A Colonial 4th of July

We had an appropriately Colonial 4th of July this year. Christopher and Alexandra had never been to Colonial Triangle (Williamsburg, Jamestown, and Yorktown), which is one of my favorite spots on this side of the country. So, we headed out, stopping at Jamestown and Yorktown on the 4th, and then Colonial Williamsburg on the 5th. We had a wonderful time at Jamestown! We got to see the ruins of the original settlement, now over 400 years old. Alexandra was a great little traveler this day.

Here's Alexandra and I by the James River.

Here's Christopher standing by a statute of Captain John Smith.

Alexandra and I in front of a statue of Pocahontas.

We didn't take any photos at Yorktown because we ran into a huge crowd that was there for the fireworks, so we saw the Visitor's Center and some of the battlefield by car. Christopher managed to see the fireworks from our hotel window (while I took care of Alexandra).

The next morning started off well, with mass at St. Bede's in Williamsburg. We knew that Fr. Jaffe had gone to college at William & Mary (in Williamsburg), and were not surprised to learn that he had celebrated mass at this beautiful new church as well.

After mass, our day went steadily downhill. Alexandra missed her morning nap and was a bit grumpy. We went to Colonial Williamsburg, and she screamed for 30 minutes straight. She passed out (in her stroller) 2 minutes before Christopher threatened to have us call it a day. Christopher and I had a lovely 10 minutes of sight-seeing until it started raining. And then it started pouring. Since we're good parents, we arranged our one umbrella over our sleeping child so that she wouldn't get wet. And then, our 2.5 hour drive home turned into about 5 hours because of the holiday traffic that we hit going north on I-95.

Needless to say, we'll need to get back to Williamsburg at some point, since I doubt Christopher and Alexandra have any pleasant memories of it!

Here's Alexandra and I at the Governor's House (right before her crying marathon).

The next photo is especially for Margaret. This was my happiest moment at Williamsburg - the enormous gift store! I didn't but the dolls that I am holding in the photo below, but, if you're able to zoom in, you would see that one of the dolls is named "Sarah" and the other "Margaret."

This was Alexandra and Christopher's happiest moment of the day - dinner at Bob Evans 45 minutes away from home!