[This is the next installment of our East Coast trip to DC & NY this past June. Day 1 here. ]
Early Morning
When the alarm sounded the start of Day 2 it took everything I had to drag myself out of bed. Though it was 6:30AM local time, my internal clock was screaming at me that it was 3:30AM – not a time to be awake. To further add to my punishment I hadn’t managed to get to sleep until just after 1AM local time, so I was really hurtin. And even worse was the fact that the air-conditioner in the room was barely adequate. I slept in the bed next to it and had it running full blast all night and was still not very comfortable.
Sleep didn’t seem to be a problem for Milee but it still took a bit to get her going. Considering how early she crashed this surprised me some, but I also wager her internal clock was a bit off as well.
First thing on the agenda was breakfast at 7:00AM. It was a buffet hosted by the hotel and it wasn’t too bad. I had some scrambled eggs, sausage, toast and juice. I don’t recall now exactly what Milee ate, but for the entire trip she was pretty picky about her meals and usually ate “rabbit food” (as she called it). While not an official vegetarian, she avoids most meat in general. So most breakfasts consisted of muffins, toast, bagels, juice, and sometimes cereal.
After breakfast we quickly returned to our room to get our stuff. The trip itinerary only had us staying in the Williamsburg area for a single night/day. The remainder of the trip was to be spent up north in the DC area. We therefore finished packing and I snapped a few more pictures of the room.
Milee was a little bored waiting on me to take pictures.
Jamestown Settlement Museum
With everyone loaded up on the bus, we departed for our first official tour of the day: The Jamestown Settlement Museum.
First thing to note – it was already very warm at just after 8:00AM, and the forecast for the Williamsburg area called for a high of 107 degrees and around 70% humidity by early afternoon. Though a water 
bottle was on the packing list, we didn’t bring one. I figured I’d buy one later instead, but hadn’t yet had a chance. Thankfully our bus driver decided to stock up on bottled water, which he kept ice cold in a huge ice chest where all the luggage is stored. He generously allowed everyone to take a bottle in exchange for $1.00, which turned out to be a great deal compared to the vending machine prices we encountered later. Little did I know how many dollar bills I’d be forking over to our fine bus driver throughout this day/trip.
Water now in hand we all headed to the back of the museum to meet our tour guide.
Thankfully there was shade on this side of the building. Everyone gathered up, divided into groups, and off we went. (While waiting, I took loads of pictures. Be sure to check more of them out via the slideshow link at the bottom of this post.)
This museum was great. It is a re-creation of the original Jamestown settlement in the early 1600’s and is located about a mile from the present day Jamestown site. I learned tons about the role Jamestown played in American history - it was fascinating. There is no doubt that much of what I learned throughout the day was stuff I’d studied at one point in school, but it certainly didn’t have the impact that seeing it first hand did. Plus I’m sure my attention span is far greater now than it once was…
For the first part of the tour we enjoyed the cool air-conditioned environment of the building. Unfortunately no photography or video was allowed inside, but trust me, the exhibits were awesome. I only wish I’d had more time to spend looking at everything and reading the details provided. But our tour guide had a schedule to keep so you pretty much had to stay with her or get left behind (this turned out to be a common problem throughout the trip).
Inside we learned about the early English settlers and the African slaves they brought with them. We also learned a lot about the native Indians - the Powhatans. It was also fun to learn more about some of the famous people of this time, such as Pocahontas, where the true story is a tad off from the one Disney tells.
Once we completed the very quick tour inside, we headed out to a re-created Powhatan village (or “town” as the original English settlers called them). Here we met with some of the “locals” and listened to them describe their daily life. We looked at the housing they lived in back then, and boy was I further thankful for modern day air-conditioning! These huts were called “yehakins”.
Moving on from the Indian village we made our way to to the docks and paid a visit to the (fully functional) re-created replicas of the Jamestown “founding fleet” – the Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery. These three ships arrived at the peninsula on the James River on May 13, 1607 – thirteen years before the pilgrims landed in New England. And on May 13, 2007 we celebrated the 400th anniversary of this event!
Seeing these ships was very “cool”, even if it was crazy hot by this point. (more pics in the slideshow linked below).
On that note - here’s a quick video clip taken onboard the Susan Constant. Now before you watch, let me give some context. Prior to this Milee had been giving me a hard time, telling me to “stop complaining” because she didn’t think it was that hot. She was supposedly loving the weather because it had been “so cold” back home. Well, if I didn’t know any better I’d say this young lady was a tad miserable. :)
Yeah, she wouldn’t admit it, but she was hot. :)
The final stop on the Jamestown tour was a visit to the re-created James Fort. Originally built in 1610 it housed everything from guardhouses to the church and played a key role in the survival of the early settlers. We toured the church and learned how the settlers were members of the Church of England and required by law to attend church service twice daily. The church was also used for important town meetings and was the location for the first legislative assembly in 1619.
After the church, we walked around a bit and took pictures.
The grand-finale of the tour was a musket firing demonstration. Loud, but fun.
Jamestown Glasshouse
After leaving the Jamestown Settlement museum we made a quick stop at the Jamestown Glasshouse. This was the early settlers first “industrial factory” where they practiced the art of “glassblowing”.
Today the furnace used to heat the glass is fueled by natural gas, but back in the 17th century that wasn’t an option. They instead had to burn enough wood to construct a two story house and it took weeks to get it hot enough!
I really enjoyed watching these craftsmen work the molten glass into something beautiful. We actually purchased a replica of the colonial pitcher we watched being made this day.
With the glasshouse tour complete, we loaded everyone up and headed for lunch. And where do you guess we ate?? Yep, good ol’ McDonalds. Nothing to be impressed with as it is the same food we all know and love/hate. The only reason it was a hit with the kids was the “all you can eat” clause. They could order whatever they wanted on the menu – no limit. Some of boys took it to the extreme and really pigged out. Milee went with the rabbit food (salad), which was fine with me. I went for a chicken burger variant. It was ok.
Once everyone was well fed, we loaded up and headed out to our last tour of the day – Colonial Williamsburg.
Colonial Williamsburg
So by this point in the day the heat had nearly reached it’s maximum. Just our luck that it turned out to be the hottest day in all of June – it was brutal.
After arriving at Colonial Williamsburg, we divided back into two groups and away we went on our tour. For this part of the tour we had two veteran tour guides. One was 72 years old, the other 77 years old. Walter (our tour guide) was the senior of the two and he started off by warning us (in a joking tone) that he wasn’t as young as Gayden (the 72 year old) and therefore wouldn’t likely be able to keep up the same pace. I laughed at this initially, but then thought that there probably is a big difference between 77 and 72 when you’re that old, so who am I to judge?
Turns out Walter wasn’t totally kidding. Gayden seemed to be far less impacted by the heat and certainly was in better shape. At one point Gayden told the kids to stop complaining about being tired because if he could handle it, then so could they! I really liked Gayden. He was full of great historical data and told so many different stories and provided so many interesting facts that I wish I’d somehow recorded it all. During one of our chats (while taking a break) I asked Gayden if he was originally from the area, and I learned that while he’d been living in the area for a number of years, he was originally from Maine where you get “10 months of snow, and 2 months of lousy skiing!”.
Anyway, the heat was brutal and it certainly took away from the overall experience, but we stuck it out. The first building we toured was the Governor’s Palace. This was definitely the highlight of the tour and due to the heat ended up being really the only thing Walter seemed to be able manage.
The tour of the inside is done by an employee/actress playing the part of the Governor’s housekeeper. She was great and even made the kids promise not to tell anyone (especially the Governor) that she allowed them into the house without his explicit permission. She never went out of character during the entire tour and really made you feel like you had traveled back in time for a bit.
Inside the house has been restored and furnished to look just like it did during Governor Dunmore’s time. And I have to say, the decor was certainly unique. Lord Dunmore seemed to have a love of weaponry and his house reflected it. The walls in nearly all the halls and stairways where covered in rifles and swords. He was certainly prepared for the worst!
Overall the Palace was amazing. As I toured each room I was just in awe at the details in the crown molding and door trim etc. The attention to detail was everywhere and back then it was all hand-crafted which made it even more impressive.
Outside the landscaping detail equaled the interior detail.
I would love to have spent more time enjoying the scenery, but it was just too hot. So hot in fact, that I believe my camera started to overheat during this part of the tour. I ended up with a dozen or more corrupted pictures like the following.
This was the only time during the entire trip that I experienced this problem, so the only thing I can assume is that my gear was just too hot. I know, broken record – but man was it hot and humid! :)
Overall the Williamsburg area was a lot of fun to visit, despite the heat. I just wish we could have spent more time there when it wasn’t so miserable. In the end the heat drove us to blow off parts of the tour and retreat to the shade while we waited for the bus to take us to dinner.
For dinner we ate at a local Italian restaurant named Sal’s. Unfortunately the only thing “all you can eat” was the cold drinks and air conditioning, but that was just fine! The majority ordered pizza while a few, like myself, tried the lasagna or spaghetti variants.
Once everyone was fed and refreshed, we loaded up the bus and took off for Washington DC. From Williamsburg VA it was roughly 3 hours to our hotel, but it felt more like 5 hours. Some managed to catch some sleep, but I just couldn’t get comfortable. When we finally arrived at the hotel just outside DC I was beyond looking forward to a nice cold bed. It was nearly 11pm by the time we got everyone checked into their rooms and down for the night. It had been a very long day.
Slideshow of Day 2
To be continued - Day 3 (Washington DC): Ford Theater, White House, National Monument, Arlington National Cemetery…