The Valparaiso News: September 2010

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Yorktown (Virginia vacation post #4 of 4)

Whew... okay. Here we are on our last day of touring what is known as the Historic Triangle. Yorktown is about 20min from our resort. Apparently I didn't take many pictures here. Maybe because I was tired? LOL But, we had just as much fun as at the other 2 sites!!

Here, like Jamestown, we started the day with a 2h guided tour. Then we had some time to eat lunch and look around before the 4 older kids had a class titled 'The Life of a Private.' They had a ball in the class!!

Getting ready to shoot the musket

You can barely make out the York River behind the trees

Class time

Christian's favorite part of the class, holding a REAL musket!

This is the back yard of the household lands. I didn't take enough pictures here, so I can't really show all the details of the recreation. We didn't make it out to the York Battlefield. We were a little sad about that, but as I said it was the last day and we were already turning our minds to the trip back home.

We did NOT drive straight through on the way home. We drove about 6h and stayed in a hotel. Then Saturday we drove the rest of the way home.

It was sooo worth our time going on this trip! We'll have lots to talk about for a long time!!

Jamestown (Virginia vacation post #3 of 4)

Jamestown was also only a couple miles from our resort. We went here on Wednesday. First, we started with a 2h guided tour. It was sooo wonderful and informative!!! I learned a lot!

The Susan Constant, one of the 3 ships in the Jamestown Expedition

Using shells to dig out ash. A fire is burned on the tree then dug out to make it flat on the bottom. Then, the same process to dig out the center for the inside of the canoe.

He would NOT want to have been a boy there at the time, since HE would have been carrying the water.

The church our government started in! Well, this is the 3rd rebuild, but on the sides of the floor you can actually see the old first 2 foundations. This was at the actual Jamestown historical site. The previous pictures were at the Jamestown recreation settlement down the road from the actual site.

There are 2 ongoing digs at the actual historical site!

Overlooking the James River at the actual site.

That tower is NOT a recreation, it is STILL standing after nearly 400 years!! The walls are 3ft thick. It is attached on the other side to the church.

I'm sooo glad we took the time to get out to the actual Jamestown site! The recreation settlement was wonderful, but the actual site was amazing!

Colonial Williamsburg, Historic Area (Virginia vacation post #2 of 4)

We were soooo happy to be able to walk around after having taken 15h to drive the day before!! Sunday we left our home at 3am, and arrived at the condo 15h later. Colonial Williamsburg was only a couple miles from our resort.

We went to Colonial Williamsburg on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. The following are highlights from all 3 days.

A tree arbor in the gardens of the Governor's Mansion

Down at the canal behind the Governor's Mansion

A walking tour

hee hee... we have pictures of Grace and Sophie in this, as well as Tom and Rick

2h re-enactment scene

In front of the Governor's Mansion

The night of Christian's birthday we took the cake I made over to Rick & Janet's condo to celebrate. Christian talked Janet in to getting icecream! LOL

The capitol building

Probably the highlight of the whole trip for Christian, playing the harpsicord!! (spinnet) Sophie played it too.

Random guy on a horse. Scenes like this abounded all over. I didn't take as many pictures as I probably would have liked, but hey... I was experiencing it instead. I did take more than posted for Colonial Williamsburg, but these were some of the highlights.

The Historic Powhatan Resort (Virginia vacation post #1 of 4)

I'll be posting pictures in different posts, just so I can keep myself on track. (the rest will be coming soon...) The first post of our vacation is the condo we rented for only $250 for the week!!! Sunday night through leaving it Friday morning. It is pronounced pow-hu-ten. Chief Powhatan (Wahunsenacawh) was the father of Pocahontas for those who don't know... :)

Looking in to the living/eating areas

From kitchen looking into living room. In the distance is a slider door out to a porch.

Kitchen

Looking in to the kids' bathroom. I'm standing in their room taking this picture, but there is another door into the room from the hall.

The shower in the kids' bathroom, and that door is the one I was standing in taking the previous picture.

The kids' bed, it's a double bed! There is a closet to the right.

I'm standing next to the kids' bed taking this shot. You can see in to the bathroom. The door in the front/left is the closet. The other door in the left is a door out to the laundry area.

Laundry. I'm standing in the living room taking this shot. I had to DOUBLE time EACH load to dry!! ggrrr... But, at least there was a washer/dryer in the room. (especially since we had to wash our own towels, they charge you to bring clean towels) The kids' room is to the left. Our room is behind the tv to the right.

Our bed. It's only queen sized, but we let the kids have the larger bed cuz they're not used to sleeping with someone else.

Our room still. That door leads out to the laundry area.

Our bathroom.

Our bathroom again, I'm standing by the tub for this shot.

This is in the livingroom. It's where I stored all our food.

Sorry I didn't think to take pictures BEFORE we started living in the place! (or, before we messed it up, however you want to look at that LOL)

This is the outdoor pool area. This is one of 4 pools outside, and is the largest. There is also an adult-only pool, a smaller kids 3'-4' pool and a baby 6" pool. I didn't get a shot of the indoor pool.

This resort also had mini golf and tons of other activities, which we had NO time to enjoy. But, it sure was a comfortable place to say for the week!!