Happy Tuesday! Last week, my parents, the boys, and I went on a little trip. We visited the Historic Triangle in Virginia. The area includes Jamestown, Williamsburg, and Yorktown.

Jeff was an athletic director for 10 years and gets really busy when high school sports start. So we started going away for a few days in August. It is a win-win trip. We get to spend some time with my mom or my parents doing something fun and Jeff has a quiet house with no distractions to get acclimated to the new year. Jeff is an assistant principal now but he still gets pretty busy in the middle of August. The boys and I have been doing this for a while and my mom usually joins us. This is the second time my dad went with us.

This year when I decided I wanted to take the boys on this trip, my parents were excited to join us. My dad grew up about 30 minutes from Williamsburg and knows a lot about the area. We also visited with some family while we were there.

We left on Monday afternoon. It was a pretty easy drive and we stopped for dinner as soon as we got to Williamsburg. Dinner was delicious and the company was great, too!

Jack and Luke learned a card trick and were excited to try it out on Gigi and Pop!

On Tuesday morning we got up and headed to the Jamestown Settlement. There is a great museum, but you can’t take any pictures inside. It starts with a very informative, introductory video. From there, you go through the museum galleries. The galleries have artifacts and show the perspective of the Indigenous, the English, and the African people. We had a lot to talk about going through the gallery. I was pretty pleased to realize that my kids knew a lot about Jamestown from social studies. You can’t take pictures in there so this is all I have.

From there, you go outside to three exhibits. There is a Paspahegh Town showing the Powhatan way of life.

Then we visited a recreation of the three ships that the English sailed to Virginia in 1607.

Last, we went to James Fort. This is a recreation of the Virginia Company’s military outpost from 1610-1614.

The interpreters (guides) were full of information and did a great job sharing information about daily life in all three areas. They answered all of our questions and more!

We ended up having lunch at the cafe at the museum and it was perfect. Quick, tasty, and filling so we could head over to our next stop of the day.

Our second stop was Historic Jamestowne. This is the actual site of the English settlement and is an active archeological site. We were running a little short on time so I didn’t take as many pictures as I was hoping to. We did see the site of Pocahontas’ marriage to John Rolfe.

Historic Jamestowne actually has two areas – 1607 James Fort and New Towne. New Towne had more docks, stores, and the city homes of some wealthier farmers.

Historic Jamestowne is a National Park and it closed at 5. We stayed until they were locking up the doors, but I think we could have stayed another hour or so learning about the area.

We headed back for dinner, showers, and off to bed. I knew the next day was going to be a big one and wanted everyone to be well rested. Be sure to come back tomorrow to see our second day in Virginia’s Historic Triangle. Have a great day full of sunshine and books!