Events of Tuesday, December 21, 2010

          Today’s blog will be in the form of an acrostic, because I am getting bored of the same old format. The acrostic spells out TUESDAY (that’s today, my day to blog).

          T is for: Today we woke up in Holiday TRAV-L-PARK, Virginia Beach, VA. We did all our typical morning activities (beds, showers, breakfast, clean up, unhook, and go). The planes waited until breakfast time to resume their loud flying.

          U is for: Universally known, the Yorktown Battlefield helped turn the tide of the War for American Independence. That was our destination for the day, starting with the National Park Service Yorktown Battlefield Visitor Center. We learned that the British had no choice but to surrender to the Americans because the rebels advanced, firing a barrage of artillery and capturing two British redoubts until they were at point blank range. The British escape route across the York River to Gloucester fell through when a storm damaged all of their fleet, demolishing some completely. Furthermore, the French Navy came to the colonies’ aid by blockading the Chesapeake Bay from British ships carrying new troops and supplies.

          E is for: Even though the Junior Ranger programs cost four dollars each (hence, we skipped them – yay!) and the battlefield road was closed to tours due to icy road conditions, we managed to enjoy the free portion of the Yorktown Battlefield Visitor Center.

          S is for: Surveying the reproduction warship and partaking in the meager children’s exhibit (a dummied-down audio program with a few dioramas, not quite the hands-on interactive program we so very much enjoy), we also took in the main museum exhibits, which focus on the 1781 Siege of Yorktown, the Battle of the Capes, and the campaign table used by British General Charles Cornwallis during the siege. General Washington's original Campaign Tents were also on display in the museum. After making the most of a fifteen-minute orientation film, entitled "The Siege at Yorktown,", and seeing lots of cool stuff in the gift shop, we next drove to the parking lot across from the town’s post office, sent off some mail, and had lunch.

          D is for: Daddy then drove us to the Yorktown Victory Center, where we purchased all-inclusive seven-day passes for the entirety of the Historic Triangle (Yorktown, Jamestown, and Williamsburg). We each received our own admission badge, complete with a handy-dandy clip to fasten the card onto our clothes. Then we walked outside to take in a timeline and a few other outdoor exhibits. Wanting to get the most out of our experience, we managed to read only the first indoor room of the first gallery before the museum’s movie, which told Yorktown’s story through the voices of various soldiers and officers remembering the past few years of the Revolutionary War, without simply being a dull documentary.

          A is for: After the conclusion of the movie, we read and took in the rest of the first gallery. In three consecutive rooms stood three or four white statues clothed in colonial dress representing real people who lived in the days of the American Revolution. The spotlight focused on the statues one at a time, as we heard each of their stories and how the Revolutionary War affected them. This museum was a great deal more impressive than the National Park Service’s Visitor Center, as there was so much more to it. Outside, in the living history encampment (a small military camp of eight enlisted men’s tents, one tent for the regimental surgeon, two “luxury” tents for the officers, and an outdoor kitchen), we watched a firing demonstration of a mortar, a short-barreled cannon extending out of a wooden box. It made the biggest boom of all the firing demonstrations we’ve seen thus far. We even felt its rumbling effect on the ground beneath our feet. Then one of the living history ladies in the encampment discussed the medicinal practices of the day, complete with demonstrations and the tools of the day. We learned that the regimental surgeon was the doctor, dentist, and apothecary, all in one. As opposed to fainting like I did last time we learned about medicine during the Revolutionary War, I survived because I was sitting down on a bench, with Ben’s arm to brace behind me, and Mom’s shoulder to lean on, and I closed my eyes when it got too gross for me to bear. After exploring the rest of the encampment, we finished the other museum galleries inside. The last gallery was about a British ship that the Englishmen purposefully sunk to blockade the bay to keep the French guns out of reach of their encampment; this attempt failed. Archaeologists just recently found and excavated this ship and all the surrounding artifacts – very cool.

          Y is for: Yorktown’s best part was the 1780s Farm at the Yorktown Victory Center, complete with living history guides. First, we visited the house, where a female costumed interpreter told us about the life of a family, emphasizing the seasonal aspect of Christmas. The mantels and side tables were decorated with boughs of evergreen and holly – very simple, but very quaint. The dining table was set with holiday specialties – apple tarts, dried fruits, nuts, and sweet potato pie. Then we walked to the nearby kitchen, where a male costumed interpreter amused us with stories about post-Revolution meat, cooking, and etiquette. I learned that I am not allowed to date until I know how to pickle. Go figure. Abby was extremely disgusted to learn that one of her favorite foods (sausage) is made by stuffing meat into the pig’s intestines. Lindsey learned that if my husband were to die, she would have to marry him and raise my children as her own. Then we were all asked if we were preparing the hogshead for our father’s Christmas dinner. Next was an outside workshop for soaps, wool, and dyes. We learned that the rich, bright red dye comes from a beetle from Mexico that eats so much of the prickly pear that it turns bright red. Moving on, we explored the tobacco house and gift shop on our own. We drove to a nearby Walmart, hoping to stay there for the night, only to find a sign declaring that no commercial trucks or RVs could park overnight, or we’d be towed. Luckily, Wal-Mart’s next-door neighbor, Lowe’s, allowed us to park in their lot overnight. There, we had dinner, and it was truly wonderful, especially the apple crisp. After dinner, we had our math time with Daddy and watched the first part of our second Christmas movie of the season, “It’s a Wonderful Life”, before heading to bed in a nice, dark, relatively quiet Lowe’s parking lot. And that was TUESDAY.