Colonial Williamsburg and VB

I’ve been to Colonial Williamsburg before and it was very interesting and educational. This time we got to see a few more things than I did a few years back. We toured the haberdashery and hat and wig shop. Of course in Williamsburg most things are as they were back in the 1700’s, including the locals who are dressed and acting in period style. I asked at the wig shop “why I should be interested in purchasing a wig at all” and was quickly informed that if I “wished to remain some rube and country bumpkin I would not need one. However, if I aspired to being gentlemanly and refined I’d better sit down for a fitting”. OK !!. We toured the tavern/inn and learned what it was like to travel back in the day. I think I prefer our lifestyle. I’m not willing to share a bed with a couple of other guys. Only the wealthy were able to afford private accommodations. Gentleman like Peyton Randolph who’s home we toured and who was from one of the aristocratic Colonial families of the day. You may remember that I am a Randolph on my mothers side. Regrettably, or not, I am not from this line. My line was from ‘more sturdy farmer stock’ that settled originally in New Jersey, not Virginia. As a point of interest Peyton Randolph returned to England before any of the move for independence from England began. To use a phrase of the period for English sympathizers, he was very much a Tory. We did a few more shops, talked to a volunteer tending a garden and even had hamburgers and ice cream; very un-colonial like! All in all though it was good. I was a little disappointed that there wasn’t a more color. My first trip here was in the winter months and this time, in the summer, I thought there would be more flowers and color. I guess it’s not something the early colonists had time for? Maybe it was just that they couldn’t eat it they didn’t grow it.

Virginia may be for lovers but Virginia Beach was not for us. It reminded me of the beaches in Southern California except the sun rose and set on the wrong side. Too many people and too many cars. We just took a quick look and left. I think it was about here on our trip up the East Coast that I began to suffer from the crowds and the pace. It happens to me every time. But continue we did!