Colonial Williamsburg

We had such a wonderful day yesterday. Colonial Williamsburg is a must-see for anyone visiting the area. The Colonial capital was moved inland to Williamsburg from Jamestown in 1699. Visiting was like returning to the 1770s and reliving the times when our country's future was being debated. We strolled among costumed townfolk as they went about their daily business. A few of the buildings are carefully restored replicas, but most are the original buildings, meticulously maintained.

We started at the visitor center. The price of admission is steep here at $40 each for adults. Children are less, and we got a 10% discount as seniors.

We took a shuttle bus the 1/3 mile to the actual town, but first stopped off in the restrooms. There, I was charmed by this hexi-tiled wall as I went through the hallway. I would have liked to back up and get a shot straight on, but this was the best I could do. I imagine you hexi people will see a quilt here.

When we got off the shuttle bus, we stopped briefly to watch these gentlemen brewing ale. Throughout our day, we were able to stop and watch some demonstration or another going on.

We were on our way to the Governor's Palace.

It was a constellation of structures and a large garden, but this was the main house.

Just behind me was the gate leading into the gardens. Keep in mind that this was before the Revolutionary War, and so the colonies were still ruled by the King of England. The coat of arms above the gate includes a unicorn on the left, representing Scotland, and a lion on the right, representing England.

We took a tour and were given a very interesting history lesson by this gentleman. He told us many things we already knew, but at least half were things we did not know. For example, did you know that George Washington was considered a very good dancer? Yes, women would stand in line for a dance with the good General.

Inside the front door was a display of weaponry that was quite fascinating. We were told there were something like 570 weapons at various places in the house. These were essentially a show of force to anyone entering the public spaces inside the house. There were swords, muskets, and flintlock pistols.

There's another shot of the coat of arms, and it was displayed at various places inside the house and outside in the town.

Beneath our feet was this floor made of marble. This is not the original structure because the original burned down in the late 1700's. It has been meticulously restored by a member of the Rockefeller family. Enough of the building was left to identify the region where this kind of marble was located, and so it is the same as was used in the original building.

They were also able excavate the foundation to help with sizes and support structures. Also, there were drawings from eyewitness accounts, and so our guide could say with confidence that the structure was nearly identical to the original.

As long as I'm showing you what was beneath our feet, I thought you might enjoy seeing the rugs we walked on as we toured the house.

This was the master bedroom. Pretty fancy, huh?

This was a common way of decorating bedrooms. All the beds and even the cribs had bed curtains. I asked about the absence of quilts, and apparently, that was not the decor of the day. Instead, rooms were decorated in a single color from the wallpaper to the bedding.

Our next stop (simply because it's what we came to next) was this house:

To the rear were some beautiful gardens. On the left was the kitchen garden.

In the middle, some men were restoring the flower garden.

Inside, it looked similar to the Governor's Palace, although not as ornate or quite as large.

I zoomed in on that blanket resting on the bed.

And this embroidery hoop.

I took the image below to show you the square nails used in the wood flooring.

Next along our route was the church. There was no religious freedom, and all the townsfolk were required to attend this one church, regardless of one's faith. Failure meant they were required to pay a fine. If services were missed for more than a month, one could be jailed. Also, this church has held services continuously since the day it opened, and indeed, there were services going on inside while we visited. We didn't go inside.

That is the church steeple in the foreground. It was so tall, I couldn't capture the whole of the building in one frame.

There was also an ancient cemetery there. Many of the inscriptions on the headstones were weathered away, but I did catch these two...buried during the Civil War. Recall that Virginia fought on the side of the Confederacy.

From there, we continued our walk through the streets, finally coming upon this shop.

The sign offered no description other than this name.

Inside, it turned out to be a dressmaker's shop. There were dresses, dolls, and hats for sale inside, along with some displays of sewing tools of the time. Some were simply for looking.

Others were for sale.

Also, fabric! Well. Don't you know I got pretty excited about this. It was available for sale in minimum one-yard cuts, but you could also purchase larger cuts if you wanted.

There were some fat quarter bundles available as well, but they were priced pretty high. The one yard cuts were $14 per yard, and I walked out with this one.

Also, I couldn't resist this book.

Inside are pages of quilting designs, not that I would ever do anything this ornate. Still, I might pick and choose smaller portions of these designs.

The facing page for the page above reads as follows:

From there we walked on, passing by the stocks. I visited Williamsburg when I was a child, and this is the one clear memory of have of the place.

Here, one could be forced to sit on that pointed rail while one's ankles were locked in. The upright appears to be a whipping post.

And we were hungry by then, so we stopped in at a tavern for some lunch.

We were taken up a winding staircase to the dining room upstairs. Charming. Our server was dressed in period dress. Everyone in the town was attired in period garments.

There was a good menu. Mike chose the Beef Trencher.

I chose the Roasted Vegetable Trencher. Here's my lunch in the image below.

I was curious about the bread. It was a flatbread, similar to naan, and folded over like a taco shell. Our server informed us that it was similar to what the colonists might have eaten, but they would have allowed the bread to become rock hard and then loaded the filling on top. That allowed them to take it with them into the trenches, thus the name, "trenchers."

Mike had a glass of beer, and I had some hard cider, which meant we both wanted a cup of coffee before moving on. It was served up in a little tea pot. Our server quipped that it was coffee from "last night." Whatever was left from the night before was simply poured back into the pot. We laughed at this, and she told us that a previous customer had said, "If that's true, I don't want it."

When she saw me take a picture of the coffee, she offered to take our picture.

From there, we walked on. Here's how the streets looked.

Mike wanted to stop off and watch the blacksmith at work. In the image below, he's using his left hand to operate the bellows, which you can see on the left side of the image.

Here were some of his finished tools.

Behind the blacksmith shop, this man was sewing some leather breeches.

I zoomed in to check out the quality of his hand stitching and the needle he was using. I looked around at his other needles, and they appear to be modern.

Back on the street, carriages being pulled by oxen or horses were seen regularly. Also the center of the streets were lined with, um, poo. We had to watch our steps.

We were headed to The Capitol Building.

One had to join a tour to go inside, and we were kind of toured out. We just circled around the outside.

Then we stopped off at this structure. A Gaol, is basically a jail.

Behind was this pasture with oxen...

and some very friendly sheep.

But don't let those pastoral scenes fool you. This was a grim place.

And we were kind of tired by that time, so we headed back to the shuttle bus stop and returned to the visitor center. I can't end without showing you that this was another windows and walls kind of day. Here are a few of the images I took.

We thoroughly enjoyed our day.

Today we'll visit to the third part of the triangle, Yorktown, where the final battle of the revolutionary war was fought.