Jamestown & Yorktown, Virginia

On March 20th we drove over to Jamestown. We stopped by the Jamestown Settlement to see the ships that the first colonists sailed over on. They also had a good film discussing how the settlement came about and how hard it was to survive the first 20 years. We got a late start on the day, so we skipped over the galleries "where English, African, & Powhatan Indian cultures meet" but it looked interesting as we walked by. We also zoomed through the re-creation of the 1610-14 Jamestown fort, but it looked good :) The ships were our main goal here. They were actually really interesting. These were replicas of the Susan Constant, Godspeed & Discovery.

Godspeed

On the Susan Constant, looking at the Godspeed.DiscoveryOn the Godspeed, looking at the Susan Constant.Joe's checking out some cramped bunks.

SailorsI'm not sure why this is so funny.

Steve and Sharon looking down to the bottom of the boat.

We were flirting

On our way over to Historic Jamestown we stopped by the glasshouse, where they have an artisan making crazy awesome glass-blown objects. Glassblowing was one of Virginia's first industries, started in 1608.

You could feel the heat from the kiln, it was crazy hot.

Joe's trying to compete in hotness.

She's making the stem of the pear.

From there we drove over to Historic Jamestown. The facility also has a great movie and some artifacts. We walked out to where the original settlers built the triangle fort. We didn't see everything, mostly because we were running out of time in the day, but we also got caught by some tour guides that wanted to tell us every detail they could. It was really interesting, but we missed out on a lot. The settlers of Jamestown arrived in 1607. Jamestown was the first permanent settlement in America. Although there were other places that had settlements they ended up failing, this was the first settlement that became permanent.
They are continuing to excavate and find new things here. Right now they have found the foundation of some brick homes, that quite possibly could have burned down during Bacon's rebellion in 1676.

Joe is standing in the facade of the original church built in the 17th century.
The church behind it is a memorial church built in 1907.

Inside the memorial church

The original church's foundation (1639).

Cemetery just outside the church.
The obelisk in the background commemorates Jamestown's 300th anniversary.

A recreation of the settlement's phases.
Tour guides that occupied our time.
Current excavations.

We needed to make it to Yorktown with enough time to get to see the movie they had there, so we left without seeing everything Jamestown had to offer. We started with the Yorktown Battlefield and took the Battlefield Tour. The audio tour that you buy to listen to while you drive around was horrible! It was totally the original tour they made in probably the 70's when you had a hand held tape recorder. It kept referring to stopping the tape, getting out of the car and turning the tape back on when you had walked to the site. The actors/readers were also just silly. But it got us around the battlefield. I didn't get a lot of pictures here because it was it was a lot of just fields and mounds of dirt that the soldiers had dug and hid behind. I will tell you though, seeing the battlefields and listening to the way the battle went down, I would not have wanted to be there. Not only was it dangerous (of course) but there was tons! of digging and it seemed slow moving. This battlefield is where, in 1781, Cornwallis surrendered to Washington and Rochambeau, at Surrender Field, which ended the last major battle of the Revolutionary War and virtually assured American independence.
We didn't go on the Allied Encampment Tour, we'll have to hit it next time.

I think this is Redoubt number 9 where French troops attacked the British. American troops were simultaneously attacking Redoubt 10 a few yards away. Three days after the capture of these Redoubts, Cornwallis proposed a cease-fire.

You can see at the top, in between the two windows, there is a cannon ball still stuck in the brick. There were a couple others on the building as well as one in the house next door. There is lots of speculation on why the cannonballs are stuck there, historians believed they were placed there sometime in the 1900's, not actually stuck in there from the Revolutionary War. This is Thomas Nelson, Jr.'s house, he was a signer of the Declaration of Independence.
The Yorktown Monument to "The Alliance and Victory" was the first monument authorized by the Federal Government. It was authorized on October 29, 1781, just ten days after the victory at Yorktown. However, construction on the monument did not begin until 1881. It was completed in 1884.

I thought this couple laying on the sand in Yorktown was fun. It was really cold outside though.

I can't figure out what this statue is of. We drove by it while driving through the Riverwalk Landing on our way out of Yorktown.

Overall, I really enjoyed this little trip. It went by quickly and I felt like I missed a lot. There was tons more to see and experience than I had imagined. I would definitely like to get back and see some more details. I did leave with a huge desire to learn more about the Revolutionary War and America's struggle for independence. While in Virginia I learned that independence was a hard thing to want for the people, they loved Britain, and being British, but they were driven to fight for what was right. I also learned that we could not have won the War with out considerable help from the French, which is crazy. The whole thing boggles my mind. I highly recommend this trip, I think kids would like it too, it's a learning experience with plenty to see and lots of opportunities for hands on interaction.