Day 14: College of William & Mary and Colonial Williamsburg

By Bridget

We woke up around 7:30 and had a good breakfast of cereal and pop tarts. After breakfast, we drove to the Visitors Center and took the shuttle to William and Mary College. We walked to the Admissions Office and listened to an information session there. After the information session, we met our tour guide, Imad, who was a rising senior at William and Mary. As soon as our tour started, a torrential rainstorm came. Thankfully, our tour guide found a building for us to stay in until the storm passed. The storm only lasted about 15 minutes. The rest of the tour was very nice and we got to see some cool buildings and statues. Campus was split up into three parts: new campus, old campus, and ancient campus. Ancient campus was my favorite part of William and Mary and was very pretty. Many famous people like Thomas Jefferson had studied there. After the tour, we took the shuttle back to the Visitors Center and drove back to the campground. At the campground, we went for a quick swim and then had a good lunch of pork, ramen noodles, and feta that Mom made.

After lunch, we drove back to the Visitors Center and took the shuttle to Colonial Williamsburg. When we got there, Le Marquis de Lafayette told us his story and how he got involved with the Revolution. Le Marquis de Lafayette was a French captain who came to America after he heard of the fight for freedom. George Washington then made Le Marquis a general. After the General, we went to see the silversmith, the jeweler, and the jail.

Behind the Courthouse, we saw General Washington review his troops. This included a fife and drum corps. We also saw General Lafayette address the army and saw the soldiers do some drills.

We then went to Chowning's Tavern for dinner. The tavern was pretty dark inside because they used candles instead of electric lights. The people that worked there were dressed as people dressed in colonial times. There were also costumed people playing music and a person that taught you how to play colonial games. We feasted on peanuts until our food came and then ate until we were stuffed. The colonial food there was really good! After our meal, we had dessert that was even better than the main meal. Everybody was really full when we finished dinner so we decided to walk dinner off by walking back to the Visitors Center. Back at the campground, we went for a swim and then went to bed after a long day spent in the 18th century.