Day 1: Departure

(I will eventually "re-date" these posts with the dates the events actually happened but for now, I will leave them at the top).

Saturday, October 14th

We spent Friday night and Saturday morning getting packed. We had 2 soccer games to go to in the morning BEFORE leaving for our trip. After soccer, we had a quick lunch, put the last few items in the van and actually left within a half hour of my targeted departure time (1pm)

We took a leisurely drive to Williamsburg. The kind that I used to HATE when my parents took me on them. We found a nice little ice cream place outside of Richmond for a snack and a pit stop. We then drove down a SMALL back road in the country (Rt. 156) in search of Rt. 5. Well, my memory had let me down and what I really wanted was Rt. 106. Rt. 156 eventually got us there but we used the directional indicator a LOT to decide if it was time to turn around because the road was taking us in the complete opposite direction. We eventually found Rt. 5 - the road we would take to Williasmburg.

The first thing we did when we reached Rt. 5 was drive South down Rt. 156/Rt. 106 to the bridge across the James River. I wanted the kids to see the river before we drove beside it, and I could also point out where my grandmother had lived nearby. Both kids remarked that the river was much larger than they had expected.

We then drove down Rt. 5 to Williamsburg. We pointed out many of the large plantations on the way down - we had discussed plantations a couple of times before our trip so I was able to relate it to our lessons for the kids about WHY the plantations were close to the river.

We arrived in Williamsburg and had a little trouble finding the hotel. A few of the roads have changed since I spent any time in town, and a section of the Colonial Parkway was detoured through town. We finally made our way to our hotel, which turned out to be VERY close to the Colonial Williamsburg visitor center and the Colonial Parkway. We stayed at the Homewood Suites, which was a perfect hotel for us. It had 2 Queen size beds in the bedroom, and a pull out couch in the living area, as well as a large chair. The closet was large enough that we could put Emma's pack-n-play in there and "almost" close the doors. We were staying at this hotel until Wednesday, when we move to another place.

We settled in for the night.