Williamsburg travelogue, Day 3.
Nov. 29th, 2008 09:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivkaThis was our last day of vacation. Tomorrow morning we'll drive home, visiting ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bosssio and family on the way. Which is probably just as well, because tomorrow's supposed to be chilly and rainy. Today was cold enough - in the upper 40s most of the day, and windy. But we had a good time anyway.
We arrived at Colonial Williamsburg at about 9:30 again. Michael bought Alex a tricorne hat, the cuteness of which must be seen to be believed, while I inquired about horse-drawn carriage rides. And a good thing we did those errands separately, because when I learned that a 15-minute ride cost $12.50 per person I declined to sign up for one, and Alex never knew it was under consideration.
We walked across a pedestrian bridge to Great Hopes Plantation, which I guess is a plantation by courtesy only - I would've called it a small farm. It's been built to be representative of how most Virginians lived in the colonial period - only 2% lived in towns like Williamsburg, and most plantations were small and inhabited by "middling folk," not wealthy Scarlett O'Hara-type planters. The plantation is still under construction. They've built a number of outbuildings, including a fully-equipped and furnished kitchen house, but the main house is still a staked-out rectangle on the ground. They've got, I think, 15 acres under cultivation - tobacco, corn, and oats - and a kitchen garden, and chickens and pigs. The Williamsburg carpenters were at work on the porch of the tobacco house (for storing tobacco, I think), making shingles which will be used to roof a coffeehouse under construction down in the town. They had ingenious foot-powered clamps to hold the wood, and shaping tools which looked sort of like old-fashioned straight razors and which shaved off pieces of wood with incredible smoothness. They told us that it took about two minutes to make each shingle, and they needed thirteen thousand. We watched them for a while.
We browsed around the farm. Alex was very taken with a yoke for carrying water buckets, near the well, which had been built to be child-sized. Not quite her size, alas - the yoke fit her shoulders, sort of, but the buckets sat on the ground. Then we meandered down the hill to the slave cabin, which held a middle-aged African-American interpreter. She spoke quietly and effectively about the lives of slaves, and we listened for some time as she talked about how young children were raised and socialized into the system of slavery, and the many and far-reaching implications of owning people as property. On a plantation like this one, we had been told, the landowner and his sons would've worked in the fields alongside their slaves, doing the same work for the same hours. And yet, of course, they had the same absolute right of ownership over their slaves as any other. "The best wedding present you could give someone," she told us, "was a slave child." After a while, Alex wandered out to cluck at the chickens, and I was relieved that she didn't seem to be paying very close attention. We did talk a little with her about what slavery meant, though.
After we'd spent some time watching the pigs, we headed back to the visitor's center and caught a bus to the town portion of the historic district. We had hopes of seeing a theatrical performance aimed at children, which was being offered at 11 and 11:30. We arrived shortly after 11 and went into the milliner's/tailor's shop while we were waiting. That turned out to be a spellbinding experience. The young woman interpreting the shop was friendly and informative. She showed off the silk petticoat displayed on the counter, and then lifted her skirt to show us the layers of flannel petticoats she wore underneath for warmth. When Alex showed interest in the children's clothes, she brought out a whole drawerful and let her rummage around. Some of the dresses she showed us were designed to be closed in back with straight pins, which I find hard to imagine on a child. (Or an adult.) I asked about maternity clothes, and she enthusiastically showed me how a brunswick jacket and some skirts could be tied to accomodate significant changes in shape. I asked how many outfits a middle-class person might own, and was surprised to hear that inventories document women of middle income having 9-12 dresses - more than I would've expected. We looked at a beautiful dress on display and she explained what would need to be different about it to make it an evening dress rather than a day dress, and where it might have been worn.
What with one thing and another, we were in the shop a long time. Long enough, in fact, that when we came out there was a very long line for the children's performance, and we didn't make it in. Instead we went across the way to the finest tavern in town for lunch. The fittings were much more elegant and elaborate than the one we ate in yesterday, and the menu as well. Michael had "a made dish of beef," sort of a pot roast served on a bed of mashed potatoes, and I had fried chicken served with a rasher of salty ham. The food was very good.
After lunch we walked up to the blacksmith's shop. Alex stayed long enough to watch him make one nail and then wanted to go play outside. I followed her out while Michael stayed and listened for quite a while, so if you have any questions about blacksmithing you'll have to ask him. We came out when we heard a fife and drum parade coming up the street, and followed them for a while. They were all children aged 10-18, and very serious of purpose.
We wandered on up the street. It was just after 1, and we wanted to attend a historical performance at 3. We decided to spend the intervening time at the folk art museum, looking at their exhibit of antique toys. The walk was a bit long. At the end, however, we were more than repaid for our efforts by the wonderful exhibit. Two massive dollhouses, each easily four feet tall and much longer - one was a good thirteen feet long, with a greenhouse attached - and each splendidly outfitted. Tons of smaller toys, including blocks, dominoes, playing cards, farm sets, circus playsets, trains, everything imaginable. I loved it. All three of us were getting tired, though, so instead of pushing on to see the next thing afterwards we just went to the museum cafe and had a rest and a snack.
We hopped the bus and got back to the capital - and let me tell you how strange it is to see what is obviously a state capital building with a Union Jack flying overhead - just before the historical performance. (I was abashed to have people fly out of their seats so we could sit down - I guess my belly is pretty appallingly large.) The program had promised that "the British government falls at 3pm." What we got was a narrative, interspersed with multiple short acted scenes, about Virginian reactions to the Boston Tea Party, the British governor's dissolution of the House of Burgesses, news arriving of the battles of Lexington and Concord, the British governor's decision to seize Williamsburg's supply of gunpowder based on the pretext that he feared a slave insurrection, and his flight from the colony, issuing a proclamation that freed all the slaves in Virginia on his way out. It was all outdoors and got very, very cold, but I really enjoyed the program. They showed a broad diversity of viewpoints. We were obviously expected to side with the patriot position, of course, but the program problematized the issue by including voices of slaves and addressing the question of just what sort of liberty the colonists wanted.
At the end of it all, we were cold and tired. I also suspected that Alex's truly impressive flexibility and complaisance, which she had demonstrated all day long, might be nearing an end. So we hopped on a bus and went back to our car, and then to our hotel. We had hoped to have dinner at a colonial tavern which offered period entertainment, but I couldn't see going back out - especially if it meant bus rides to and from parking again, and lots of waiting in the cold. So instead we lounged around our room for a while (I read aloud two chapters of Ramona) and then went to dinner at a middling barbeque restaurant. We finished the evening with a swim and then came up to put Alex to bed. She went without protest. And I don't think that Michael and I will be far behind her.
It's been a lovely trip. I do wish we had thought to make the trip before we had kids, because there were a lot of things I think Michael and I would've enjoyed that just aren't feasible with a young child. Sitting in on trials in the courthouse, for example, or going to some of the lengthier and more elaborate evening historical performances. Ah well. We'll have the opportunity again in the future. I'm quite sure that we'll be coming back.
bosssio and family on the way. Which is probably just as well, because tomorrow's supposed to be chilly and rainy. Today was cold enough - in the upper 40s most of the day, and windy. But we had a good time anyway. We arrived at Colonial Williamsburg at about 9:30 again. Michael bought Alex a tricorne hat, the cuteness of which must be seen to be believed, while I inquired about horse-drawn carriage rides. And a good thing we did those errands separately, because when I learned that a 15-minute ride cost $12.50 per person I declined to sign up for one, and Alex never knew it was under consideration.
We walked across a pedestrian bridge to Great Hopes Plantation, which I guess is a plantation by courtesy only - I would've called it a small farm. It's been built to be representative of how most Virginians lived in the colonial period - only 2% lived in towns like Williamsburg, and most plantations were small and inhabited by "middling folk," not wealthy Scarlett O'Hara-type planters. The plantation is still under construction. They've built a number of outbuildings, including a fully-equipped and furnished kitchen house, but the main house is still a staked-out rectangle on the ground. They've got, I think, 15 acres under cultivation - tobacco, corn, and oats - and a kitchen garden, and chickens and pigs. The Williamsburg carpenters were at work on the porch of the tobacco house (for storing tobacco, I think), making shingles which will be used to roof a coffeehouse under construction down in the town. They had ingenious foot-powered clamps to hold the wood, and shaping tools which looked sort of like old-fashioned straight razors and which shaved off pieces of wood with incredible smoothness. They told us that it took about two minutes to make each shingle, and they needed thirteen thousand. We watched them for a while.
We browsed around the farm. Alex was very taken with a yoke for carrying water buckets, near the well, which had been built to be child-sized. Not quite her size, alas - the yoke fit her shoulders, sort of, but the buckets sat on the ground. Then we meandered down the hill to the slave cabin, which held a middle-aged African-American interpreter. She spoke quietly and effectively about the lives of slaves, and we listened for some time as she talked about how young children were raised and socialized into the system of slavery, and the many and far-reaching implications of owning people as property. On a plantation like this one, we had been told, the landowner and his sons would've worked in the fields alongside their slaves, doing the same work for the same hours. And yet, of course, they had the same absolute right of ownership over their slaves as any other. "The best wedding present you could give someone," she told us, "was a slave child." After a while, Alex wandered out to cluck at the chickens, and I was relieved that she didn't seem to be paying very close attention. We did talk a little with her about what slavery meant, though.
After we'd spent some time watching the pigs, we headed back to the visitor's center and caught a bus to the town portion of the historic district. We had hopes of seeing a theatrical performance aimed at children, which was being offered at 11 and 11:30. We arrived shortly after 11 and went into the milliner's/tailor's shop while we were waiting. That turned out to be a spellbinding experience. The young woman interpreting the shop was friendly and informative. She showed off the silk petticoat displayed on the counter, and then lifted her skirt to show us the layers of flannel petticoats she wore underneath for warmth. When Alex showed interest in the children's clothes, she brought out a whole drawerful and let her rummage around. Some of the dresses she showed us were designed to be closed in back with straight pins, which I find hard to imagine on a child. (Or an adult.) I asked about maternity clothes, and she enthusiastically showed me how a brunswick jacket and some skirts could be tied to accomodate significant changes in shape. I asked how many outfits a middle-class person might own, and was surprised to hear that inventories document women of middle income having 9-12 dresses - more than I would've expected. We looked at a beautiful dress on display and she explained what would need to be different about it to make it an evening dress rather than a day dress, and where it might have been worn.
What with one thing and another, we were in the shop a long time. Long enough, in fact, that when we came out there was a very long line for the children's performance, and we didn't make it in. Instead we went across the way to the finest tavern in town for lunch. The fittings were much more elegant and elaborate than the one we ate in yesterday, and the menu as well. Michael had "a made dish of beef," sort of a pot roast served on a bed of mashed potatoes, and I had fried chicken served with a rasher of salty ham. The food was very good.
After lunch we walked up to the blacksmith's shop. Alex stayed long enough to watch him make one nail and then wanted to go play outside. I followed her out while Michael stayed and listened for quite a while, so if you have any questions about blacksmithing you'll have to ask him. We came out when we heard a fife and drum parade coming up the street, and followed them for a while. They were all children aged 10-18, and very serious of purpose.
We wandered on up the street. It was just after 1, and we wanted to attend a historical performance at 3. We decided to spend the intervening time at the folk art museum, looking at their exhibit of antique toys. The walk was a bit long. At the end, however, we were more than repaid for our efforts by the wonderful exhibit. Two massive dollhouses, each easily four feet tall and much longer - one was a good thirteen feet long, with a greenhouse attached - and each splendidly outfitted. Tons of smaller toys, including blocks, dominoes, playing cards, farm sets, circus playsets, trains, everything imaginable. I loved it. All three of us were getting tired, though, so instead of pushing on to see the next thing afterwards we just went to the museum cafe and had a rest and a snack.
We hopped the bus and got back to the capital - and let me tell you how strange it is to see what is obviously a state capital building with a Union Jack flying overhead - just before the historical performance. (I was abashed to have people fly out of their seats so we could sit down - I guess my belly is pretty appallingly large.) The program had promised that "the British government falls at 3pm." What we got was a narrative, interspersed with multiple short acted scenes, about Virginian reactions to the Boston Tea Party, the British governor's dissolution of the House of Burgesses, news arriving of the battles of Lexington and Concord, the British governor's decision to seize Williamsburg's supply of gunpowder based on the pretext that he feared a slave insurrection, and his flight from the colony, issuing a proclamation that freed all the slaves in Virginia on his way out. It was all outdoors and got very, very cold, but I really enjoyed the program. They showed a broad diversity of viewpoints. We were obviously expected to side with the patriot position, of course, but the program problematized the issue by including voices of slaves and addressing the question of just what sort of liberty the colonists wanted.
At the end of it all, we were cold and tired. I also suspected that Alex's truly impressive flexibility and complaisance, which she had demonstrated all day long, might be nearing an end. So we hopped on a bus and went back to our car, and then to our hotel. We had hoped to have dinner at a colonial tavern which offered period entertainment, but I couldn't see going back out - especially if it meant bus rides to and from parking again, and lots of waiting in the cold. So instead we lounged around our room for a while (I read aloud two chapters of Ramona) and then went to dinner at a middling barbeque restaurant. We finished the evening with a swim and then came up to put Alex to bed. She went without protest. And I don't think that Michael and I will be far behind her.
It's been a lovely trip. I do wish we had thought to make the trip before we had kids, because there were a lot of things I think Michael and I would've enjoyed that just aren't feasible with a young child. Sitting in on trials in the courthouse, for example, or going to some of the lengthier and more elaborate evening historical performances. Ah well. We'll have the opportunity again in the future. I'm quite sure that we'll be coming back.
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no subject
Date: 2008-11-30 02:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-30 02:32 am (UTC)And thank you. I've been curious for many years about what the experience of Williamsburg might be. After reading your descriptions, I feel like I've been there.
no subject
Date: 2008-11-30 03:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-30 03:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-30 03:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-30 12:46 pm (UTC)I'm not sure what the perfect balance of crowds vs. weather would be. There were a lot of people there this weekend for the holiday, but we did sometimes have the opportunity to be by ourselves in a shop or other location for a bit. That probably never happens in the high season.
It would never be in summer . . .
Date: 2008-11-30 05:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-30 03:50 am (UTC)But... this sounds like a perfect spot for a close to home vacation... hmm, wheels are turning.
Oh, do you have any strong opinions on food for lunch tomorrow?
no subject
Date: 2008-11-30 12:52 pm (UTC)I don't know how much Liam would take away from it, but I bet Anthony would love watching the craftspeople. Although none of them that we saw were using a strimmer.
No preferences for lunch - just looking forward to seeing you!
no subject
Date: 2008-11-30 09:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-01 12:33 am (UTC)(Tobacco houses are to cure tobacco, which is sort of like storing.)