My family just returned from a weekend trip to Williamsburg, Virginia. We took the trip with our close family friends, The Skippers. Between us, there were four kids, ages 7, 5, 4 and 2. We dared to see all that Williamsburg had to see in 36 hours. Could it be done?
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| A donut social for tiny friends. |
Day 1 - Jamestown, Colonial Williamsburg, Bowling
Every great journey begins with a little pomp and circumstance. When traveling with young children, it's usually strong coffee for adults and something sweet for the kids. In our case, it was the Big D - donuts. Ben took all four kids for a special secret mission our first morning in Williamsburg to pick up donuts for the mommies. They were good (the kids, I mean). It was special. They got donuts.
We were out the door by 9 or so. Our first stop was Jamestown. Jamestown is historically important because it was the first permanent English colony established in 1607, thirteen years before the Pilgrims landed in Massachusetts. There. You learned something today. Reading this blog post wasn't a waste of your time.
After purchasing tickets, we took a leisurely stroll through their indoor museum. There was an informative movie playing, but we had fun looking at the wide variety of exhibits. The original site was discovered nearby in 1993 and many of the artifacts are on display in the museum. The walk through the museum took about 20-30 minutes. My four year old son's favorite part was the interactive map that allowed him to push buttons to display the location of fights with the local natives, the Powhatans. He talked about this a couple days after our visit. My two year old girl stayed the longest at a journal preserved by one of the settlement visitors. She pretended to read me a story, "Once upon a time..." It was precious.
After the indoor museum, we walked outside to the full replica of a Powhatan hut village. The kids were able to go inside the huts and learn about life in the village. They used shells to hollow out a log for a canoe. Next, they also used shells to comb the hair from a deer hide to make clothing. This part also lasted another 20-30 minutes. Everyone had to wash their hands after handling the deer hide. Smelly, but worth it.
Next, we walked to the water to tour the recreated settlement ships,
Susan Constant, Godspeed and
Discovery. Each ship had an actor onboard that provided interesting details. 106 settlers came over on these three ships. They slept on top of their luggage. It must have been brutal. The kids enjoyed exploring the ships and playing with the cannons. The ships were a highlight for the adults in the group. We stayed about 20-30 minutes here, too.
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| Those tiny dots on top deck are the three boys and my friend, Jen. |
The last stop was a short walk to James Fort. We followed the chickens to a thatched-roof structure with a large kitchen. The actor told us about the foods the settlers ate (pottage), how they preserved meat (boat loads of salt) and how they used to trade guns for food. We toured a recreated settler's home, the Governor's house and the blacksmith building. Here, the kids were able to sample swords. See below to see my son holding a pirate sword and making his best pirate face.
After Jamestown, we took a twenty minute ride to colonial Williamsburg. Home of the College of William and Mary, the town is quaint and collegiate. Parking could have been tricky, but we found a spot close by our destination, The Cheese Shop. Located in Merchants Square,
The Cheese Shop is a family owned business that provides gourmet sandwiches, specialty snack foods, cheese and wine. It has been featured in The New York Times and Frommer's. Their known for their homemade House Dressing (awesome). I had a wonderful roast beef on sourdough with a spicy ginger ale. This is perfect upscale picnic food. For fine dining sans children, our friends also recommend the sister restaurant
The Fat Canary next door.
After lunch, we took the mile walk down Duke of Gloucester Street from Merchant Square to the Capitol Building. If you want to go into many of the homes or buildings, you can pick from several ticketing options. We chose to keep it free and just take a stroll. It was an easy walk with lots of diversions for the kids (see below). Beware, Virginia is hot and muggy in June. The perfect end to this leg of our trip was a stop at the
Wythe Candy and Gourmet Shop. It is a wonderful specialty store with unusual candies and treats. I have seriously thought about how to ship their German gummy bear cubs home. Yum!
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| Photo at Parents' Request. |
After an hour or so respite at the house, we rallied and took the kids bowling.
Williamsburg Lanes is
seriously the cleanest and brightest bowling alley I have ever been. For some reason, I have a thing about really clean establishments and high heath food scores and what not. I was so impressed that I had to ask the manager about it. He had spent 20+ years in many bowling alleys and agreed that this was, by far, the cleanest one he had been in. I knew my instincts were right. Anyway...bowling was also fun. My son kept getting "stripes," or spares. The kids practiced their victory dances.
Day 2 - Yorktown, Local Mexican
On the final morning of our trip, we visited the Yorktown Victory Center. Located adjacent to the Yorktown battlefield, the Center brings the period of the American Revolution to life through exhibits, first hand accounts, a recreated Continental army encampment and a 1780's farm. To be honest, I remember nothing from the indoor museum. The army encampment was intriguing because you could pick up everything. The soldier below showed visitors how cannons were prepared and fired prior to a live cannon shooting. It was loud, but one of the top highlights of the visit.
Though the Center was under construction, it did not hamper our visit. The farm was a short walk across the parking lot from the museum. The first stop ended up being the favorite among the kids. Can you guess what it was? A clothes washing station. The kids loved stirring the socks in the giant pot over the unlit campfire. Each took turns and then came back later after looking at other things. The kids also helped an actor pickle cucumbers as she explained how they prepared their foods. They loved being involved. Plus, their garden was lovely, orderly and enviable. I liked the Yorktown farm visit better than the Jamestown Fort partly because it was not as overwhelming for the kids but also because the garden was great.
We were probably in and out of Yorktown in about two hours. Spent, we finished the trip with lunch at a local Mexican joint and headed back to Charlottesville. We feel pretty good about getting as much in as we could with kids in Williamsburg. Of course, we didn't do and see it all. Below is a short list of other attractions that are worthwhile for families with young children in Williamsburg.
Other things to see and do in Williamsburg:
The Yorktown Battlefield, the site of the last major battle of The Revolutionary War
Busch Gardens
Water Country USA
The Williamsburg Battlefield, Civil War battlefield site
Other cute pics of the kids in Williamsburg:
At James Fort, the kids tried on kid sized replicas of soldier gear.
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