Culture day for the uncultured. We hopped in Charlotte and drove to the Visitor Center parking lot at Colonial Williamsburg, a carefully reconstructed likeness of original Williamsburg. We started the day in the facility museum which had a great variety of museum stuff. There is a bunch of art, primarily portraits of rich folks that were pivotal in W’burg’s early history. They also have an enormous colonial furniture collection, lots of china and glass, a bunch of old weather vanes, a reconstructed mental institution where is is evident that loony care was horribly bleak, Paul Revere’s silver works and a load of old handmade quilts which Peggy really enjoyed.
After spending a few hours in the museum, we strolled down one side of the main drag of W’burg, taking in the colonial armament magazine, magnificent horse-drawn carriages, a stop for beer and a cookie apparently from 1619, some shops, an armory facility and ending up at the Capitol building. One side of the building is where the colonial House of Burgesses met to legislate and the other side was the crown’s side where the laws that were contrary to British interests were rejected upstairs and downstairs was the big court of that era. Only really nasty crimes like armed robbery, rape and murder were adjudicated here with minor crimes being handled at the lower county courts. The building is a beautiful brick structure with allegedly four brick-thick walls, oval and circular decorative windows and, fortunately, air conditioning because is was pretty warm today.
This place requires substantial amounts of walking since motor vehicles are not allowed inside W’burg during the daytime. The rather stiff multi-day entrance fee of $50 covers all the museums and exhibits but not actual admission to the area which is quite scenic. However, without access to the exhibits, the place just wouldn’t be the same. After putting in our 5 or 6 hours on our feet, we retreated to the Invader to loaf for the remainder of the day.