Day 2 - Colonial Williamsburg

We woke up to a beautiful spring morning!  Once we had figured out sleeping arrangements in the house, we slept quite nicely.  The house floors are paper thin, so I woke up to the sound of children playing downstairs.  It's a very nice sound to wake up to!  When we had eaten our breakfast, I took to fixing our picnic lunch and snacks while Ken took the kids outside to play.

Ken and Nathaniel playing catch

It wasn't long till we were off on our adventure of the day: Colonial Williamsburg!  I am SO glad that we had Worthless Sam (our pet name for our GPS) with us.  If we had just printed out directions or asked someone, I am certain we never would have found our way.  Remember the song "Over the river, and through the woods..."  Those are basically the directions.  You travel through the itty bitty little town until you hit the forest.  Then you travel to the forest until you think, "This has GOT to be the wrong way..." and then, viola!  There is the river.  The James River to be precise.  It's only about a 15 minute ride to the ferry, but the first time, it felt like forever, mostly because it felt like we were lost.

Waiting to board the Jamestown-Scotland Ferry

In all the times we took the ferry, we never needed to wait more than one boat to board.  Sometimes we could board on the first boat if we were lucky.  It was never more than a 10 to 15 minute wait for the ferry.  There are tons of birds' nests on the pilings and flying nearby, so the wait passes by quickly when you are watching the birds and trying to identify them.  There is a ton of room on the ferry.  You are able to get out and walk around once your car is on the ferry.  The ferry was a highlight of the day.  The ferry ride didn't take long either, only 15 to 20 minutes, and it was a beautiful ride.

I found it funny that is shows the car in the water.  :)

We stayed in the car for the ride over because Felix had fallen asleep, but the kids climbed up to the front to get a better view of all the fun!

Ken and Nathaniel enjoying the ferry ride

Ainsley enjoying the breeze

About 20 minutes after the ferry ride, we were in Colonial Williamsburg.  The trip took about an hour from start to finish, but it doesn't feel that long because of the ferry ride.

The goal of our state exploring family vacation is to do it as cheaply as possible, and so we opted not to buy tickets for Colonial Williamsburg.  We were looking at spending around $80 for our family of 6 to get in.  And that is with 3 of us being free!!!  While we wanted to see Williamsburg, once we realized that we could get into the Colonial Williamsburg area for free, and there would be plenty of stuff for us to do without tickets, we decided that spending the money in another area would be a wiser use of our money.  I wouldn't have even known that going without a ticket was an option if it hadn't been for this website:  http://www.virginia-beach-family-fun.com/colonial-williamsburg-va.html
This website proved to be an invaluable resource for planning our vacation so cheaply.  Check it out!

We were able to do plenty of things in Williamsburg without the tickets.  No, we couldn't go into the houses, but for the most part, you could explore the yards, and we talked a LOT to the interpreters.  The kids asked them tons of questions, which they were more than happy to help with, even without a ticket! 

Instead of spending all our money for the day on just the tickets, we opted to instead to spend it on dinner, costumes and an evening play.  We did spend more than if we had just bought tickets, but we had  much more fun putting our money into those activities than just the tour tickets.

The costumes were $25 for the day, and we let the kids dress up if they wanted to.  Ainsley and Ephraim decided that was going to be fun, so they picked out costumes.

My colonial kids 

The hats do not come with costumes for obvious head lice reasons!  But we decided it wouldn't be a complete costume without the hats, so we splurged and bought them the hats.  They are big into dress-up anyway, so we were sure they wouldn't be used once and then forgotten.  Those additions made the costumes adorably cute and the kids in their costumes turned heads everywhere they went!

Checking out the bullfrogs and ducks

The only rule of the costumes was that the costumes stayed on the entire day, and no complaining and saying things like, "I'm too hot" or "This is uncomfortable".  We had one "I'm hot" during the day, but that was it.  She opted to push up her sleeves and have some water and she was done with complaining.  Not to mention that it didn't matter how hot she was, she was not about to part with that costume!  Here is the info on the costume rental if you are interested:  http://www.colonialwilliamsburg.com/do/shop/costume-rentals/

Once we left the visitor center, you head across the Footbridge to the Past.  This was interesting.  Every few steps it has a sign in the walkway saying what year it is and what the mindset of the people is at that time.

1865 - From this date you know people who own other people

You are entering the American Colonies

The kids enjoyed stopping and talking to the interpreters along the way.  Many of them were great, and spent a lot of time talking to us, and answering all our questions. 

 

We made our way to the village square for some photo ops and an early picnic lunch.

Very naughty children go in the stockades!

Colonial Ephraim with his souvenir pistol

She discovered it's a "spinner"

It's not a real picnic without a game of tag!

Before we knew it, the day was done and it was getting close to dinner time!  Costumes were due back at gift shop at 5:30, but we wanted to go to the Peiking Restaurant (a chinese buffet only 5 minutes away) while it was still considered lunch prices, so we decided to keep the costumes until after dinner.  We also had an early evening play to attend, so we wanted enough time between dinner and the play.  Lunch was just $7 per person and I believe it was 3 and under were free!  It was a great deal and DELICIOUS!  Here is the address in case you have a hankering for some good (and cheap!) Chinese:  120 Waller Mill Rd # J, Williamsburg, VA

In front of the Peiking Restaurant

After dinner, we wandered around Williamsburg a little bit more before Ken ran back to return the costumes.  While we were waiting for Ken to come back, we took some time to explore the gardens.  They were beautiful and we were the only ones there. 

In the Gardens

 We went to see a play in the evening in Kimball Theatre.  We saw a family friendly play.  I can't remember the exact title, but it was like a traveling comedy show of old.  It was very funny and we all enjoyed it immensely! 

Nathaniel, Ainsley and the man who was attacked by a porcupine

This man looked uncannily like our Uncle Tim.

We parked in the visitor center and walked from there to Kimball theatre.  Next time, I would make sure our car is close to Kimball theatre when it is time to go to the theatre.  There were many dark, unlit areas to walk through in order to go back to our car.  While it was fine, and we came back without incidence, it was still nerve wracking.

All in all we had a WONDERFUL day in Colonial Williamsburg and were glad we went here!  Even if at the end of the day we were exhausted!

Sleepy Boy

Up next: Virginia's Living Museum and Nauticus Museum