Have you ever visited Williamsburg? I love history and especially love the Colonial times. As much as I love my modern conveniences (anyone else always forget how to spell that word?!) I am so drawn to that time period. This makes Williamsburg one of my favorite places to visit!
In 2007, my husband and I were there for an early Anniversary trip. Back then, we took historical trips for our anniversary. Now, with kids, it is a bit harder to do so. This Fall, we took a long weekend and traveled back to the Historic Triangle
Needless, to say it was still very warm down there. This was our first big sightseeing trip with the boys. We think we pushed the boys a little too far during the day. In the future, we know better that we need to take breaks with little ones. Rookie mistake! The thing is we had a short amount of time and we had to squeeze a lot in.
There is so much to do in the Williamsburg area that you can easily take a week long vacation. We even decided not to do Colonial Williamsburg. You can easily spend two days there alone, like we did in 2007. The day we arrived in town, we stopped at the visitor’s center and took a walk through Hope Plantation, and into the heart of Colonial Williamsburg. We stopped at the Magazine and watched them do a canon demonstration. I am sad I didn’t get to see or hear my favorite-the Fife and Drum Corp! Add bagpipes and- my heart skips a beat! Next time, I will be sure to get a Fife and Drums schedule.
Jamestown and Yorktown
The tours we took were apart of the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation. We visited the Jamestown Settlement and American Revolution Museum at Yorktown (which replaced the Yorktown Victory Center). Next time, we want to the National Parks version of both. The Foundation’s Jamestown had a museum and outside had a replica of the fort and a ship and Indian Native American settlement. You can also see a replica of a Glass House and workers making glass creations! That was neat to see and is totally FREE. The National Parks version Historic Jamestowne is the actual site of the first colony. There you will find a lot of excavation- which I love! One of my dreams was to be an archeologist! The original church tower is there and some memorials. The Yorktown Battlefield National Park is a ticketed area. If you go to the Yorktown Foundation you do not see the actual battlefield. You can tour the museum and outdoor encampment replica. There is also a canon demonstration.
Winery and Distillery Tour
We love the Williamsburg Winery,which is at Wessex Hundred (I just love that address). It’s a beautiful 40 acres of vineyard and is Virginia’s largest winery. Back in 2007, we took the winery tour and wine sampling. The winery features Merlot, Vidal Blanc, Traminette, Cabernet Frac, Chardonnay, Viognier, Petit Verdot and Albariño wines. They have two restaurants on property as well. Gabriel Archer Tavern which is for lunch and Sunday Brunch and Cafe Provençal for fine dining. We stopped here and grabbed a few wines but we couldn’t find the ones we had purchased years ago. So we assumed they were either off season or no longer in production. Later, we happened to find some at one of the liquor stores. We also stopped at Copper Fox whiskey distillery. Their Williamsburg location is their second location. We took a tour and did a tasting. We learned that whiskey tastings are not for us like wine tastings are.
Later, we made our way to Merchant Square in Williamsburg. This is on the end of the ‘main town’ of Colonial Williamsburg. We can’t believe we missed this part during our last visit. It may have been raining during that part of our trip but I digress. We got a snack plate of cheeses and bread at The Cheese Shop and purchased a pulled pork sandwich at the Sandwich Board in the back.
We sat at a table out front, just enjoyed the evening together and people watched. It was during this time, I discovered that I love Smoked Gouda. After we came home I made sure to purchase a block of it for our Outlander wine and cheese (ok and maybe some whiskey) nights. We shopped in the Scottish shop. Boy, did I wish I could have come home with a blue cape that I found in there (reminiscent of one Claire Fraser might have worn?). However, it was nice just to window shop. We went into a few more shops and then walked down to the end of Duke of Gloucester Street and back. When we were there years ago, they were excavating the foundation of the Charlton Coffee House and I was excited to see that they finished the replica of the building on the original foundation.
When we visited in 2008, we indulged ourselves and ate at the King’s Arms Tavern. It was really neat and everyone who serves you is in Colonial dress. They serve a lot of game meat in Colonial style. In the future, I would like to try is Christiana Campbell’s since Campbell is a family name of mine (my grandmother’s maiden name).
This past trip when we took the boys, we went to Jamestown and Yorktown via Jamestown and Yorktown Foundation- for more information visit here. Jamestown was neat with all the replicas of the homes that the settlers would have made near the river. Next time I would like to visit the National Parks version of both Jamestown and Yorktown. The National Parks version of Jamestown is where the actual settlement was with original foundations and artifacts. Excuse me, I had aspirations to be an archeologist when I was younger and love that stuff! On Jametown Island, we were able to see glass blowing for the first time.
Our next trip
We love Williamsburg so much we are going again this year! This time it’s a couples (us and another couple) trip! No kids! We plan to check out the National Parks Jamestown and Yorktown Battlefield and Colonial Williamsburg.We plan on stopping at the Shirley and Berkeley Plantations as well. I love Williamsburg so much I really want to own a Colonial style home next. I plan to have some pool time too as I’m sure it will be your typical Southern summer in July. When we went last year it was still hot in September.
So you want to plan a Williamsburg trip?
If you go, I encourage you to try and use a friend or family member’s time share. The resorts are beautiful! When we went in September we stayed at Historic Powhatan Resort and it had a 1700s manor smack dab in the middle that was open all day for self guided tours! You can also check out Busch Gardens Williamsburg, Virginia Beach and many of the military museums in the area. There are also many plantations around Williamsburg to visit.
Have you visited Williamsburg or the Historic Triangle? What do you like to do there? Let me know in the comments and be sure to share this post with any friends or family who are looking or planning on visiting!
