I have been to Williamsburg, Va more than 20 years ago but my memory doesn’t do it justice. So I am glad that I brought my son back and was able to see the town again and talk to the people who works here. Here in Williamsburg, they call it a ‘living museum’. The reason for this is the people who work here and playing certain parts are all in costume and actually make the products that would have been made in Colonial times. This is all the trades: from spinning and weaving to forging and gunsmith to tavernkeeper.
Everyone had actually made their own products in the multiple areas so they were able to answer questions about how things were made, how long they took to make, why things were made that way and who would have been the main people to use such things. This knowledge was priceless in recreating this ‘living museum’!
The next two pictures show the machine that puts the spirals into the rifles. Not an easy task, let me tell you! The way the guy described it, this could take months of pain staking work. He also described how each rifle was built to that person’s specifications, especially height! The one thing we couldn’t do but I really wanted to was to go to one of the taverns and eat their food but I didn’t make a reservation and they were full. I know this from now on and I will be back!
The Governor’s Palace was an absolute gem! The entry way alone is amazing with all the sords crisscrossing each other, guns hung on the wall. You can see why visitors would have been awed and reluctant to threaten such a display of power… and yet the people of Williamsburg along with the rest of the colonies, did!
Williamsburg took great time and effort to rebuild and restore the Governor’s Palace back to its original beauty as much as they possibly could. They researched the floorplan layout and old inventories to find out what many of the governors had inside the Palace. Everything from chairs to bedding, the Venetian blinds, the silk coverings on the walls, books, desks and the dishes. It’s amazing the detail to recreate this place but that’s just the inside, outside there are the kitchen gardens and as a lover of gardens and history, these are accurate too. It’s great how the tiered the garden down the slope and then put in an herb garden on one level, vegetables on the others with fruit trees and flowers flanking it all.
One really good idea and if I could have made it back the next day, is to join up as a member of the museum. You get entry into the museum for free then, not the the price of tickets are really bad. Actually parking cost more than the tickets. But you will also get a discount on the shops and restaurants which is great too.
The next stop on the trip was to the Metropolitan Museum of Art or the MET. It was always recommended to me to take a day just to go to this museum because there is so much to see. Because of this advice, I have never gone until this summer…because how do you just alot 1 day to a museum when you have NYC? Not easy! So I made the goal to visit and see as much as I could in the hours we had and explore.
I have several favorite areas in this museum but we didn’t have time to visit everything or even hit the other buildings. Here are some of my favorite: The Madonna and Christ. History of music area was outstanding, I could have stayed in there reading all the types of instruments but Justin wanted to go to the Medival History section with the armor and the statue of marching horses and knights.
In the picture above and right next to this are pictures of American oil painting and Chinese painting. Both I find incredibly beautiful in their own styles. There are so many that I wish I could share them all but then…why would you visit the museum then?
I wanted to share some more items that I thought were interesting: the Egyptian statue. They have so many items from the pyramids on display here, it’s hard to pick just one. I learned more about the pyramids or more to the point: the details than I’ve ever learned before. For instance: Pyramids always put in a false door in the west wall because the western wall represents the realm of the dead to them
After the museum closed at 5pm, we went to get dinner and then walked around Central Park to work it off and see the sights. Central park in the evening is really beautiful. We were lucky too, since the day before, the entire atmosphere was swamped in smoke from the Canadian fires that are raging up there. Even just the day before, the air was an burnt orange color.
Then reason for this whole trip was to visit my grandma who lives in eastern MA which was a great time. But Justin still needs to run around and get his energy out so she drove us to Acton School. Here are pictures of the Chapel and grounds. Some extremely illustrious alumni can claim to have gone here!
After our weekend visit, Justin asked to visit Boston again. We walked around Quincy Market, visiting vendors, getting some ice cream and watching a street show that had come up from NYC. This show was absolutely hilarious!
The final stop on this trip, we hit on the way back down home. Justin asked to go to Kings Dominion. All the people there were wonderful but it was a crazy time! The weather kept jumping back and forth from nice to stormy. So we got to ride a couple rides, then the storm shut things down. After the clouds passed with only a few drops, the rides opened again, only to be shut down again about 30 minutes later! LOL That’s when the drenching down pour happened and everyone ran for cover! It was still a fun time, definitely a time to remember and it ended with a brilliant sunset!
