Jamestown and Yorktown

The week before Christmas we spent a couple of days in the Williamsburg area with Doc and Nana, who flew in to do some sight seeing and spend Christmas with us.  We had a great time over there and we tried to do as much as we could in the short time we were there.  We didn't take the boys to colonial Williamsburg  because we thought they would not get to much out of it.  But we walked around the downtown area and looked in some of the shops.  We also spent an evening at The Busch Gardens Christmas Town and went to Jamestown Island and the Yorktown battlefield.  This post will just have pictures of Jamestown and Yorktown and there will be a second post with pictures of Busch Gardens and Williamsburg. There was so much history and the adults tried to absorb as much as we could with the little boys urging us on our way. 

Walking into the fort area.  There was a big monument there.

Simon took a little rest on the monument. 

At the beginning of our day the boys were willing to stop and pose for a little while. 

Nana and I with Pocahontas.

Daddy and his boys by the palisade-style fence.

Old Church with burial ground. 

Replica of barracks in the fort.

The boys can never resist playing with the cannons.

Doc and Troy posing with Captain John Smith.

This street is named Back Street.  We said they were the Back Street boys.  

This is the road we took to get to where the residential area was.

This was the Ambler house built by the Ambler family in 1750.  It was burned in two wars and then after a fire in 1895 it was abandoned.  It was the structure with the most still standing but it was probably the newest structure too.

An interesting tree. 

The boys liked to climb on the ruins...probably shouldn't have let them but it gave them something to do.

When Simon got tired of walking he got to ride "up top" and boss Dad around.

After walking around there we drove up to the Glass House to watch them do the old fashion glass blowing.  It was very interesting to watch and they made a lot of beautiful things.

A glass blower working on his piece. 

Starting on a new piece.

All the pretty glass.  Beautiful colors and some fun and functional pieces.

After the Glass House we drove over to Yorktown and visited the museum there and the battlefield.  

 There was a children's area that looked like part of a ship and it had a interactive exhibit there that talked about the battle.

 The canon on board the ship was "fired" repeatedly at the enemy.

More cannons on the battlefield.

"Over the ramparts we watched..."

The highlight of their time at Jamestown and Yorktown was getting to play with the cannons.

Chattanooga

On the way home from Texas we stayed in Chattanooga, Tennessee for a night.  The next morning we woke up to ride the Lookout Mountain incline train and to check out a Civil War park.  The Chattanooga Choo Choo does not run on Monday's but that gives us another reason to go back and visit Chattanooga.

Getting ready for the ride!  Simon was so excited.

Going up!  You sit facing looking down the mountain as you go up and down. 

We passed the 2nd train.  It was on it's way down.

View from the top.

Entrance to Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park.  Point Park.  Where a Civil War battle, battle of Lookout Mountain, was fought.

They thought this entrance to the park looked like a castle. 

View from park. 

 Can you imagine the soldiers fighting all over this mountain?  It was just amazing to me.

The boys liked acting out battle with the cannons.

The littlest soldier even helped.

A memorial for both sides.  On top, a Union and Confederate soldier shake hands.

Close up of the soldiers.

Confederate.

Union

The views were just beautiful.

We will definitely make an effort to go back to Chattanooga.  The boys loved checking out everything in the park and it was a good opportunity for us to teach them a little of our American history too!