Yorktown History Center was another destination on the "Homeschool Ticket" we had purchased at the Jamestown Settlement. There were live animals in the Yorktown settlement outside the fort area. We thought this rooster was awfully nice to look at!

The amazing gardens with all sorts of things growing there for the Yorktown people.

Inside the kitchen where a nice gentleman told us all about cooking in those days. They had hung up all sorts of dried fruits and berries and herbs as well as cured meats.

It was fun to see what these things actually looked like and not just synthetic reproductions. Another interesting thing was that the kitchen was not attached to the house. It was a completely different building next to the house.

DD9 trying her hand at hauling water with a yoke. It was very tricky and you needed to be about as tall as she is. My other two couldn't do it very well because they weren't tall enough! The buckets just sat on the ground!

After seeing the settlement, there is a very thorough museum to tour. At this point in the day, our attention was beginning to slide, so we went to the reenactment of the fort/camp.

Here are my kids at the captains table making important startegic decisions in the upcoming battle! Notice the hanging candle chandelier and the carpet under the desk. Very fancy quarters!

A little checker game in one of the soldiers tents.

Someone need a medic? This table full of scarey looking tools were the latest and greatest for the finest Battlefield Doctors.

Another soldiers quarters.

We were excited to see the canon demonstration!

My DS7 got to be the runner in part of the demonstration!

Ready to run the charge.

Look at him go! He was so excited and did awesome!

Now for the actual demonstration.

Here is the last picture here...I was covering my ears. It was very loud! You felt it in your chest! Yikes!!!

After this we toured around the countryside seeing where all the embankments were and where all the soldiers were fighting.

It was so beautiful, quiet and serene!

Our last destination of the day was downtown Williamsburg to eat some food. When we arrived, we were just in time for a parade in honor of 9/11. Some local Boy Scouts were passing out American flags, pins and bracelets. We were so thankful to these nice boys and wove our flags proudly.

Ready for the parade!

The local drum and fife band led the way!

These young kids were great!

Representation from each branch of the United States Armed Forces. They were all very nice. My husband actually ran into them first thing in the morning on his run while they were practicing their formation. So it was neat to talk to them before everything started.

Before you knew it, this short parade was over and we headed to the local pizza place and had some yummy pizza!

Dad and Son

Mom and Daughters

On the way to look for some dessert, we stopped by a Scottish shop and had to take a picture with their larger than life stuffed bear wearing a kilt!

We also ran into Thomas Jefferson busy at work writing some important thoughts down! He had a moment to spare for my son to get in on the action!

We finally made it to this fabulous retro diner where we had rootbeer floats and a rootbeer shake per my special request!

Aren't they cute!?!

The last picture of the amazingly long and fun-filled day! My DS7 with his purchase of a rifle and tri-cornered hat!

We definitely need to go back there and spend a week to see everything! So many neat things to explore! It's a must stop!!!

Our next day on our journey, we traveled from Kentucky to Williamsburg, VA and spent the night there. The following morning after my husband took a nice run through the Williamsburg area we went to Historic Jamestown. I had been reading A Children's Companion Guide to American History by Catherine Millard to our family as we were driving to our destinations this day and it was a wonderful way to give the kids a brief overview before we ever saw all these historical landmarks! I highly recommend using this book even if you aren't going to these places.

The entryway into the settlement.

Pocahantus statue.

The original church tower from the original permanent church built in the 1600's! Very cool!

A recreation of what the "bones" of their buildings would have looked like in this first settlement.

A very large eagle perched there on the roof of this building!

Captain John Smith

DH and DD5 standing by the water where these brave men and women would have sailed into their new land.

We were so excited to see an archaeological dig in action! They were finding stuff left and right. This is a cellar of one of the very first homes ever built by the Jamestown settlement.

Sifting through the dirt!

More rocks and dirt to sift through!

The first church service memorialized here. They held the first service underneath one of the sails from their boats.

There is also a nice museum filled with all the artifacts they have been digging up from the excavation. Very interesting and worth the visit.

After this we went to the place where the first glass blowing company was established. The kids really enjoyed watching this process from start to finish.

Pulling some very hot glass out of the oven.

Starting to shape it.

Blowing it into the glass vessel. They were making glass pear Christmas ornaments that day.

After this we went to the Jamestown Settlement where they recreated what the settlement might have looked like with actors playing the parts. While it is really cool, they don't stay in character like the actors from Williamsburg. It still was really interesting and they were very knowledgable in their respective areas of expertise. There was also a gift store and a museum to tour in.

They loved trying on the armor!

Musket demonstration!

Powhaton indian canoe making demostration. They would slowly burn a large tree and then scrape where it had burned, then start all over till they had made a log canoe.

A finished canoe.

The recreation of the 3 sailing ships that made the voyage. The Godspeed, The Susan Constant and The Discovery were wonderful replicas. In fact, the Godspeed I believe was almost perfectly recreated because of so much documentation about it in England from a prior court battle of some sort before it came to America in 1607.

Ahoy maties! Aboard the Godspeed!

This woman on board the Godspeed was explaining all about the canons and the kinds of shot they would use. She was quite knowledgable about all sorts of things and very interesting to listen to.

This kind gentleman, aboard the The Susan Constant, showed the kids how to make sailor knots of all kinds. We were there for quite some time learning from him. It was great to come on a day like this!

Each child was shown a different kind of knot. DD9 was shown a very important bowline, DS7 was shown a figure eight and DD5 was shown this one so she could "handcuff" her brother and sister when they were ganging up on her!

Here she is taking her prisoner away with her. The interesting thing is this is the type of knot they would use for prisoners. I always had wondered about that! It was a very good knot to know!

The Discovery.

Here the girls are next to a Powahton home in the Powahton village.

DD5 grinding corn.

DS7 giving it a try as well. They really enjoyed doing this! Hmmm, maybe we should make our own cornmeal!

A Powahton home with a fire in the middle and benches/beds with furs all along the perimeter walls. It was really, really warm in there.

The kids wanted to stay and stay in there. I think their imaginations were truly ignited by this day and they were loving every moment of it!

The outside of the home. Those are woven mats that are layered upon each other and were quite effective!

There is a beautiful fountain at the entrance of the settlement that has all 50 US flags leading up to it. We had a wonderful experience here and were equally blessed by it being part of a Homeschool discount time! Out entrance fee was marked down and we gained access to the Yorktown recreation as well! I'll tell you all about that in the next post!