Hope you're comfortable, maybe with a
nice hot cup of coffee or tea, because this story takes some time to tell.
We took the long drive from Charleston to Williamsburg during one
of Mike's four-day "weekends" that come every five weeks on shift work at
Prototype, for the purpose of spending at least a full day at Busch
Gardens, Williamsburg. The Virginia park is the biggest and baddest of the
Busch Gardens family, with some of their flagship roller-coasters, and
given our love of the steel-railed thunder, it was too much to resist.
We checked into the Motel 6 just outside of Williamsburg (hey, Mike
was an E-4... what do you want, the Ritz-Carleton?) and grabbed a handful
of brochures to find out the hours of operation for the park, as well as
what else there was to do in the area -- with two days to see the sights,
we might have had time for other stops, so it wouldn't hurt to see what
else was out there.
Up to that point, all the theme parks either of us had been to had
been in warm regions -- Magic Mountain, Disneyland, and Knott's Berry Farm
in California, Disney World and Busch Gardens in Florida, and Six Flags
Over Georgia. What neither of us had thought about was the idea that theme
parks in cooler, perhaps snowier regions of the country might... CLOSE for
six months out of the year. Chris didn't let Mike live THAT one down for
several days.
This was one of those times in life where you can make lemonade out
of lemons, if you've got an open mind and an adventurous spirit. Since we
figured out our blunder (okay, okay, MY blunder) the night we arrived, we
had plenty of time to giggle about it and start leafing through brochures
for other attractions, and the one that eventually caught our eyes was one
for Colonial Williamsburg.
What can we say about Colonial Williamsburg? In a word, WOW. Allow
us to expand a bit.
Colonial Williamsburg is by far the best re-creation of mid-17th
Century colonial life either of us has ever seen, for the simple reason
that the people running the joint LIVE there year round. These are not
just hired performers playing a part, but rather RESEARCHERs who are
trying to understand through the process of re-creation and re-enactment,
just what American colonial life was really like. New "citizens" of the
colony can apprentice themselves in the traditional manner to one of any
number of skilled craftsmen. In the process, they also learn about the
history of the colony as well as many of the secret tricks of their chosen
trade. In time, they may come to master their trade and take over the
business, continuing the work of rediscovering old ways of doing things,
some of which have been lost for nearly three hundred years.
All the clothing, farm tools, buildings and accessories of modern
17th Century life are made by hand on site, including about 90% of the
wares found in the gift shop. If you're looking for a 100% natural organic
lifestyle, this is about as close as you're ever going to get.
During the course of the day, we saw a windmill which could rotate
on its foundation to follow the wind, a demonstration on the traditional
salt curing and smoking of meats, met a cobbler, a saddlemaker, and a
cooper (maker of barrels, for you youngsters out there), as well as coming
face-to-face with Babe the Blue Ox (well, a distant East coast cousin, but
just as big)
They've got several restaurants... er, INNS on site, and while a
little steep for the portions you get, are nonetheless excellent fare, and
the dinner crowd gets treated to candlelight and somewhat bawdy
entertainment, as befits a colonial inn. The dishes they serve are
accurate re-creations of food innkeepers would have offered during that
period, and this may very well be the only place you can experience these
taste sensations.
We walked away from the experience both edified and elated -- we
had stumbled onto something which had enriched us profoundly, so rather
than finding ourselves wasting a trip to a park with locked gates, we
became more aware of our country's heritage, and had a damn fine time in
the process.
If you're ever in Virginia and have the time, we STRONGLY recommend
a visit to Colonial Williamsburg. It's worth every penny and a second
visit to hit the stuff you missed the first time.
Back to the Scrapbook!
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