Happy Wednesday! I hope you’re having a great day! I am soaking up my last week of summer and trying to slow down time! This time last week we were in Colonial Williamsburg learning a bunch and having a great time! We visited the Historic Triangle and I shared our visit to Jamestown yesterday. Tomorrow I’ll share our Yorktown visit.

We started our day in the visitor’s center. I ended up getting our tickets online while I waited in line to get the tickets. It was quick and easy. We picked up our maps and headed to Duke of Gloucester Street. Since we were eating dinner in one of the taverns that night, we decided to drive instead of taking the shuttle. We also skipped the introductory video and art museum because the kids were excited to get out and walk around. We did hear great things about the art museum when we were walking around. If we had another day, we would’ve included that in our visit.

Looking at the map we started on the right side and headed down Duke of Gloucester Street to the silversmith, William Pitt store, leather works, printing office, Prentis store, and courthouse.

After that, we went to the Patriots at Play where we tried some games that kids would’ve played in the late 1600s and early 1700s.

They even sewed their own needle books.

Then we headed up the Palace Green to the Governor’s Palace and gardens. We found the garden maze and made our way through it.

I think we were going the wrong way because we let ourselves into the Palace cellar and then to the Palace kitchen. It was was very cool to see how they used the cellar and to hear about the hierarchy of the people who worked in the kitchen and scullery.

Then we actually toured the Palace. My first thought when we went into the foyer was wow, this is an interesting decorating motif! So many weapons! Our tour guide was funny and so informative.

Then we headed to the Magazine Yard and the Public Armoury. There we found the weaver, the tin shop, and the blacksmith.

The we headed to the wigmaker and the apothecary.

We tried to tour the Capitol but had to wait about 15 minutes for the next tour. At this point in our summer, I feel like you know Sarah Parsons doesn’t wait around for 15 minutes. So we headed to the Public Gaol. Unfortunately, this wasn’t my best choice. The Capitol tour had a capacity limit and it reached it before the actual tour time. So we missed the tour and couldn’t wait for the next one because we had dinner reservations. Oops!

We did catch the closing parade with the fifes and drums so that was good timing. We definitely would have missed it if we were in the Capitol.

We had dinner at King’s Arm Tavern and it was great. We ordered a punch bowl of fizzy lime and loved it. We tried a ginger ale and it was not like the ginger ale we are used to. We tried peanut soup, the salats, and had a dinner without French fries! Woohoo!! For dessert we shared a chocolate custard another way and it was so yummy!

We headed back to our hotel after dinner and the boys wanted to play mini golf. We ended up playing two rounds. I was not the winner, but I did have fun!

My dad, Luke, and I were all members of the Hole in One club! Sorry Jack!

After that it was time to get ready for bed because we were headed to Yorktown the next day.

We didn’t do everything in Colonial Williamsburg, but we definitely have a list of things to do if we ever go back:

• Tour the Capitol
• Brickyard
• Carpenter yard
• Shoemaker
• Joinery
• Art museums
• Cabinet maker
• Randolph Yard/Houses
• American Indian Encampment
• Book Bindery
• Tailor
• First Baptist Church archeology project
• The Spa 😉

I would say our time of year was perfect because a lot of southern schools were back in session so it wasn’t crowded at all. Wednesday might not be the best day to visit Colonial Williamsburg though because a few of the historic trades sites were closed. We still managed to fill our day and have a great time!

Luke asked every interpreter (guide/tradesperson) a lot of questions and we learned a lot because of it. Jack had a great time just looking at all the artifacts and observing life in the colonial time period. I had the best time learning and spending time with the boys and my parents! It was another great day! I’ll be back tomorrow with our visit to Yorktown. Have a great day full of sunshine and books!