Photo TR: Colonial Williamsburg

[printersdevil78]

About a month ago I posted my Busch Gardens Christmas Town experience in the "Theme Parks, Roller Coasters & Donkeys" forum (Clicky here) and promised that the non-theme park portion of our trip would be coming soon. Well, "soon" is here! Enjoy!

On our way back to our car, we spied some Colonial cows! And then we went to Christmas Town. And then we continued our travels northward.

 

Coming up next: Virginia Beach.

Of course, what is any tourist town in the early 20th century without a faux trolley?

Nice to see those silly colonists finally got with the times and started using energy-efficient bulbs!

It was a little cold to be eating outside, but whatever this place was serving sure smelled good.

"Grrr, I'm a scary warthog! Buy my groceries!"

About the only thing we didn't get to do at Williamsburg that we remotely wanted to was tour the original capital building, seen here. However, we needed to get back on the road for our second night at Christmas Town, and based on what we did get to see at Colonial Williamsburg, it probably was no big loss.

Burial grounds at amusement parks = creepy. Burial grounds at Colonial Williamsburg = historical.

Welcome to ye olde nick-nack shoppe!

That be British firewood, it be!

"I'll take one with a lady, please."

Out back: a nice, kid-friendly pile of coal!

Yay! By the way, is it just me, or does everyone at Colonial Williamsburg look severely pissed off? Must be all that taxation without representation.

What could be more thrilling than the Anderson Blacksmith Shop?

Play that funky music, white boy!

We stopped here for a snack. To keep things authentic, we only purchased items that were available in Colonial times. Like ginger cakes. And hot cider. And Aquafina.

Why, it's ye olde firehouse, of course!

And what's this lovely little cottage next to the magazine?

Those items, of course, being the drums.

This is the guard. He watches over the most important items stored in the magazine.

Pardon us while we hit the powder room.

To the magazine! (Personally, I prefer "Mad," but this old building will do, I guess.)

Excuse me, is that your gun, or are you just happy to be here?

Inside the courthouse, some guy was talking about stuff. That's as honestly about as much detail as I got out of it.

This is what the Hill Valley Courthouse would have looked like had it been in Williamsburg instead. And come to think of it, if that movie had taken place in Colonial Williamsburg, would Marty have realized he had gone back in time in the first place?

...but how many have the "child in leg stocks with the sun in her eyes" version?

Now, everyone has the standard "tourist in stocks" picture of Williamsburg...

"Excellent, excellent... send me more children to eat!"

I'm not sure, but I think I see some violations of child labor laws here....

Tweeteley-deeteley-dee... tweeteley-deeteley-dee!

OK, enough of that... here comes the fife and drum corps!

And now we pause for a view of the scenic Virginia countryside.

Meat!

This, in my opinion, was the best thing at Colonial Williamsburg. The food looked kind of disgusting, but it smelled great.

Take the tunnel... again!

As you can clearly see, the early governors of Virginia were big Kid 'n' Play fans.

After the dances ended, usually between 1 and 2 a.m., the govrernor would treat his guests to a post-party dinner in here. That dish on the left is supposed to be pigeon.

This, of course, would be the stove that heated the ballroom. Apparently they kept it kind of cold in there to encourage guests to get jiggy wit' it.

This is the ballroom--and what's a ballroom without a harpsichord?

This is where Thomas "T.J." Jefferson did the nasty in the pasty.

Assuming he didn't kill them first, this is where the governor would have cheated at cards with said visitors.

Every square inch of the entryway of the governor's mansion was covered with guns and swords. According to our guide, this was to let all who entered know that the governor was badder than Shaft (I may be paraphrasing).

Pardon me, sir, but your pantaloons are showing.

Next stop: the governor's mansion.

"What say ye, guv'na?"

This is what the finished product would have looked like.

Goody Smith (or whatever her name may have been) tried to show Lauryn how to make a traditional Christmas wreath. I timed it; it took Lauryn a full 39 seconds to get bored enough to walk away.

They had lots of carriage rides, but fortunately (because it meant I didn't have to pay for one), they were all sold out by the time we got there.

Like this church, for instance. Yep, that looks pretty old.

But enough of that. Let's go see some historic-looking stuff!

"Treeland, Treeland, little girl and--" no wait, that doesn't rhyme....

The outdoor market in Merchant Square was going full force when we showed up.

I have the utmost respect for Colonial plumbing.

Kelly was worried about Lauryn's ability to keep up with all the walking we needed to do, so a couple weeks before the trip, I managed to save this giagantic stroller from the Dumpster (a neighbor was about to throw it out when I intercepted). It barely fit in the car, and on the way home it ended up getting wedged in and breaking my suitcase. We nicknamed it "Strollzilla" and are in currently the process of trying to find someone stupid enough to give us $50 for it because neither of us want to see the (expletive deleted) thing ever again.

It was, I believe, the first weekend of the Christmas season. Even the lampposts were decked out.

But you've already read about Christmastown... so fast-forwarding to the next morning, we were bundled up and ready to check out Colonial Williamsburg (check out the fashionable "Pirates of the Caribbean" headgear).

Since this was the day before Thanksgiving, we brought some leftover turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce sandwiches for lunch, then we settled in for a long winter's nap before heading over to Christmas Town.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Take the tunnel!

First stop: a random gas station in Eastern Shore Virginia, where I'm sure "smoke the legend" has multiple meanings....

[dandaman]

This is what the Hill Valley Courthouse would have looked like had it been in Williamsburg instead. And come to think of it, if that movie had taken place in Colonial Williamsburg, would Marty have realized he had gone back in time in the first place?

 

If Marty went back to 1776, that would make for a most excellent Part IV.