The Ashtons: The Historic Triangle

We had such a great trip! All of the kids were great throughout the three thousand miles of driving, yes 3,000!! We left Wednesday June 2nd and drove for 3 days to our first destination of Williamsburg, VA. On our way we stopped in Lexington, KY to visit with some friends who moved there at about the same time we moved to Wisconsin. They were so great to take us in and show us the sights and feed us. We went to Kingsland Racetrack where all the most affluent go to witness a horse race.

Then we took a beautiful driving tour through some of the most amazing horse ranches you could ever see. The boys loved playing with the other kids and getting out of the car, as we all did.

We passed some gorgeous countryside and encountered some incredible thunderstorms along the way.
Once we got to Williamsburg, VA, we opted to get tickets for the "Historic Triangle" which included admission to Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown, and Yorktown. We learned a great deal and had fun as well.

The kids and I love horses, so we had to stop and pet them as we passed the "colonial farms."

This is the Governor's Palace, which thankfully is air conditioned (it was extremely hot on our first day).

The kids' favorite room was the front hall with the weapons lining every wall.

The kids complained the whole time about being hot and wanting to go back to the hotel, so we didn't spend more than a couple hours that first day out in the sun. We did get to see the Fifes and Drums before we headed out though, that was impressive.

The following day we went to Norfolk and did some indoor sight-seeing. We went to Nauticus, which is a great aquarium that also is home to the Navy museum and the USS Wisconsin (it's a sign).

We also went to the Virginia Air and Space Museum which had some great exhibits for the kids.

Once the weather got a little cooler on Monday, we were able to enjoy the history again. Jamestown is were the first settlers came to America and so we were able to see how they lived in their forts, and also how the Native Americans lived and used the land. We toured the ships that they sailed on and tried on their heavy armor.

At the Jamestown Historical Park they are still digging to find artifacts from the 1600s and we were able to see the remaining foundations of the very first town of this incredible nation.

At Yorktown we saw how the soldiers lived during the Revolution.

We learned about their weapons, even Brooke was fascinated.

And we saw where the decisions were made and how the men in the military dressed.

Then we went to the actual Yorktown Battlefield and saw the amazing landscape, there are still trenches dug by the militia and slaves!

We did go back to Colonial Williamsburg on a perfect day that was cool and cloudy and saw the rest of the town. We toured the capital and saw how they made bricks, and went into the old jail. It was a great learning experience.