A Day in Williamsburg

We slept wonderfully at our house in Richmond, awakening early and on the road by 7 AM. I did not want to have the same thing happen at Williamsburg that had happened at Mt Vernon so we arrived early instead of late. We checked in and other members of our group began arriving. We were divided into three separate groups with our own guide, Pete who was quite entertaining.  I am not going to bore you with lots of details of our day, but I will say it was our favorite tour so far. I am not sure if that is because it was not fraught with emotions and stress or if it was because we had never been there so it was all new to us. Either way, it was fun and I enjoyed our time with friends and, especially time with my girls as we wandered around and saw the town as it would have been during the life and times of the Revolution.


An actor filming a movie



Pete, our guide, outside the jail.

The "throne" inside the jail



Wouldn't it be fun to work here and dress up? I would love to wear these clothes and pretend to live during this time.



A mock jury trial for stealing. .

The Verdict? Guilty



The carpenter explaining apprenticeships to his newly appointed apprentice.
 He told us that their first job is to sweep. Why? So, they can watch and learn. He handed J the broom. expecting him to sweep. As he showed us how to use the plane on the wood, he asked, without looking, "Are you watching? because you sure aren't sweeping!"  



This lady rode into town on her rocker carriage to see about sending her son to school. She was quite interesting and kept her persona as we asked questions. 

Our greeter in the coffeehouse.

The coffeehouse owner's wife.
 She was quite quick witted and sharp tongued. Here we were served coffee, tea, or melted chocolate poured into our cups.....YUM

The Wigmaker
I never did find out why they shaved their heads in the first place! The process was time consuming and sounded painful as did the wearing of the wigs!

Some were quite lovely. The more curls, the wealthier or more important, the wearer.

There were also macaroni wigs named after the wealthy, fawning French fops who were called Macaroni's
(however, this is not one of those wigs, we just thought this one was pretty)

Sorry this one is sideways. I still can't get my pictures to stay after I flip them......Farmer Girl LOVED this dress and wanted one of her own just like it.

This was the neatest general store. Here the girls are looking at a Gimmel Ring. It has three rings in it that are meant to be worn together once married. The groom wears one part while courting as does the bride. These two parts are each a hand. The father or witness brings the third part to the wedding which is the heart. They are all placed together on the bride at the wedding. They fit together so the hands are clasped hiding the heart under them. We just loved the idea of them!

Didn't take long for these malcontents to be placed in the stocks!

Explaining the local court system to us.

The Governor's Palace

The walls were COVERED with swords and guns! Completely!

Inside the Governor's Palace. I liked the carpet.

The gardens were lovely and even included a maze.

A George Washington Re-enactor performing at the end of our day. I wished we had seen more of this.

Our day ended around 5 as far as sightseeing and enjoying the town as they closed up everything. However, our enjoyment did not end immediately. Two friends wanted to treat me to dinner at a local tavern in an early celebration of my birthday. We had reservations at 8, but had no where to go until then so we had considered canceling. We were still so tired from all of our touring. An early bedtime sounded appealing! On a whim, we went in to see if they had any walk in seating available. They were able to seat us at a table upstairs almost immediately.

The entertainment in the lobby. Love the kilts!

Laughing over our overly large napkins!
Apparently, the richer you were, the larger your napkins. Because your clothes would be nicer, you needed more fabric to protect them since, regardless of your wealth, you still only changed clothes once a week or so! Our waiter who remained in character, told us to wear them like this and even tuck them up under our plates.

My dinner. The food was very expensive and not exceptionally good for the price. I think we were paying for the atmosphere, the entertainment and the time period.

However, the deserts were wonderful although I was too full to fully enjoy this.



The girls both enjoyed one of these creations. YUM. For Easter yesterday, they tried to recreate it. It was quite yummy too with the meringue base, vanilla ice cream, and fresh strawberries.



Williamsburg at night. A lovely end to a lovely day.