Yorktown and Colonial Williamsburg Part II

Today we went to the Yorktown Battlefield. The National Park Service site is really large. Between the introductory movie, another video presentation in the museum, and the audio guided auto tour (in addition to the exhibits) we basically heard the story of Yorktown three times.

The two most important takeaways are:

1. Yorktown was a decisive battle, even though the war technically continued for an additional two years.

2. The French were indispensable in this battle (as in others); the rebels would not have won without them.

Pairing these two facts: Americans owe their independence to the French. It is very important to understand this. We totally owe the French.

We didn't time the day as well as we could have and ended up back at Colonial Williamsburg later than we wanted. All of the taverns had already closed and we were forced to pay for overpriced turkey and ham sandwiches. I was a little concerned that we would not be able to finish the quest in time. However, after having been to Yorktown and heard the story of it three times, and after seeing some important parallels between what we were doing in the quest and information in the Yorktown Battlefield Museum, we were able to figure out the last clue without going through some of the steps. We managed to figure out everything in time to win our prize.

Which gets to the one thing that totally impressed me about this trip. When we planned this out, we figured that the theme of this trip was American History. However, every site we've been at so far has seamlessly integrated African American history into the story. Certainly my high school education did not include much more than the fact that in this period of time, there were these unfortunate people called slaves but eventually they were freed and all was sort of well afterward.

But we've learned a lot more about the complexity of this story than I expected. I have to give the National Park Service and the Colonial Williamsburg organization major props for bringing African Americans into the story so well. I hope the same is happening for the other non-white groups in other parts of the country.

After getting our prize, we went to the first public mental health hospital in the country. It was opened in the mid-1700s. Let's just say, it would not have been a pleasant stay in this hospital, especially during the Victorian era.

We spent the rest of the evening wandering around the market area. Dinner was at Ocean & Ale. I had the best seafood mac and cheese I've ever had. If you are ever in the area, you should try to make it there.

No wineries today. We plan to hit two tomorrow on our way to Gettysburg.