Colonial Williamsburg
We returned this afternoon from a weekend trip to Williamsburg to surprise Kelly’s dad for his 70th birthday. After showing up at his doorstep unannounced Saturday morning, we finished breakfast and headed out to see Colonial Williamsburg.
Thanks to a press release from the Governor’s office, I knew ahead of time that Colonial Williamsburg (or “CW,” as it’s known to locals) had free admission to veterans this weekend in honor of Veterans Day. We were able to score free tickets for my family, which was a nice perk.
It was my first visit to CW and I found it charming. It was like walking onto the movie set of a film set in the 1700s, only with modern tourists mixed in everywhere. There are hundreds of restored and recreated buildings which show how people lived and worked in the colonial years before our country was founded. Yet, interspersed were reminders of the 21st century: asphalt streets, fire hydrants, a U.S. Mail truck (though these may soon be extinct), and tourists yapping into mobile phones.
I learned later that only 80 of the 500 buildings were original, with the bulk of them being built in the early 1930s. Also, over 720 buildings built after 1790 were razed to build CW. Once I learned that, I could agree with critics of the museum who complain that the life depicted by the museum is too clean and tidy. I suppose it would be impossible to flawlessly depict what life was really like that long ago, so they do what they can.
This morning we pondered whether to do more sightseeing before heading back home, opting to visit Jamestown. Boy, am I glad we did! The Jamestown Settlement museum was one of the best museums I’ve ever visited! It’s truly world-class. The galleries are spectacular, telling the story of what life was like when the first European settlers landed here in 1607 and beyond. I could’ve spent several hours in there, viewing the artifacts, watching the multimedia presentations, and learning more about the personalities that directly shaped the country we live in today. That’s what was most fascinating to me: to be able to trace America’s birth to the people and events of the 1600s. All this time I had the greatest respect for the roles Boston and Philadelphia played in the founding of America but Jamestown made it clear that the country was on the road to revolution far sooner than that.
On the grounds, we spent time viewing the Indian village before visiting the square riggers docked nearby. It was here that we spent most of our outside time: touring the replica ships and learning about the sailing life from the tour guides. I couldn’t believe that ships as small as these made such an arduous, six-month journey but I was assured that they did. Hardy souls, those settlers.
The replica fort wasn’t as interesting as the ships to me but we did our walking around, trying on armor and watching a demonstration of firing a musket. On the other hand, it was lunch time so we were all in a hurry to eat.
After lunch we said our goodbyes and, after parting, I turned our minivan towards the Scotland-Jamestown Ferry. The closest we got to the Historic Jamestowne site (the National Park Service one) was as our ferry passed it. I wished we had budgeted more time to see the historical site itself but there is already ample reason for us to return and dig deeper into the incredible history in this place.