Where America Began, Jamestown

After the National Park Service memorial to Yorktown, we were anxious to visit two more Colonial sites today: Jamestown and Williamsburg. We got an early start, arriving at the Jamestown Historical National Park at 9 a.m. using the Colonial Parkway from Yorktown about 20 miles away. It was a nice drive, lots of trees and views of the York and James Rivers. Reminded us of the drive in Point Defiance Park in Tacoma, Washington, but much more developed and longer. The first point of interest is the excavated site called the Glass House, unearthed remains of the glass making kilns used by the early Jamestown pioneers trying to develop products and resources for the Virginia Company. There was also a replica where glass making is demonstrated using 17the Century techniques. Bought a couple examples, including a vase for Nelda and a shot glass for Liz (She has a collection).

Then visited the Jamestown site, including the remains of the original fort still under excavation by archeologists. A period costumed interpreter representing one of the wives gave a very interesting description of life in the colony. Then we walked through the remains of the original town site and the memorials and statues including Captain John Smith and Pocahontas. The rebuilt town church was also very interesting. The Anglican Episcopals were about to hold a church service and we went inside to listen to the choir and observe the preparations before continuing our walking tour.

Leaving the park we noticed the masts of the ship replicas at the nearby Jamestown Settlement, a large commercial memorial having a full size replica of the fort and an Indian village from the period. Though the National Park exhibit was more interesting we did enjoy the Settlement too (but not the $21 entrance fee). The NPS tours were without admission because of the Golden Age Pass. Oh well, they had a nice café too and it was 1 pm and time to eat.

Next we took the Colonial Parkway back to the Williamsburg exit to see what we could see there. Being cheap skates we bypassed the admission tickets required to visit the museums and enter the buildings situated in historic Colonial Williamsburg, but we did walk the streets and caught the flavor of a town in the pre-revolutionary war era. Anyway we were getting pretty tired and ready to get back to the campground.
After a swim and some time to relax it was time to BBQ some steaks that we had bought in Lexington, so with that we are ending our day. Tomorrow we plan to attend the church service here at the campground. We will sing with the Baptists and thank the Lord for giving us a great vacation. There is an ELCA church in Gloucester, and we would try it but it will be fine to just enjoy the people around us. God bless you ‘all out there and hope you found time to praise the Lord wherever you are!