Yorktown - Day 1

Let me start off by saying that all of our family loves history, so walking through each step of our vacation and retracing the steps that helped form our country is just so amazing to us. We can't wait to get started!

Yorktown is the site of a major battle that took place in the Revolutionary War that we won and helped determine the course of our country.

Our tour of the city started at this monument, to celebrate the victory of the American army:

This is a private residence right across the street that was so beautiful:

We just loved this tree!!

Next, we went to the Nelson House, home of a man who fought in the war fro Independence. Going through old homes is so neat to see how people lived long ago and compare it to how we live today. This home was also impacted (literally) by the seige on Yorktown, with cannon ball holes and even a few balls still in the wall.

Downtown Yorktown was quite interesting and the beach area was breathtaking. We went on a tour of the battlefields with an awesome guide who seemed to love history as much as us and really brought the battles to life. I'm sure that it didn't hurt that we were standing on the same ground that Washington and his army stood when they began their seige!

This kids on the earthworks that the Colonial Army built to defend themselves:

Some of the original cannons:

Even though we were learning so much and enjoying everything about Yorktown, after driving through the night and walking around all day, we were starting to get very tired.

For our stay in this area, we planned to stay at a guest house - our first ever. We made reservations at the Johnson House in a quaint neighborhood in Williamsburg. Mrs. Johnson is an 80 year old woman who started this business with her husband 32 years ago! He is gone now, but she loves it so much that she has continued without him. They have a lovely home that consists of 3 "master" bedrooms, 2 regular bedrooms, a family room, living room and kitchen. We had one of the master bedrooms for Mark, Caleb and I and a regular room for Holly and MaKenna.

The master:

The girls room. They loved the little vanity area!

Unfortunately, we were unable to get a picture with this wonderful woman who made our stay there so special. She was just such a blessing to us, sharing stories of her family and the area - such a treasure!

I am finding that blogging about this trip is much harder than I expected! It is so challenging to narrow down ALL that we have done and seen into this format so that you are seeing what we are doing without being too much! I will end there for tonight and let you digest it all and will catch up more tomorrow!