ATC visited Williamsburg and we instantly fell in love with this unique American destination! Our first peek into history on our tour of the Williamsburg area was a stop at Yorktown Victory Center. Yorktown played a pivotal role in the Revolutionary War and the Yorktown Victory Center now serves as a museum of the American Revolution, offering a unique blend of timelines, film, thematic exhibits and outdoor living history. The kids were thrilled to see soldiers, learned how to spin wool into yarn, and even got to play with newborn chicks!
We started our tour with the 1780s farm. We saw a home, saw (and smelled) the tobacco drying in the barn, visited gardens, met animals, chatted with the settlers and saw a glimpse of daily life back then.
We spent some time wandering through the galleries for a bit – the sunken ship display was incredible! But the girls’ favorite was the Discovery Room. Gracie was thrilled to get to dress up just like a Colonial Girl! (And complained, “Its not fair – the girls have to wear so much more clothes than the boys!”) That’s life, sweetie!
Then we headed out to check out the Continental Army Encampment. Absolutely fascinating! The mortar firing was particularly exciting – and by ‘exciting’ I mean ‘so loud that the ground shook.’ WOW! There are tents for different ranks of soldiers, examples of daily life, learn about colonial medicine and you can even learn how to load a musket.
“Mama, his gun has a sword on it! COOL!”
Eliza imagining life as a soldier.
We so enjoyed our visit to Yorktown Victory Center – we needed a bit more time though. We only allotted about two hours and I did not anticipate how interested the kids would be in seeing everything! I would recommend at least 3 hours. And if you have kids who are really interested in guns, cannons and loud booms in general, plan to be there when the artillery crew will be firing! That was pretty amazing to witness!
For more information on travel to Williamsburg, visit www.visitwilliamsburg.com.
disclosure: we were provided complimentary admission to the yorktown victory center to facilitate this post. as always, all opinions are my own.