Back In Time

What a great country we have, that there is, essentially, a theme park for history.  Because that’s what Colonial Williamsburg is, a theme park.  The people who work there all dress in costume.  Those who are playing a part do not deviate from that role.  Street scenes, fife and drum bands, musket fire, horse-drawn carriages – you can call it “living history” or you can just call it awesome. 

 

We kept noting, over and over, how amazing it was that every employee appeared to be genuinely enthusiastic about history and his or her role, from the 20-something guy in the slaves’ quarters on the plantation to the female gunsmith (who apprenticed for seven years to become a master gunsmith – shit is for real ‘round there!).  People talked at length with us about the historical accuracies and inaccuracies of the park, the roles of various people in different ages, and any number of other things.  I can hardly wait till the kids are old enough to visit with us.

 

Colonial baseball, I guess.  See those clouds back there?  We dodged rain and thunderstorms nearly the whole trip.  The streets were like rivers, but it was never cold.

 

“What do you call it… when you punish criminals…in days of yore…”  You mean in the stocks or a pillory?”  “Yes, exactly!”  “It’s a freaking hammer!”

 

The Capitol building, one of the more boring tours at Colonial Williamsburg, but that’s likely because it doesn’t have anything happening in it.  A reenactment of the House of Burgesses or something would have been neat, but instead it was a dry lecture.  We followed it with a tour of the jail, though, which was pretty neat.

 

This guy, who still isn’t bored with me.

 

You know what we didn’t do?  Take the camera.  Oh, we took it on the trip, we just managed to leave it in the condo all but one day of the entire week.  So I have a smattering of iPhone photos that add up to a short catalogue of what was a really good trip.  We didn’t do anything crazy.  We didn’t drink to excess or ride roller coasters or hike up a mountain or get lost in DC or sail the Chesapeake, but it was such a wonderful, low-key trip.  Brandon (a great friend and Charles’s Godfather) put up with my being a sensitive girl and with Tony’s terrible sense of humor and we just had a great time.