Day 280, Year 9: Jamestown, Farewell to JJZ&C, Family Picnic Dinner
Date: Monday, July 28, 2014
Weather: Sunny Day, Blue Sky with Puffy White Clouds
Location: King’s Creek Plantation, Williamsburg, Virginia
It was another day full of family fun—a visit to the Jamestown Settlement, a little time in the pool, a late afternoon farewell to Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco, and an evening picnic dinner here at King’s Creek. Justin, Jo, and kids took a 5 pm bus to Richmond and a train from there to Washington, DC. They will fly out of National in the morning (Tuesday) and get back to the pirate camp tomorrow evening. Wednesday is Coco’s birthday and they really wanted to be home for that event, so they needed to leave here today. Tomorrow my nephews Tommy and Todd and their family will head home as well as my nephew Barry. The rest of us will be leaving early on Wednesday morning. I think those of us that are staying here tomorrow are planning a laid back day here at King’s Creek. The pool is fantastic for kids and they can play there for hours. There is a very shallow kiddie pool and then the larger pool is divided into three sections that flow from one to the next. The shallow pool is 2 feet deep and perfect for the two and three year olds, the middle pool is 3 feet deep and perfect for the other children, and then there is the 4-foot deep pool where adults and some kids hang out. You can actually ‘flow’ from one pool to the other with the water. And then there’s a hot tub for adults. So it is easy to spend hours there just enjoying life.
It is a family tradition to have a golf outing when we are all together, so the golfers took off to make a 10 am tee-time. Last night Jed found out that there was an open space, so he decided to join in.
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| 140728 Day 280a Martin Family Vacation–The Golfers |
Mark and I took Heather, Justin, Jo, and the grandkids to Jamestown, along with my sister Patsy and two of my nieces, Lynn and Candi. We went to Jamestown Settlement which is museum with inside and outside venues. Outside there is a Powhatan Indian Village, a Riverfront Discovery Area featuring re-creations of the three ships that sailed from England to Virginia in 1607, and James Fort which represents life as it was here in the early days of the settlement (1610-1614). There are guides dressed in period costumes, so we spent all of our time outside. With five children under the age of 7, including two 2 year-olds, we decided that touring the inside galleries would just be too much. But by staying outside and stopping for a mid-tour ice cream break, we all had a great time. We had to go in two cars and when we left, I took Justin and Jo on a quick shopping spree. Somehow Justin lost his shoes here and Ziggy’s crocs were rubbing a raw place on the side of his foot, so new shoes were a necessity for the trip home. And Jo wanted to buy a few things at Trader Joe’s to take home. Puerto Rico is wonderful in many ways, but with Ziggy and Jo’s gluten-free, dairy-free diets, buying food is a challenge. Trader Joe’s has great goat cheese and Jo wanted to stock up. By the time we got back King’s Creek, there was less than an hour for them to pack and for Ziggy and Coco to have one more fun time with little cousins at the pool. And we still made it to the bus station about ten minutes early. But Ziggy, Coco, and I were dripping wet when we got into the van. We had towels and Justin and Jo dressed the kids on the way. I was a little more than embarrassed to get out of the van in downtown Williamsburg in a bathing suit with a short cover-up. I was in such a hurry that I forgot my pants! Oh well, not a pretty sight, but at least I got to be there for the final farewells. William Shakespeare said it best in Romeo and Juliet, “Parting is such sweet sorrow”.
We ended the day with a barbeque picnic dinner. There are grills right outside the townhouses, so we stationed Mark at one grill doing hamburgers and my nephew Tommy at another grill doing hot dogs and sausages. We still had a ton of Costco potato salad left over from our salmon cake dinner on Saturday night, so we added that to the menu. We have been able to provide dinner for this crowd of nearly 40 people every night at a very reasonable cost and with a minimum of cooking time thanks to Costco. After dinner we said our farewells to nephew Todd and his family as they will be leaving at 4 am. I just can’t believe how quickly the time has flown by.
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| 140728 Day 280b Martin Family Vacation–Jamestown |
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| 140728 Day 280c Martin Family Vacation–JJZ&C Farewell, Picnic Dinner |
