Jamestown

To get to Jamestown we had to take a ferry. I liked the name of the ferry we were on since that was our ultimate destination. The kids loved the ferry ride, the view was beautiful and the breeze felt great. The girls are wearing their Savannah souvenirs. Aren't their dresses so cute and nice and cool!

There was so much to see at Jamestown! We made our way through the settlement, then the ships, and then the Indian Village. We quickly found that there were some workers who were really in to their jobs and stayed in character and gave a lot of information and then there were others who were just there for a paycheck I guess. We thoroughly enjoyed the ones who made history come alive for us. After seeing all of the outdoor stuff we had lunch and then got ready to enjoy the movie and the museum. But first--there was a fire drill right in the middle of our movie and we spent the next hour outside waiting while the building was thoroughly checked out. Then back in we went and watched the movie and went through some of the museum. It was a wonderful museum but unfortunately most of us petered out before getting through the whole thing.
They had this canoe in the process of being built and the kids and I tried our hand at scraping it out with oyster shells. It was hard! It must take forever to build one of these from scratch. We never would have known that if we hadn't had a chance to try it out.
This girl gave us a musket demonstration. Wow, that gun is loud!

This woman was doing some mending and took the time to show Hannah how to sew a hem without letting your stitches be seen. She also talked to us about the clothes and how she would mend and patch them.
Hannah tries her hand at sweeping (I have a lot of pictures of Hannah because Grace and Joe were mostly all over the place but she tended to stick close to me and of course we all know how much Hannah enjoys having her picture taken).

Trying on armor was big fun, that stuff is heavy! And below, Hannah is posing in one of the buildings. This was a kind of store house.

Grace is reading a price list so we are thinking this must have been a store maybe? And below, Grace and Joe get to try on the armor too. I love Joe's expression, no top teeth make it funnier!

The girls sat down on and laid on every bed in every house.
This lady was showing us how they planted corn, beans, and squash together. The bean plants can climb the corn and the squash plants spread out from there. We read in one of our lapbooks that the Indians called this the "Three Sisters."
We had to ask what this was in the picture above--any guesses? It's a fish trap.
This guy was one of my favorites. He was sitting downstairs in the Susan Constant (a big boat) and telling stories about John Smith. He involved the kids and gave them characters to play. Hannah was John Smith and had to sword fight all the other kids and cut off their heads.
There were three boats--The Susan Constant, The Godspeed, and The Discovery. Each was a little different and it was really fascinating to tour them.


After the boats we made our way to the Indian village. Every hut was different inside with lots of animal skins and a fire pit and other Indian things. Joe especially loved this part I think.

Just grinding a little corn...

And that was our day at Jamestown! We left their and found our hotel at Colonial Williamsburg and then the real fun began...stay tuned!

Day Two--Savannah

We got up and had breakfast and got ready to go meet our tour guide. We were scheduled for a private walking tour of the city with a guy who specializes in tours for children. Well, after waiting over 20 minutes in a lovely park we came to the conclusion that our tour guide wasn't going to show up. We heard from him later that he had had some family business that took all of his attention and he forgot to put us in his calendar... I took the opportunity while waiting to take some pictures as we started our day.


Hannah was so anxious for him to show up that she was pulling her hair out. :0)

Wow--am I a freckle face or what??

Once we realized our guy wasn't going to show up we hopped on a trolley for a narrated historical tour of the city. In hindsight this turned out to be the best option, we saw much more of the city than we would have seen otherwise and we learned a lot.

Above, the kids pose with John Mercer and below the girls are waiting for their lunch in Leopold's. After we lunch we were ready to have some of their famous ice cream. Let me say that it did not disappoint--yum!



Grace couldn't wait to try out the old, old stairs going up from River Street. They were steep and uneven and oh so much fun to my energetic little (not so little--tall!) 9 year old.
For dinner we couldn't resist "The Pirate's House," despite mixed reviews about the food. We all loved our meal and especially enjoyed getting visited from a pirate and later that same pirate's tour. This restaurant is actually 8 or 9 old houses that have been refurbished and joined together to make the restaurant. The houses/rooms date back to anywhere from 1773 to the 1800s. Robert Louis Stevenson stayed there at one time and got many of his stories and settings for Treasure Island and Kidnapped from his experiences there. Our pirate also threw in some ghost stories to really freak us all out.



After dinner the kids had a nice rooftop swim while I visited with an old student of mine that I have kept in touch with over the years. She lives in Savannah now and thanks to Facebook I knew how to contact her. We had a great time catching up.
After a good night's sleep we hit the road today and made it all the way to Stoney Creek, VA, just about an hour from Jamestown--our first stop tomorrow!

And We're Off--First Stop, Savannah!

Note: For the next several posts--I wrote them while on our trip but did not publish them. We are now home and I am getting them all published...
We are in Savannah right now--the first stop on our road trip to Williamsburg, VA. We left yesterday afternoon and had a pleasant drive north. Joe was all set with his suitcase and hat, he is so excited! For school this year we focused on early American history and so now we are on the ultimate field trip. We did a lapbook on Jamestown and one on Colonial America, we read Johnny Tremain, and a bunch of other books. I think we are ready.
Aunt Harriet made the kids traveling bags full of goodies and fun stuff to do. Aunt Harriet and Uncle Billy know how to make traveling fun.

Unfortunately, Hannah was sick yesterday. She has a cold but thankfully, the fever has broken today. She's still pretty snotty but feeling better.
When we got to the hotel, the receptionist at the desk asked if the kids liked Webkinz and when they said yes she gave them each a new Webkinz. They were pretty thrilled. So now they are trying to name them--we have one Savannah, one Leopold (named after an ice cream shop we are planning to visit), and the jury is out on the third one. There were also Silly Bandz in each of their traveling bags. Silly Bandz, Webkinz--does it get any better???

The pool in this hotel is on the roof. There is a beautiful view of the riverfront from up there.