Ah, Williamsburg, one of our favorite places! Jill and Gretchen gave John a night in one of the Historic Houses for his 65th birthday so here we are! Our room was the two far windows in this picture - in the Chiswell-Bucktrout house. We left home at 5:00 am and got here in record time. We went to the Inn to check in and found that our room was ready so we got our passes and tickets for what we wanted to do today and headed for the room. Very nice.
We just left things and headed for the newest site in the Historic area, the Charlton Coffeehouse. It is located across the street from the Capital and had as it's clientele many of the most influential gentlemen of the time. There was a tour through the house and then a stop in the cafe for coffee, tea or chocolate. We sat at a table with one of the local ministers and teachers at William and Mary. A very interesting conversation and different hot chocolate....much more bitter than what we are used to, but sugar was very costly then.
Then on to the cooper's and just a nice wander down Duke of Gloucester Street with lots of detours into backyard gardens and wandered over to the Dewitt for a garden talk by one of the horticulturalists.
A stop at the silversmith's shop and then lunch at the King's Arms Tavern.
Following lunch we did a Bits and Bridle tour where we went to the stables and learned about their Rare Breeds program where they are bringing back the breeds of animals that were actually here when it was Colonial Williamsburg. Also saw one cute little lamb :-)
Then we headed to the Behind the Scenes at Bruton Heights program, their research and preservation facility. That was fascinating. We learned some of the history, how they research and develop new programs, train their volunteers and then went into one of their labs....the furniture lab. That was great!
The item at the right is one of their reproductions...
.sure beats an outhouse!!
We then had a quick tour through the John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library. They had an original John Adams document on display.
Then we headed back to the room for a short rest before dinner at the Cheese Shop and an evening at the Grand Medley of Entertainments. We really did have some good laughs there. Then back to the room after a very full day!
