Journey to Jamestown

Earlier this spring, we ended up being in Williamsburg for a couple of days and while we were there we did a short field trip to Yorktown, Williamsburg and Jamestown.

 Yorktown Battlefield is on our agenda for our next trip, but we enjoyed a fun evening in the town of Yorktown and some really good seafood.

 

The next day was spent between Williamsburg and Jamestown. Here are the girls with Benjamin Franklin in downtown Williamsburg. This big girl enjoyed walking around this trip.

They had fun checking out the gardens in Williamsburg too.

  The gardens were so pretty this time of year.

 
 Thanks to a kind passerby from Michigan we met on the Green we did get a family picture at Williamsburg.

This was one of the highlights of Williamsburg for the girls this trip: the horse-drawn carriages. We couldn't quite talk their Daddy into letting us take a ride this trip, but they sure did stop and watch every carriage that came by! They even got to rub the horses's noses while they were taking a break between trips.

We had fun trying on the Colonial hats

Brent had to have a picture of the girls trying the stocks too. Apparently, this was something he did when he came to Williamsburg as a child.

Bethany gave it a try for a second and Bekah figured out a different way to spend time in the stocks.

We walked down to the Governor's Palace.

Rachel read us most of the signs along the way so we could learn more about Williamsburg's history.

The big girls also got a chance to try grinding corn in Colonial Williamsburg.

After Williamsburg, we headed to Jamestown for the rest of day. Brent had been to Jamestown when he was younger, but the girls and I had never been. It is fascinating to learn about all the history there!
Before we went into the actual historic area, we bought the girls their passports for the year. This was the first year we had done this. Basically, the passports are a small booklet that you can get stamped at every national park or historic area that you visit that year. The girls were thrilled! Here they are getting their first passport stamp in their books from Jamestown.



We headed into Jamestown by the Tercentennial Monument (300th Anniversary). Try saying that 5 times fast!

Brent and Bekah were looking at the archeological site where they are currently excavating what seems to be the original fort site. We also saw the site of the original church in the Jamestown settlement. According to what we read, the circular spots in the ground are actually where the original fence posts for the 1607 fort were located. So neat!

Here are the girls with the statue of Captain John Smith.

We also went to the Archaerium, which is the archeology museum at Jamestown. It was really neat but no pictures allowed inside.

 Bethany had fun checking out the view from the fort toward the river.

 We had a great trip learning all about the first settlement in Virginia at Jamestown and the start of the New World here. We also enjoyed our time in Williamsburg. Thankful for some family time learning about the start of our great state and country!