Natives and Colonists

Michaela "laid out" our plans for the day early on.  This was before breakfast! 

We got ourselves together and headed to the Jamestown living museum Friday morning-what a fascinating and sometimes disgusting experience.

Outside of the museum there is a fountain along with flags flying; they represent each state of the Union, in the order that they joined.  It's lovely to see.  So are these visitors posing for a shot here in front of this scene.

We went straight to the Powhatan Indian Village...this recreation is based on an excavated Paspahegh Indian site.

Here, the kids danced among pillars which the native Americans would have used for ceremonies and rituals.

They were fascinated by the corn grinders...

Looking at things like that makes me very grateful for my Hodgson Mill corn meal.  Corn bread has never been so easy.

They got a kick out of touring the homes...

Christian wanted to hang on and climb everything.

Although it was quite amazing to thing about living this way, I have to say I was a little heebie-jeebied by all the skins!

It didn't seem to bother the kids though!

I will say that Christian didn't believe me when I told him these were animal skins.

And he thought this looked illegal...(Keep in mind, this is the day after Thanksgiving...when we cooked a turkey in our oven...and he ate it...)

I suspect fowl play...

Maybe this is how they took that turkey down...

Christian thought the bows and arrows were pretty cool.

Here they are, scraping a skin.  I'm sorry to say that I could only let them do that for a short while before I said,"Move along, give someone else a turn!"

A native American playground...

and a game with feathers and hoops...

I love this picture of Christian.

Michaela gives it a shot...

Well, we left the Indian Village and headed down to the Waterfront.  There they have replicas of the Susan Constant, the Discovery, and the Godspeed.  These three ships brought the first permanent settlers to Virginia in 1607.  I bet those folks were glad to see this when they arrived after such a long and arduous journey.

These sailing vessels were so interesting to see and go aboard.  It is truly impossible for me to imagine living on something like this for 144 days!  Some pictures of the ships...

Looking for land?

Here's a friendly, welcoming face!  Land, ho!  There be peaceable folks ashore!

And this was no surprise...

These guys look pretty good for their age, no?

We saw cool stuff on the ships. 

Is that an astrolabe, or something else?  I really want to know.  Anyone...anyone?

I just like this picture...

We left the Waterfront and headed to the Fort.  We were greeted by...

They were in the middle of butchering a pig.  Again, Christian thought this was "not nice."  He's a sensitive little guy. 

I'm just glad it's not me in there.  The young man in the yellow cap came over to tell Christian all about preserving with salt. 

He was quite thorough, and Christian appreciated the lesson.  He stood there listening very politely, nodding his head with such a puzzled and sweet expression on his face. 

We also went in the schoolhouse.  Christian went exploring and Michaela was showing signs of being like her mother...

Firing shots...

I think this was like the Governor's house would have been.  It was a little bigger than other houses, and had a bedroom and one other room for eating. 

This woman explained that the Governor would have had beeswax candles which wouldn't smoke, and burned longer.  Lucky him!

I take comfort in the fact that some things remain constant over a very long period of time... 

And maybe I should end with that...Amen.