Colonial Williamsburg and Jamestown and family

T has an aunt who lives about three hours south of us.  T's grandparents flew out to see said aunt and said aunt thought it would be fabulous if T and I came down for a day at the same time.  So we did.  And she was right, it was fabulous.  And not just because I got to watch football on TV for the first time in over a year.

We all visited Colonial Williamsburg.  Yes, that is the place where everyone dresses and acts like they are in colonial times.  Colonial Williamsburg is definitely a pedestrian town.  In the historical areas there are no cars or bikes.  So we moseyed.  The weather was WONDERFUL and it was quite a lovely time.  

Most of the historic homes / businesses / gardens require a ticket for admission.  We didn't get tickets (because they are $38 for one day for one adult! though that one ticket does get you into everything) but it didn't bother us because once you've seen one historic home / business / garden you've seen them all!  Okay, not exactly, but kind of, yeah.  

An old time-y looking man and his oxen in front of some sort of historic building.

The architecture is pretty impressive.  This is in front of the Governor's Mansion.  Please note that the statues on top of the gate are UNICORNS!  Awesome!

Also impressive are the period actors.  They really do speak that way.  We walked past a group of young ladies and overheard their conversation all in old english talking about needlepoint and such.  One of them asked if we needed a laundress.  Fun!  Also fun was Grandpa Stig stopping to have a conversation with one of the actors.  In case you don't know, Grandpa Stig talks to everyone about anything and can go on for quite sometime.  

We were too far away to hear the conversation, but we think eventually the actor made some old english excuse to get away from Stig.  Ha ha!

The stocks were pretty fun, but not realistic.  I mean, where are the masses to shun us and toss things at us?

All of the places you need a ticket to visit are marked with the British flag (you know, from before the colonies rebelled).  Coincidentally, T was wearing his England shirt that day.

There are things to do if you don't buy tickets in Colonial Williamsburg.  There's lots of walking about to do, demonstrations of many old time-y skills, lots of gift shops, and the little fife and drum drill practice (which we missed).  There are also things to do in the non-historic areas of Colonial Williamsburg.  The vibe and shop type in the non-historic areas kind of reminded me of Park City, Utah.  We bought a guitar Christmas ornament at one of the little shops.  Neither one of us plays the guitar, but the ornament looked pretty cool and it was only $6 so we bought it.  Yay Christmas!  Only 72 more days!

Since Jamestown is literally only 15 minutes away we stopped by there, too.  From what I understand admission is usually $15 per person, but because it was a Saturday it was free.   It's pretty crazy to think how much of Jamestown has been preserved and how much still hasn't been discovered.  There are several active dig sites.  I would recommend taking one of the ranger tours here.  The rangers are really knowledgeable (as always - go National Parks Service!).  We didn't take a full tour, but we caught the last 10 minutes of one and it was really great.  

Here's John Smith, who was actually a pretty rough and tumble type dude. 

The original Jamestown was much smaller than I expected.  A good chunk of it is now covered by the James River.  Erosion.  It's real.  

On the Jamestown property (though not part of the original settlement, obviously) is this Washington Monument lookalike.  For the record, T's grandparents were not part of the original settlement, either.  Ha ha.  Up close the fake Washington Monument looks like it has a flat top.  It is actually the Jamestown Tercentennial Monument erected in 1907 to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the settlement.

We headed back to the house for some DELICIOUS grub made by T's aunt and uncle.  This is the only shot I got of everyone.  T's aunt took most of the photos. 

A totally unrelated note: This aunt has a sheltie whose fur was super matted.  They shaved most of his body, but left his head alone.   So basically this dog had the haircut of a lion.  It was hilarious.

I'm SO glad we down to visit.  This was the first time I had really met T's aunt's family.  They are such wonderful people and I really love them.  I'm kind of gushing, but that's just how it is.   The same aunt and uncle were in D.C. last week for a quick trip and we met them for lunch at Serendipity in Georgetown.  Really, they are fun people!  

If you're visiting D.C.  I wouldn't drive down to see Colonial Williamsburg / Jamestown.  If you live a day's drive away, it would probably make for a pretty good short family vacation.