Our original plans called for us to visit Colonial Williamsburg the day after Memorial Day. After talking with people familiar with Colonial Williamsburg, we decided we hadn't allocated enough time for this exciting destination. For future reference, we would need plan two days minimum. Instead, we decided to visit Jamestowne National Historical Park.
This ended up being an extra good choice because Graham woke up in the middle of the night not feeling well. We were slow to leave our hotel in the morning to make sure he was feeling better (he was) and because our sleep had been interrupted. As it was, the late start meant we barely had enough time to visit Jamestowne. (Nellie is upset in the picture below because she didn't want her brothers crashing her photo op.)
The kids got their Jr Ranger booklets (this is another spot where we had to purchase the books) and got right to work. We discovered a Ranger Talk was beginning shortly, and after being assured the talks were about 30-40 minutes, we left the Visitor's Center for the Jamestown settlement.
The Ranger gave an excellent presentation and most of us really enjoyed listening to the fascinating story of the settlement of Jamestown. Some of us preferred to play in the dirt.
The 30 minute talk soon stretched into 60 minutes and then 75 minutes. Nellie, Graham, and Thane completely lost interest around the 40 minute mark and wandered around playing with ants, but Aubree and Bryce were troupers. In the end, Aubree commented, "I loved it! It was so interesting."
Since the talk went so long, by the time it was over we were all super hungry. We trekked back to the van for sandwiches with a side of annoying flies. Then we made our way back again to get the Jr Ranger badges and explore the settlement site a bit more. The kids were extra excited when they were given two Jr Ranger badges because it's an anniversary year for Jamestown.
The history of Jamestown really is fascinating, and one of the most fascinating parts is that they are still learning things everyday. Around the park we found archaeologists hard at work excavating. They were happy to stop what they were doing and interact with visitors. They even pulled out a bag of recent (within the last week) finds to show the kids!
We could have stayed there for a few more hours; there was still so much to see and learn. For example, we barely learned anything about Pocahontas.
These palisades were built in the same place as the original walls. The original settlement was surprisingly tiny. They also didn't have any women for many years, a choice that had serious consequences for the outcome of their efforts.
We left Jamestown around 3 to head to visit friends from when we lived in Fairwood, Steven and Caitlin and their four kids. It's been seven years since we've seen them, but you wouldn't know it with how quickly everyone reconnected. After a delicious dinner, Aubree and Bryce joined their family to watch McKenna's orchestra performance. Their son Levi stayed with us, and they waged epic sword battles in the basement.
When everyone returned from the orchestra concert, Aubree, McKenna, Steven, Caitlin, and Bryce put on their own private concert. It was so much fun to hear them all playing together. Even Nate joined in on his saxophone!
We slept well, had German Pancakes for breakfast (a fan favorite for sure), and were on our way early for the next exciting stops.
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