Historic Yorktown, Virginia - Day 7

Well, since we were all dragging today, we didn't get out of the house until noon.  We did manage to get a decent breakfast down before we left.  However, since we are trying to eat all of the food that we bought, we only had one piece of bacon a piece!  Needless to say, I was starving in about an hour and half after leaving for our next destination....ugh!

This ride was only about 20 minutes  from where we have been living.  So, it was alright that we left as late as we did. The town was established in 1691, but the battle was fought for independence in 1781.
    

if you look into the distance, you will see some hills behind the flag......those are there on purpose....

under all of those hills are bottomless basket type things that are about 3 feet wide that the soldiers used to shore up the ground and keep it stable for their protection against enemy forces.  They worked night and day digging holes, making "galbions" (that's what they are called), and they are still in the ground to this day..... 

isn't that amazing?  I have served in the military before and I can assure you that our fox holes did not look this polished! The battlefield was huge and spanned 14.5 square miles.   

 We went inside to see if we could use my national pass to get in and it was accepted.  So, we didn't need to pay for anything this time around.....yay!....:-)

the first thing you see when you turn the corner is this big ship sitting in the middle of the floor....ha.  Alrighty then.  I'll just have to go inside and see what's what......

These cannon were recovered from sunken ships that had been used in the war...

At first glance, I had not a clue what those thingees were hanging from the ceiling and then I realized they were rolled up hammocks.......    

this is a replica of what a dining area would have looked like......

I tried to get as close to the glass as I could to take pics of these scenes without casting a glare.  The British had been so defeated that the entire army marched to the surrender field to lay down their weapons.   They were flanked on either side by American and French forces.

These are other scenes from that battle......



it was rather dark and my camera had problems focusing.  Had I used a flash, it would have made a glare...

and of course the officers had to discuss the progress of things......

One last bang for good measure.....ha

As I said, the lighting was terribly dark.  I guess to help preserve some of the history and protect some fabrics from deterioration.  This is the actual tent the George Washington stayed in.  It is said that he cut pieces of it out and gave it away since several pieces have been found in private collections and been confirmed to have come from the same tent.
 

Here is a description of the tent.  It is difficult to read, but interesting if you can get it figured out.....

She must have been treated very well to have done this for them.......although, a slave.....:-(

Well, I was starting to feel famished since we were a little lean on the protein for breakfast.  We decided to stop at a coffee shop and get a snack and something to drink.

We saw this memorial along the way.....

The York River was very beautiful and the sky seemed very clear.....

We found the coffee shop......cool beans.....:-)

 

 It was a nice place, but nearly deserted since most of the tourism season was over....

 A quick look around found this guy hanging around the window........

by now, I was running on fumes and asked Chris to get me something FULL LEADED...

 after regaining my strength and finishing my muffin; which I ordered as well....we carried on.....this time walking and taking in the scenes.......:-).  I loved this bridge.

This almost looks like a little village, but of course the whole place looks like little villages....:-).  Very cute....

We did in fact drive to this little place along the shore.  I thought it was interesting as it appeared that someone may have lived there at one time.....

a little further along we ran into a bronze statue of George Washington.  Chris decided to give him the eye.  Neither of them moved.... well, until Chris did...ha.  George won! haha.  He was STILL staring when we left him....hahaha....

As we strolled along the coast line, we noticed that the bridge was open.  A local gentleman was standing near by and informed us that the bridge had malfunctioned and that the cars had been sitting waiting for it to close for some time.  I was glad we were not the ones stuck up there.......geeze...
    

 

while the other were gazing at the malfuntioning bridge, I grabbed a few more pictures....

the cresanthemums were just strickingly beautiful......

and then, Presto!  The bridge was closing and the cars were able to pass after a few minute of waiting for the gate to raise.

We noticed that there were a few more shops in the area that we wanted to check out......

When we get in the door, the first thing that greets us is the tea party......

and a life size reminder of what your home would have looked like after the British took it over for their own use during that time.  To not allow them to take control of your home during that time would have been considered an act of treachery for which you could have been shot.   Have a seat boys, says I.  Can I get you anything.....ha 

 

These are replicas of what a common table setting would have looked like for the soldiers...

Chris decided to join the inserrection and dump his tea off the boat......hahaha

These guys look creepy.....my goodness....

Then I decided to revolt too!  Down with Taxes!!

 ok, time to go on.......hey look.....:-).  SCOOOOOTERRRRR!!!!  It's a Stella 125cc I believe.....:-).  cool beans.

We ventured inside and discovered that the rented Segways and also had this used one for sale for $4,400.  There was a  lady inside who was up in years.  She was behind the counter, but explaining to me that she had her eye on the used one and was saving her money to buy it. She also told me that she rides them and finds the quite easy to operate.....hummmm.  Problem is there are restricted to 8 miles an hours.  After riding a 250cc for 1 full season, I just couldn't see it.
   

Well, the time was getting on and our coffee and snack had worn off long ago.....it was time to get in the car and head to the store for some dinner.  The scenery along the way was beautiful......

and wouldn't you know......The Yorktown Pottery Store "found us"......:-).  I have no idea why they call it that because there was all manner of stuff inside.  This is the view to my left.




this is looking to the right.  It seemed that we had "been found" by another village!

after having filled our eyeballs with eye candy as far as they could see, we decided to head to the store and get some things for dinner.  We also needed to finish what we already had in the freezer.....yikes!

Well, I managed to get everything cooked, but then we still had too much food!  We will be finishing the rest for breakfast!  Yep, meatloaf, mac and cheese, broccoli and carrots for breakfast; with a healthy dose of vanilla icecream.....hahahaha.  I will know better next time. 



Tomorrow is our last day as our plane leaves at 6:00pm.  But we do have the whole day ahead us.

Stay tuned!

Man Your Battle Stations! - Day 6

It rained some time in the night as the weather man predicted.  But we had already determined to something that would call for us to be indoors today.  Our adventure would take us one hour away to Norfolk, Virginia....:-)  And we can see who was ready to go first! ......:-)

We took the highway all the way there.  No scenic roads since we had a late start.  Once we arrived, things starting getting interesting.....

I mean how would you like to have this monstrocity sitting .....well, I guess wherever you can fit it!  One could get lost on this thing.....ha; not that I would mind that......:-).

And just down the road was our destination for the day.......Hang on to your hats, folks.  You are about to approach a beast!

There was a gift shop immediately inside the doors.....Which I was tempted to visit, but figured we had better wait until we were leaving......that big thingee on the right side is a fish tank with all manner of swimming creatures in it.



and this is where we were headed........The Battleship USS-Wisconson constructed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1944 served in World War II and now sits in the harbor at Norfolk, Virginia.  This thing puts that yacht to shame in regard to size.......geeze!  I mean, look at the size of this beast!  I couldn't even get the whole thing in my lense and had to take the picture in sections......  This battlship housed 2,700 sailors and officers combined..
  

But before we go on board, there was something else we had to see. We had time since the tour of the ship was done every thirty minutes and we had just missed one by five minutes.  We ventured into the little museum they had available.  This was in the hallway entrance....

Hey!!  This is getting better all the time......:-).  I just made....some kind of officer....haha

Life is good!  I just got promoted to captain....or something...see?

a toast to celebrate my new found career......:-).......Way to go...me!!

Cheers, ya'll.......:-)

uh oh........

Notice the fire in his eyes......haha.... sorry about that.  I couldn't find the "red eye" correction thingee....

Our thirty minutes went very quickly.  So, we had to hurry to the ship for our tour.......
Just look at this thing!  And that's the backside.......gee wilickers!

that's the front half.......

and this thing was mounted on the building of the Nautical Museum that we had just come out of.  I have no clue what kind of plane that is......

And we're not even on the thing yet.....we have to walk up this huge ramp thingee......Somebody is excited......:-).

Once we made our way inside, we met up with our tour guide.  A very knowlegeable gentleman named Skip Chamberlain.....He did not actually serve on this vessel, but was quite a historian and knew a lot about fire directional stuff.  We were required to wear those hard hats while navagating through the ship.  Everything hung low and one surely would have cracked their head like an egg......

this is the back of the room where we were given our briefing.  It served as a dinning room for the officers as well as a triage room for casualties....if you can imagine that.  The appliance were those that were used during that period.  These guys ate off of china even though their surroundings were not fancy.  They had the best of everything while on these voyages.  Well, at least the officers did.....:-).

The table with the white cloth on it served as an operating table.  This was at the forefront of the same room.  The gentleman on the far left was known as "Doc" who actually did serve on this very ship during the war in this very room....:-).

We started our VERY NARROW climb through the hatches up to the various decks of the ship.  This was our first stop.  It would have been the captain's quarters.  Not too shabby, I guess....

  

Now, about that toilet.......uh......where exactly do the "content" go?

This is a private kitchen where a chef is assigned to this officer and selected by a board to serve in this capacity.  He is on call 24 hours a day and is an expert in culinary affairs.....not your everyday cook by an stretch of the imagination....

and this was the private dinning area where dignataries would come to visit and eat and discuss "stuff"...all three rooms were equipped with pass through windows for convenience....

The next thing our guide explained to us, was that since the ship was so large it was quite possible and likely to get lost until you knew your way around.  Once there were too soldiers who met briefly and wanted to stay in contact with one another.  The only problem was, they were assigned to different area, but didn't know how to find each other.  So, they took advantage of the onboard postal system. One sent a postcard to the other saying that he would meet him the following week at a specific place at a specific time.  And that is how they met up each other again! haha. 

These numbers were to assist a soldier in identifying his whereabouts should he get hurt or lost on board and need to get direction to someone to help locate him.   Don't ask me.  I still don't know where I was!

We climbed up to another deck and this was the view from where I stood........

Nice -eh?

This if forward facing.......Look at the size of those guns!  They could shoot up to twenty seven miles and their weight was that of a small car.  But there was "plan b" for when the guns would not reach the target.  They used "drones" that could go much futher.

This was the Admiral's chair.  No one was allowed to sit in it except him.  Even if he was not around.....it was a punishable offense......

and this tiny space is where the Admiral and 16 other crew members would retreat to if they were in danger or under threat of a take over.  I guess you would just pray that the ship was not going down as the door was actually like that of a bank vault door.....and was opened and closed by hydralics...

 and this thingee was designed to show what angle the ship was sitting on.  It works something like a carpenter's level.  If the bubble in the middles swings to 25%, the ship was going to roll onto its side and never recover.
 

this one was kinda weird in that it showed the depth (I think)....Sooooo, how does that work??  I guess if you are sinking straight down, it will come off center......??
got me.  I have no clue....ha

Chris is flaberghasted over the enormity of the beast.........

The ship had its own language too.......

After making our way through various twist and turns, we said goodbye to the USS Battleship Wisconson and made our way back to the Nautical museum.  We had not been to the third floor and only had about an hour to see what was there.  We started the ride up on an escalator......

  

  to my surprise, it appear to be mostly set up for children even though there were some other things there as well......

I walked out on the deck and saw this........

 My husband would do very well as a guide  in a "please touch" museum......:-)

He even does the sound affects.....haha

Everyone was getting hungry and wanted some coffee. So, we made a quick trip around the floor looking at posters and then decided to head back to the lobby. We ran into this on the way back.  It's call a "Rack".   Every thing a salior owned was contained in this compartment......Have I been saying "soldier" instead of "sailor" all of this time???

geeze...  must be all that water!



yep..... that's him.......ha

gotta love him.....haha

even when he tried to sneek in naps where he shouldn't!.........:-(

We finally got out of the museum and headed toward a convenience store for some coffee.  I decided on rootbeer soda and some chips instead.......

  We made our hour trip back to Williamsburg, cooked dinner and settled in to watch the move, "The Iron Lady" before turning in for bed.  It was an exhausting day.....at least to me.  


Stay tuned.....