Richmond Day 3 - Jamestown Settlement

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August 12, 2015 (Wednesday)

We began the day with a nice breakfast again.  After we had finished eating and gotten ourselves organized we began the trek to Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in North America.

It's about 1 1/4 hours drive without stops from Henrico, but we stopped at the Welcome Center on I-64 to use the restrooms and get new Virginia state maps (free).  We also stopped at the Martin's in Willliamsburg to get food for a picnic lunch.

We arrived at Jamestown Settlement a little before noon.  They have a nice, large picnic area with lots of tables.  We picked a nice table in the shade and enjoyed our picnic.  When we finished our food, we headed into the large building.  Admission was $41.25 (2 adults at $16.75 each, one youth at $7.75 and Fionnuala was free)

We spent about two hours exploring the site.  It is an outdoor living history museum.  They have recreated a Powhatan Indian village, rebuilt the Jamestown fort, and had replicas of the three ships that brought the settlers to Jamestown (the Susan Constant, the Godspeed and Discovery).  The kids loved going inside all of the houses in both the Powhatan villages and the fort.  They especially loved that each house in the village had a place where they could grind corn meal.

Making cornflour in a Powhatan house

the Powhatan village

Powhatan recreation

Storming the James Fort - not even the New World is safe
(Our first conquest was Doe Castle)

We've captured the outer defenses!  Now let's plunder the houses!

Both children really loved going aboard the three ships that brought the settlers over to the New World.  I remember this being what I loved about this place when I was young too.  It was a warm day (August in Virginia always is) so we got some ice cream and cooled off before returning for a second visit to the ships.  By this time, the kids were very hot and tired and it was mid-afternoon.

The Susan Constant

The Discovery

Not even your ships are safe from us!

When you return to the building there is a pretty good museum that takes you through the history of this region from colonial times through the Revolution, a cafe, two gift shops and some very nice, large, clean restrooms.

We were all ready to head back to Richmond, which took no time at all (1 1/2 hours including a bathroom break at the Welcome Center).

We visited the evening reception which had guacamole and salsa tonight with pretzels and chips.  Then we used a gift card for Outback Steakhouse curbside pickup which is about 5 minutes drive north on Broad Street.  We had two Outback burgers, two house salads and mixed vegetables ($29.46 total) all of it was really good!  Sarah and I were impressed!!!