Day 2 -- Colonial Williamsburg

We walked to Colonial Williamsburg from the visiting center, it's a nice 10 minute walk with a side attraction of a tobacco farm, built by volunteers in the manner that they would have used in the late 1600's, early 1700's when this area was being cultivated. The visitor's center also has a shuttle service that makes a circuit around Colonial Williamsburg, the bus runs almost every 5-10 minutes.

These pictures were from one of the first mental hospitals in the U.S. (grr I can't get the inserted link thing going...so here's a link if you want further info http://www.cwf.org/almanack/places/hb/hbhos.cfm ) This was particularly fun for me, because the text book I chose to bring for my 'light' reading was Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing.

Everything is so green and lush here. Maybe because it's like 600 degrees and 120% humidity. I was MELTING...I will never never complain (yeah right) about our measly 95 degree weather again...I mean at least it's a dry heat.
Is Isaac upset about being under British rule? Nope, he just wants some ice-cream (did I mention it was HOT) Katrina, we took this picture for you...just in case you were feeling homesick.

This is what a tobacco plant looks like while it's growing. That was the major crop for this area. If it was regular middle class/upper middle class, non-gentry farm, the owners worked side by side with his slaves, wife and children to grow, harvest and bring the crop to market.

Some old fashioned 'canning' pretty sure they didn't call in canning though.

The kitchen at the Governor's Palace. Williamsburg was the original Capital of the Virginias. Oh by the way, Virginia was named by Lord Raleigh who was given the land, ALL the land. He named it after Queen Elizabeth, the Virgin Queen. Later, when the Crown needed more money and other younger sons and rich merchants wanted to buy land (and none was left in England because of the whole first son gets everything rule) the King brought Raleigh up for charges of treason and was able to get the deed for the land and started giving it out. Anyhow, the first three governors of Williamsburg were appointed by the king and lived at the Governor's Palace. Patrick Henry was the first elected Governor after the revolution and then Jefferson. Jefferson then moved the capitol to it's present day location in Richmond.

The boys learning how to throw grenades...old school.

Governor's Palace...(OK, not really palatial when you compare it to what's in Europe, but for one of our earlier buildings, pretty darn palatial!)

This is what happens to kids who whine too much!

I wish my garden could look like this. Hot sweaty Isaac, Hot sweaty exhausted mommy.

ooops, two pictures of the garden, I must really have liked it...
We went on a ghost tour (if you're interested we highly recommend this private service http://www.williamsburgprivatetours.com/ghost.htm) John was our guide and he's a great story teller. Along with the local history lessons, ghost stories he also had the boys enact the ending of Black Beard's life. Isaac and Jake both got a little scared, Isaac saw ghosts around every corner by the time the tour was finished. He and I actually didn't partake in the last stop where we were to meet the 15 year old ghost, Emma, who was run over by a carriage while sneaking out of a house to meet a boy. Apparently she likes to give boys ghostly kisses. Jake was all for partaking, Isaac, not so much.
This is where ghost, Grandma Peaches lives, she stands at the window looking for her grandson, who had died climbing a tree across the street (his ghost is sometimes seen in that tree). The kids need to wave and say "Hi, Grandma Peaches, I'm not your grandson" Here's Jake waving.

It was a fun day, we learned a lot, saw a lot and sweated a whole bunch!