Colonial Williamsburg-Day 6

On Friday we headed back to the Duke of Gloucester street to finish up the major sites that we hadn’t gotten to yet. Our first stop that day was the magazine.

Inside we learned that when Governor Dunmore had the British marines remove the gunpowder, he was actually removing British gunpowder that was probably pretty old. British barrels were marked with a red arrow.

Little Charlotte wanted to come upstairs this time rather than wait outside.

She came up and sat like such a big girl

From there we walked across the street to the Courthouse.

Outside the Courthouse there was another reenactment that we watched.

We still had a few trade shops we hadn’t visited. Our kids had never seen a blacksmith shop and were looking forward to that so we headed there next.

In addition to the blacksmith’s shop, we also saw a kitchen that would have been used to feed the tradesmen in the area. In the kitchen they were cooking a large pot of stew over the fire.

Outside, they were starting an oven. They would put the wood in the oven and let it burn then remove all the coals before baking the bread. The oven stayed hot enough to bake two batches of bread.

From there (and I don’t know why I didn’t take any pictures of this), we walked back to see Colonial Williamsburg archeologists working on a dig site. It was fascinating to talk with them and to learn about what they do. The man that we talked with said that, “you can’t stick your shovel in the ground here and not turn up something from the 18th century.” How cool is that?

We then headed over the Post Office, Printing Office, and Book Bindery. The bindery was closed, but we were able to peruse the Post Office where Rosemary got to try her hand at quill pen writing before heading down the Printing Office.

We were the only ones there and got a nice little tour. This also tied in with the Johnny Tremain story. Since we were the only ones there, the man there gave Rosemary and Ben small pieces of paper and taught them how to make paper boats. We then went out and floated them down the stream.

Watching the boats

We collected our boats then laid them out in the stroller to dry off.

From there we started to head back to the Palace Green so we could go through the Wythe House. We stopped to get some family photos on the green before we headed inside.

The best we got of the five of us.

And all seven of us.

During our tour of the Wythe House, Ben decided that he had had enough house tours. He whimpered throughout the house then asked at the end if we could be done going through houses where “people talk at us.” I assured him that he didn’t have to go through anymore. He had done quite well with the ones he’d been through in the earlier days.

From here, we grabbed some lunch. Again at The Cheese Shop. But this time we packed the kids’ lunches so it was a bit easier.

After lunch we made our way through more of the trade shops including the weaver, the wheelwright, and the cooper. Charlotte was asleep and spent the afternoon with my parents snoozing in the stroller.

Outside the cooper’s shop.

Ben and Rosemary were very intrigued with the barrel full of goldfish. They found out that the fish were there to help cut down on the mosquitoes.

We also stopped by the military encampment. There we watched a musket and artillery demonstration. The cannon was loud!

Watching all the steps necessary to fire a cannon.

We wrapped up our full day on the grounds behind the courthouse to see the troops and the fife and drum corps.

We headed back to the Visitor’s Center and did a little shopping. The kids picked out some souvenirs. Ben got a Revolutionary War army men set, Rosemary got another dress for Margaret, and Charlotte got a little soft doll named Sarah. Jonathan and I picked out our ornament.

On the way back to the condo, we stopped at Mykonos for some Greek food. After eating, it was dark and we were pretty wiped out. It was a very full day, but by then we had managed to see most of the sites in the area.