On our last day of the road trip we checked out Williamsburg, Virginia. Our first stop was the Jamestown Settlement. It was terrific! This was one of our very top spots on our trip. It was really fun, but also super informative. The kids were entertained the whole time, but Josh and I were also really fascinated by all that we learned.
Checking out one of the homes in the Powhatan Village.
Tate got to wander around and he loved it.
Acting like bears after seeing the bear skin on the wall.
Learning how to make clay pots. The girls were so into this.
Learning how to dry out animals skins and what they were used for.
This was a fun Powhatan game: throwing the dried corn cobs through the rings.
This lady was awesome. She taught us so much about how the Powhatan Indians used different animal bones and cartilage as tools. They had figured out which specific bones of each animal made the best fishing hook, or sewing needle, and so on. So so cool.
Grinding corn.
Tate was a blur, just wandering all over.
Bryn became friends with these two fine young men. They were both so nice to explain things to us about Indian life and life at sea. Bryn thought they were celebrities.
A recreation of the ship.
We loved this guy, who was the expert at all the guns and weapons of the time.
Bryn took furious notes with the information she was learning and she even got a few autographs. She was in heaven! It was like she was at Disneyland :)
This guy taught us how to make fire, which was cool. Bryn was very impressed.
Tate, still wandering.
Learning about what the settlers ate. Basically, they used whatever vegetables or beans they had and made lots of soup! They would make a big pot of soup at lunchtime and that was their big meal of the day. Then they would have the leftover soup as dinner than night and as breakfast the next morning. The girls thought it was so funny to have soup every meal!
After Jamestown we grabbed lunch and then drove about 10-15 minutes to Colonial Williamsburg. We didn't buy tickets to any of the performances/activities because of our tight budget and because of time constraints, but it was fun just to wander around. There were lots of reenactments in the streets, which were fun to see. It was a really cool place.
After Colonial Williamsburg we piled back into the car and made the 6 hour drive back to New Jersey. The kids did amazing in the car for such a long road trip. The girls drew for the majority of the time, while we listened to books on CD. Our favorites were a couple "Magic Tree House" chapter books and a collection of stories by Beatrix Potter. Tate read tons of board books, colored with crayons, played magnets on his little cookie sheet, and just kind of hung out. He did great!
I'm so grateful we were able to take this fun road trip and experience lots of new places in the southeast. What a charming and beautiful region.
