After four amazing days camping at Virginia Beach, which I already blogged about, we moved on to the “Historic Triangle” to immerse ourselves in American history (with masks and social distancing).
The Historic Triangle includes Jamestowne (first English settlement), Yorktown (site of Revolutionary war battle) and Colonial Williamsburg (a living history interpretation of the colonial town).
We stayed at Anvil Campground which was conveniently located to all of these sights (Yorktown was the farthest, at about 20 mins) and lots of restaurants etc. I’ll talk about the campground more at the end in case any readers are RVers as well.
I had no idea how to approach all of these activities and locations including BOTH Jamestowns with only two full days in the area, so I did my research and did my best to plan it out. It worked out OK (mostly)…so I will share our experiences and what I learned:
Day 1 – Both Jamestowns and American Revolution Museum at Yorktown
What I quickly learned is that there are two Jamestowns:
Historic Jamestowne is the actual site of the first colony. Jamestown Settlement is a living history replication.
It felt appropriate to start with Historic Jamestowne (the actual site), and that took us about an hour to walk around. The inside exhibits were not open due to COVID-19. Here we saw many of the original foundations, and some buidlings have been reconstructed on top of their original foundations. Signs explained everything because it was a bit confusing to tell what was original and what was not. My husband later said this place was his favorite of “the triangle” because it was the real deal. This area is run by the National Park Service, and of course, is right on the beautiful James River, as I have been learning about while reading Chesapeake: A Novel
Next we drove over to the Jamestown Settlement (JS). The JS has a cafe so we grabbed a quick lunch here before beginning this experience. The indoor area has really nice galleries to recount the history of the time period and a movie that starts every 30 mins to set the context nicely. Outside are living history exhibits of the James Fort and an Indian Village; you can walk around and interact with interpreters who are working in trades, cooking, etc. as they would have been doing in that time period, and they love to answer any questions you have. They also have re-creations of the three ships that brought the original settlers over. I enjoyed all of this, but it was soooo hot (July in Virginia!!) that my kids (and I) were struggling after towards the end of the outdoor areas.
I am currently enjoying the Jamestown TV series, produced by the same people as Downton Abbey! I am watching it on the PBS app – because I am a donor to my local station I have access to the series but it can also be found on Amazon: Jamestown, Seasons 1 & 2 DVD. This series focuses on the “maids” who were sent over to Jamestown to become wives; if a man paid their fare, he had a new wife.
When we finished at the JS it was early afternoon and the Yorktown Revolution Museum was on our combo ticket. This is when my kids lost it and attempted to stage a revolt, “We’re not going to Yorktown.” I hadn’t laughed that hard for some time as I did about their dramatic misery. Of course, their “revolt” meant we were most certainly still going to Yorktown!! We got some sodas and snacks from the cafe and headed over there; it was about a 20 minute drive.
The Yorktown experience is set up similarly to the JS so we knew what to expect. A movie, indoor galleries, then an outdoor living history area with a colonial army encampment and a revolutionary farm. And guess what – my kids ended up liking this!! The army encampment was particularly interesting. They were cooking food; there was a medic talking about diseases; and you could go in a small tent which 6 men were supposed to fit in and see their supplies, uniforms etc.
Day 2 Colonial Williamsburg
Our day two we dedicated to Colonial Williamsburg (CW). Some areas were closed due to COVID-19, and I think having two days here would be nice if everything was open. In this “town” you just walk around and explore on your own. Main attractions include the courthouse, the capitol building, the armory, the Governor’s Palace (picture at top), and some of the other beautiful and huge colonial homes and grounds are open to visit. As with JS and Yorktown, there were interpreters who were passionate about history. It was a shame the taverns/restaurants weren’t open during our visit or we would have just stayed in the area through until our Haunted Tour at night but we ended up leaving to eat and relax for a while. Of all the Triangle, my kids loved CW the most (they are 9 & 11), and especially going back at night for the Ghost Tour was fun for them.
If we had more time or when we visit again…
We missed seeing the other “real” area for Yorktown, the actual battlefield. So it would be nice to see that next time. And we would return to CW to enjoy the taverns and shops, and just walk around without needing to hit the most popular attractions again.
My opinion is that I three full days would be ideal to experience “the triangle.” But there is so much to do in this area you could easily fill up more time!
As usual, we found a favorite restaurant that we visited twice: Fat Tuna Grill.
Anvil Campground (link above) was very nice and customer-oriented. The location was good for seeing all the sights and finding restaruants. We had a towed vehicle, which I feel is necessary to get around unless you have lots of time. There is a bus stop there, but I’m not sure it was running during our visit. The “premium spots” were nice but kind of high in price, so if you don’t want to pay that much I would ask for a regular full hook up site but away from the train track. They have cabins (or something resembling that) as well.
In my next post I’ll talk about the great books I read on vacation…
If you have any questions you can ask in the comments! Thanks for reading!