


Fife and drummers...
 Colonials...


We just wandered around the town and tried to find shade and cool areas whenever possible.  It was about 98-degrees with humidity in the 90% range.

We found the old jail in town.  Drew really hammed it up.  Here are he and Dave looking at me standing in the courtyard.


Drew's face cracks me up in that one.

Speaking of cracks... here's Drew pretending to go #2 in the jail's public potty. 


The tour guide said they'd have 70 people in these cells that were maybe 10x10.  Talk about being clausterphobic.

We then wandered to the militia camp where they were doing the canon demonstration.  This was the first of several canon demos we saw this trip.


And Drew holding one of the canon balls.


I was very impressed with Drew, he was intrigued by this demonstration and  wanted to ask the "Captain" some questions.  While I knew the answer and tried to give it to him, Drew had his mind set that he wanted the "Captain" to tell him.  His question was why didn't the wall they fired the canon into explode - well it's because they only put gunpowder in there not the ball.  Of course Drew accepted that answer and not the same one I provided.

We then wandered on and came upon the carpenter's house.  Here's a family shot from the creek behind the carpernter's house.


At this point Drew was getting hot, tired and bored. I have to admit it was a lot of walking around in the heat.  So Dave propped him up on his shoulders and we headed out toward the other side of town.  Beautiful open areas and historic buildings.


And then we spotted the courthouse and the fun stuff for the boys to play with in front...



Those are my little prisoners. Hehe

After sitting in the cool courthouse for a bit, we decided to make our way down to the other side of town and start heading back.  Drew was about done.  Can you tell in this shot with the Colonials?


We decided to wait and watch an upcoming show in front of the Capitol Building.



Finding some shade, Drew was happy to sit and wait.


Turns out it was a show with Benedict Arnold trying to convince everyone to join the Brits and avoid forming a New Nation.

While we were waiting for the show, someone told us to check out the Powell House on the outskirts of town.  Apparently they have interactive things for the kids to do.  And boy do they!

Here's Drew getting put to work...


He had to help the lady pour out the cooking water and scrub buckets.


His reward for working - a lettuce leaf to go and feed the chickens outside in the coop. (the chicken is in the bottom left corner of the picture - it's hard to see through the slats)


After his chores, he could play games inside.. here he's beating Daddy at checkers.


And then he learned how to play letter dice (kind of like boggle)


It's hard to make out what he wrote on his slate... if you look carefully in the upper right corner you can see he found the word "F-A-R-T".  He was quite proud of himself.


Back outside he found a colonial version of bowling.


A side view of the Powell House where he found all these fun activities.



Every building that had something inside to explore had a British flag outside.  For $42/adult we had a great day.  Thankfully Drew was free (for another 2 months) because while it was great, the fact he was free made it even more enjoyable for us and for our pocket books.  Dave and I said while we were really glad we did it, we probably won't do it again - due to cost mostly.

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