A Weekend in Williamsburg: Family and Food

My parents' 40th wedding anniversary was this past Saturday.  To celebrate, my family, my brother and his family, and my parents all congregated in one of our favorite places ever:  Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia.  We first went there in the early '90s, shortly after moving to North Carolina -- my dad attended a pastors' conference there and we all went along to take in the historicity of it all.  We all fell in love with the place and went back whenever Dad had a conference there, which was every few years while I lived at home.

I wrote a whole article about my memories of Colonial Williamsburg for the July/August issue of Femnista, which you can read here.  Today, I'm just going to share a whole bunch of photos from our weekend there so you can get a small idea of what it's like :-)  I have So Many Photos that I'm going to break these up into several posts.

A cool decoration at our hotel

This is by far the longest post, as it's kind of where I'm putting photos of everything that doesn't pertain to gardens, Christmas wreaths, or the Governor's Palace, which are my three other post subjects.  I'll begin with some photos from our Thanksgiving meal there, at Shield's Tavern on Thursday night.

Turkey, gravy, stuffing, potatoes, yams, green beans, and cranberry relish!

Pumpkin pie, of course.  There was cardamom in the crust, and the filling was extra creamy.

Live entertainment while we ate.

Next are some shots from inside our hotel.  They have a lot of replica furniture, and they were in the midst of decorating for Christmas :-)

Trees tucked away in a corner, waiting for placement and decorations.

Furniture in a hallway.

This was up by the elevator on our floor.

The hotel was also putting up an elaborate gingerbread village the last days we were there.  It had a big train that ran around it, and by the time we left I think there were eight buildings.  Here are some of them:

Now some shots of us out and about in Colonial Williamsburg itself, doing fun stuff.

Cowboy giving both our girls a shoulder ride at the same time.

Headed to the candy shop!

Carolers

Clam chowder with the shells included.

Cowboy and Sam in the Powder Magazine.  Sam asked six questions!

Stairs leading down to the exit in the Powder Magazine.

Here you can see the signs that mark where cars can cross the road but not drive on it.

Duke of Gloucester Street (pronounced Gloww-ster) is the main thoroughfare that most things are located on.

The courthouse.  People like Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson
made important speeches and decisions here.

Our menu at supper the second night.  You see the Crayfish and Shrimp Stew?  My favorite!!!

We rode in this carriage through the streets on Saturday.

Detail on the carriage.

Chowning's Tavern.  A great place for lunch.

An appetizer of goat cheese and roasted veggies at Chowning's Tavern.

I can't for the life of me remember what this tiny violin was called anymore.

As you'll recall, if your eyes haven't glazed over from all the photos by now, the whole reason we all gathered in Williamsburg was to celebrate my parents' 40th anniversary.  Here are a couple pictures from our celebration that evening:

Champagne.

A special dessert for my parents to share.

Now some more pictures from while we walked around outside.  These are all from Sunday, when my parents had left but we stuck around for most of the day to enjoy a few more sights and learn a few more things about life in Colonial America.

I love trees.

The open market by the Powder Magazine.  Think they have enough hats?

Another beautiful tree. 

Looking past that tree.

Another carriage.  The closed carriages only comfortably seat 2 adults and possibly 2 kids,
so we took one of the larger open carriages instead.

A powder horn and bullet pouch.

Machinery and tools used to make rifles.

I love this wall and gate.

This is the Post Office.  You can mail actual letters there, which I did.

The stairs going down beside the Post Office to the Printing Office and Bookbinder below.

Also behind the Post Office is a small bridge over a stream where you can play Pooh Sticks.
Which we did.  Four separate times.
(Only three of these kids are mine, and one of the men.)

We got to see the dying, spinning, and weaving demonstrations, which I thought would only interest me, what with my love of yarn and crocheting and knitting.  I was wrong.  Cowboy thought they were fascinating, and both Sarah and Tootie were extremely interested in figuring out where the spindle was on the spinning wheels, having recently learned the Sleeping Beauty story.

Dyeing pots.  They were using walnuts to dye things brown.

Small spinning wheel, used for spinning long fibers such as wool.

Large "walking" spinning wheel, used for spinning short fibers such as cotton.

Cotton, something I didn't ask about, and drop spindles.

They have two looms, one for each of you.

A shawl in progress.

Ohhhh, how I wanted to run away with all the yarn.

Spinning cotton.

The spindle!  Protected by a cork because yes, it is sharp.  The reenactor said she thinks Sleeping Beauty pricked her behind, not her finger, because she has herself backed into it by accident many times.

Raleigh Tavern, which we didn't get to go in.
Favorite meeting place of people like Thomas Jefferson and George Washington.

The Governor's Palace from a long way away.  More on that in another post!

We got to tour Bruton Parish Church, which is the original building from the Colonial era, not a replica like most of the buildings there.  Because it did not have a furnace, it never burned down.  It's now an Episcopal church, but of course it was originally Church of England when it was built.  Williamsburg was the seat of government for the colony of Virginia, and they needed a church big enough not just for the parish members but for all the important visitors and such as well.

Love that late afternoon light!

That green chair with a red awning is reserved for the Governor of Virginia.
Both Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson got to sit there.

A special Bible stand presented by Queen Elizabeth sometime in the last century, IIRC.

The front.  That stone baptismal font in the foreground is from Jamestown, and some people believe it's the one where Pocahontas was baptized, though there is no documentation to that effect.

The pulpit.

And that's all for now, folks!  I hope you've gotten an idea of the charming atmosphere of Colonial Williamsburg.  I took more than 600 photos in four days, and even after deleting more than 150 of them for being unworthy, and not posting any here with shots of anyone's faces cuz I'm just cautious like that, I still have gobs and gobs and gobs to share :-)