Party of 6

Our next adventure brought us to Virginia where we explored Williamsburg and Jamestown. We had the kiddos do some research before setting off to where it all began and they learned some pretty interesting facts.

Our first stop was Colonial Williamsburg. Colonial Williamsburg is the original capital of Virginia (after Jamestown). Many of the buildings are original and had been reconstructed, and some of the buildings were rebuilt based on historical data. It is a huge living museum and you felt as if you stepped back into 1699.

The governor’s palace.

We heard Patrick Henry speak about his life. He did tell us about a famous speech where he said, “Give me liberty or give me death.”

Fun maze we went through and the kiddos went through several times.

We toured the governor’s palace. There were 514 weapons, on the wall, 20% are original and the rest were recreated by the gunsmith on site.

We visited with the cooks. We learned that what we call desserts were actually items served throughout the whole meal.

Fife and drum band.

The Capital Building.

Met with the gunsmith.

We stopped at the coffee shop, learned about coffee and chocolate in colonial times, and of course tried coffee and melted chocolate.

Next we headed to the apothecary where we learned about healing agents in Colonial times.

We visited the millinery where clothes were made. (They actually make the clothes that the people working in the museum are wearing.)

We visited the wig shop. Wigs were a must in Colonial time for men.

The tin shop.

We ended our time in Colonial Williamsburg at the bookbinders.

We ended the day with ice-cream.

The next day took us to Jamestown Settlement and the archeology site of historic Jamestowne.

Paspahegh Town.

A squirrel taking advantage of the corn mill in the Paspahegh Town.

We got to see replicas of the three ships that brought the first permanent settlers to what we now call America: Susan Constant, Discovery, and Godspeed.

We visited an English fort at the Jamestown Settlement living museum.

Next up was historic Jamestowne. This is the original site of the Jamestown settlement and is an active archeology site.

And since Historic Jamestowne is a National Historic site, the kiddos had an opportunity to earn their Junior Ranger badge.

Colonial Virginia was a neat opportunity to learn about the first people in America and to see what life would have been like during that time.