Soup to Nuts

October 2016 - Williamsburg VA

Here's our Day 1 and 2 recap driving from Toronto to Williamsburg.

Saturday was Day 2 and we arrived in Williamsburg around 4:30 and checked in. The resort is very nice and quiet. It is in a good location for visiting the area. It is the Patriot's Inn.
We have a two bed two bath condo, fully equiped and no sales pressure! Three TVs and a fireplace.

We took a quick look around downtown and did a quick grocery run at Food Lion and settled in.

Day 3 recap.
Sunday we relaxed in the morning and had juice, coffee, bananas and yogurt for breakfast. We then went to Merchants Square in Williamsburg and had lunch at Trellis, so so service and we both had bacon, eggs, saugages, potoates and I had a great biscuit! Served with a not so spicy Bloody Mary.

We then set out to explore Colonial Williamsburg, it is huge. We didn't buy tickets, just wandered and enjoyed the gorgeous day.

We stopped into the Cheese shop and the Wine Cellar for dinner.

Day 4 Jamestown Settlement and Historic Jamestowne.
Monday we drove over to Jamestown and spent the day exploring the Settlement and historic Jamestowne.
In between we had lunch in the cafe at the Settlement and were pleasantly surprised to see gluten free options on their menu along with gluten free pizza. We had tomato basil soup and chili.

Just a sampling of photos.

JAMESTOWN SETTLEMENT

Jamestown Settlement, a museum of 17th-century Virginia, explores the world of America's first permanent English colony. Exhibition galleries and an introductory film, 1607: A Nation Takes Root, trace Jamestown's beginnings in England and the first century of the Virginia colony and describe the Powhatan Indian, English and African cultures that converged in 17th-century Virginia. Outdoors, costumed historical interpreters depict 1600s life at re-creations of the colonists' fort, the three ships that arrived from England in 1607, a Powhatan Indian village and at a seasonal riverfront discovery area.

HISTORIC JAMESTOWNE

Walk in the footsteps of Captain John Smith and Pocahontas at Historic Jamestowne. Explore the site of the first permanent colony in North America and watch archaeologists uncover the remains of the 1607 James Fort and explore what they’re digging this season. At Historic Jamestowne, you can take an archaeology walking tour  and view artifacts unearthed at the fort site at the Archaearium.

A model of the fort.

The ferry from Jamestown to Scotland, a must do according to everyone.

We took a leisurely drive around the Jamestown Loop.

And look who we spotted with another sitting right outside the driver's seat.

We stopped at the Glasshouse, a working glass blowing operation. Chatting with the glassblower and the tour guide they made it clear that they are horrified bu Trump and what he represents. The glass blower had been up to Toronto in September to get a tattoo done by a guy in Oakville, Cory Ferguson. He stayed in an AirBnB in Hamilton and sae the sights in Toronto along with Niagara Falls.

Tuesday we decided to visit some plantations, in particular the Berkeley Plantation.

No food to write about as we never found anywhere on our way. We ate power bars we had in the car.

Berkeley is the most historic plantation on the James River. Visit the site of the first official Thanksgiving (1619), as well as the birthplace of Benjamin Harrison and President William Henry Harrison, our 9th president. Taps was composed here (1862) at the Civil War headquarters of General McClellan. Enjoy the 1726 mansion, an architectural gem with exceptional antiques. Five terraces of restored boxwood and flowered gardens offer breathtaking vistas of the James River.

Click here for lots more Berkeley Plantation photos. No photos allowed in the house.

This is the questhouse now the museum shop.

As we were leaving we saw the sign for a neighbouring plantation, Westover so we decided we'd check it out.
It was $11 each to tour Berkeley. At Westover you could only visit the grounds for an honour system donation of $5 each.



Several years after the landing of the colonists at Jamestown in 1607, a private English company undertook to settle lands further upstream along the James River. Such settlements then were known as "Hundreds," so called because of the desired number of persons to be settled. Included among the leaders of these settlers were John Rolfe, husband of Pocahontas, and Francis, John and Nathaniel West (brothers of Lord Delaware, the first colonial governor of Virginia).

We next stopped at Sherwood Forest. It was an honour system $10 each to tour the grounds. A private tour of the house can be arranged for $35 each.










Sherwood Forest is the only private residence in the United States to have been owned by two unrelated United States Presidents. William Henry Harrison inherited the plantation, then named Walnut Grove, in 1790 and held it for three years. Harrison's successor John Tyler purchased the plantation.

John Tyler renamed the plantation Sherwood Forest in 1842. He said it signified that he had been "outlawed" by the Whig party. He retired there when he left the White House in 1845 and spent the rest of his life there with his second wife and some of his children - he had eight with his first wife, and seven with his second wife.

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The house has been in the Tyler family since it was purchased in 1842. The house is currently owned by Harrison Ruffin Tyler, President Tyler's grandson, and the son of Lyon Gardiner Tyler.

Wednesday was cool but sunny and we made lunch our priority before going anywhere.
Click here for Yorktown details.
Water Street Grille at Riverwalk Yorktown.

Out skirt steak salads did not disappoint!!

Interesting flower arrangement.

We had stopped to buy peanuts!! Delicious and fresh lots of flavours. We'll be getting more to take home.

Thursday was to be warm but raining. We headed out to lunch and it was hot!

Before lunch we found Thomas Jefferson.

The Sir Christopher Wren Building at the College of William & Mary in Virginia is the oldest college building still standing in the United States and the oldest of the restored public buildings in Williamsburg. It was constructed between 1695 and 1700, before Williamsburg was founded, when the capital of the colony of Virginia was still located at Jamestown, and the tract of land between the James and York rivers which was to become Williamsburg was populated by crude timber buildings and known as "Middle Plantation."

Lunch at DoG or Duke of Gloucester Pub.

Mussels in cider for John, 7/10 based on the sauce.

Ploughman's for me, also a 7/10. The pate was more like a terrine, hard to spread, didn't need the salad greens. Virginia ham was great, deviled egg and beets along with the cheese were also really good.

Fortified, we are really to continue our immersion into more American history. A couple of highlights.

The Palace was a real highlight with an amazing guide, Joan.

Another incredible tour through the Peyton Randolph home. We heard more about some relatives during the week, the Harrisons, Cornwallis, French General Comte de Rochambeau and Thomas Jefferson who was a cousin.

Born ca. 1721
Revolutionary leader
Cousin of Thomas Jefferson
Attorney General of Virginia Colony
Chaired first and second Continental Congress
Died 1775
First to be called “Father of country”

Peyton Randolph was on the black list of patriots the British proposed to arrest and hang after he presided over the Continental Congress in 1775. Upon his return to Williamsburg, the volunteer company of militia of the city offered him its protection in an address that concluded:

"May heaven grant you long to live the father of your country –
and the friend to freedom and humanity!"

Friday we head out to look at the Rockefeller house, Bassett Hall. It is not open to the public on Fridays.

During the 1930’s and 40’s, Standard Oil Chairman John D. Rockefeller invested a considerable part of his time and fortune in restoring America’s Colonial Capitol in Williamsburg, Virginia. So much so that he maintained a house—Bassett Hall–and an office there throughout the restoration project.

It appears to be working horse farm.

We complete Colonial Williamsburg after lunch at Berret's.

Clam chowder.

Halloween ghouls abound! But it's hard to be scary when there are blue skies and sunshine.

Posted this on Facebook for our friend Blair.

We meandered down the main street.

The horses are painted to show their skeletons.

We stopped by the working gardens.

Marketplace.

The Tin Shop

The Magazine.

The Capitol at Williamsburg housed the House of Burgesses of the Colony of Virginia from 1705, when the capital was relocated there from Jamestown, until 1779, when the capital was relocated to Richmond. Two capitol buildings served the colony on the same site: the first from 1705 until its destruction by fire in 1747; the second from 1753 to 1779.

The earlier capitol was reconstructed in the early 1930s as part of the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg. The reconstruction has thus lasted longer than the combined total of both original capitol buildings.

Flying the Pirate Flag today.

Wandering back to Merchants Square.

Heading home tomorrow. We have really enjoy this piece of history and have learned a lot. The Americans are justified in being proud of the Revolution and do an incredible job of promoting it in this area.

BOOKS

Not much reading this week as we enjoy the sights.
Finished  The Language of Flowers a completely different storyline than the above but I enjoyed it.
Started This Is Where It Ends, zzzzzzz....



DINNER
Being in a timeshare we tend to eat simple, we don't want to buy too much stuff. We tend to go out for lunch instead.


Saturday - leftover Chinese food
Sunday - cheeses and crackers/bread
Monday - tuna wraps
Tuesday - chili
Wednesday - leftover chili
Thursday  - gluten free pizza delivery
Friday - roast chicken wraps