Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia - November 9th, 2021

We were not good students of history when we were kids in school. Our encounters with historical places during our Season Three travels taught us more about history than what we learned in school. Either that or our memories are fading in our old age. The historical highlight of the season was Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia.

It was a long drive from Smokemont Campground in Great Smoky Mountains National Park to Anvil Campground in Williamsburg, Virginia on Monday. We started early and decided to eat out both lunch and dinner. It seemed like there was a Bojangles fast food restaurant at almost every exit along the interstate, so we thought we’d give it a try. Bojangles specialized in chicken and biscuits. RB opted for the chicken sandwich and fries, while LB had a two piece platter with a biscuit, coleslaw, and fries. The food was OK, but not something we’d go out of our way to have.

We made good time and arrived in Williamsburg by dinner time. Another type of restaurant that seems to be popular in this part of the country is pancake houses. There are nine pancake houses along US 60 in Williamsburg. We got a good laugh as we passed by one named “Not Another Pancake House”. Not feeling like eating pancakes, we opted for a local Greek restaurant called KEΦI Greek Kitchen. After studying the large menu with many delicious items to choose from, we both ended up with the lamb and beef gyro sandwiches with fries. They were very tasty. However, for dessert, we both picked the Galakto Boureko. It was egg custard, wrapped in phyllo dough, with a honey syrup drizzled over it. So it was like baklava with the custard substituted for the nuts. It was fantastic. We could have eaten more of it, as it was not too sweet. For the sake of our waistlines, we restrained ourselves.

We spent all of Thursday at Colonial Williamsburg. Colonial Williamsburg is a restoration of Williamsburg as it was in the 18th century. In addition to the 88 original buildings, many more are replicas, often built on top of the original foundations or at least at the original location. The collection of buildings include government buildings, churches, and private homes. The staff throughout the grounds are dressed in period clothing and are a wealth of historical information. Not all the buildings are open to the public. The ones that are open that day are marked with a flag outside, so it is easy to find them.

After parking our Red Tail Lodge (our van) at the visitor center and purchasing our entrance ticket, we boarded the shuttle bus to take us over to the Capitol Building. Even though we spent most of the day at Williamsburg, we only managed to hit the highlights. We went on guided tours of the Capitol, the Governor’s Palace, and the Raleigh Tavern. A guided tour started about every 15 minutes of these popular buildings.

Other buildings were self-guided. The other buildings we explored were the Apothecary, the Cabinet Maker, and the African American Religion Exhibit.

Other activities were scheduled throughout the day, some requiring reservations but many of them did not. We found the hour long Freedom’s Paradox walking tour fascinating. In the afternoon, we enjoyed the 20 minute musical performance at the Play House Stage.

For lunch, we picked up a salad, sandwich and baked goods at the Bakery. There wasn’t a lot of places to find food and drink inside Colonial Williamsburg, so a little later in the afternoon, we strolled over to the Merchants Square, just outside of Colonial Williamsburg. We found a cute little place called Retro’s Good Eats. Sitting at a table outside, we enjoyed our chocolate malts and the wonderful atmosphere of Merchants Square.

By 4 pm, we were tired and ready to leave. We felt like we only scratched the surface of the place, but we had reached our information overload limit. There were quite a few buildings that were open that we did not go into. Colonial Williamsburg also has some art museums, but we’re not big fans of museums. Although you could argue that Colonial Williamsburg itself is one large museum. However, it is more of an immersive environment, like an open air museum, which is more our style. We get so much more out of a whole environment which allows us to imagine what it was like during a different period in history or in a different culture. The knowledgeable staff added to the experience, bringing the history more alive through the stories they told.

For dinner, we drove over to Anna’s Brick Oven Pizza and Pasta. Right Buddy (RB) picked it out. There wasn’t a single word in the name of the place that she didn’t like. She was named after her grandmother Anna. And how can you go wrong with brick oven pizza? The pizza did not disappoint.

Our interests in history revolve more around how people lived in the past than with historical moments, such as war battles. Hearing about how the colonial court system worked during our tour of the Capitol was intriguing. Left Buddy (LB), being a cabinet maker himself, loved seeing the craftsmen at work in the Cabinet Maker building. There was so much more to see and learn at Colonial Williamsburg, we’ll definitely come back in the future.

Check out our related video: Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia

(RB)