We got up Tuesday, and only had a short drive ahead of us. It was just about an hour to our next stop: The Jamestowne Settlement. For those of you who are not aware, Jamestowne is the site of the first permanent English settlement in America. It was founded in 1607. Hayden was excited about this stop, because it was the start of our toy time line.
When we got there, the boys got the second stamp on their National Park passport book.
It was yet again, cold, rainy and dreary. But, it was just a steady drizzle. The storms were coming though (there was 100% chance of thunderstorms later that day), so we knew we'd have to get it in early in the day.
I guess some of the perks of visiting all these sites in the rain: nobody was there! The place was almost completely empty.
The monument above marked the 300th anniversary of the landing. Just beyond that is the fort. At the site of the fort, there is a church. While not all original (obviously, that was a LONG time ago), there are some original sites to be seen.
These glass panels on the side of the church show the original foundation. They have very cool things like this all over.
Peyton was very interested in all of it (we've been working on his history timeline for just over a year now, so he was loving seeing it all 'come to life'). Calib and Peyton were interested, but wouldn't sit still long enough to read the signs like Peyton.
Outside the church, there were plenty of sites to be seen.
And I'm confident on a sunny day, it's a beautiful view of the Jame's River.
The fort itself is pretty simple, but there is a building that was built in the footprints of one that once stood there.
There are also a Pocahontas and John Smith statues, marking their involvement in the colony.
I was a little bummed that due to the rain, the archaeological digs had been suspended. Apparently, on a nice day you can observe them actively digging for artifacts.
Jamestowne isn't the only historical event to take place here. Just miles away at Yorktown is where the Revolutionary War came to an end, and here is a small hill (an 'earthwork') built by Confederate soldiers in the civil war.
We all found this point interesting. It is what is believed to be the site of the first landing (much further out though, the land eroded quite a bit since that time)
A little farther from the fort, remains some foundations of the first houses built here.
And the remnants of this Mansion (which went through two fires before it was abandoned)
We also got to look at some very cool things found at the archaeological dig at the museum. Unfortunately, you weren't able to take pictures in there though. The most interesting thing was the money from all over Europe. They were able to mint their own money for the colony, but never did. It worked more on a barter type system (with tobacco being in high demand). Again, we left just in time, as it started raining harder on the way out.
While this trip was very cool historically, and we'd spent so much of our home school recently focusing on history and geography to make it particularly interesting, we also fit in some sheer fun for the sake of fun events. When looking for hotels, I found a GREAT deal on the Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg. (Probably since it was a weekday in late April). The boys were really excited about this stop.
It was just a little more to upgrade from a normal room to the kid cabin with a fireplace, so of course we had to go for it. They even gave us a room really close to the waterpark for free. (Normally, that's a premium room and charges a bit more!)
The room was awesome, I'm so glad we upgraded. The boys knew we were going to the hotel, but they had no idea what the room was going to be like. They were so impressed when they walked in.
If you have a room at the Great Wolf Lodge, you can have acess to the water park anytime after 1 on the day of your arrival (and all day the day of your departure, a pretty good deal). Usually, you can't check in your room until 4, but again I guess going on Tuesday in April gives you some perks. They let us in our room when we got there a little after 1, so since we had a microwave, we had Spaghetti-O's for lunch, getting a break from the PB & J's. We even got to put the Maid Rites in the slow cooker so they would be ready for dinner.
The water park was great, they had a big bucket contraption which seems to be the newest water park staple.
But they also had the very cool wave rider.
There were plenty of water slides to keep the boys entertained.
But the basketball hoop had to be one of the biggest hits with the kids.
We went back to the room to warm up a little (they say it's 83 degrees in the water park all the time, but I'm not convinced). The break also gave us time to throw some laundry in. The tub of food and the cooler took up half the space in the back of the car, so I had to pack light. I knew if I could get laundry done about half way through the trip, I could pack a lot less. Shout out to Asa who took it all up to the laundry room and switched it all over and brought it back down.
We had our Maid Rites for dinner, where the boys ate SO much food. I think the water park really helped them work up an appetite. I had brought a long a big bag of carrots, hoping that would be our veggies to last all week. The three of them (with a little help from Asa and I) ate the entire bag in one sitting.
We went back for an evening trip to the water park. My favorite was the lazy river, and Hayden happily joined me for nearly a dozen trips around.
The boys were also big fans of the lily pads. It was particularly nice that there wasn't a lot of people around, and they got to go on most things with minimal waits.
After getting in our PJ's we went up to the lobby for relaxing.
Because we had done so well not buying food on the trip, we had a little treat and all got an ice cream cone at the little bakery they had right there in the hotel.
We did pull out the sofa bed for the movie night. We watched the second Night at the Museum movie, which actually takes place at the Smithsonian. Hayden really loved the movie, and it helped get him even more excited for the Smithsonian museums.
After the movie, we all got tucked into our beds. (Unforeseen problem on vacation: Now that Asa and I have a king sized bed at home, all the doubles and queens on vacation-- while comfy-- we're a totally downgrade.)
The next morning, the boys asked to get up early enough to go to the water park before we checked out. We had to get ahead of the weather, because the worst of the storms were on the way. I liked how Peyton put his swimsuit on with his pajama top. He was not amused that I was taking his picture.
But we did get there just in time to be there when they unlocked the doors at 9 am. (Also strange: getting up way earlier on vacation than what we do at home! I felt like I was doing vacation all wrong)
The best part about being up so early was having the water park all to ourselves for awhile. Hayden was the only kid in the wave pool!
Meanwhile, Asa, Calib, and Peyton went on the wave rider over and over again with no wait! They got really good at it too. At one point, Calib even got up on his knees. I took some video of them I'll have to youtube post sometime.
We got to spend about an hour and a half at the water park, before we had to go back to the room to pack up.
Though we didn't eat there, I had to take a picture of the restaurant at the hotel. It was called the Loose Moose.
The boys all spent a little of their spending money in the gift shop. Hayden got a small stuffed animal, Peyton got a pen, and Calib got a t-shirt. Then we were on our way.
We drove along I-95 past Richmond and up towards D.C. We were making good time, and when we stopped for gas we found out we were just about a mile from this Stonewall Jackson Memorial. Unfortunately, the building was closed (we think due to the weather that was on it's way).
But there was a recording playing, and signs that gave us a little history lesson of the place, so it was worth the stop.
We drove a little farther and tried to decide what we should do with our extra time. It looked as though we were going to get to D.C two hours before our Ford's Theater timed entry tickets. We thought about swinging by the Redskins stadium, or doing Arlington (even in the bad weather), but then we hit a snag. After stopping at a rest stop, we got back on I-95 and then hit a large pothole, immediately popping the front drivers side tire. We had replaced our back two before we left, so thankfully it wasn't one of those. We pulled off to the shoulder (in the rain), took everything out of the back of the car to get to the donut, and changed it. We got off at the next exit, which luckily enough had a Honda dealership. When it became apparent we weren't going to make the Ford's Theater on time, we called and they were SO nice to get us in the next day.
I took a self taken picture with Peyton, and then he was like 'we shouldn't be smiling in this'. Please excuse my hair. I had just helped change a tire in the rain on the side of I-95 with traffic whizzing by.
We did eventually make it to the hotel around 5. We were pretty bummed we missed Ford's Theater, and didn't make to anywhere else, essentially losing a whole evening in D.C. The room that mom had for her conference was nice. We knew it would be a little crammed with all six of us in there, and being a in-the-city hotel room (those are always smaller), but we made it work.
We were right on Dupont Circle in D.C, near the metro so it was a pretty good location.
Since our unexpected cost of $150 for a new tire arose, mom offered to take us out to dinner. I had researched some good affordable places to eat in D.C and discovered they had a Nando's Peri-Peri Chicken. We had Peri-Peri sauce in our Africa box during the Olympics, and everyone LOVED it, so a whole restaurant dedicated to it? Yes please!
So many sauces! I of course would only try the very mild. Peyton and Asa went as hot as they could. Peyton even bought a bottle of the sauce to take home.
We got a pitcher of Sangria to share, and because it was happy hour, it was only $6!
We got the family meal with two kids of chicken, macho peas (so good, I have to figure out how to do this at home!), smashed red potatoes, and garlic bread. Hayden got a grilled cheese kids meal. It was all delicious.
Along with Hayden's kids meal, he got bottomless frozen yogurt. I think he got grandma's money worth in frozen yogurt alone.
It was so yummy, but let me say, if you get the Sangria... don't eat the apples. I saw Asa and mom's expressions when they did, and passed on the fruit.
We all had a little frozen yogurt, it really killed the spice for Asa and Peyton, and then headed back to the hotel. It wasn't pouring, but it still was a bit rainy.
With the small hotel room we had to get a little creative where the boys slept. I had brought along sleeping bags, and Peyton was happy to sleep under the desk, while Hayden slept on the little bench. They said they were cozy and happy, and I'm always happy when there aren't any complaints!
Next Up: Mount Vernon & Ford's Theater
No comments:
Post a Comment