Jamestown

Pocohontas dressed in Plains Indians clothes here.  It was decided her real clothing would have been too immodest.

As miserable as the weather was when we visited Yorktown is how perfect it was when we visited Jamestown. It was sunny & beautiful!  Although we didn't take the "tour," I think we stumbled on it anyway and tagged along.  At least Steve & the big girls did; I kept Genna & Jake far enough away to not be a distraction to those listening to the ranger.  He was knowledgeable, passionate, and umm, loud, so I actually was able to listen to a good portion of it, too!

Captain John Smith

He explained a great deal about the nature of the first men to come settle Jamestown and the challenges they faced.  Looking to turn a profit, they didn't send any farmers initially, so the plan was to trade with the Native Americans for food.  Unfortunately, they arrived in a drought, and food became extremely scarce, resulting in some rather barbaric and grotesque survival strategies.

Scale model of the Jamestown fort with covered archeological dig site in the background.

One of the neat things about Jamestown is getting to see where things actually were originally.  Considering it was settled over 400 years ago, that is astounding!

He is making the blue vase on the right.  It takes about 5-7 minutes from start to finish.

Although walking around Jamestown was neat enough, I think the favorite part was visiting the glasshouse.  As demand for glass in England was higher than the ability to meet it, there was a desire to make glass in Virginia to send back to England. Virginia seemed like the perfect place because there was plenty of sand to make the glass and plenty of wood to make the 2000 degree fires necessary to heat it for blowing.  Unfortunately, the starvation period from the drought interfered with its success.

He has to work very quick since the glass dries quickly.

Nonetheless, they have a functioning glasshouse today where you can watch glass blowing.  So incredibly awesome---our girls were riveted!

Though not riveted by glass blowing, Jake is getting into books now. He actually made it half way through Dr. Seuss's "If I Ran the Circus."