Parks and Paths: Historic Jamestowne

The remnants of the Amber plantation house built in the 1750's in Historic Jamestowne. The house was burned in 2 wars, and after a 3rd fire in 1895 it was abandoned.

Historic Jamestowne was where the first English Colony was established in 1607. Not to be confused with Jamestown Settlement, located 1 1/2 miles away, where for $25 you can see a re-creation of the settlement and ships. I thought Historic Jamestown was run by the National Park system, and according to a website, free with a lifetime senior pass. Not sure if this is a new development or not, but it's co-operated with a VA volunteer group and the fee is now $12.50. We did come to see it on Saturday so I coughed up the dough.

There are plenty of free, or nearly free, things to see all over the U.S. I guess we're cheap so we try to take advantage of the freebies. At age 62 you can purchase a National Park Senior Lifetime pass which gets you free or reduced entrance fees, camping, and activities in National Parks, site operated by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, National Wildlife Refuges and more. It costs $90 ($80 + a $10 processing fee) and in less than a year has long since paid for itself!

Historic Jamestowne has/is being excavated. The museum, or Archaearium, on this site displays armor, arms, tools, religious objects among other items they have found during the archeological digs. We had Krikkit with us, were tired from traveling today, and hot from our 2-hour, 80° walk in mostly sun, so we skipped the museum. Lots of partial brick walls were placed to show where they found buried foundation remnants during the digs. They do not know exactly how the settlement was set up but they have learned a lot from what they have found in the archeological digs. Disease, famine, and attacks by the Powhatan Indians took a toll on the early settlers. For more information on the settlement you can go to: https://historicjamestowne.org/

We have several days to get to an appointment, which allows for some short driving days, however, it is still somewhat tiring having to pick-up and go each day. As I mentioned, it was 80° yesterday (Sat.) in Williamsburg and we woke to 53° this morning (Sun.) and it isn't going to get much warmer today. It rained pretty steady all night long but dry long enough to get ready this morning and it then it rained, although not hard, our entire 2 hour drive to Charlottesville, VA. Not sure it rained hard enough on our drive to tell, but it looks like our basement may have stayed dry--YES!

Charlottesville is where Thomas Jefferson's home, Monticello, is located. We did not feel as though we had enough time to spend $30 each to visit it, besides it was pretty cold and wet for the outdoor part, so we decided to skip it. On our way to WalMart to get Krikkit's allergy medication we drove by and the parking lot was very full. I'm guessing it would be worth visiting the next time we are near here.

The Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge Tunnel crossing the James River on our way to Williamsburg, VA. The tunnel is under water and the cars are under the boats.

Hampton, VA Colliseum

This obelisk that looks like the Washington Monument was placed in Historic Jamestowne by the United States government in 1907 to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the settlement.

The Jamestown Church was constructed in 1639 and is one of the oldest surviving building remnants built by the Europeans in the original thirteen colonies.