Williamsburg, VA area, Part 1

23, 24, 25 August 2013

It was time to visit Whistling Son once again! We arrived in the rain at the Williamsburg KOA on Friday night and the site was muddy, which made us doubly thankful to set up quickly and settle in so much easier than in the pop-up days.

When we visit, Whistling Son doesn’t like to spend his time with us at Colonial Williamsburg, since he works there every day, so we spent an easy Saturday with him, taking a beautiful drive to Berkeley Plantation, family home of several generations of famous Harrisons, as in President Benjamin Harrison and President William Henry Harrison (aka Tippecanoe). A neighboring plantation, which we didn’t get to visit, was the home of President John Tyler. Thus, when you hear of “Tippecanoe and Tyler, too”, you can picture them not only as running mates but as their families being neighbors. A cannonball from the Civil War is lodged in the upper story brick wall of one of the plantation buildings. But don’t be too impressed. That cannon ball was actually found somewhere on the ground and deliberately mounted there in the wall to show it off.

Main house at Berkeley Plantation

Adjacent house with cannon ball in the wall

Here's the fraudulently-mounted cannon ball.

Back yard at Berkeley Plantation -- nice!

Sunday Whistling Son drove us all to Mass in Chesapeake at St. Benedict’s (FSSP). It takes about an hour and a half to get there, and the return drive can land you in a traffic jam even on a Sunday. In the late afternoon we went to Yorktown and enjoyed hearing the Yorktown Fife and Drum Corps and walking among the Revolutionary War cannons.  

Yorktown Fife and Drum Corps

Afterwards we went to hear a performance by a musical group called Poisoned Dwarf, advertised as being held in the church yard of the Episcopal Church. It was quite a surprise to see that the church yard was actually a cemetery and that the audience was settled in among the graves with their picnic suppers and bag chairs. Inappropriate? Great Husband saw to it that our chosen seating spot was not amidst the headstones, but off to the side. The music was fantastic! The guys played a wide variety of instruments, and toward the end of the concert a young lady jumped up and did some very skillful dancing in the style of Riverdance. It couldn’t have been easy, dancing in her socks on the grass!

At the same event, Great Husband met a car guy named Steve, who has owned many MGs. Not only has Steve owned MGs, but he has had over 300 cars in 30-some years. He was quite the character.

Poisoned Dwarf

Graveyard seating