A Wonderful Vacation

Hi All!  We left Saturday for Williamsburg, Virginia and returned home on Wednesday well rested.  We had a great time.  I’ll give you a short recap with a few pictures :)

We arrived Saturday evening and checked into our resort-Wyndham Resorts

The grounds were beautiful, and boy…it was HOT.  Here in Ohio, we were used to the 80 degree weather, but were definitely NOT used to the 100+ degree weather they were having!  The resort had mini golf, game rooms, 3 pools (the water was so warm that it was not very refreshing), tennis courts, and much much more.  It was certainly a place that you could go to and not have to go anywhere else for entertainment and activities!  We had other plans, though.

We checked in to our units and when we opened the door….

we were in Heaven!

Our view couldn’t have been more perfect for us ‘country folk’! lol

Despite the heat, we could not resist sitting out on the deck to relax, and feeding the ducks and geese was a daily activity:)

This little guy couldn’t have been more than a few days old- he was so wobbly on his feet that every time he bent forward to eat he would lose his balance :)

It kind of made me miss Timmy :)

On Sunday we went to visit my MIL’s son and his family and on Monday, we went to Colonial Williamsburg!

The wig shop

The Magazine (where they stored supplies, guns, and ammunition) was a favorite spot for Don and the boys..

The Gunsmith Building

The Blacksmith

We went on the tour of the Governor’s Palace

Our guide played the part of a servant who was ‘sneaking’ us into the Palace.  The Governor was away at the moment, and they were preparing the Palace for a Ball that was to take place later that evening.

The Entry Room’s walls were lined with guns, spears, and swords

I think this was the Parlor.

The Master Bedroom

The Dining Room

The Ballroom

I wish I had been able to get some better pictures.  The groups were a bit large, and by the time we all got into a room, we were standing shoulder to shoulder in the roped areas.  The only way to get better pictures would have been to lag behind the group and then you would miss half of the story the guide was telling. :(

All of the rooms were much smaller than I would have imagined.  Of course, compared to the cabins that most lived in at that time period, this was definitely a palace.

We exited into the Palace garden and went through the hedge maze and down to the lake behind.

My In-Laws :)  They spoiled us rotten with this trip!

Then we walked back up the hill behind the Palace Kitchen and Laundry.

Looking back down over the tiered hillside where the Kitchen Garden was…

The Palace Kitchen…

The Buttery

I tell you, if I ever had the chance to visit again, I would have spent HOURS there taking picture after picture and not so much listening to the guide.  I feel like I missed so much and really didn’t get to see everything!

Between the Kitchen building and the Palace was the building where they butchered animals for the kitchen and then the smokehouse

Inside the smokehouse- that is all real meat hanging from the ceiling, and it smelled WONDERFUL!

The floor where the fire is built to smoke the meat

Beside those two building is the well (which now is a water fountain) and beyond that (the little octagon building)  is the Governor’s Bathhouse.

I think she said that only the Governor was permitted to use this.  He would just stand down in the middle and the servant would throw buckets of water on him :)

Then we went down in to the cellars below the Palace.  It was much cooler down there than the 104 degrees that it was outside

 

It was soooo hot while we were there that it was hard to really enjoy it.  There were sites that we missed too.  After the tour of the Palace we needed to get into some air conditioning and have a late lunch.  We ate at Josiah Chowning’s house.  They had a very limited menu if you wanted to eat inside.  It was basically a few choices of sandwiches, but it was worth it to sit in the air conditioning and rest our feet for a bit.

I snapped a few pictures when I went upstairs to the bathroom :)

Loved this little child’s chair

We then hopped the shuttle and went to the museum.  We were so tired and exhausted from the heat that we rushed through it and just wanted to get back to our rooms. 

My advice if you ever have a chance to go there:

#1- Make sure you have a 2 day pass!  We did, but only had planned for one day there.

#2- Don’t go on days that they are having record temps and humidity levels!!! lol 

#3- Take pictures of EVERYTHING!!!!!  I am kicking myself over and over for not taking hundreds more!  Part of the problem was that while we were in the cellars, my camera acted up and said the batteries were dead.  I forgot to put the fresh ones in before we left.  But a little while later, I tried again and it was fine!

On Tuesday we went to Virginia Beach.  Now THAT was a perfect time!  The air might have been hot and humid, but the ocean was the perfect cure!  It was really hazy for the first 2 hours but then cleared off and was sunny.  Despite wearing sunblock, we still got some sun, but we left before it got to be sunburn.

 

My guys :)

I had bought a bag of sand toys for Gannon to play with, but he spent his time looking for shells and playing in the waves.  They found a bunch of shells and even a few had little crabs in them. 

My in-laws had bought into a time-share thing and they asked us to come on this vacation with them.  They had to go to a breakfast so they could ‘discuss their account’ and they didn’t sign back up… yet.  They still have a few trips planned for themselves, but Pap Pap was already talking to Gannon about ‘the next time we come down’…lol  He was a Navy man, and he said he would like to try to see more of the port where the ships were.

We had a wonderful time, ate great food, had fun, and enjoyed the relaxation.  We missed our pets and couldn’t wait to come home.  Once we got home though, we wished we could go right back!  Not a drop of rain the whole time.  Well, that is until we crossed the state line back into Ohio…go figure. lol

Now it’s back to catching up on laundry, trying to get the grass mowed, and the gardens weeded.  I haven’t been up to the upper garden yet, but Don said he thinks that the deer ate our pumpkin, butternut and acorn squash plants while we were away :(  We’ve never had that happen before!  I have to say that we are enjoying the temperatures here a LOT more than there.  Loving the 50’s/60’s lows at night :) 

Tomorrow we are going to take the boys to a local State Park to fish and play in the creek.  Work has called me twice (once while we were still in Virginia) to try to get me to cover a shift, but I am insisting that I am still on vacation until Sunday :)