Wednesday, July 21, 2021- Yorktown

      Scott got up early this morning and went to work on his project.  He wanted to walk the historic area in Williamsburg with a GoPro so he can use the video when he's walking on his treadmill when the weather is bad.  He was out of the hotel room and on the road by 7:00.  He walked about 2 miles to get to the historic area.  He then started the camera at the Courthouse and Magazine, walked east on the Duke of Gloucester Street to the Capitol and back again, up the Palace Green to the Governor's Palace, back to Bruton Parish Church, west to Merchants Square and the Wren Building at William & Mary, and back to the starting point.  There were fewer people than usual, of course, but there were still lots of other people taking advantage of the slightly cooler morning to walk and exercise.  There were a few cars on the historic streets, including a Colonial Williamsburg police car, and there were several noisy landscapers working on the lawns with gas powered weed wackers.  A couple of ladders were leaning against the front of the King's Arms Tavern where one guy was up apparently working on the roof shingles.  Scott was pleased to see that the red light on the camera was still blinking when he finished the walk about 42 minutes later.  He waited for Julie and Abby to come meet him at the ticket office and restrooms near Merchants Square.

     When Julie and Abby arrived, we all made our way to a relatively new museum- the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown.  The temperature was supposed to get into the 90s today, and we were rearranging our plans to stay cool while still having fun.  This new museum is separate from the National Park, and replaced the Yorktown Victory Center.  It opened in 2015.   Scott watched the introductory film called "Liberty Fever" but Julie and "Bingo" had to leave the theater just as it was beginning.  The film had an interesting framing device.  It was told as a magic-lantern/shadow puppet presentation by a man who was living 40 years after the Revolution.  As he related each of the stories that he had been told, actors replaced the shadow puppets to tell the stories.  After the movie, we went through the exhibits, which as you might expect, tell the story of the causes of the war, the fighting, and its effects.  It's not a surprise that there is a effort made to include African Americans, Native Americans and women in the story as well, and rightly so.  We learned about the Battle of Great Bridge, a 1775 battle that had African Americans fighting on both sides.  There were movies and multimedia presentations about several battles.  We stayed for the big one on Yorktown that had 180 degree screen and special effects.  The museum itself is long and feels very luxurious and new.  We were left wondering where Virginia gets all of its money for things like this.  

     After the indoor exhibits, we made our way towards the outdoor ones too.  Like the old Yorktown Victory Center, there is an encampment of American soldiers.  There is also a Revolutionary-era farm that is recreated.  We sat under a shelter near the soldiers' tents and ate the lunch that Julie brought.  Abby had picked up a bag of potato chips in the gift shop and we let her get them, but we didn'r realize that they were "Chesapeake Crab" flavored.  Abby definitely didn't like them and said they were "hot" after spitting them out.  They were very spicy, but Scott didn't care for them either.  We were trying to stay out of the heat, but we were getting a little silly.  When Julie heard one of the interpreters say that six soldiers could sleep in a tent, she asked Scott how that was true.  He said, "three on the bottom, two standing up, and one on top."  We laughed a little too hard and long at that line.  When lunch was over, we went quickly through the farm.  We saw a woman spinning wool and a pen of chickens, along with the fields of corn, tobacco and other plants.  But Abby was getting warm and we needed to let her cool off.  We hurried back to the museum and back out to the car.  She was asleep right away.  We went back to the hotel to cool down, and she stayed asleep for more than two hours.

     When Abby woke up this morning and saw the pool out the window, she said "ice! ice!" which she says when she wants something now.  We think it might mean "Yes" or "This" or maybe a combination of the two.  Either way we knew she was excited to go back into the pool, so when she woke up this afternoon, we took her back in to play.  It wasn't as quiet there today as it was yesterday, but Abby loved it again and was squealing with joy as she went into the pool area.

     After the pool, it was time for dinner.  Julie had done some research this time and found a barbecue place on route 60,  It's called "Route 60 Barbecue Market."  We actually passed it a couple of times before but now we knew it had what we wanted.  We did order extra rolls so that we could make the pulled pork platters into sandwiches though.  The food was pretty good and the place was basically empty so it was very good for us.  We enjoyed dinner.

      Julie wanted to go to the Williamsburg General Store that we had seen as we were driving last night.  It's basically a big souvenir shop, and not necessarily a cheap one, but we did find some things to buy.  We got Abby a shirt that makes it look like she is dressed as a colonial woman and a toy jeep that she picked out, probably to impress her oldest sister.  We also got something for Emma, and we had gotten something for Anna when we were in Williamsburg yesterday.

     There was another shop or two that we would have stopped in if Abby was not with us, but chasing her around a store is a little tiring.  So Julie decided to skip those and we went back to Yorktown.  She had seen a little beach there this morning and wanted to go see it again. We took the Colonial Parkway back and Julie thinks she may have seen a bald eagle as we were driving.  We've seen them in the Yorktown area before.  When we got to the beach, Abby loved sitting at the edge of the water- the York River- and throwing clumps of sand into it.  We spent the rest of the evening there.  At the end of the night we went to the Ben & Jerry's across the street.   

     Back home, today is supposed to be the last Blue Jays game in Buffalo.  They've been playing at Sahlen Field because of COVID restrictions, but they are scheduled to be back in Toronto for their next home stand.  Scott and his parents were at the first game that was open to spectators back on June 1st.  His parents have tickets for the last game tonight.  But of course Brian has been to practically every game since they started playing in Buffalo last year.  Scott's been wearing a Blue Jays shirt and hat today.