Who Knew We Were Virginians?

[Wicket's Mom]

Ahh - the cheese shop! I hope you got to go back for lunch! I love that place! Claire's hat is adorable. She looks so cute! I see they were doing construction on the church (the name escapes me) on DOG street. William & Mary is SUCH a gorgeous college. OMG - If Nick was a Virginia resident that definitely would have been on the list (well, probably not because no engineering). I absolutely LOVED that campus. What a great day. You are seeing so much. And you are making me want to go back so badly because its been over a year since I've been there.

Brutun Parish Church. Not sure about the spelling.

 

[jenseib]

Have a wonderful and safe trip.

It was a nice get away. I am letting Claire sleep in before we head home. She has had an active weekend.

Ahh - the cheese shop! I hope you got to go back for lunch! I love that place!

Claire's hat is adorable. She looks so cute!

I see they were doing construction on the church (the name escapes me) on DOG street.

William & Mary is SUCH a gorgeous college. OMG - If Nick was a Virginia resident that definitely would have been on the list (well, probably not because no engineering). I absolutely LOVED that campus.

What a great day. You are seeing so much. And you are making me want to go back so badly because its been over a year since I've been there.

My Mom says she knows someone who send their kid there and it is super expensive, but they are pretty wealthy. It looked beautiful when we walked over there later in the week.
I do want to go back, but probably not till Claire is older.

Brutun Parish Church. Not sure about the spelling.

 

[jenseib]

April 16, Tuesday, Day 4

I got up bright and early, just like I always do. I went for a walk, but decided not to take pictures this morning. I also wrote in my journal a bit, but that didn’t last long and I never did get much further than the first 2 days of notes.
I also chatted with a lady in the gazebo who had been coming there daily as well.
After a while I headed back to try to get the family moving. No one was budging and I was getting annoyed. I hate wasting precious vacation time with trivial things like sleeping.

Amanda wasn’t feeling well today and after some debate, she decided she was not going to come with us. She decided she would drop us off and then come back for us later. She also wanted to do some shopping, so she thought she would take a relaxed day and hopefully feel better for the evenings activities.

I finally got Claire up and moving and around 10:45 she and I went outside to wait for the rest of the family to finish up getting ready. So much for the early start.



Yes Claire, I am tired of waiting too.





Finally the rest of the family emerged and we made our way to Colonial Williamsburg once again. I believe it was close to 11:45 before we had arrived.

Today we did take the bus to the first stop and got off there.



We came in near the Palace once again.



We decided to have a look around today.









This is where the stable boys slept.



I believe the nicer beds were for those who were coachmen and jobs like that and the lower jobs were lucky to even get a bed.



On we went.



Come on slow pokes!



The gardens were just beautiful.





Kind of like Alice in Wonderland.

 

[mickeystoontown]

I've said it before and I'll say it again....I can't stand slow pokes on vacation. Like you said, why waste vacation time sleeping? I wanna go go go!

The gardens remind me of Alice in Wonderland too!

 

[Poolrat]

So sorry you have to poke and prod to get everyone going and out the door.


Have not been to CW in years but it is so nice and peaceful there where you can go back in time.

 

[dolphingirl47]

What a shame that your early start did not happen. I love all the photos again. It feels strange to see the British Royal Coat of Arms in America.

Cornna

 

[jenseib]

I've said it before and I'll say it again....I can't stand slow pokes on vacation. Like you said, why waste vacation time sleeping? I wanna go go go!

The gardens remind me of Alice in Wonderland too!

I hate it too. I just want to take everything in.

So sorry you have to poke and prod to get everyone going and out the door.


Have not been to CW in years but it is so nice and peaceful there where you can go back in time.

It is so peaceful there ...learning about our country in turmoil.

What a shame that your early start did not happen. I love all the photos again. It feels strange to see the British Royal Coat of Arms in America.

Cornna

It's hard to believe at one time we hated the British. It's hard to say what our country would be like if we had lost the war, after all we were committing treason.

 

[MEK]

Ugh. How painful playing the waiting game. I am glad you got to see the palace. I agree that the gardens were fabulous. I loved it there. Can't wait to go back.

 

[jenseib]

Ugh. How painful playing the waiting game. I am glad you got to see the palace. I agree that the gardens were fabulous. I loved it there. Can't wait to go back.

I get so annoyed when people are slow. I know in real life they can get up and going fast, so why can't they do it on vacation?

The gardens were so beautiful.Now that summer is coming to an end and my flower gardens here are becoming more of a weed garden...I would love to go back and see it all again for that "spring" feeling.

 

[jenseib]

The Palace Gardens were just so beautiful and huge. We tried to look through every area we could.







Looking back at the house.



Martha Washington was giving a talk out back so we sat and listened to her.



Something I did not know was that the Washington’s never had any children of their own. They did however help raise many relatives and friends children.







In case you couldn’t tell, I really loved taking pictures of Claire in her hat.



I also played with some shots while we listened to her.





After she was done, we moved on on the backside of the property and we found a maze.



Dad was the only brave sole to take the stairs up to the top of the hill to read the plaque. I think that was a smoke house at one point in time.







While Dad was journeying up the hill, we went through the maze. It was a big highlight for Claire.



This was in the middle.





We exited the maze after a few tries and headed back towards the house.

 

[dolphingirl47]

I have to say those stairs would not have appealed to me either. Love the photos of the house and the detail shots.

Corinna

 

[jenseib]

I have to say those stairs would not have appealed to me either. Love the photos of the house and the detail shots.

Corinna

yeah....I had no interest in walking up those stairs.

 

[Wicket's Mom]

The hill was called the Mount if I remember right. It was the ice house, food was kept cold there.

A little history lesson, Martha had children from her first husband. The son grew up to be good at spending her money. She had several grandchildren from her children.

 

[scottny]

It is really pretty there.
Dinner sounded good at the nautical buffet
The gardens did look pretty.

 

[jenseib]

The hill was called the Mount if I remember right. It was the ice house, food was kept cold there.

A little history lesson, Martha had children from her first husband. The son grew up to be good at spending her money. She had several grandchildren from her children.

I believe you are correct there....as usual!!!
Now that I didn't know, but I only heard the 2nd half of her talk, so she might have mentioned it and we missed it. And really I had a hard time hearing her and Mom was telling me some of it after we walked away too.

It is really pretty there.
Dinner sounded good at the nautical buffet
The gardens did look pretty.

That buffet was really good. I have heard mixed reviews, but we hit it on a good night!

 

[jenseib]

The area was landscaped so beautifully. To be a kid growing up here had to be so neat.



I loved the River right alongside the place.



Squirrel!









The garden.





We then entered the kitchen, which was a separate building.





It was 2 stories and someone asked what the 2nd floor was used for and they told us honestly they werent even sure if the original building had 2 floors or not. They assumed it did and would be for the servants that did the cooking, but they werent positive. It was built on the original foundation though.

We then moved on.





I liked this well. Remember, they didnt have running water in the house, so they had to have a well nearby.





The cellar looked inviting.



It was dark and musty down there, so it was hard to get many pictures.





It was extremely cool down there though. I imagine on a hot humid day this would be the place to retreat to cool off.



We then decided we wanted to tour the house, so we went outside the gates and waited in line for the next tour.











We had to wait a little bit before we were let back in. There was a family in front of us with like 5 or 6 little boys. The older ones were decent, the younger ones were not. The youngest was HORRIBLE!
He kept running around and the parents didnt seem to care and every so often the Mom would chase him. He needed to stay in the stroller, but he was bored out of his wits and he didnt want to. This really is not a great trip for parents with young kids. I can see it getting boring very fast for them. I really think Claire was on the border with attention span. Of course some kids are better and more interested than others. This boy wanted nothing to do with being there. But the parents wanted to tour the Palace and we were the lucky ones to get them in our group.

 

[wiigirl]

Great pics!

 

[Wicket's Mom]

The river is where the Governor made his escape from the Rebels that were starting the Revolution! The Palace is so nice inside, I could happily live there! I demonstrate cooking in a smaller kitchen which on the order of that one. The man who built the house here was from Virginia, so the house has a se operate kitchen, also.

The gardens are so nice & I love to walk in the maze. Love your pictures as always!

DH was always trying to feed the squirrels, he would get them to eat from his hand.

 

[jenseib]

Great pics!

Thanks

The river is where the Governor made his escape from the Rebels that were starting the Revolution! The Palace is so nice inside, I could happily live there! I demonstrate cooking in a smaller kitchen which on the order of that one. The man who built the house here was from Virginia, so the house has a se operate kitchen, also.

The gardens are so nice & I love to walk in the maze. Love your pictures as always!

DH was always trying to feed the squirrels, he would get them to eat from his hand.

I really enjoyed touring the Palace.
That's so neat you get to do those kind of demonstrations.

I would be afraid a squirrel would take my finger off.

 

[jenseib]

We finally were let into the yard again and had a seat on the bench while we waited to be the next ones to tour.
Our guide came out and let me just tell you, he was GREAT!



He had a quirky sense of humor and we just loved him. He asked questions, like where we were from and things of that nature and then would give a little history. He also made it clear he was not a character or anyone special, just a guy who is telling us about the palace.
He asked some of the older kids in the bratty kids family a few questions and they gave some funny answers, but then they thought they were comedians and kept talking.
But we still had a good time and enjoyed him.

Soon we were allowed to go in the building.



I can’t remember what this room was supposed to be for, but he gave us some history of the palace and showed us a map of the US for that time period.
He also told us most of the Governors were crooked. They were elected by the King and usually it wasn’t a highly wanted job, though when they got here, they pretty much could do whatever they wanted and get away with it.



During out time in here, the family with the bratty kid had taken the front row of seats. For some really dumb reason, the parents sat together on one end and the kids all lined up on chairs next to them, with Mr. King Brat at the very end. How dumb was that. He talked the whole time, never sat still, climbed all over the chair and the floor and bumped into other people. The parents just sat there listening to the guide and didn’t even glance his way or tell him to stop. I believe at one time the guide nicely said that maybe he should go sit with his parents. This guy was so tactful, but sadly I don’t think the parents really understood that he was trying to say “watch your brat so he doesn’t disturb others”.

There was another room just like the one we had been in, so I think they alternate rooms for the tours.



We had to go outside to get into the main, middle building.



The Foyer had guns and swords all over the walls. This was to represent that the Governor and England had the power and the colonist weren’t not allowed to own guns.









Our guide kept talking and I kept snapping pictures.







Now there were chairs against the walls in the foyer that had a little rope across each one and I think maybe even a sign that said not to sit on them. The also each had a really cute red checkered seat cover on them.
Well you guessed it. Mr. Brat removed the rope, threw off the cover and had a seat on the chair and the parents did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! They just let him sit there. Again, our tactful guide made a nice mention to him that the seats were not allowed to be sat on and he got off and pouted, but the parents didn’t say anything to him. Seriously? What’s wrong with these people. I know kids are not perfect, I have 3, and believe me, my son could’ve given this boy a run for his money, but when we came into situations like this, we left, or I held his hand in a death grip.

We moved on again.



I am thinking this was an office type room?





Check out the paint color in here!



You will see several kind of loud colors throughout the Palace and he said yes, these were typical paint colors and carpets as well.



Back through the hallway.





Oh, and yes, some things were roped off and Mr. Brat went under the ropes. He also tried to climb on the banister to take a slide down.