Day 41

As I slipped out of the tent this morning I was excited to be able to catch a little sunrise from behind our campsite. The boats were already out fishing and the sun was fully up shortly after.

So I admit it's a little nutty. I was excited about breakfast this morning. When Dave and I traveled to England about five years ago I became slightly addicted to crumpets. When we first arrived back home I tried to find them but couldn't. I tried to make them and they flopped. So I actually squealed a little when I found them a Trader Joe's the day before. I was going to initiate my children in the wonderful work of crumpets for breakfast today.

I toasted them just so on the camp stove and slathered with butter and jelly. I added fruit to everyone's plate and waited patiently for their reactions. And that's where I usually go wrong with my kids. I have these expectations and they completely defy what I *think* they are going to do or say. I got nothing. I have to say they were a bit dry and not as chewy as I remember, but they were still good. Well, if you want to make me anything for my birthday, just make me some crumpets. Forget the kids.

We headed first to Jamestown Settlement today. As we were driving into town the day before I saw a sign for Yorktown as well so we made sure to buy the combo ticket for both places this day.  Yes they were about 150 years apart, but we were there so we might as well go see more history.

The docents had some furs for the kids to look at when we first walked in. They loved it when he told them to tell everyone at home they'd "caught a skunk" when he threw it to them.

After we took some time to watch the movie, we went upstairs to learn about bartering.  Once the kids earned the peace medal to show they understood everything, we headed to the Powhatan Village to begin their trading.  When the Powhatan saw their medals he gave them some corn to take to the colonial village for trading.

We stayed in the village for  a little while trying the different activities set up. The kids ground some corn and practiced hitting some targets. They also scraped some deer hide and tied some knots for a fishing net. We'd already done much of this at home or at other pioneer days so the kids were old pros showing other kids how to do things.

  

Our next stop was a quick tour of a recreation of one of the three ships that brought colonists over to Virginia in 1607, the Susan Constant. We couldn't believe how small the bunks were for all the sailors!

All the kids enjoyed trying their hands at steering the ship with the whipstaff.

After chatting with one of the guides we headed over to the colonial settlement for more exploring and a chance to trade. They all offered their corn for trade to the merchant and she gave them each a small bracelet in return. 

We also watched a musket demonstration as well as asked bunches of questions about the practice of medicine in the 1600s to the settlement doctor. He showed many of the tools they used and pretty much grossed all of us out to the point we were no longer hungry fr lunch. It was very interesting though!

We walked through most of the houses arranged like the settlers may have lived.  We had a hard time imagining a large family living in rooms the size of our living room for their entire house.

The kids had a ball trying on all the armor and finding the chickens too. It was blazing hot but there was enough shade, water, and shelter to keep us going.

I would have loved to spend a little more time inside as there were tons of exhibits set up in chronological order of Jamestown as well as what was happening in England at the time. The kids were way more interested in dressing up so I'll save that for another day. Ryan was having a bit of trouble keeping up her pants!

They had a great little display with some swords from the Revolutionary, British, and French armies. The difference in the weight of all of them was amazing! The French sword was unbelievably light.

We made our way through the gift shop and hopped in the car for sandwiches on the way to Yorktown. This museum was undergoing some big changes so much of the inside portion was closed and there was considerable construction going on outside in their transition to the American Revolution Museum. The plans for this place look awesome and we'll definitely have to make a trip there again.

 

They had a bunch of stations set up for the kids to experience life in the revolutionary times. The kids enjoyed carrying water (heavy!), ironing (annoying!), and washing dishes (takes too long!) among other things. 

We learned how they made linen thread, handled medical issues, and toured the military encampment.  Again we were amazed six soldiers shared these tents. No wonder these camps were rampant with disease!!

This was the size of George Washington's tent - much bigger!

To Ryan's dismay there were musket and canon demonstrations next. As long as I held her ears she was ok with the musket demonstration. This guide did a fantastic talk about the weapons as well as a detailed demonstration of what it took to fire the gun. It must have been at least ten instructions they followed from the commander to fire!

Next up was the cannon demonstration and there was no way Ryan was going near it so I handed off my camera to Laney and we hung out by the stockade. Ryan got in trouble in the few minutes we were there! The other two enjoyed the talk and we still held our ears as far away as we were!

And that's where our fun day ended. The kids decided to fight for the 4,278th time over silly stuff and I wasn't interested in hearing it anymore so we left without a visit to the gift shop, ice cream, and a trip to the pool. We headed to Barnes and Noble for some wifi time for me and they were left to read. It was the quietest they'd been in a month. I guess they figured out I was over it.

When we were getting in the parking lot Brayden spotted some planes flying over us. They were the Blue Angels!! It was awesome to see our guys up in the air again!

Once we made it back home it was time for us to read and go to bed. The next day was going to be Williamsburg and I knew we'd be spending the majority of the day there for sure!

Day 33

With us being up close to 11, we all slept in and had a quiet late breakfast.  I would have loved to have been up early to try to get a sunrise photo, but I had to settle for this.

We were hoping to make it over to Mackinac Island on the 9am ferry, but we ended up just making the 11:05 boat.  The day was beautiful and perfect for a boat ride!

The ticket lady last night made the mistake of mentioning the word Lego in front of my children, so of course that was to be our first stop.  Brayden was so excited to be going into this place that he claimed we would be spending about 2 hours there.  We probably did end up spending more than an hour!  I really enjoyed just walking around the city they had built as there were tons of funny things to spot.  Most of them were pop culture inside jokes that I ended up having to explain to Brayden.  Of course their favorite part was the area where they could build and temporarily display their creations. The guy manning the store was super nice and I could tell he just enjoyed building all day - what a job!

Next up, Ryan really wanted to go up into the fort.  And when I say up, it was seriously up a giant hill onto the top spot of the island.  Once we made it, we were treated with a wonderful view of the village and lake below.

We enjoyed going through all the exhibits and learning about life at the fort defending the Straits of Mackinaw.  Of course a big favorite with my kids is the reenactments, so they stood staring with mouths open as these guys demonstrated a company firing drill.

But more fun than that was the "Kid's Quarters" where they could learn and play a bunch more. I truly believe Laney was born in the wrong century!

Brayden had been looking forward to renting bikes for about a month, so that was next on the agenda. I was ok with renting bikes here because there are no motorized vehicles allowed on the island. Maybe I'm overprotective, but I just like a parent and the beginning and end of the group with kids this age.

Laney and I got a tandem bike since she is usually our pokey rider.  And we were off to search for Arch Rock.  It took me a few blocks to get used to steering and balancing the tandem with a wiggly kid and around horse carriages, but we finally got the hang of things.Once we left the village area we were cruising pretty fast and enjoying the beautiful view along the way.  Before we knew it we spotted arch rock, parked, and walked the 207 steps up.

This arch was much less impressive than the ones in Utah, but the view through down to the water was fabulous.  Brayden spotted some rocks through the arch in the water where someone had conveniently spelled "USA" down below.

Once we got back down (and I remembered to get a picture), we headed to the other side of the village to the Grand Hotel.  Grammie had mentioned this was a nice spot to relax on the porch with some sophisticated people and take in a view of the I should have realized the hotel was going to bridge.  Once we made it through the maze of horse carriages we started the climb up to the hotel. And when I say climb, I mean straight up with a 70lb kid on the back who is pretending to pedal with you.  I absolutely had some jello legs by the time we made it to the top!

The view was beautiful and so were the people!  We all felt extremely out of place in our shorts and backpacks walking around with ladies in cocktail dresses and men in three-piece suits.  We headed to the balcony corner and grabbed some rocking chairs while Brayden and Ryan played a giant game of chess.  The hotel was absolutely beautiful and we talked about all the things you could probably do there as we walked out.














The very best part about scaling a crazy steep hill is speeding back down!  Laney screamed just about the entire way as we raced past Ryan to the bottom.  We narrowly missed several piles of horse poo, so she may have been screaming about that as well!

After turning in the bikes, we went in search of fudge for Dad and ice cream for us.  I'm not sure this is possible, but I think I may be about ice-creamed out.  I still got some this time, but I think an ice cream break might be in order for this mom.

We had timed it just right to get back to the docks to make the boat that took a quick detour under the bridge before dropping us off at the docks in St. Ignace.  The top deck was packed so I had two hams sitting in front of me the whole time.

The bridge is pretty spectacular up close and I can't seem to fit it all with the lens I brought!  It was still pretty neat to watch the cars go up over us way up there!

We were all pretty exhausted by the time we got back so we headed to the showers.  It is about time for my kids to sit in a hot tub and soak the layers of dirt that have caked on their feet.  I would like to dismiss it as "that's what happens when we camp", but gracious those things are gross.

Once we were all clean, we headed back to the tent, read a chapter or so and were fast asleep within minutes. I wanted to take a picture of the bridge at night with all the lights but I dreamt about it instead.

Quote of the Day: "This bike is AWESOME!" says Brayden after his first experience on a mountain bike.  One child converted, two to go!