We really enjoyed visiting Jamestown!
Jamestown was the first successful British settlement in the Americas, starting in 1607. This sign reads:
At Jamestown Began:
The Expansion overseas of the English speaking peoples
The Commonwealth of Virginia
The United States of America
The British Commonwealth of Nations
A representation of a Powhatan Indian village.
These are the types villages that the British settlers would have encountered (Pocahontas' people)
Inside the huts
Isaac had fun smashing the corn with this stick
Feeding the chickens
This lady taught us about cooking in the Powhatan villages
A Powhatan kitchen, you might say
Typical food
Erin, scraping the fur from the animal hide
Tying a fishing net
A cool fan made out of chicken feathers
We got to scrape out the inside of a huge log to make a canoe
From the village we ventured over to see replicas of the three ships that brought settlers to Jamestown in 1607: The Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery
Inside the boats:
Mike & I were excited to see a cannon demonstration
The girls had heard enough artillery demonstrations on this trip (apparently it hurt their ears!) so they opted to stay below deck on one of the ships and chit-chat with this guy!
It was always fun to see the costumed interpreters
Isaac loved exploring the big ships!
From there we ventured over to a reconstruction of the British Fort at Jamestown
You wouldn't want to mess with these mean settlers!
Gotta prove to the kids that their chores aren't that bad - let them experience what chores would have been like 400 years ago!
Learning about their cooking techniques - notice the clay oven behind him?
Blowing the bellows
One of the houses within the fort
Inside the houses
Playing games outside the settlement
Give a two year old a ball to throw at something and he's in heaven!
Jamestown vegetable garden
And of course, lots of tobacco!
Inside a replica of the church
A musket demonstration
Then we made our way over the original site of Jamestown (the above pictures were taken at the historical site, built to represent the settlement of the day):
Most of the original settlers (like 80%) died during the starving years, just 3 few years after they arrived. We watched archaeologists uncover some of these graves
We found Pocahontas!
The brick below the glass here is the original foundation for the church at Jamestown. A replica was rebuilt on top of it that we could walk through
17th century graves
The landing point of the original settlers at Jamestown
Jamestown settlement
Crosses marking graves that have since been discovered
Glassmaking was one of the first trades established at Jamestown, right after the settlers arrived. It was fascinating to watch and learn about the trade
I loved learning and experiencing these neat places with these kids. They are so interested in learning and discovering fun places. It made the trip really fun
After dinner we went to walk around the College of William and Mary.
The second oldest college in the US (after Harvard)
The campus was beautiful!
It was a nice evening and we had fun playing on the lawns of the campus
Thomas Jefferson and many signers of the Declaration of Independence were educated here
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