Afternoon sun slants down around you. The once-bustling Yorktown is now a ghost town of bullet-riddled buildings. French, British, and newly-declared American men lie in new graves all around. Sunken ships form a blockade just down river, and as you hear cannons booming you wonder: “Is this the end? Or is this the beginning?”
That’s what I was wondering anyway as we circled a very slow heritage trail loop and looked at empty field after empty field.
“This is Surrender Field!” enthused Chris.
“It was nap time over an hour ago! You said we’d leave at nap time! I SURRENDER before I die of boredom!” was my thinking.
Everything is interesting before nap time. Nothing is interesting after.
Yorktown is actually quite important in American history; this is where the Revolutionary War ended when British General Cornwallis surrendered to General George Washington in 1781! Amazing!
It’s also where Chris drove around for TWO HOURS looking at boring empty fields with signage that read: “Once there were farms here, but they are now crumbled and have been reclaimed by forest.” “Stuff was here before it was destroyed. Now there’s this nothing.”
SNORE. We literally drove around looking at nothing. During nap time. With two unhappy kids in the back. “I’ll consider this trip a success if we walk through historic Yorktown and drive by a couple battlefields,” Chris said. We enjoyed a lovely stroll through the village along the bluffs, then down along the riverwalk, before I pointed out it was nap time (1:15) and Isaac’s cold medicine was wearing off. So we met Chris’ requirements AND THEN SOME, but he still grumbled when I insisted we leave at 3:30pm.
It was kind of a repeat of our failed first visit to Williamsburg, complete with Chick-fil-A on the drive home. Day trip guidelines from our kiddos? THOU SHALT OBEY NAP TIME.
Fortunately, Chris had the foresight to buy a CD of colonial music to listen to on the drive, so that was awesome of us (“HA ha ha! This music is funny!” laughed Isaac, mimicing the flute solo), and he bought me a tin of loose-leaf Earl Grey tea blended especially for Yorktown Battlefield by Oliver Pluff & Co.
Success?
Ferdinand Hassler Change of Command
Valencia's Silk Exchange
Home for Dinner
Mushroom-Punting Etiquette