Colonial Williamsburg and Busch Gardens.

At the end of June, we visited Colonial Williamsburg and Busch Gardens in Virginia. Originally, we had planned to go to Chincoteague Island, which is also in Virginia. Mark had mentioned to me that he was interested in seeing Colonial Williamsburg, so at the last minute, I checked into it and found that it was the much, much less expensive option. Lauren also preferred the idea of going to a big amusement park rather than the beach.



Colonial Williamsburg was not what I expected at all. I thought it would be more touristy, a place where you paid admission to enter through a gate and then spent the day in a crowded confined area where costumed performers walk around and speak in the King's English. It is that, but it's also an actual neighborhood where people live. You can walk around it for free anytime of day, like you would your own neighborhood. Granted, with the exception of the colonial themed shops and restaurants, the most of the buildings are closed and the majority of costumed performers head home around dinnertime. So although we didn't go the paid admission route that gets you access to tour the buildings, we really enjoyed the town during the evening hours when we could take our time exploring and also avoid both the crowds and the heat.



The Duke of Gloucester Street, or the DoG, is the main street in Colonial Williamsburg. 

At one end, is William and Mary, which is the second oldest college in America after Harvard. Across the street from the original school building is Merchant's Square, which has nice gift shops and restaurants. After you walk a couple of blocks past the modern buildings of Merchant's Square, you're in The Revolutionary City. It's pretty neat!

Of course, you can also access the historical area through the official Visitor's Center. From there, you walk across a bridge that connects you to a long pathway that eventually leads into the Revolutionary City. It's much more moving to enter this way, because there are plaques along the Footbridge to the Past that are a reverse timeline from the present to the eighteenth century. On the return journey, you're reminded of significant individuals and their contributions to the growth and development of American democracy and society. It really gives you a sense of how far our country has come.

Here's Lauren sitting on the stoop of one of the buildings on DoG Street.

There are plenty of places to buy colonial themed souvenirs, in both open air markets like this one as well as mercantile shops.

This was taken inside the Greenhow Store. John Greenhow was a famous merchant who owned a store on DoG street. He's quoted as saying, “If I do not offer it, you do not need it.”

Adding to the authenticity, there are livestock throughout the town. In addition to these sheep, we also saw some cattle, but we didn't get see the resident chickens.

There are more than 500 buildings in the Revolutionary City, and admittedly, I took photos of a good bit of them. The George Tucker House was one of my favorites. It houses receptions held by the Williamsburg Foundation for the various donor societies.

Located across from the George Tucker House is a renowned Compton Oak tree. Note the sign behind Lauren says, "Please no climbing."

This is the Governor's Palace, which is Colonial Williamsburg's most famous building.  It's said to be very impressive on the inside, so hopefully we will visit there again and take a tour.

While we weren't walking the streets of the past, we were walking the streets of Europe at Busch Gardens.

It's easy to see why it's been voted "The World's Most Beautiful Theme Park" every year for the last 26 years. These flower baskets were hanging on a concession stand. And if the concession stands look this pretty, the rest of the place must be amazing.

See what I mean?

Wolves are Lauren's favorite animals, so I had her pose in front of this mural in New France.

This bridge is over the Rhine River, which connects the Scotland and Germany areas of the park.

I fondly remember the commercials for Busch Gardens, then known as The Old Country, from when I was growing up. Back then, there was no ride more frightening than the Lochness Monster. I've always wanted to ride it, and on this trip, I finally realized my childhood dream - three times! And if Lauren had her way, there would have been a fourth.

Speaking of forth, Lauren was able to successfully convince Mark to ride "Escape from Pompeii" four times. If you look closely, you can see them in the middle row.

On the way back, we spent the night in Alexandria, so here are a couple bonus photos. This the Cherry Blossom, a paddleboat that's owned by the Potomac Riverboat Company.

Lastly, Mark had the brilliant idea of re-creating a photo that we had taken when we first visited Alexandria in 2008 when Lauren was just three years old. She's sitting on the steps of Gadsby's Tavern.

And here's the original.

Summer fun.

I realized that I never shared photos of some of the other fun stuff that we did this summer. And since Sunday is the first day of Fall, I had better get to it.

Lauren really progressed with her swimming skills this summer. For the last several years, I've been freaking out about Lauren learning how to swim because kids in our school district have to take swimming at school beginning in 4th grade. This is most certainly a by product of my our personal horror of having to take swimming at school in 7th grade. She had taken a few swimming lessons over the past two years, but they hadn't really gotten her all that far. Mark has insisted that lessons were worthless, and that she'd learn on her own.

And to my vexation, Mark was right. This summer she boldly jumped into deep water (over and over again), and swam the length of the pool at the hotel where we stayed in Alexandria. She also first experienced the the joy of going down the water slide. I think if we can just convince her not hold her nose, she'll be golden.

 

Some one else also experienced the joys of the water slide this summer. Look at that perfect form!

 

Show off.

 

Of course, no summer would be complete without a trip to Kennywood.

 

It's hard for me to believe that Lauren is now tall enough to ride just about everything in the park. This year, she took her first rides on The Thunderbolt and the Racer.

Here we are together on my all-time favorite ride, the Bayern Kurve!  It's probably the last time she'll be seen with me, well enough actually ride with me.

Here's Mark observing Lauren's form as she chomps down on a delicious funnel cake. And hey people staring off wistfully in the background, no doubt pondering whether they should go with cheese or gravy on their Potato Patch fries - photo bomb much?

Like most kids, when we go to an amusement park Lauren is obsessed with playing games and winning stuffies. We keep telling her that we'll just buy her one from the dollar store, but somehow that's not the same. 

We visited Kennywood on a weekday, so the crowds were all at work. The drawback to this is that there weren't enough people to play the water race game. There was a man and his small son waiting for someone to join, but the game required four people. So Mark took one for the team and paid for a spot.

As you can see by the focused concentration on the faces of the combatants, everyone was in it to win (Take special note of Lauren and the man with his son). Mark blew everyone out of the water (pun intended) because his will to win his little girl a stuffie (Okay it was more his will to cease wasting money on stupid games) won out over any sympathy he felt for the man and his son.

There was an adorable family of ducks swimming in Kennywood Lake that day. Everyone paid more attention to them than the cheesy hip hop dancers performing at the nearby entertainment pavilion.

Whip it good!

I'm sorry to say Lauren that while you may be tall enough to ride most of the rides, you still have to wait a few years before you can grow a mustache.

 

This summer, we also toured many of the area's miniature golf courses. My favorite is at Glenn's Custard. While it isn't the best course (Although as you can see above, the water hazards are pretty cool), Glenn's Custard holds a special place for me. My family has been going there for generations, and I have memories of taking the ride out "to the country" with my grandparents to go get some custard. Oh, and their custard is ridiculously good. They still have the antique custard making machines. I love watching the custard get squeezed out like toothpaste. When we go to Glenn's, it's almost a given that I will get a tin roof sundae because theirs is the absolute best in the world:  chocolate custard, Hershey's syrup, loads and loads of Spanish peanuts, marshmallow sauce, whip cream and a cherry.

Mark's Trans Am once broke down in front of Glenn's. He reminds me about it every time we go.

 

And just because you gotta end strong, here's a baby bunny who hopped out onto the green.

So that's another summer come and gone. October is shaping up to be one busy month, and then it's holiday craziness AGAIN from November to the end of the year. Where did this year go?!