Colonial America

I had so many pictures that I figured they deserved their own page. If you ever have the chance, you need to visit Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown and Yorktown. Wow, you think you learn history in school, well think again! Its like stepping back in time and learning it while it happened instead of someone's idea of what happened. I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I enjoyed the trip! Finally, here are the words to go with the pictures :) Here is a great interactive web-site on Colonial Williamsburg... A very popular place to visit and all within fairly quick driving distance of each other. You can follow the Colonial National Parkway from Jamestown to Yorktown and visit Williamsburg in-between.

This summer they started what they called "Revolutionary City", a 3 hour, 2 day live documentary on how America got it's freedom from England. This is the Raleigh House Tavern, a very popular place for political discussions during Washington, Jefferson and Patrick Henry's time.	One of the Williamsburg "locals" in full dress. It was so fun to see the different styles of dress for the 1750's thru the 1780's that were "walking" around.

The front of Shields Tavern where Jim and I enjoyed a quick lunch while walking around Williamsburg. You have to remember, these buildings are truly (with some help over the years) are the original buildings from the 1700's!	Jim waiting for our order to be called, the cabinet and dishes behind Jim are all antiques from the mid 1700's.

Williamsburg locals, the first may be Thomas Jefferson (not sure, missed the name), middle is Patrick Henry, and the then "Governor" of VA (some French name, sorry, can't remember) that was assigned by Britain. Patrick Henry became the first governor of VA during the revolutionary war.	This is the same three guys, but includes a shot of the Capital where the house of Burgesses would meet. We did a tour of the building and it was very interesting. When we sat on the side where Jefferson, Washington, Henry and others would sit, you could feel them still there in the room.

This is one of the rooms where they would meet in the Capital to talk about the laws of the times. these are original furniture from that time.	There were several different styles of horse drawn carriages that you could take rides in (for a price of course) from the time; from open carriages all the way up to Royal carriages.

This is one of the homes that caught my eye, this is the back yard. It still is used as a private residence in Colonial Williamsburg. Not all of the buildings are open to the public.	This is a formal garden in the back of one of the homes in Colonial Williamsburg. All of the buildings are kept up and maintained to how they looked in the mid 1700's.

The first church of Colonial Williamsburg, it happens to be an Episcopal Church. There is still an old cemetery to the left of the Church. All presidents of the USA have attended this church at least once I was told. They toll the bell for these types of special occasions.	Peyton Randolph's house, I did a tour through here and it was very interesting! He was cousin to Thomas Jefferson and Jefferson met his wife here (she was visiting the Randolph's and was playing the piano when Jefferson was riding his horse by the house). The Randolph's were one of the richest families in Williamsburg, you could tell by the 4 acre piece of property here.

The Governors Palace as seen down the park.	This is the entrance to the cellar at the palace.

I could have toured the palace, but I really only wanted to see the wine cellar :) Here is where the wine was stored.	Here is another room where bottled liquors would have been stored along with other precious commodities.

This is the King's Arm Tavern where we had dinner that night. You had to make reservations, otherwise, good luck!	Here is the two of us at dinner, it was a little pricey but the food was good and was suppose to be pretty darn authentic. We also enjoyed a VA wine with dinner, you couldn't do anything else!

This is one of the larger dining tables in the same restaurant, all originals, or at least original from the period.	We are entering Jamestown, there are two places to visit, Historic Jamestowne where the original site was (and we visited), the other is a rebuilt version of it (we did not visit).

The first church on the shores of America, it had been rebuilt 7 times since 1609, but they still hold church services in it today.	Statue of Pocahontas, good friend to John Smith and she married John Rolf if you remember your history.

Statue of John Smith looking out over Chesapeake Bay.	There are still archeological digs being done on the grounds and they are always finding things. There is a great museum on the property with skeletons and how they figured out who they might be by using DNA and other means of figuring out who they might have been. VERY interesting!

Entering Yorktown, again, there were two different parts, one was the Battlefield, the other was the actual old town. Jim and I visited the Battlefield. We were able to get on the last tour bus and it was a very good way to learn about the Battle of Yorktown.	This is the Moore house where the officers from both sides met to negotiation the surrender of Cornwallis's army.

Surrender Field; on October 19, 1781, Cornwallis's army marched onto this field and laid down its arms. This ended the last major battle of the Revolutionary War and virtually assured American independence. You could almost feel them marching through here as you looked out over the field.	These are some of the actual cannons that were surrendered by Cornwallis's army.

I also visited Shirley Plantation, the first plantation (1613) and is still in the same family! Wow, it was very interesting to do the tour, though we only got to see the first floor, the family still lives there on the 2nd and 3rd floors of the home. LOTS of great antiques (originals) and just wonderful, fun history.	A side view of the home, you can squint your eyes and see a little of James River between the trees, and then the entry to the root cellar. Jim didn't believe in root cellars, so I had to take this picture :) You could see many of the out buildings too (kitchen, tool shed, etc).
I could have spent many more days in the area, there was so much to see and do. There just never seems to be enough time, but we were also watching Tropical Storm Ernesto so that we didn't get caught with our "drawers" down ;) So much history, so little time! You learn so much without even knowing it as you wander through these wonderful historic sites.