Day 159 - 07/29/2007

Our last day on our weekend getaway was spent at the Jamestown Settlement. Visiting Jamestown was the primary reason for the weekend as this year is the 400th anniversary of the establishment of Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in the New World.

Upon our arrival, we took in the introductory movie and then wandered through the various galleries before meeting up with the tour guide. (Unlike at Williamsburg, we actually shelled out for tickets at Jamestown, so we weren't doing it on the cheap, although it would have been very easy to experience it for free as we never had to show our tickets to anyone.)

The first stop on the tour was the fort where we learned about some of the buildings and witnessed a musket shooting.


(It should be noted that the fort is a replica and isn't in the same location as the original: Historic Jamestowne is located a few miles East and is part of the National Park System and is more of an archaeological-type experience vs. a re-creation of what might have been.) And thus ended our participation in the tour. The kids balked at continuing (it was hot and they were becoming crazy with the heat), so we quit the tour and spent some time in the fort before heading down the the ships.


I asked one of the docents (for lack of a better word) which ships were which and she explained that the Godspeed stayed at the settlement, whereas the Susan Constant (above) and Discovery were used to shuttle supplies between the settlement and England, sort of like moving vans. I couldn't resist the opening she had provided, so I responded...

"Shouldn't they have used the Mayflower then?"

"No, that was used by the Pilgrims in Massa..."

Silence.

"Oh, I get it. That's a good one."

As I said, I couldn't resist.

We started heading back when I saw the pair below, which made me stop in my tracks.

It just amazes me to no end that in today's society, there exist such ignorant people as these. To take a quote from a powerful speech and attach it to a symbol of bigotry is unfathomable. And to make matters worse, the father is passing along his family values to his son, who no doubt will pass his along to his progeny. It's no wonder race relations are what they are in America.

We eventually made our way back to the cars and headed off to Cracker Barrel for lunch. After lunch we split up, Lori took her kids and headed on to Virginia Beach and Chris joined D, the kids and I for the trip back to NoVA. Traffic was terrible, but I enlisted the services of Claire and we were able to skirt most of it, arriving at home about 8p (after leaving Williamsburg at 4p and making a couple of stops for gas and coffee).