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 - Day 2! (NY)

May 27, 2012 (Sunday)



Senaca Falls, NY

 We headed to the hotel restaurant for breakfast. Breakfast was excellent and it only ended up costing us $1.12 + tip! After eating, we headed north to Senaca Falls, NY. Our first stop for the day was Women’s Rights National Historical Park.  We watched the video, which lasted about 30 minutes. The video was informative, but portions were outdated (90’s). We planned to do the tours, but we waited around at the chapel and no one showed up. There was also a tour at the Stanton House, but we did not stick around for the tour. We did drive to the location and read the sign in front of the house. The information at the visitor center was not very well organized, but they did have some interesting things.

Senaca Falls is a typical mid-sized town with an older downtown area.  The town also has a mile long river walk with sculptures.



Fort Stanwix NHS - Re-enactment

 Off we go to our next destination…Fort Stanwix National Historic Site. Fort Stanwix is in Rome, New York. It was really weird to see the fort in the middle of the city! Built in 1758 the fort is typical of many other forts in terms of construction. Fort Stanwix is known as “the fort that never surrendered” and was also important because it was the homelands of the Six Nations Confederacy (Indians). There was a re-enactment going on while we were there. The displays at the visitor center were better than most NP displays. They had videos going on continuously, which were also very good.

We continued on our journey to the east. We headed to Cooperstown, New York, the home of the Baseball Hall of Fame.  There are a lot of shops, restaurants, and resorts in Cooperstown. We did not see any “chain” type of places. There is public transportation available so you can park in a lot and a shuttle bus will pick you up. The Hall of Fame was interesting. The founder of baseball reigns from Cooperstown, thus the reason of the Hall of Fame to be there. It took us about 3 hours to see everything, or nearly everything. You could definitely spend more time at the Hall of Fame. There were some videos and a lot of information to read. The little video trivia games were fun also! The cost was $17 with the AAA discount. On the positive, note you can get your hand stamped to re-enter if you so desire.

We ended our day in Albany, New York. The drive from Cooperstown towards East Springfield is scenic with a lake off to the one side of the road. We also noticed some signs for a cavern tour, Howe Cavern to be exact. We got to wondering what is the difference between a cavern and a cave? We have been to a far amount of cave tours, but none that claimed to be caverns. After some quick research, we discovered that the difference is that caverns grow, but technically all caverns are caves. Caves however, cannot be caverns.



Albany, NY Capitol

 Referring to a map in the Albany guidebook, we noticed a Cheesecake Factory Restaurant! We ate there since it is so yummy and because there are not any located in Michigan. After eating, we headed over to the Capitol building. It was dark outdoors by that time, but the lighting on the building was excellent. Be sure to use a tripod if you want to get crisp shots in the dark.

That evening we stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Rensselaer, New York. The hotel provided a great overview of Albany. The hotel its self was just okay. It was clean and breakfast was good. There was a sign posted in the lobby stating that they were remodeling. The rooms definitely need updating. Priority Club Rewards did not get you much at this location – just a bottle of water.