Colonial Williamsburg

I spent a long weekend with my friend Bowman in Williamsburg. It’s the first time I’ve been there since I was a child. We did many typical tourist things but also explored the town‘s around the area and where she grew up.

Day 1

We both had to work in the morning, but signed off at lunchtime to have some fun. That included driving around colonial Williamsburg, seeing William and Mary and stopping at Cheese Shop on the Duke of Gloucester Street to pick up lunch. We then took the Colonial parkway to Yorktown. This leisurely drive along the scenic 23-mile National Park Services road connects Jamestown, Williamsburg and Yorktown. The most unusual part about the road is there are no lines. In Yorktown we drove by her high school, saw the area where she grew up which is now turned into a subdivision from 100 acre farm. Their family names were turned into street names, so we saw Wallace Court, Susan Newton Lane and Bowman Terrace. On our way to Virginia Beach, we drove by Langley NASA and saw the national landmark wind tunnel built in 1929. They were used in conjunction with computers and flight simulators to learn about the flight characteristics of new aircraft. This was also the location where African-American women (depicted in the movie ‘Hidden Figures’) whose mathematical prowess helped launch the United States into the space age—even though, due to their race and gender, they went largely unacknowledged. From the road, we could also see the huge NASA gantry used to simulate Apollo Moon landings with a mock Lunar Module powered by a small rocket motor suspended from a crane over a simulated lunar landscape.

We went next through the HRBT Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel and saw Hampton University. This was the first of many times during our travels where we saw shipyards. Let’s just say shipyards here are as common as churches are in most towns. Our next stop was the Edgar Cayce Association for Research and Enlightenment for our massage appointments. The 90 minute massages were therapeutic, wonderful, relaxing, and a classic Cayce massage. We drove down the main drag in Virginia Beach to Rudees restaurant on Rudee’s Inlet where we had a loud evening of seafood. Many navy fighter planes were landing at Oceana Naval base. After a busy day, we hit the road to head home. To do that we drove through Portsmith tunnel and MMMBT (Monitor Merrimack Memorial Bridge Tunnel).

Day 2

Our morning started with a two hour virtual RAIN meditation class that was a powerful process. Then we headed to Jamestown where we saw the 3 ships Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discover that sailed from London to Jamestown, Americas first permanent English colony in 1607. Then we drove to historic Jamestown Island, where we walked around and saw the church, Surry ferry crossing the James River, Pocahontas statue, an obelisk, the old fort and the archeological dig site. Next we drove along the colonial Parkway and saw the infamous Wallace’s tree, which is now just a stump. There used to be a beautiful tree there the Bowman named Wally after her brother.

We drove around Williamsburg to see the Capital, Duke of Gloucester Street, the renown William and Mary Wren building. The Sir Christopher Wren Building is the oldest college building still standing in the United States and the oldest of the restored public buildings in Williamsburg. It was constructed between 1695 and 1700, before Williamsburg was founded, when the capital of the colony of Virginia was still located at Jamestown, and the tract of land between the James and York rivers which was to become Williamsburg was populated by crude timber buildings and known as “Middle Plantation.”

The presidents residence had a cute cat sitting at the front door, and finally we had to find the Crim Dell bridge. Bowman heard about the this iconic bridge, but not seen it yet. We had dinner at famous Pierces barbecue and enjoyed a lovely filling meal outside on a picnic bench. After another busy day, we chilled at home and watched Chernobyl.

Day 3 – Halloween

We woke up early so we could drive on the Duke of Gloucester Street before 8 AM. it’s closed to cars from 8 AM-10 PM, so tourists can walk through Colonial Williamsburg. We called it the sunrise tour since the sun doesn’t rise until 7:30 AM. And it was a beautiful morning, so it was a perfect drive. We saw the Governor’s Palace, the First Baptist African-American church, the Williamsburg Inn, and Peyton Randolph haunted house. Since its construction in 1715, about 30 people have died in the house, from children to adults, due to freak accidents, murders, war, to mysterious natural illnesses. Afterwords we went to a new restaurant, Another Broken Egg, for a delicious meal, but could only eat half of it the rest is lunch/dinner for later. I had a lobster and Brie omelette with a champagne sauce. Delish. We chilled at the house most of the day, but at 7 PM we went on a Haunted Williamsburg walking tour. There were about 125 people, but we were divided into 5 groups each with our own guide. We started at the playhouse by the governor’s palace we went to several locations along the palace green. When looking at our pictures afterwards a few of Bowman’s photographs have a green ghostly aberration in the shot. When you zoom in and look at it up close it looks like a woman dancing. Perfect for Halloween.