Entering the KidZone in Williamsburg, aka the Benjamin Powell House

We wrapped up our stay in Colonial Williamsburg at the Benjamin Powell House. Here, we saw a sheep being shorn with some awkward scissors. I envy neither the woman working nor the sheep.

They also had an ox cart, but unfortunately they weren't giving ox cart rides the day we were there. Connor and Helen would've loved that - and it would've enabled us to skip the carriage ride around town the next day. Although the ride was fine, it wasn't spectacular, and Helen was getting to be a spectacular pain in my rump. Carriage rides have to be scheduled the day they're taken, and you have to get your reservation by 10:00 or you'll be out of luck. We scored an early ride, but that still caused us to cut it very close for our Schooner Pirate Adventure.

Anyway, back to the Peyton Randolph House. Did you know Colonial Williamsburg was home to freakishly large pigeons? I could've gone without knowing that too. These things are big enough that Hemingway probably would've been quite satisfied to have come upon them, rather than the little ones he was eating in Paris. Here, Helen gifted a baby pigeon with two shells that she had picked up from the road, placing them carefully in its nest. Helen had stuffed her pockets with these things, and doled them out to anyone who she felt needed a special gift from her.

And here, I'll take a moment to note that there's a big difference between men and women. When Helen would attempt to bestow a man with her gift, he would politely decline. But women? They would take the shell, admire it, ask if she was sure they could keep it, and then stick it in their pockets. Unfortunately for me, Helen didn't unload all of her treasures, and Ed - feeling a strange amount of inspiration in the vicinity of the washing machine didn't bother to check her pockets. I'm hoping within a few loads I will finally remove all of these from the machine.

The Peyton Randolph House is loaded with games for kids, both in and out, and we played several. Connor was pretty excited to see checkers, and Helen was excited by the dress up clothes.

I think Helen would've made a spectacular Colonial girl - except for likely expectation of needing to be seen and not heard. I'm not sure she would've been very good about that.

Elaine

For this vacation, my family was guests of Greater Williamsburg. My family received passes to Colonial Williamsburg, we stayed at the Williamsburg Woodlands Hotel (we had a suite, which meant Ed and I didn't have to relive our trip to Key West where we sat on the curb outside our motel after Connor and Helen went to sleep, watching DVDs - not a highlight of our lives as parents). The hotel comped us one night, Greater Williamsburg comped one night, and we paid for one night.