Hello again. After a quick visit to West Virginia, we headed out to the eastern part of Virginia near Chesapeake Bay. We arrived at the Thousand Trails Campground in Gloucester, VA on Monday. My sister and her husband from Florida were also in the area visiting his family, so we made some plans to do some site-seeing along with them.
We began our week of history by a short drive over to Williamsburg. My sister had arrived just about the same time as we did, so we said our hello's and went in together. We purchased our tickets first and then they purchased theirs using a AAA discount. After further inquiring about ticket discounts, we found out they give a discount to teachers. And because we're both homeschool teachers, our ticket price dropped to a 3rd of the original price! WOW! Why didn't we think of that before? We'll have to remember that one in the future.
There was a brief introduction tour that began at the Governors mansion and took us down the courtyard. Our guide gave us a quick history lesson on Williamsburg. One of the most interesting was how the towns historic heritage was almost pushed aside due to the oncoming development. One of the towns longtime residents from the late 1800's to the early 1900's, who had some political influence, contacted one of the Rockefellers to pay a visit. Rockefeller was so impressed with the community and could also see how progress was taking over, that he assisted in saving Williamsburg from further development.
The following day, my sister spent the day with her in-laws. So we went up to visit the state capital in Richmond, VA. Upon arriving, we found a city that seemed to be under construction. The capital building itself was closed and being renovated inside and out. We were able to see some of the statues around the outside, but that's about it. There were also many other buildings around that were under construction, along with some streets. Near the capital building was a visitors center. They weren't much help. They suggested also going by the Hollywood Cemetery where there were a couple of presidents buried and then gave me a map. After a difficult time following their map because it didn't match the actual streets, we finally found the cemetery. We didn't find anything there to tell us where the presidents were buried so we just drove around through it. But after a few minutes, it became like it was time to leave the whole city. So we went.
After we left Richmond, we drove over to Monticello. We also inquired about teacher discounts there as well. The total original admission price came to $44. After the discount we only paid $16 all together. Monticello was the home of President Thomas Jefferson. It was located near Charlottesville, VA on a beautifully landscaped hill. One of the interesting things in the home was the clock Jefferson had made in the foyer just above the front door. It was a large clock like the top of a grandfather clock. The unique thing Jefferson did was to hook two cables to the pendulum. One cable stretched to the left wall and was a counterweight. The other cable stretched to the opposite wall where Jefferson had labeled the days of the week. This way the clock could not only tell time, but the days of the week. The one problem he had was that the wall wasn't tall enough to mark all seven days. He had to drill a hole in the floor that went down into the basement for Friday and Saturday. Also, almost all of the furnishings there in the home actually belonged to Jefferson.
On Thursday, we met up with my sister again. This time we met in Jamestown. She also had my laptop with her. ATEC Computers in Albany, NY had to replace the motherboard again. After they fixed it, I had them ship it back to where my sister was staying. She had also received our mail from my mother that week. So it almost felt like Christmas that day.
Anyway, back to Jamestown. Jamestown was one of the first English settlements in the New World. It was plagued with a lot of problems which is why they later moved further up to Williamsburg. Many of the buildings there including the ships were recreated using the original methods and tools. We all had a good time there.
Today we're driving down to North Carolina. I'll see you back here in a few days.
Mark