Yorktown

We figured we would spend most of a day exploring Yorktown....instead we wound up spending the whole day there, and enjoyed all of it.

The visitor center at the NPS site had a short movie about the siege of Yorktown, and Cornwallis' eventual surrender.  The boys (of course) picked up jr. ranger booklets to earn more badges.  They both decided to complete scavenger hunts along Main St. which is just a short walk from the visitor center.

Here we are at the Victory Monument.
And here is a cannonball still embedded in the side of a house.  The rumor was that Cornwallis was staying here during the siege. Mr. Nelson (who owned the house) was involved in the Colonial Army, and was so upset at the thought of Lord Cornwallis in his house, he told troops to fire at his own home.

The inside of the Nelson house has been restored, and is beautiful.  One room was set aside especially for kids.  Period clothes, games, slates, and descriptions of life during this time.  Our kiddos enjoyed it.

After we finished our scavenger hunt & walk down Main St., we headed back along the path to the Visitor Center & Kieran spotted this dude just a few feet off the trail...

Ta-da!  Badges, & certificates in front of one of the cannons from the war.

Then we headed back outside to drive along where the French troops & Colonists set up their camps for the siege.  We walked around Surrender Field which is where Cornwallis ordered his troops to surrender their weapons & began the talks that eventually ended the war & granted our independence.
We walked around one of the last British redoubts to fall...

Soldiers dug the trenches, built up the earthworks all by use of shovels & pick ax.  It's impressive.

Then we headed to the Yorktown Victory Center.  This is separate from the NPS site.  They have a large museum/gallery with lots of interactive displays, a colonial era farm, and an encampment of American soldiers.  Kevin & Kieran went and listened to a talk on the use of cannons during the siege.  When they fired the cannon, it shook the bench that Keenan & I were sitting on (over in the farm area).  Washington ordered the cannons fired at the British in Yorktown--1 every minute, day & night, for a week.....sheesh.

The boys enjoyed the officer's tent...

But for them the real highlight was listening to the camp medic describe colonial era medicine & dentistry.
Oh my.
See that tool he's holding?  It was used to drill into a skull to relieve pressure & swelling on the brain.  Surprisingly it had a 70% survival/success rate....
And he had a jar of real teeth on the table too.
Blech.

The height requirement for soldiers was 5ft. 4in..  Kieran still has to grow a few inches.

Yup.  Sounds about right.

And Kieran was bummed that he would be stuck helping me in the kitchen until he was 10 doing fun jobs like this:

Thumbs up all around for the whole vacation.
Was probably good that weather turned cruddy for our last day (thanks to a tropical storm).  We just took it
easy & would you believe this happened: