Colonial Williamsburg

Today, we made our way into Colonial Williamsburg.  Field trips to Williamsburg are par for the course when you grow up in Virginia, so I've been here a handful of times.  New Mexican-born Josh was not as lucky.  I insisted we make this a stop on the way south so he could experience the magic of bygone days in the Colonies.  Here's how that went:

First, we hit up the Great Hopes Plantation, which is a small farm just outside of the main city. Here, I got to see oxen for the first time.

I grew up playing Oregon Trail, so seeing real live oxen was kind of surreal.  Like, these things really exist? They are very strange-looking.  And massive.  Kind of cute, though.

Next, we spent some time exploring the grounds of the Governor's Palace.  It was filled with beautiful flowers and shrubberies.

After wandering around for a very short while, we both found ourselves uncharacteristically exhausted.  I had made decaf coffee this morning instead of regular by mistake, so we chalked it up to caffeine withdrawal.  Apparently we are those people now.  Anyway, we needed our fix, so we made our way over to an old-fashioned historic local cafe.

Ye Olde Starbucks

Our next stop was the Wythe House, which was home to George Wythe.  George was a mentor to Thomas Jefferson, as well as a law professor and procurer of badass wallpapers.

We visited a bunch of the shops and various landmarks.  The coolest thing I learned today was the so-called "language of the fan":

Josh caught this creepy ladder house leering at us as we walked to dinner.

We had dinner at Berret's, a seafood restaurant in Merchant's Square.  It was awesome!

The day ended on a particularly high note.  We took the nighttime "Ghosts Amongst Us" walking tour, which brought us around to three different houses in the town to hear three different ghost stories told by great actors.  I would highly recommend this tour to anyone who happens to visit Williamsburg in the near future.

**Edit: I forgot to mention that if you are a Virginia resident, you get the rest of the year free when you buy a 1-day pass.  Virginia readers, take advantage of this!**