Jamestown

As the apartment doesn't have a breakfast included (and we were too lazy to make breakfast), we found a pancake house which served gluten free pancakes! :-) They were great! Though once again my parents were once again a little shocked by the size of the portions.

Mom about to drown them in syrup.

Big portions.

 We went to Jamestown on Sunday which is the site of the first permanent British settlement in the US though not the first time the British came to the States. Who and when that was is very confusing and no one really knows. (Or more specifically a lot of people "know" but they all "know" different things! I am reading a book about it now so I will hopefully figure it out soon.) We got a little confused as there is Historic Jamestown and Jamestown Settlement. We decided on Historic Jamestown (though this was not an informed decision - more which was in the prettiest place). We were really looking for the tall ships which were at the settlement. But the Historic was probably a better choice. It actually on the site on the original colony.

They had 3 different tours. The first was a woman who was acting as Margaret Gates, the wife of first the governor of the settlement (I think). She talked about life in the settlement. How they lived and worked.

Momument to the settlement

Actress of Margret Gates

 I didn't know much about the history before we went. It was settled in 1607 and the starving years were in 1609-1610. There was a recent discovery announced in May this year of proof that during this time, which was pretty much as it sounds, the colonists resorted to cannabalism to survive. They also arrived during a 7 year drought so the Indians couldn't help them. They were only attacked by the Indians a few times, and not at all while Pocahontas was married to John Rolfe. Until she died and they killed the leader of one of the tribes (Pocahontas' Uncle). They didn't take that very well! And it was pretty much war after that.

Battlements

Statue of Captain John Smith

Second church, possibly the oldest building int he States.

 They also had an archeology museum which is built on the site of a mass grave. But it "floats", no part of the building touches or disturbs the graves.

Me with Pocahontas.

The second tour was by the park ranger and the third was an archeology tour. They were all really good. We were a bit disappointed we couldn't see the tall ships as it was too late to go into the settlement but we still had a really good time.

On the way back we stopped at a glass house and watched the glass blowing demonstration. I thought about buying a few of the wine glasses as they really really pretty but they were a little too expensive.

Fire. 

Excess dripping in the bucket.

Vase

 On the evening we went to a seafood restaurant called the Seafarer, which we had a discount voucher for. It was so posh! We didn't expect it to be that upscale and I was really glad I got changed.

ready.

On the deck before heading out.

The waiter pulled my chair out for me and placed my napkin across my lap. They were all wearing tuxedos. The decor was from a cruise ship in the 80s with even the cheesy 80s elevator music playing, like you see in an old film. It was brilliant.

We decided to celebrate with a bottle of Prosecco. And I finally had some soft shell crabs! (I still haven't eaten mine. But at least I have an idea how to cook them now. I am going to cook them for mom and dad when we got back to Blacksburg.) 

Soft shell crabs

It was a great meal and the food was lovely. Me and Dad even shared a desert called something like Flaming Cherries which our waiter flambéed at the table. :-)

Flambeing our desert