Day 26
Tuesday, June 21st
Colonial Williamsburg-an entire’ park’ dedicated to bringing visitors back to revolutionary times. The entire park is staffed by people in revolutionary clothing, speaking in character and showing all that care to see, what it was like to live during those times. The weather for the day? Clear, humid and dang hot!!
We started our day with a guided tour/informational session by a lady in costume. While we were waiting for the tour to begin, Eric tried his best at mastering this game…
The kids hung in there on the tour (more like informational session while walking) for a little while, but inevitably, banter about who, how, what and when of the 1840’s bored them. However, they did perk up when the tour led us to a large grass area where young ladies were inviting children to play games from that time in history. All of ours jumped in to participate…..except one who thought he was ‘too big’ for that sort of thing (heh-hemmm, Gregory)
Even Bill had to play the hoop and stick game. We bought one to play here at home!
Other highlights of our day included making bricks out of mud by hand, er, well, more like feet! The kids loved this activity...and why wouldn’t they? They got to get dirty! I do have to say that the mud felt nice and cool on our hot and sweaty feet though! One by one we all pulled ourselves out of the mud and over to the wash barrels. There wasn’t much washing as the water was pretty dirty, but we came out cleaner than when we sat down!
Throughout Colonial Williamsburg, there are houses and workshops for visitors to stop in and watch workers as they show of their trade-for instance cabinet making, wig making, shoe cobbling, and weaponry. Eric was the one most looking forward to watching the men making weapons. We squeezed ourselves into the small and sweltering little house to wathc…….personally, I was done after about 2 minutes but we stayed for probably 10! As we all pulled out one by one, we headed to the street corner to figure out where we were going next. We all started walking and about 5 minutes later and 3 blocks down the road, my cell phone rang and it was a weird phone number. I typically don’t answer my phone if I don’t recognize the number, but this time I did. This girl was on the other line and she said ‘Hi, this is so and so over here at the Getty House and I just want to let you know we have your son here with us.’ Well, I did a quick head count and sure enough, guess who was missing? Eric. Yes, Eric evidently was very engrossed in watching the men make guns that he didn’t see us leave, and us, with so many darn kids, failed to realize he wasn’t with us!! The poor girl on the other line had to think I was a bad mom when I patiently replied’ oh, you’re right! OK, we’ll be there in a minute’ without a hint of panic in my voice!! That kid. Our new mantra for this trip ‘’Where’s Eric?’
Aside from Eric getting lost, the day was very memorable for a completely different reason. As we (and about 1,500 other people) were gathered around a live re-enactment of events that led up to the declaration of war with Britain, we wondered what the big deal was that everyone had been talking about. There was to be a ‘once in a lifetime evveent’ that we were told not to miss. Well, sure enough! As soon as the re-enactment was ending, voices, one by one, started singing a song in harmony. And it was coming from all over. The voices grew louder together in unison-the sound was in front of us, next to us, behind us. What was it? We got to witness first hand a flash mob performance by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir!! There were 400 plus choir members in the crowd-it was simply amazing to be a part of and so beautiful to hear the voices signing together! Videos were posted on YouTube within an hour or so. We were smack dab in the middle of all the people, so pictures didn’t turn out at all…..just the back of a lot of other folk’s heads! As the crowds dispersed we got separated briefly, so I did get this one-Gregory and Jen with Laurel and Alex
This shows some of the choir getting ready to load up in buses to continue on with their east coast tour. Pretty darn awesome that we got to witness the event!!
We did our best to hit some of the other must sees before our energy was lost to the heat and humidity. The kids got the opportunity in the gardens to help haul water..they were so thrilled...haha!
The Powell house provided a very in depth look at how a well to do family lived, complete with working kitchen-they prepare food daily the exact same way they did in those times-over an open fire and in an un-air conditioned room. The kids even got to help. Sweeping, cleaning dishes (you know they were all jumping at the chance to do that!), dumping scraps in the chicken feed bins……very informative and educational for sure.
Laurel was VERY quick to spy painting in the courtyard. They used authentic era paints as well! She was very happy, perhaps for the first time that day!
BY the end of the day we were all dragging ourselves to the bus stop because it was just so jungle hot and swampy. Being from the southwest, the wet heat takes a toll on the energy and how much the body can handle. Poor little Luke, he ended up suffering heat exhaustion/heat stroke. Despite our best efforts to keep everyone hydrated, we’re pretty sure (afterthefact) that he did not drink enough. By the time we drove to where my brother was staying, he had spiked a fever and was pretty groggy. As I was getting him out of the car he told me his stomach hurt and then he promptly left his lunch in the grassy area by their door. We cooled him down and slowly hydrated him. After good nights sleep he was almost himself again.
On tap for day 27...water park madness!!
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