Road Trip to Viriginia! (Day 5-6)

October 15, 2012 (Monday)

Yorktown National Battlefield

The plan for the day was to visit Yorktown. We headed to the Yorktown National Battlefield (part of Colonial National Historical Park) first. Yorktown Battlefield (1781) was where General George Washington oversaw American and French troops besiege General Cornwallis’s British army. Cornwallis surrendered, which pretty much ended the war and gave America independence.

There is a $10 fee to enter the park (valid for 7 days and good at Jamestown National Park Site, free if under 15 or have a National Parks Pass), payable at the visitor center. The visitor center shows a short 15 minute informational video and there is a small display area with some hands on stuff for kids. From the visitor center, we walked over to the Yorktown Settlement area, it is a mix of homes. There is a Victory Monument in the settlement area. Yorktown was a hot spot for tobacco trade prior to the war and had a peak population of around 2000 residents.

There are two auto tours of the battlefields. We only had time to do one of the loops – the Battlefield Tour Road. If you stop at all the stops it will take about an hour. Along the tour you will see earthworks, rebounds, the place where the treaty was signed, and a cemetery. The second auto tour is called the Encampment Tour Road, which apparently takes only about 30 minutes to get through.

Along the battlefield and in the village, there are buildings open to the public, refer to the schedule at the visitor center. Park rangers also offer walking tours and battlefield tours. Nothing was open or offered in a time that worked for us.

Yorktown Victory Center

Our next stop was the Yorktown Victory Center, part of the ticket package we paid for the previous day.  This site is composed of both indoor and outdoor activities. Outdoors there is a Continental Army encampment set up as well as a re-created 1780’s farm. Artillery demonstrations are provided in the encampment area.  Indoors there is an 18 minute film. There are a lot of gallery exhibits. Allow approximately two hours at the site.

Out of the two above mentioned sites, it is really a toss up to which one was preferred.  If time were a factor I suppose I would pick the Battlefield site. It started to rain in the afternoon so we pretty much just hung out for the remainder of the day.

October 16, 2012 (Tuesday)

We headed out early to return home. It was quite weird…all along we had expected a twelve hour drive home, but then our GPS system told us it would only be 10.5 hours! We got stuck in some DC traffic so that added 30 minutes to our return time.

Road Trip to Virginia! (Day 4)

October 14, 2012 (Sunday)

Richmond Capitol Building

After a hot breakfast at the hotel, we headed to the Capitol in downtown Richmond. The building dates back to 1788 and is the oldest legislature continuously operating in the Western Hemisphere. The capitol was designed by Thomas Jefferson and is the first public building in the New World that is Monumental Classical style.  The building is very grand with very nice gardens.  This capitol is a bit unlike most others that we have visited – the capitol building is actually open during the weekends enabling visitors to see the inside. Unfortunately for us, our timeline put us at the site a few hours before tours were offered.

We attempted to go to the Richmond National Battlefield Park, but an event made it too hard to get to the visitor center at the Tredegar Iron Works. There is also some other National Park sites in the Richmond area, that we will be planning to see on another visit.

Historic Jamestowne

Our next destination was Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in North America. It is a bit confusing when you arrive – there are two different parks, one run by the state and the other is a National Historical Park. There is a $10 fee to enter the Historic Jamestowne - National Historical Park site (left when facing the split in the road) (valid for 7 days and good at Yorktown National Battlefield Site, free if under 15 or have a National Parks Pass), payable at the visitor center.

Historic Jamestowne was quite fascinating! Definitely plan to take the tour. The 45 minute guided tour is presented in a way that keeps you very interested. There is also an archaeology walking tour, which is only offered Monday-Friday.  The visitor center has a large museum area and a 15 minute film that provides you with information about the site. There is a building on-site that displays artifacts that have been recovered from the archaeology digs. Down the road from the visitor center, there is a glass blowing exhibit where you can see people create objects from glass. There is also a Glasshouse Gift Shop at the location. Kids would probably be interested in the glass works and maybe a little interested in hearing about Pocahontas.

Jamestown Settlement - Ship

 The Jamestown Settlement site, state owned site, was interesting also. The fees at this site, for 2012, are $15.50 for adults and $7.25 ages 6-12. There are also other ticket packages available. We decided to do the Combination ticket, which was $20 for entry into both Jamestown Settlement and Yorktown Victory Center (for ages 6-12 the combo ticket is $10). There is a 24 minute film in the museum and then there are a bunch of galleries that share the events and environment of the 17^th century.

Outside of the museum is a re-created Powhatan Indian Village, replicas of the Jamestown Settlement Ships (Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery), and a re-created fort. The outdoor activities are all hands on – games and costumes for kids. There are also Kids’ Museum Guides, to keep kids busy indoors.

The road driving to the parks have scenic pullouts that are very nice. We saw bald eagles to two different areas.

Scenic Pullout

We stopped in Colonial Williamsburg to check out the sites. It was after 5pm thus it was not very busy. Tickets are pricy ($40 minimum) and there are many options. We did not have time to spend an entire day there so we did not buy any tickets. You are free to walk about the area for free, but you need the ticket to get into the buildings.

We stayed at a place called Greensprings Plantation in Williamsburg. It was really nice! There is a full kitchen, tennis courts, indoor pool, and much more.

Road Trip to Virginia! (Day 3)

October 13, 2012 (Saturday)

Shenandoah NP - Hiking

We headed back to Shenandoah after breakfast at the hotel. We stopped by the Dickey Ridge Visitor Center to get some recommendations on hikes and waterfalls to visit.  All along the 105-mile Skyline Drive there are scenic pull-outs. We stopped at a lot of them throughout our trip. Our first hike for the day was the Stony Man trail (near mile post 42). The trail was 1.6 miles and fairly easy.  There was a nice rocky overlook at about the halfway point of the loop.

We continued driving and stopped to hike the Rose River Loop Trail (near mile post 49). The trail was four miles long and a bit more challenging. Along the Rose River Trail, there is a stream and waterfall. The waterfall was a disappointment, but the hike along the stream was nice. We were able to branch off the trail and checked out Dark Hollow Falls, which only added a short distance to the hike. The Dark Hollow Falls was not very impressive during our visit.

Shenandoah NP - "Big Meadows"

We visited the Byrd Visitor Center at Mile Post 51. The visitor center was very busy in the early afternoon and we had to wait for a parking space to become available. The Byrd Visitor Center had a nice display set up and they also show a video. Across from this location is an area that is called “Big Meadows”. It is basically just a big field with some trees at random. People were out there running around.

Monticello

Initially, we planned to drive the entire 105 miles of Skyline Drive, but we decided to hop off at mile post 65 (Swift Run Gap) so we could head to Charlottesville and visit Monticello. Ticket prices for the house tour and grounds a bit steep $24/adult (during the season we visited) and $8 for ages 6-11.  The guided House Tour allows you to view the homes on the first floor and lasts about 35 minutes. Prior to visiting, the house there is a 20 minute film that describes the importance of the home to Jefferson’s life and work. There is also an exhibit gallery that is quite nice.  Kid friendly activities are available at this site. Personally, if I decided to go again I think that I would skip the ticket for the home tour and just walk around the grounds and look at the other displays.

Our goal for the night was to make it to Richmond, mostly because hotel rates at Charlottesville were really high. We ended up staying at Comfort Suites in Glen Allen. The hotel room was large and clean. Our only issue was that the refrigerator was making really annoying noise, we had to unplug it for the night. When we checked out, we mentioned it and some other people said they had the same problem. We had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory – yum!

Road Trip to Virginia! (Day 1-2)

October 11, 2012 (Thursday)

This adventure takes us to Williamsburg, Virginia. We headed out after work, with hotel reservations at the Comfort Inn in Mars, PA. Our room was large, had decent décor, quite clean, and the sheets and towels were both really soft. The bathroom had been updated but was extremely small and the wallpaper was in poor condition. The ceilings were kind of gross also – water damaged.

October 12, 2012 (Friday)

Friendship Hill NHS

After the free complimentary hot breakfast, we headed to Friendship Hill National Historic Site in Point Marion, PA. The site is free to visit. The home belonged to an interesting man named Albert Gallatin. Gallatin is mostly remembered as Secretary of Treasury under Jefferson and Madison. He was able to reduce the national debt, purchase the Louisiana Territory, and fund the Lewis & Clark exploration. There is a short video at the visitor center and if you are lucky, like we were, you will be able to go on a guided tour of the home. The guide did a great job at giving us the history of both Gallatin and the home. The guided tour was probably about an hour in length. There really is not a lot to see at the site other than a few rooms in the home. The park has over ten miles of hiking trails, some which provide views of the Monongahela River. During our visit, we enjoyed lovely fall colors.

Friendship Hill NHS - Porch View

Cedar Creek & Bell Grove NHP

Our next stop was Cedar Creek & Belle Grove National Historical Park, in Middletown, VA. Currently, there is not much to see at this site. A visitor center is under construction and set to open in the next few years. While, we were there no ranger led events were going on. There are partner sites in the area, but they were closing around the time we were there.

Shenandoah NP

The last stop for the day was Shenandoah National Park. Shenandoah was established in 1935 to provide the “traditional western national park experience” to the urban east. The road that runs through the park is called Skyline Drive and it stretches for 105 miles. The speed limit along Skyline Drive is only 35 mph, it takes a few hours to drive the entire length. There are fees at this site, refer to the NPS website for pricing. We headed to the Dickey Ridge Visitor Center (around mile post 5) to pick up a park map and get some information about the hiking trails. We did the hike across from the visitor center; the trail was called Fox Hollow Trail. It was fairly easy and about 1.2 miles in length.

Shenandoah NP

There are many campgrounds and other lodging opportunities available at Shenandoah. Everything at the park was full during our visit. 

We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Stephens City, VA for the evening. The room was under $100 and really nice and clean.  For dinner, we walked over to Roma Casual Italian & Greek Dining. The place had good food and a nice atmosphere. I had the Napoli Chicken with garlic pasta and Caesar salad. Mike had the veal Parmesan with pasta and Caesar salad. The rolls that they provided were good also.