The Historic Triangle

For vacation this winter, we decided to head north to the cold weather. Min had went on a field trip with his class to St. Augustine and told us that he wanted to learn about United States history instead of Florida history. Mr. Cash and I thought that the Historic Triangle in Virginia would be the perfect place to visit. We first had to prepare for the cold by getting all of the necessary supplies so we bought new pants, sweaters, hats, gloves, coats and boots. Good thing that we did because it was COLD!!!! For those of you who don't know, the historic triangle includes Jamestown, which was the first permanent English settlement in the United States, Colonial Williamsburg, which was the capital of Virginia before and during the American Revolution and Yorktown, which was where the last major battle of the American Revolution took place. We stayed in one of the hotels on the Colonial Williamsburg (CW) property. Shortly after we arrived at CW, it started to snow so Mr. Cash and the kids went outside and had a snowball fight. The kids were so excited to see snow. The first day we went to the Jamestown Settlement, which is the recreation of the Jamestown fort, a Powhatan (the Native American tribe near the fort) Village and the three ships that the men sailed on, and Historic Jamestowne, which is the original Jamestown location and is an archaeological dig site. We learned a lot about the ships, Jamestown, the people living in Jamestown, and the Powhatans.

The next two days we spent at Colonial Williamsburg listening to the historical characters (Marquis de Lafetteye was great!), touring the buildings and learning about the different trades. We took a buggy ride around town, attended a court case, and ate at one of the local taverns.

The last day was spent at Yorktown. We visited a recreation of the Army camp where Min dressed up like a soldier and helped load a cannon to fire, and Joo dressed up in colonial clothes. We also visited an 18th century farm with some very friendly turkeys running around. We saw the orginial redoubts (hills that the soldiers built during the battle to protect themselves) and Surrender Field where Cornwallis (a Great Britain General) surrendered to the Americans.

Two evenings we went to Busch Gardens Williamsburg which had opened parts of the theme park as Christmas Town. They had Christmas decorations to look at and some rides were open. The kids loved the swings and rode them many times. Christmas Town was the kids' favorite part of the trip. We had a great time, but were glad to get back to our own beds and warmer weather.

A December to Remember

Our December was a whirlwind of visits to the theme parks, birthday parties, shopping for the holidays, making cookies and attending school shows so I am now just sitting down to update my blog. The first theme park that we visited was Universal's Islands of Adventures. They had transformed Suess' Landing into How the Grinch Stole Christmas' Whoville. There were Whos walking around and interacting with guests, and they also had a cute live How the Grinch Stole Christmas show that we enjoyed.

The next theme parks we visited were Disney's Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. Joo is finally 48 inches tall so she is able to ride most of the roller coasters now. For the first time, all of us rode the Dinosaur roller coaster at the Animal Kingdom. We also did the Safari ride. At the Studios we rode Tower of Terror (my favorite) and Toy Story Mania. For old times sake, we ate at Pizza Planet. When Min was a toddler up to the age 5 or so, everytime we went to the Studios he insisted that we eat at Pizza Planet (for those of you who don't know, Min thought he was Buzz Lightyear for those years; he even insisted everyone call him Buzz). We also enjoyed looking at the Christmas Decorations.

The next day, Joo and I braved the nasty weather to visit Sea World while Mr. Cash and Min watched the Trans-Siberian Orchestra in concert at the new Amway Arena. My favorite part of Sea World at Christmas is the Polar Express ride. They also had many new Christmas decorations out for us to enjoy. Since the weather was so bad, there were little to no crowds. Joo was able to walk right on the kiddie rides. We had fun despite the weather.

After a busy few weeks, our Christmas break finally arrived and it was time for our vacation (see next blog entry).