A day in Colonial Williamsburg

I won't lie: a deep and abiding love of history was not our main purpose for our road trip to Williamsburg. Rather, it was the outlet malls that called our names.  Yesterday morning, Anouk and I met up with some friends and set off: four adults and four kids and dozens of premium outlet stores just waiting to be plundered. Maybe that makes us Philistines? I say it makes us dedicated to a bargain.

But because it seemed cruel to subject a group of toddlers to endure a forty-five minute car ride and then a forced march through an outdoor shopping mall, we decided to incorporate a trip to the CW into our agenda. And by the time we'd finished at the outlets, we desperately needed it. The kids were antsy, had eaten their way through the snacks we'd packed and were clamoring for more, two had melted down in the J. Crew checkout line and at least one (mine) had accidentally shoplifted a headband. So we all piled back into our cars and drove down to Duke of Gloucester Street where we threw open the doors and set them free.

There are several day pass options for Colonial Williamsburg that will let you into dozens of tour sites set up all over town, but because we hadn't researched them beforehand, and because it's a little confusing, once you're there, to figure out where and how to obtain the passes, we didn't bother. And it turned out that there was plenty to do without them. We walked the entirety of DoG Street, taking in the sights. We petted horses and waved at the carriages going by, stopped at a few open-air markets, peeked into 17th century style spring gardens and posed for pictures with colonial era townspeople. There were a few of the tour stops I would have loved to go into -- the weavers and dyers, the tailor's, the milliner's, mostly the clothing-related ones -- but to be quite honest, I'm not sure our age group (3 and under) would have gotten much out of them, if we had.

At the end of the street, we turned the kids loose on the lawn in front of the Governor's Mansion and they pretty much ran until they dropped (which made the walk back longer than the walk there). For the better part of an hour they climbed on the old cannon, explored the neighboring gardens, and watched a group of W&M students playing touch football on the grass.

It was so low key that at first I wondered if I had enough material from this visit for a blog entry, but in the end, I think that's what I loved about our visit: that it was so low key. When I was little, a trip to Williamsburg was a special thing, and meant an over-the-top, quasi-vacation-like experience. And CW can be that. But it can also be a casual day-trip destination spot that doesn't require a lot in the way of planning or packing or a big expenditure of cash. It can just be an everyday experience, albeit in a special setting. All you have to do is go.

(All the same, I think we will end up buying the pass. Right now, the annual adult pass is about the same price as a one-day ticket if you buy online! And I have to go back soon, to see those hats. What are some of your favorite CW destinations? Let me know, and I'll add them to my list!)