So here begins a very long saga! Please don't spend to much time here. I am doing this mostly for our family! I have high hopes of doing an album of some sort, but realistically this may be all we have as a keepsake!!!
September 12~Thursday
Today we thought we would pack a picnic lunch and head the opposite direction from the city, back up the Potomoc to beautiful Mount Vernon! We spent one day last week seeing the house and grounds, but had missed the Grist Mill and Distillery
This is the Grist Mill grinding corn
The Beautiful Grist Mill
The Distillary
September 13, Friday
Today we had an early morning appointment to tour the Library of Congress and the US Embassy.
I was nervous to get the kids into DC by 9:30, in the end we arrived to the right entrance 45 minutes early! Kiddos really stepped up to the plate and had good attitudes most of the day.
Library of Congress
Notice this boys front teeth...hanging by a thread!
September 14~Saturday
We left DC and headed south to Charlottesville. We stopped in Fredricksburg the home of the second battle of the Civil War...kids and I stopped long enough to have a malt at the soda fountain on main street (the same one Eric and I ate at 15 years ago) and I was able to run into a few antique stores. We then headed to Montecello, home of Thomas Jeffereson. This part of the drive was a highlight of our many days of driving. The farms and such that we passed by were breathtaking! We scarfed down a quick lunch at Mitchy's Tavern and then headed up to beautiful Montecello.
Mulberry Row
Flowers were abundant even in September!
Awesome multiple burner stove Jefferson
had installed in the kitchen
The Happy Little Crew
Goodbye Montecello and all the great ideas and inventions within your walls!
September 15 ~Sunday
Toothless Tommy!
This boy lost both his front teeth in one swoop, with sisters screaming he calmly showed me...
The tooth fairy in Virginia must be much more generous than the one in California because this little boy found a $10 bill under his pillow the next morning! (Come to find out that is all I had in the way of cash...but no one needs to ever know) The older girls said it was because he lost BOTH his front teeth at the same moment. Anyhow, because of the kind tooth fairy Thomas was able to buy the toy musket he had been eyeing at every shop this side of the Mississippi!!!
After a very late arrival last night into Williamsburg, I was hoping all would sleep in a bit, but after the aforementioned fun all were awake and hungry! We set off around 11 for Jamestown....none of us had ever been there before, we had no idea what to expect! Since we forgot our National Park Pass and Passport book we decided to do the privately owned reconstructed Jamestown site which was basically three areas...Powantans Village, Jamestown Fort, and the Three Ships that brought the settlers.
The typical hut that Powhatan would have lived in
Girls working on a drying hide, removing the hair
An armored Thomas
One of the coolest things of the day was watching a real Matchlock gun fired...
We had read the book The Matchlock Gun on our drive out, so all were thrilled as we watched this man clean, load and fire it several times!
Thomas loved all the swords and guns!
The solemn churchgoers
I would love a door shaped like this someday!
Looking through the gate of the fort, down to the water where the ships are docked.
Miss Elizabeth!
The Susan Constance, the largest and nicest of the 3 ships.
Kids were shown around the boat by real sailors dressed in costume and they were
invited to help lower the flags. Thomas totally loved this experience.....
Kiddos, learning about how the canons were fired!
September 16-17
We spent these two days in Colonial Williamsburg! Girls could have spent more time. I have to say the people that work within the Colonial part are incredible...they are real tradesmen and women. They were full of amazing information! We learned that all the costumes worn by the people you meet, are made BY HAND for that specific person! So amazed!
The Capitol
The blacksmith shop, busy with their anvils, making things that are used in Williamsburg!
Beautiful gardens everywhere!
Well manicured!
This boy and dirt or sand or rocks...oh me, oh my!
Fascinating hearing what this man said in the weavers shop
Blurry picture but had to include as this was the coolest....
This is the print shop where this man is using an old type set printing
press which he demonstrated and explained to us! We bought some things to take home
that were printed right in this shop!
Colonial Girls!
Thomas checking out the jail...
Just plain sweetness!
Thomas firing his new musket
Oh no....the stocks!
CHARMING!
In the market area, they encouraged kids to play different colonial games...
here Mary is playing the game of graces! Total genius because we went
home with three new games!!!
Another highlight was the end of the day military drill
complete with fife and drum and cannon being fired!
This was so cool we went two days in a row.....
Good bye Williamsburg, you have taught us so much!
Yorktown was dotted with beautiful home!
York Town Monument marking the surrender of the
British and the end of the American Revolution
There are two sights for Jamestown....the sight where replicas of the Indian Village,
Fort, and Ships are built which we visited the first day and the real sight where Jamestown was actually built. This sight was not discovered until recently and is a national park site. Kids worked hard on a scavenger/spy detective hunt which took us Everywhere!
Lizzy and Caroline holding Pocahontas' hands
Thomas with the James River behind and the wall of the fort to his left
Lovely snake spotted as we walked out to the sight
The marshy area was full of turtles too!
The fort as it used to be
After visiting the old Jamestown sight, the kids and I started our
journey up to Philadelphia. We took a route up the Delmarva Peninsula, first taking an amazing
ride on a bridge/tunnel over and under the Chesapeake Bay. I have never been on anything like it!
It was dusk and the sun was setting over the Atlantic Ocean. An amazing drive through the rural
country. If we had left earlier our plan was to visit Chincoteague! But we just couldn't do everything.
By this point I was really missing Eric and having another adult to share the trip with... tired of getting lost, and unpacking the car and repacking the car. The kids missed Daddy, especially Thomas. Eric missed us too. The kids and I talked about how lucky we were that Daddy worked so hard to make our trip possible. This helped the kids (and me) to keep good attitudes throughout this time. They really were big helps...we laughed a lot as we travelled!
The beautiful sunset
~~~Goodnight~~~
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