A History Nerd In DC: Jamestown

I apologize for taking so long to post the rest of my pictures from last weekend....I was too busy watching the Nats take 3 out of 4 from the Braves. Woohoo!

Sunday morning we slept in and had a late breakfast at the local pancake house. (I had the pecan pancakes. Lacey had grits for the first time. I don't think she was very impressed.) We were a little excited because President Bush was scheduled to make an appearance at Jamestown that day. After breakfast we drove to our designated satellite parking lot, only to be told that the President was already at the site and they weren't letting anyone in for security reasons until 1:00. We were totally bummed. Not only did we not get to see the President, but we had to kill time for about two hours until they let us in. So we went shopping.

After coming back to the parking lot the second time, we were directed to the shuttle buses that would take us to Jamestown. And guess what? They were school buses.

Man, that brought back memories.

The bus took us to Jamestown Settlement, which is the "fake" Jamestown run by the state of Virginia. It's basically a re-creation of the village with costumed interpreters running around. However, they do have a nice museum. We then went on to the REAL Jamestown, which is run by the National Park Service and is the actual site of the fort and village. (This confuses many a tourist. They have the same setup over at Yorktown, which is where I used to work. Most people don't know that there are two different sites, and that one of them is fake.)

The church. It was rebuilt like five times because it kept burning down. The tower dates back to about 1676, and the rest of it was reconstructed in 1907.

The outside wall of the three-sided fort. Archaeologists recently discovered the footprint of the fort, and two of the walls have been reconstructed.

Inside the fort, the archaeologists are still digging.

John Smith watches over the James River.

Lacey was so excited about Pocahontas. And she didn't want to hear that the Disney movie wasn't exactly accurate. (To set the record straight, John Smith and Pocahontas did NOT have a love affair. She was like 12 years old at the time.)

We learned all about 17th-century weaponry.

People were following this guy around like he was rock star.

We went back to Anniversary Park (which was connected to the fake Jamestown), where the finale was set to begin that evening.

If you'll notice the risers on both sides of the stage, that's the 1,607-voice choir that was going to be singing along with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra. The Turlock High choir is in there somewhere!!!