Colonial Williamsburg
This morning we got up, got ready, and got breakfast… and then Rob got sick, so he stayed in the hotel room to get some sleep while Andy and I headed for Colonial Williamsburg.
The majority of the buildings are from the 1700s, and the costumed inhabitants are pleased to share their knowledge with anyone who asks questions. Most of the larger structures, such as the foundry, the magazine, and big estates, also have guided tours to explain what you see and what life was like here in Virginia in the 18th century.
Andy and I were wandering aimlessly down one of the streets, when a woman stopped us to ask if we were on our way to the reenactment. Reenactment? We had no idea. She said if we kept walking in the direction we were going, we’d run smack into it, and that’s what we did. We reached the the Capitol building at 10:45 am, July 25, 1776, just in time to hear the Declaration of Independence read to an excited mob of 18th century Virginians.
The reenactment took place at several different locations, each in its own “time”, at a key point in history. When the actors weren’t acting their scenes, they stayed in character and would answer questions as if they were living in that exact moment. For example, one actor, Wil, a thirty-something black slave, was thrilled to hear the Declaration in 1776 because he thought freedom was around the corner. A couple “years” later, he realized that freedom only applied to the states as separate from England, not for slaves. He later debated running away to join the British troops, who offered “freedom” to slaves who fought on their side. A year later, one of Williamsburg’s trusted allies – Benedict Arnold – swoops in to seize the city.
The (very interactive) reenactment continued in this vein until General Washington himself rode in to announce the good news that the war was ending, and set off toward Yorktown and victory. Pretty cool.
Andy and I toured the magazine, which housed all the guns and ammo, and the foundry, where its workers were busy silversmithing and… pewtersmithing?
Next, we swung by the hotel to check on Rob, who had just woken up and was feeling much better, so we walked back to the old town and had a bite to eat before taking more tours.
We rounded out the night with some good old-fashioned Japanese cooking on the habachi grill… Rob took to chopsticks like a fish to water, but apparently Andy’s chopstick skills looked a little shaky, because the hostess ran back to our table with a pair of training chopsticks for him. Andy took one look at the rubber-banded training chopsticks and refused to use them, determined to master the real deal, which he did.
He also had an opportunity to stop, drop, and roll, when one of the chef’s tricks turned out to be setting the table on “fire” and Andy thought the whole place was going to blow. He leapt and ducked and was a good sport when everybody cracked up, and the rest of the tricks (knife-catching, shaker-tossing, flaming onion volcano, etc) unfolded without a hitch.
