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Nov. 18th, 2008 09:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivkaMichael came to pick me up from work, yay. The car thermometer said 39 degrees. Before I went to get Alex from nursery school, Michael got my long wool coat and scarf from the attic, and I brought Alex's winter coat with me to school as well. It really was much, much colder today than I expected it to be.
I used some of my cancelled-meeting time to book the mini vacation we've been planning. We're going to Williamsburg VA, a.k.a. Colonial Williamsburg, for Thanksgiving. Michael and I have never been there before. We recognize that we're not going to see all that much of it with a three-year-old, but I think it will be fun regardless.
For those who are unfamiliar, Colonial Williamsburg is a massive recreation of the town as it was in the 18th century, with hundreds of houses, stores, and other buildings rebuilt on their original foundations, furnished appropriately, and populated by costumed historical interpreters. You can watch blacksmiths and weavers at work, visit a plantation and talk to both the slaves and the "family," go into a coffeehouse or tavern and be swept into a debate about whether the Colonies should revolt. The farms have 18th century breeds of livestock and grow 18th century crops.
I think the historical aspects of it (the Revolutionary War debates, the opportunity to speak to Thomas Jefferson) will be utterly uninteresting to Alex, which means that Michael and I will probably miss out on those aspects as well. But I know she'll enjoy visiting the farms and watching the artisans work, and we will too. And I know it will be lovely just to have several days to relax together as a family.
I've reserved us a room - well, sort of a cross between a room and a suite - at the Springhill Suites Hotel. It has an indoor pool and a hot tub, which I think all three of us will enjoy, and serves a free hot breakfast every day. We'll have Thanksgiving dinner at the Williamsburg Hospitality House, and we're planning to go to a seafood feast on Friday night. (Key phrases: "featuring sushi of the moment" and "children 5 and under are free." Little do they know what they're getting into.) Saturday night we may try a tavern in the historical area featuring period singing and games.
We have a whole series of contingency plans, depending on the weather. If it's cold and rainy we may not even wind up touring the historical area, but there are plenty of other attractions locally: the Mariner's Museum, for example, and the Virginia Living Museum, which seems to be a sort of a Biodome. If the weather is great, we may try to find an ocean beach so we can take a walk and look for shells. Alex has never seen the ocean, not for real. (She's seen the harbor, obviously.) If we love the historical area, we may spend two days there and not see any other attractions.
I think it will be wonderful.
I used some of my cancelled-meeting time to book the mini vacation we've been planning. We're going to Williamsburg VA, a.k.a. Colonial Williamsburg, for Thanksgiving. Michael and I have never been there before. We recognize that we're not going to see all that much of it with a three-year-old, but I think it will be fun regardless.
For those who are unfamiliar, Colonial Williamsburg is a massive recreation of the town as it was in the 18th century, with hundreds of houses, stores, and other buildings rebuilt on their original foundations, furnished appropriately, and populated by costumed historical interpreters. You can watch blacksmiths and weavers at work, visit a plantation and talk to both the slaves and the "family," go into a coffeehouse or tavern and be swept into a debate about whether the Colonies should revolt. The farms have 18th century breeds of livestock and grow 18th century crops.
I think the historical aspects of it (the Revolutionary War debates, the opportunity to speak to Thomas Jefferson) will be utterly uninteresting to Alex, which means that Michael and I will probably miss out on those aspects as well. But I know she'll enjoy visiting the farms and watching the artisans work, and we will too. And I know it will be lovely just to have several days to relax together as a family.
I've reserved us a room - well, sort of a cross between a room and a suite - at the Springhill Suites Hotel. It has an indoor pool and a hot tub, which I think all three of us will enjoy, and serves a free hot breakfast every day. We'll have Thanksgiving dinner at the Williamsburg Hospitality House, and we're planning to go to a seafood feast on Friday night. (Key phrases: "featuring sushi of the moment" and "children 5 and under are free." Little do they know what they're getting into.) Saturday night we may try a tavern in the historical area featuring period singing and games.
We have a whole series of contingency plans, depending on the weather. If it's cold and rainy we may not even wind up touring the historical area, but there are plenty of other attractions locally: the Mariner's Museum, for example, and the Virginia Living Museum, which seems to be a sort of a Biodome. If the weather is great, we may try to find an ocean beach so we can take a walk and look for shells. Alex has never seen the ocean, not for real. (She's seen the harbor, obviously.) If we love the historical area, we may spend two days there and not see any other attractions.
I think it will be wonderful.
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Date: 2008-11-19 09:26 pm (UTC)The Mariner's Museum has lots of great boats, and the boat miniatures of August Crabtree, which are highly detailed works of recreative art. They have a gallery of marine art and a bookstore. It's on a lake where you can rent canoes, but if it's cold, you might not want to sit on the water and paddle. It's next to the Peninsula Arts Center (same building), which actually displayed something of mine, years ago, during a juried student exhibit in which I earned a small prize.
Fort Stewart has the Army Transportation Museum, which is sadly neglected but has some fascinating vehicles. There's a walker that looks like something out of Star Wars, and hovercrafts, and a flying wing. Inside they have a jet pack video and many other exhibits, including a spine-tingling artifact: a six-foot propellor under a platform that some volunteer stands on and clutches the handlebars while praying it goes straight up and doesn't kill him. I have no idea if it was ever tested.
On the South side, the Chrysler museum is a pretty decent art museum. Seeing it many times over the years, I have several favorites there, including a large Dore painting. At the south edge of the Peninsula, near Blackbeard Point in Hampton, there's a good carousel that Sarah used to love riding on. Sometimes the band organ worked, but too often they were playing tapes of it on a boom box.
If you're in Virginia Beach on a Sunday, go have a nice meal at the Jewish Mother and listen to my friend Robin Welch play the guitar. I've lost track of how many years he's held down that gig -- could it be 20 now? He's a fantastic performer.
Are you driving down? You could plan your trip to go by way of the Monitor-Merrimac Bridge-Tunnel, possibly the longest of its kind, which allows a scenic view of a lot of water. When they finished the second span, I got to take a walk on it just before they opened it.
If you like Mexican food, go to Plaza Azteca on Warwick in Newport News and try the Tacos de Chorizo. Lord, I miss those.