Our next stop in Virginia's Historic Triangle was Colonial Williamsburg. We were thrilled to find out that they give discounts for homeschool teachers! The nice employee at the ticket counter gave Alan and I both discounted 3 day admission tickets since we each qualified as homeschool teachers! Wahoo!
As you leave the visitor center and walk across the bridge into Colonial Williamsburg there are several plaques in the ground that describe important historic events as you "travel" back into time into the 18th century...
The Governor's Palace was so beautiful and the tour was really interesting. The costumed tour guide did a great job!
As you walk into the main entrance, you will see this very lovely decor...
Yes- they had a lovely collection of weapons throughout the front entryway! It was quite impressive...
As we walked through the town, we wandered into several of the 18th century specialty shops and talked with the different tradesmen. It was so interesting to be able to observe, ask questions, and learn more about how residents of Williamsburg made a living.
We visited the shoemaker shop...
The weaver...
The blacksmith (the boys favorite!)...
At the Gunsmith & Foundry, we had fun holding an 18th century firearm. It was actually kind of heavy!
Watch out for the Mama with the musket!!!! Don't mess with me!
At the colonial joiner shop we learned more about their specialty carpentry work in the details of 18th century buildings.
The wheelwright is the only one in the country that still uses 18th century tools. This shop makes wheels for museums throughout the country as well as for Colonial Williamsburg.
The wigmaker was very talented and also very funny!
Here are different samples of animal hair used for making wigs...
Caleb grabbed one of the wig samples and decided to put it on under his cap. We all couldn't stop laughing! He is such a character!!!
There were horse drawn carriage rides available throughout the town. We did not take one because it would be way too expensive for our whole family, but it looked like fun!
In the garden shop, we found a basket full of cute bird whistles. The sign below it was hilarious! "Publick Notice : Persons afflicted with Consumption, the Ague or Intermittent Fevers are strongly encouraged not to place their lips upon the Bird Whistles." We chose not to place our lips on the whistles - we were all healthy and we wanted to stay that way! :)
The boys had the chance to water some of the vegetable garden as well.
This area is where you can take your shoes off and mash the clay with your bare feet! The boys decided against doing it though.
They wanted to just touch the clay with their hands. Nate thought it felt pretty gross! :)
How about splitting some logs with an 18th century hammer?? It is harder than it looks!
We found an area with sheep wandering around. This guy looks pretty dirty! That wool is gonna need a good washing!!!
A fife and drum parade with several bands of all ages marched through the town while we were there. It was cool!
We also took a tour of the reconstructed capitol building.
Williamsburg has a great tool that can be a motivator for your children to behave while touring the city. If at some point during the day, your children start complaining, back talking or disobeying in any way, just put them in one of these...
OK- I am totally kidding, of course!!!:)
Jill and the boys:)
No comments:
Post a Comment