Part 1: Birthplace of our Nation

I'm going to recap my trip to Virginia now and add the pics in later. I'm afraid I will start to forget details if I don't get right on it.

~Day 0~
We left from San Diego International at 10:30pm on Friday, June 15th. There were 49 of us all together, with an adult to student ration of about 1:2. There were 4 students and 3 adults along from my class. Because of the red-eye flight, a brief layover in Atlanta, and the time change (lost 3 hours), we landed in Dulles Airport (D.C.) at about 6 am. We immediately jumped on a tour bus and headed to Williamsburg, VA. There was quite a bit of traffic, so it took about 4 hours to get there. We also had to make an unscheduled stop for breakfast. How they thought we were going to fly all night and then travel/tour all morning without eating is beyond me.

~Day 1~
The delays got us to Williamsburg a little late. We managed to spend some time on the guided tour of Colonial Williamsburg, however. It was quite informative, and I enjoyed it very much. If we hadn't all been so tired, it would have been perfect. We got to see recreations of a colonial seamstress's shop, a silversmith's shop, the magazine (armory) from which gun powder and weapons were confiscated by the British, and a foundry, as well as a typical household setup. The characters there are all well played and very authentic looking. We got to see the
Governor's mansion as well.

Eventually, we went to dinner (uninspired pasta dishes) and checked into our hotel room. We had just enough time to rinse the travel grime from our faces before heading back to Colonial Williamburg for a Ghost Tour. We heard stories about ghosts that supposedly haunt Williamsburg. Although they weren't very frightening to me (the kids were somewhat spooked), they were very well told and enjoyable. (At some point this evening, one of our teachers managed to trip in a hole and hurt her ankle.) We chased some fireflies on the way back to the bus, returned to our hotel, and collapsed into bed for the first time in 38 hours.

~Day 2~
After an excellent breakfast (one of the few places in the world that makes GOOD scrambled eggs), we spent time at the recreation of Jamestown. They have an excellent museum/gallery there that really focuses on the interactions between the English, the Native Americans, and the Africans at this time. We were given a quick tour of the gallery, model villages (native, colonial, and slave), and the three ships used to reach the new world: the Susan Constant, the Godspeed, and the Discovery. I can't even begin to imagine traveling ACROSS THE OCEAN on a ship only slightly bigger than my father-in-law's speedboat. We were given some time to do further exploration on our own before lunch. I chose to return to the gallery to read all the information we had previously sped past. It was quite informative. (The ER docs were also quite informative regarding the teacher's broken foot. She was given pain meds, crutches, and orders to stay off of it as much as possible.)

After a sandwich lunch at Jamestown, we went back to Williamsburg for some shopping and wandering on our own. The kids had a blast spending their money on colonial toys (mostly guns and bow-n-arrow sets). It was somewhat disappointing because we couldn't go into any of the houses (where the characters were), but it was fun to walk around and soak up the atmosphere. We had a decent dinner at a local pizza place, and then headed back to our hotel for some swimming. Trying to lifeguard a pool full of 30 over-excited 11 year olds is a challenge. Thanks to the assistance of many parents, we managed to keep everyone safe.

~Day 3~
We returned to the same place for breakfast, and then we headed off to Busch Gardens for some fun. The kids were AMAZED to hear that I was willing to ride with them on any roller-coaster they wanted. The group I was with managed to hit about 4 coasters, along with several water rides (necessary because it was HOT!), the bumper cars, and lots of walking. We put off getting our lunch until the last minute and ate on the bus, so we wouldn't waste any of our fun time. I managed to soak my cell phone on the Roman Rapids, causing it to refuse to acknowledge some buttons while randomly pushing others. 97482lshh2984! I had to turn it off for the remainder of the trip.

Upon leaving the park, we took a 3 hour trip to Charlottesville, Virginia, where we stayed the night. There was plenty of time for swimming (imagine a tiny indoor pool surrounded by incredibly slippery floor and filled with 30 screaming children - this should be one of the circles of hell, if you ask me.) and hanging out before bed, although we were pretty Busch-ed from our fun in the sun.

~Day 4~
Up early for a very bad continental breakfast before heading to Monticello - the home of Thomas Jefferson. We had a very nice tour of the house before being allowed to wander the grounds and (of course) do some gift shopping. Then we were off to Mount Vernon - the home of George Washington. Again, touring, wandering, and shopping, before heading to Washington, D.C. and checking into our hotel for the night. Thank goodness, the pool here was outside. Even better, it had its very own lifeguard! My relief was boundless.

The remainder of our trip is discussed in the next post...