Day 2- Jamestown and Williamsburg

Monday- April 9th. We started out at Jamestown. Jamestown was the first permanent English settlement in the New World. We took a tour of all the village settings (docks, Indian village, settlement) and the museum. Here are some highlight pictures:

I was pretty shocked at how small the ships were. I can't imagine coming across the ocean in this! (and this is the BIGGEST of the 3 ships!) Also, we were told that the passengers were essentially treated like cargo, never coming up to the deck of the ship, not being able to get out and walk around, etc. I don't think that I would have had it in me to be a settler in the new world!

The buildings are made in the old English style. Mud and wood. In England, there was little wood to be used, so they used the Mud style. In the new world, they still used the mud and wood style, not because they were lacking wood, there was PLENTY of wood here, but because this is what they knew how to build!

I made Hannah pose with the dogwood tree. I LOVE dogwood trees, we had one in our front lawn in Portland. I wonder if Dogwood would grow in Santa Maria?

After lunch we headed to Williamsburg. I had some trouble with Hannah on the bus, but they had a great tool for me to use as soon as we got off the bus in Williamsburg! I didn't let them nail her ear to the stocks, like they would have done in the past, but I did make her suffer through yet another picture!

Williamsburg is a town where people actually still live, but they block off the streets to autos from 8 am to 10 pm, so if you live in one of the 125 houses occupied in Colonial Williamsburg, you have to walk during the day! Or you can take one of these, but of course you need to pay AND make reservations, so that might not be too convenient to get to the store.

With no auto traffic and buildings like this, it is easy to imagine how Colonial residents of Williamsburg lived. It also helps that there are lots of people dressed in Colonial garb, to give you the "real" experience.
There are people who are dressed up, but from our time, and there are people who are "actual colonial residents". If you should strike up a conversation with one of these residents, they may stop you and say "pardon me, but what is this "dude" that you are speaking of? I have not heard that term before." Or they may ignore you all together if you don't address them in a language that they would recognize.

Hannah bought a hat (she HAD to have it.. although a few days later she confessed that she may never wear it again.. we decided that she could hang it on her wall.) and of course I made her pose for a picture!
After dinner, we took a "Lantern tour" of the town. Each leg of the trip, the guide would let someone else carry the lantern.. well you KNOW that Hannah wanted to do that! And she made it happen!
We had another great day, it was long, but very fun. We got back to the hotel at about 10pm.. off to bed, breakfast is at 7am!