Jamestown and Yorktown

One of the few things we were able to do before I was laid out by my sickness was a trip to Jamestown and Yorktown. Along with Colonial Williamsburg, these are called the Historic Triangle. We'd visited Colonial Williamsburg several times but had not made it to either Jamestown or Yorktown. We decided to break them up into two visits spread over two days which was a good idea. 

On Monday, we visited Jamestown. Because my sister has a son named James, Zara was very excited to visit "his town" and kept telling him so. Afterwards, she asked us when we'd get to go to Annastown (Anna being her other cousin). We tried to explain that Jamestown was named for King James and that there was no Annastown or Sethtown but she didn't quite get it. 

Jamestown starts with a good-sized museum which details the life, culture, and interaction of the Native Americans, British settlers, and African slaves who inhabited this region in the 1600's. It was a reasonably well-done museum, although showing its age a little bit. I learned a few interesting things before heading to the replica of the Indian village and James Fort.

Zara insisted on taking photographs. I have about 30 pictures of wood, leaves, chickens, and chickens with leaves.

Zara did not find the colonial costume very fun. And normally she loves to dress up....

The houses are replicas of the wattle and daub constructions that were originally built at the Fort. The church was my favorite, with its beautiful exposed beams.

The best part probably (and Zara's favorite) was visiting the replica ships, the Discovery, Susan Constant, and Godspeed.

All I can say is that I would most certainly have not survived a long Atlantic sea voyage in one of these tiny vessels.

Zara loved the ships and wanted to keep exploring them.

On Tuesday, we visited Yorktown Victory Center which celebrates the Revolutionary War time period and the battles at Yorktown. The museum was oddly arranged and small but I did enjoy their outdoor Revolutionary War camp and the 1780's replica tobacco farm. They are building an immense new museum complex on the site which should be finished by 2016. I'm sure the new facility is going to be amazing and I hope we'll get a chance to visit it again someday.

I'm glad we were able to fit in a little history on our trip. It's nice to have a husband who is so indulgent of my need to visit every museum I possibly can.