Historic Jamestown - Day 3

The morning was brisk!  It was a mere 44 degrees when we left the house after our toast and egg with coffee breakfast.......We got out earlier today as we had much to see....

We were running low on food stuff and also needed to get something for a toothache that seemed to be closing in on me!  I had never seen a Target store with a full grocery section....wow....cool beans....:-)

Now, you would think that as common as tea tree oil is, they would have had some at the store.  There was none to be found.....:-(.  But they did to my great surprise have "clove oil" which would help greatly with the pain.  It doesn't however do anything for bacteria which was my biggest concern.  But at least I wouldn't have to be in pain all day.  Then I saw the maximum strength orajel stuff that I had never used before.  I decided to leave the tiny bottle of clove oil home and take the tube or orajel with me........BIG MISTAKE!  I ached all day........

As we rode along we came across some historic places that were just too wordy for me to rewrite here, but it was a nice view anyway.....ha.

I have always loved the water, but I'm sure the misquitoes are merciless in the summer months....

I did manage to grab a shot of this.......just FYI......

that little speck over there is Christo taking a picture of me.........:-).  Gottcha!.....ha

Now, it was time to get back in the car and make our way to our next destination.....

If you took the time to look around, you would see everything from lovers holder hands to solitary souls fishing on the banks of the James River.....:-).

ahhhh love..........:-)

I didn't take the time to read this, but thought you might want to give it a whirl.... I tried to zoom in, but the closer I got, the more of it I lost around the edges.........sorry....:-(

Well, we still had not made it to Jamestown, so we had to skiddatel down the road....  I caught this pic "on the fly".......

as we approached Jamestown, we began to see small boats.......

And......large boats......

And here we are!  The visitor's center....

Where I was able to use this card for the first time AND get my friends in for free as well.....Yay!  It is a National Parks Pass which gets me and three other adults in for free at most national parks or at least in for a considerable discount.  Today, free was the order of the day.  I had only had this in my possession for less than a week.......:-).  Cool- eh?

We got our entry stickers and set out to see what Jamestown had to offer.  First order of business was to walk across this long bridge over to the town.........

I got caught up in the moment and realized that I was being left behind!  Hey!!!......ha

and there in the distance it flew.......The Union Jack (British flag).....

and then we saw this church that had been there for 400 years complete with a small cemetary.....

Another view of the James River.........

It is quite sobering to think that this is where it all began.....The United States Of America.  While we have made significant progress in area mountain of society, we still have a VERY long way to go.........

I don't much care for obelisk as I know the origin, but I did like this scene since most of it was hidden from view at this angle.........

When we entered the ancient gate of the grounds, there stood a bronze statue of Pocahantas...daughter of Chief Powhatan...

for some reason, several helicopters were flying over head.  I happen to catch this one before it dissappeared into the sky with the others.......

I turned my attention toward the cemetary where people had been layed to rest several hundred years ago....some of the graves had literally been pushed to pieces by the roots of a huge oak tree and had to be restored........

this is what is left of a wall that was excavated as part of the original building........

This is the wall of James Fort......some places on the wall had ditches dug on the other side.  I would imagine that if an enemy breached the wall, they would fall into it!  We still use that tactic today.....we call them trenches and fox holes.........

and this is the main entrance of the church which served as the site of the first continental congress took place......wow.....Congress has definately gotten too big!.....:-(

 This is the enterior.   As I walked through, I was struck by the dichotomy and the hypocracy of the settlers that took place a little over 100 years later. They were fleeing the rule of Britain while literally enslaving other nations and declaring them "real estate".......yep.  You heard me, folks.....":real estate".   All the while praying for God's blessings upon their efforts.......hummmm......

The Union Jack and a cannon that was position to defend James Fort.

These were the barracks that were restored to look like the original frame of the one that was excavated......

by now, my dogs were barking!  Meaning, my feet were hurting....haha.  I decided to take a break......

I absolutely love sitting by the water.........

I headed around to the other side of the church to do a little reading about the graves of the Blair family.... very interesting but too lengthy to write about here...ha.

I wish this picture had come out a bit better, but the sun was facing me and I couldn't get a clear shot.  But, where the crosses are is where bodies had been excavated.  I'm not sure of how the people died; war or desease........

This shot is just across the path from the other.......

after spending far too much time in this area, we decided to set out to find our friends who had long ago gone missing!  We ran into two wells along the way that of course were no longer in use.  this is one of them.

Well, it was time to start our trek back to the parking lot and go and find some dinner.  We skipped lunch so we were all getting pretty hungry by now.

Christo decided to take the road that went around the town site and we came across several of these strange, curvey bridge type thingees.......kinda bumpy though.  So, I was glad that I was NOT on Ms Vickey (my scooter).

and away we went.......

through the town of Berkley........

And back to Williamsburg to have dinner here........

The decor was nice and I was looking forward to a good steak dinner.........so was he! ha

ok, I think he's settling down now........:-).......

We ate our meals and headed back to the plantation..........

Where I settled in with a cup of decaf java and thought about the possibilty of some icecream that was calling my name in the kitchen......:-).

I bid you a good night!

Williamsburg, Virginia Day 2

Well, it seems that I am a day behind on this. But as I promised, here are the pictures of the beauty that is surrounding us that we couldn't get the night before......:-) I thought it might be a good idea to sit out on the back porch and drink some coffee before making breakfast and starting out on our adventure for the day.... 



But after opening the door and feeling the wind, I decided that I needed some mittens and would rather stay inside to have my coffee! But it was a nice view....ha

Now, that's better........

 

So here is "me"....getting breakfast ready and trying to find my way around in this kitchen. Now, I know you are saying; "well, its not that big", but when it's not your own, you have to find where everything is!

I think all of us were tired as we just sat around and chatted for most of the day before actually leaving for our adventure.......:-)

In the mean time, I decided to get outside and snap a few pics of the outside of where we would be staying........:-).  Nice- eh?

Winter is almost here!

by the way, breakfast was very light with toast, eggs and cheese and more coffee of course.....:-).  turned out pretty good for someone who is not used to cooking in stainless steel pans......

and then after a couple more hours of lounging, it was time to go! 

being the picture taking folks that we are, we had to jump out several times and get some pics.....

I took two pics of this, but this one is the nicest one.......

I saw this strange fence thingee that I thought was interesting........

I guess Chris did too, although he seemed to know exactly what it was.........hummm.....

We headed for the visitor's center to find out where things were and what they would cost..... Then we found another parking place that would let us stay for two hours and started out on foot toward the main street.......

Once you got there, you knew you had stepped back in time........it didn't seem to me that the people lived hard lives back then.  At least if you were not a slave.....
I guess they had to keep their doors locked unless they wanted strangers always walking through.......Can you imagine......Person A - "Hello"........ Person B-  "Well, hello to you

too.  Who are you and why are you in my living room" !?......hahaha
 

 They tried to keep everything the way it was back then.  Some of the homes were actually occuppied by families.

The farther we went, the more interesting things became......ha.....The last time I was here was many, many moons ago.  I pulled off the highway to find a rest stop and ran into this town when they were doing some of their inactments....I think I was stonned at the time, so you can imagine my confusion when stumbling across people dressed like this.......and of course they stayed in character and looked at me as if I had arrived in a spaceship!  I quickly left! hahaha

There were lots of shops and things that had been restored and this little outdoor market thingee......but a lot of the places you had to pay to get in.  We figured there was enough to see "for free" that we would just do that.......

This church was undergoing a restoration as well........but you had to pay to go inside I believe.......

And my friends were leaving me!  hahaha.....

what a beautiful place - eh?

These folks were on a paid tour and this guy was doing his thing.....I also heard him expressing his concern about the condition of our nation today and how he hoped that things would change for the better soon.......

There was no lack of carriages and tourist......

Lovely.......:-).  ahhhhh.....

We stopped in this store to see what they had........

They had the most unusual things......and peanuts everywhere!



I mean......really?  Peanut soup????.....yuck!!

Christo was checking out the rootbeer soda...........

I was checking out the pickled.......whatever it was.  I believe it said.....watermelon rind....???

Christo changed hats...........ummmmm.....no, Christo.  Not that one....haha

I decided to pose with some pickled....... something else......can't remember what that was.

and here was the store lady......I told her she was going to be famous, so she had to smile for me.....she didn't though, until I told her she looked cute in her costume...haha

 We continued on down the street.....snapping pictures and enjoying for scenery.....

This is the courthouse.....

This is what they call "The Magazine" which contained cannon ball, gun powder and shot for muzzle loading rifles.  I guess if it ever "blew" it had brick around it to help contain it.  Of course you would have to duck any flying bricks!  Wow, we have come a long way....haha

This is the view on the other side of the street.......

and then Chris decided to stop and speak to this lady who told us all about the armoury....

We were starting to get hungry and decided to walk back on the opposite side of the street on our way back to the car......

This was a resturant/pub which menu started at almost $30 bucks an entree'.......WHAT!?...

 uhhhhh, we'll just keep walking and looking..........

 
this was the last thing we saw at the end of the street heading back to our parking space.  We had just completed the two hours that were alloted for parking. 


We decided on Golden Corral for dinner since it was buffet at a reasonable price........:-).  Now of course this was just the beginning.  I tried the steak (which was too salty to eat) and a few other things which were equally too salty to eat before I settled on this and some more veggies.........

after dinner, we headed back to the house and settled in for the evening.......:-).

stay tuned for day 3!