Day 7 - Chippokes Plantation

We had done so much in so little time!  It was amazing to think that our vacation was already half way over!  We had a wonderful week in Chippokes Plantation and exploring southern Virginia.  We were thankful that God had blessed my husband with a job that provides ample time off!  Having 2 weeks of uninterrupted time to spend together is a precious gift that we are very blessed by.

Since it was our last day in Chippokes, we made it a rest day again.  This gave us time to pack up and have a relaxing day further exploring Chippokes.

We started our day by hiking the nature trails in the park.  We wanted to do that early in the day, before it got too hot to be enjoyable.

We had tons of fun walking the trail.  Everything is so different in Virginia compared to upstate New York.  There were so many new trees, birds and animals to see!  The trail was pretty empty too, so as long as we walked quietly, we saw tons of wildlife!!

Strangest root system we've ever seen - a Cyprus "Knee"

Tiny crabs under the bridge

The trail at one point opens up so you can walk along the James River

Wading in the James River

We stopped at the Overseers House for a look around, but it was unfortunately closed to tours when we stopped by.

Chippokes Plantation Plaque

Overseers House

We continued along until we made it to the gift shop and the farming museum.  The gift shop was very cute, offering many old fashioned games and candy.  We picked up some penny candy for the kids and headed off to check out the farming museum.  The farming museum was interesting since we had recently learned about Cyrus McCormick, and many of the farming equipment we had learned about was there. 

Nathaniel on a McCormick tractor

Ken walked back to the cabin to get our van when we realized how far we'd come, and that more than likely the kids wouldn't make it back to the cabin if we kept walking forward.  So while Ken went for the van, the kids and I continued on our way down the trail and eventually found some wildlife that Virginia and New York do have in common: Turtles!

Examining a turtle

We eventually made it over to the Chippokes Mansion where we met up with Ken and our van.  Ken took a tour of the mansion while I took a tour of the gift shop with the children!  This gift shop was different than the other gift shop.  The other gift shop had old fashioned games and candy, like an old fashioned general store that you might find in Little House on the Prairie.  This gift store was filled with all sorts of dollar gifts that the kids could buy like slinkies, bubbles and paddle ball, and TONS of BEAUTIFUL knick knacks for Mamas to buy!  The man who gave the tours of the mansions, and the woman who ran the gift shop were husband and wife, and a wonderfully friendly couple.  She treated my children to some bubbles and we chatted while the children had fun blowing bubbles.  Before long we felt the drip, drip, drops of little May showers, so we headed inside, where she showed us the car that Chippokes was restoring. 

Cute little Felix in the car Chippokes is restoring

Ken and her husband soon showed up and we chatted for a bit until they got a call to let them know a major storm was headed our way.  So we all said our thank you's and goodbyes and headed home!!

View of the storm rolling in from the kitchen window.

While we had fun watching the crazy thunder and lightning, the kids were disappointed that the rainstorm ruined our plans of swimming in the James River.

We reminded them that we were headed to Lake Anna, and then to a Baltimore hotel with a pool, so while swimming in the James River was out, swimming would still be happening this vacation!

We spent the evening watching the storm, watching some more Wild America, and packing up the house.  Tomorrow morning we would be on our way to Lake Anna!

Up next:  Skyline Drive, Lurray Caverns, the Lurray Singing Tower, and a Garden Maze

Day 4 - Pirates Cove and Chippokes Plantation

One of our other goals while away on a vacation is to not come home needing another vacation from the one we just took!  In order to do that, we try to stick to the schedule of 2 days of doing stuff, followed by one rest day.  That doesn't mean we don't do anything that day, but rather we stick close to homebase and make it a relaxing day.  We also make sure our arrival day is a day to just hang out.  After hours of driving, it's important to have time to unwind so you can start renewed and ready to explore the next day!

So, since we spent the last two days exploring Williamsburg, Virginia's Living Museum, the Nauticus Museum and a battleship, it was time to take it easy!

We slept in, had a nice breakfast of pancakes and spent sometime playing outside first thing in the morning. 

Ephraim lost in imagination

A few years back, Nathaniel and Ainsley celebrated their birthday with a game of miniature golf.  They had been wanting to play again, and we just never got around to it.  We knew of a pirate themed miniature golf place right near the Peiking Restaurant we had eaten at the day we went to Williamsburg.  We decided that we would spend some time there today.  So after cleaning up the kitchen, we piled into the van to enjoy some mini golf!

Bird watching on the ferry

This time Felix was awake for the ferry ride, so we climbed to the top deck of the ferry and enjoyed the views.  Make sure you bring a light jacket with you for the ferry ride.  The breeze can make it chilly on even a very warm day.

 

The theming  of this place was very neat.  It is sure to delight your pirate loving children!  They have 2 different 18 hole courses, or you can play both courses.  We opted to play just one course - the more child friendly of the 2.  We brought our stroller with us, however the course is not stroller friendly.  We were able to maneuver the stroller through the first few holes, but then there are a lot of stairs where it really wasn't feasible. Our youngest could walk at the time, so it wasn't a huge deal.  We just needed to keep a close eye on him since there were ponds around the area.  

Waiting their turn for mini golf

Helping Felix golf

"No, this one belongs over there!"

 Playing golf was a lot of fun.  However playing 18 holes of mini golf was more like herding cats with 4 kids, 2 under the age of 4.  We lasted 10 holes before we called it quits and walked to the very last hole.  :)  The goal of today was fun and relaxation, and by hole 9, it was no longer fun or relaxing! If you would like the information on where we went, here is the web address:  Pirate's Cove Mini Golf

My kids were terrified of the scary noises on this one hole.

They calmed down when they realized where the noises were coming from.

We were home in time for lunch and had the rest of the day to explore Chippokes Plantation.  The kids had TONS of room to roam around without anyone around.  The isolation was VERY nice!

The view to the left of our cabin.  The view to the right was the same.

The road outside our cabin. 

The driveway - no need to worry about a stray kid making it to the road before you!

Race in the yard

After lunch and some playtime near the house, we took the van down to the playground.  The playground is nothing fancy, but it has a few swings, a jungle gym area, and two slides - an enclosed twisty one and a smaller open one.  All things to keep children very happy!

Fun on the swings

My Ainsley Mae

Fun on the jungle gym

After spending some time here, we wandered over to the nature center.  They were still in the process of building this, so it wasn't very impressive.  The building was up, and they had a lot of things inside - mostly stuffed animals (not the cute cuddly kind, but the kind that used to be living and now are not).  But at the moment, things were in  no particular order.  I'm sure that it will look great once they have it finished.

Just outside the nature center is a few telescopes to look over the James River and a path to hike down to the banks of the James River.  The path is steep, but not to steep for a stroller.  And the views here are just beautiful.

View of James River

Osprey flying over James River

Looking through the telescopes

Ferries through the telescope

Walking the path down to the banks of the James River

What fun is a river bank if you can't dip your feet it!?

Fun in the river

Fun on the banks of the river

Someone isn't happy to be missing out on the fun!

We relent and let Felix enjoy the banks of the river too.

First step in a river!

Walking back (with a walking stick!)

 After spending time on the banks of the river, and enjoying dipping our feet in, the kids BEGGED us to let them come back with their bathing suits.  We agreed that as long as it was a nice day on our next rest day, that we could enjoy some swimming in the river.  But for now, the sun was setting and a roasted chicken and sweet potatoes were waiting for us back at home! 


 Up next: Shirley Plantation

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