On Monday, July 7, we took the tunnel north under the James River, went past Ft. Monroe, and continued north to a city called Williamsburg (which was not far south of Deltaville). We’ve been confused about Williamsburg because it has several historic places: Historic Jamestown, Jamestown Settlement, Yorktown Living History Area, Yorktown Battlefield, Historic Yorktown, Colonial Williamsburg, Colonial Williamsburg Merchant Square, and William and Mary College.

Jamestown was the first British colony in the US that prospered and was considered the birthplace of America, so we decided to start there. After doing some research, we determined that Historic Jamestown was the archeological site of the colony, and it sounded like excavations were still underway. Jamestown Settlement was about a mile away and was a recreation of what Jamestown had looked like in its hey-day, complete with actors playing characters from that era. We opted for Jamestown Settlement. 

The Settlement opened at 0900, but we got off to a late start and hit some traffic, so we didn’t pull into the parking lot until 0950. There were hardly any other cars in the parking lot, and we guessed it was because of the on-again, off-again drizzle. Parking was free. The building was huge.

Tickets were $20 per person for 13+. According to the placard, there was a special talk on indigenous bone tools at 1000 in the Paspahegh village, who were the indigenous people of that area. We made a beeline for village. We had to walk the length of the museum to get to the “living exhibits” outside.

Sunday, July 6 — It was supposed to rain hard in the afternoon, so we decided that an indoor activity was a good idea. We settled on a museum called Nauticus, which had a retired Navy battleship on display. The museum didn’t open until noon, so we left the boat at 1130 and headed to downtown Norfolk. It was close to the historic area we’d visited yesterday. This section of town was built up and modern. Even though the two museums were only blocks apart, it felt like two totally different worlds.

We were sad to see there was a traffic jam around the museum. We also noticed a conga line of people with suitcases walking towards the museum. Eventually, we realized that there was a cruise ship next to the museum that was currently boarding. We found a parking garage directly across the street. Like the other garage, parking was free for the first two hours and inexpensive for more time. As we approached the ship, we were struck by how huge it was.