I was having dinner with a friend a week or so ago and she told me that she is taking her nieces to the Bahamas for their Spring Break.
“Are you guys doing anything for your daughter’s break?”
“Yep.”
“Cool! Beach trip? Somewhere sunny? Or maybe skiing?”

Not quite. Instead, we decided to take a 10-hour road trip to recreate a nostalgic family vacation memory from my own childhood (being in the backseat of a maroon AMC Concord without air conditioning or FM radio in the July heat, driving across West Virginia). The kiddo is growing up fast, and the days of educational and staid family trips are almost over. Soon she’ll expect warm weather and beaches (indeed, several of her friends and their families were bound for tropical climes like Jamaica and Puerto Rico). Indeed, it won’t be long until she’s off on her own and making her own vacation plans. So, taking the chance while we had it – Colonial Williamsburg and Jamestown, here we come.

We only had a limited window of time, so we drove there on Sunday and home again on Wednesday. We booked a 2-bedroom apartment at a vacation resort where many of the other residents were time-share owners. It was much nicer than being in a hotel for this kind of trip. The kiddo had her own bedroom and bathroom, we had a nice living room and gas fireplace, washer and dryer, and no one else was assigned to our unit, so it was completely quiet and private. We had a kitchen, with a coffeemaker, and since we drove, we brought basic provisions – coffee, eggs, fruit, bagels and bread, peanut butter. It was a game-changer to be able to have decent coffee and a quick breakfast without leaving the room. The weather was touch and go – mid-50’s both days with drizzle on Monday – so we decided to save Williamsburg for Tuesday and hit Jamestown first. We thought it would be the quicker visit.

I don’t have many childhood memories of our trip to Jamestown, except that my brother chased a chicken around the settlement for a fair amount of time (“We drove from Michigan to Virginia so Chris could chase chickens,” my dad later said). But there are actually two Jamestown sites to visit. Jamestown Settlement is a museum and a reenactment of the settlement and the tall ships, and Historic Jamestown is the actual site of the original colony. It’s now essentially an archaeological dig. Both sites are well worth visiting for different reasons, and we surprised ourselves by spending a full day exploring them.

In addition to the reenacted site, Jamestown Settlement has a fantastic history museum. We spent almost two hours browsing there, and I could have easily spent another hour. A couple of miles away, in Historic Jamestown, you can see the 1600’s church, which still stands, the well and the burial grounds, and the foundation ruins of several original buildings. There are trenches where archaeologists are still excavating. We heard an amazing young woman give a very impassioned lecture about the experience of women in Jamestown. In the gift shop, I found a book about the Jamestown Brides, groups of young women who were recruited by the Virginia Company to travel to the colony to marry the settlers, lured by the promise of bettering their positions in a land of freedom and plenty (as you might imagine, this did not end up as they had hoped).

Colonial Williamsburg, the next day, was again a very enjoyable experience. We had a tavern lunch at the King’s Arms which made Brandon very happy (ale and chicken hash for him, an ‘onione pye’ for me, and ‘salmagundi’ for the kiddo, who was relieved to see it was just like a big chef’s salad). A musician played a variety of flutes and fiddles while we ate and gave a stirring chat about the importance of music in the colony. After, we wandered Duke of Gloucester Street until we needed a mid-afternoon snack (spiced ale and Queen Cake for Brandon, cookies and coffee for the kiddo and me) while sitting in the sporadic sunshine watching colonial life. We spent some time in the art museum. None of us are huge fans of folk art, and we all agreed that even though we had a good day, Jamestown was our favorite.

We ended the day walking over to the College of William & Mary to buy sweatshirts and have an early seafood dinner across the street from the campus. I’m not a huge beer drinker but something about getting 16-18k steps each day in colonial America gave me a craving and we found that tall cold glasses of Vienna Lager’s Devil’s Backbone hit the spot.

I was very impressed that both sites – but Jamestown especially – did a nice job of exploring the experiences of everyone in the colony, not just the white men. There were extensive displays about the impact and legacy of slavery in the colony, and the experiences of indigenous people and women.

It’s always nice when the three of us can take a trip and enjoy each other’s company – no fighting, limited fussing, and a lot of laughing. We promised the kiddo that next year we’ll go somewhere warm and sunny, but in the meantime, she was such a good sport and I hope that she’ll remember these few days together the way I remember my own family vacations.