Colonial Williamsburg--Day 2

The first place we visited on our second day in Williamsburg was the Good Hope Plantation. It was interesting, this man above is checking the tobacco plants for hornworms. We helped him out as you can see in the top picture. Below, Hannah is wearing Joe's tricorn hat but wasn't too happy with me trying to get a picture.


Above, we are in a slave house and below on a tour of the Governor's Palace. This tour of the Palace was one of my favorite things. The tour guide pretended to be a maid who was just in awe of all the opulence. She treated us as though we were guests for that evening's dance. She was so realistic and stayed in character so well that as we were leaving for dinner later that evening, Grace asked if we would be going to the dance.


The gardens outside of the Governor's Palace were just beautiful. The girls especially loved this spruce lined path that you see above and a couple of pictures down.



After our tour of the Governor's Palace we made our way onto the main street and visited almost all of the places we had missed the day before. Above is the printing press. I think this was all the more interesting to my kids after reading "Johnny Tremain," because he worked as an apprentice to a printer. If you are ever going to take your kids to Colonial Williamsburg, I highly recommend reading "Johnny Tremain," first. It really set the stage for my kids to understand what they were seeing better.
Here are the girls at the jail--there were four cells. Below, Hannah is posing on something that appears to be a potty.

Hannah begging for mercy for her poor, locked up sister!

The armory was a really neat place. They have a lot of real, antique weapons as well as some remakes.

The girls and I enjoyed the coffeehouse tour. This was another one of those tours where they treat you as though you are back in the 19th century. The "guide" was all in a tizzy talking about a murder that had happened and was in the paper. She had Grace read the article aloud to the room. After we chatted with her for a bit in one room, she took us into the tea room and we could have tea, coffee, or chocolate--basically like hot chocolate but much more bitter. Here, the printer was sitting and talking with us about the town gossip. Later, at dinner that night, his wife (pretend wife) came in to talk to us and asked if anyone had met her husband yet and then went on and on about how "friendly" he is with the ladies. It was pretty neat how they have created a town complete with characters that stick to a general story.

The final things we saw were the blacksmith--I was unimpressed with this guy. He said almost nothing and answered questions with the shortest possible answer. They need to find a better blacksmith. The wigmaker (below) however, was fabulous. We learned so much about wigs and who wore them and how they were made and more.


After an afternoon rest in the hotel, we went back out for dinner at the King's Arms Tavern. Here they served traditional 19th century food including a Game Pye that had rabbit and quail in it. None of our group were brave enough to try it. Harriet, Billy, and I did have the Tavern dinner which was very good and included Peanut Soup. Peanut Soup is basically really thin peanut butter. I was thinking that it would make a great Thai soup with a little coconut milk, fish sauce, and red pepper thrown in. The meal was excellent and so was the entertainment. We had a woman come in and play some music and sing some songs and the Printer's wife came in and chatted with us. They insisted that we all wear our napkins around our neck as Uncle Billy is modeling for us below.

And that is the end of our time in Colonial Williamsburg--BUT--stay tuned because our drive home held some more fun sightseeing opportunities!