Day 7-May 9, Yorktown

 May 9-Joni's Birthday

We started the day with a leisurely breakfast in our van, OJ, coffee, and cereal; Barbara's Oat Flakes.  Joni opened her cards and presents and we headed off to catch the 24/7 ferry across the James River to Jamestown.

There were lots of construction detours so our drive to Yorktown and the Battlefield National Park took more than one hour eventhough it was only less than 30 miles.

As Winnie the Pooh used to say, "I'm feeling a little eleven o'clock-ish" so we stopped for a coffee and some pastry at Mobjack Bay Coffee Roasters, which is one of the original seven buildings in the historic village of Yorktown which today has a population of 128, but at one point when tobacco was king the population was over 2,000.

Our next stop was the visitors center for the Yorktown Battlefield National Park.  Most of our travels in the South have focused on the Civil War and the civil rights movement, so visiting an American Revolutionary War site was a change from our usual itineraries. In the visitors center we watched a 20 minute film which did a good job providing an overview of the fall of 1781 which ended with Lord Cornwallis surrendering to George Washington and essentially ending our battle for independence.  An interesting piece of trivia, Cornwallis did not actually attend the surrender ceremony, he claimed he was ill, so he sent an underling.

The film does a good job emphasizing the importance of the French in not only winning this battle, but the entire war.  There were actually more French soldiers than American soldiers in the battle.  I'm sure most historians would acknowledge that without the assistance of the French, we would not have won.

Leaving the visitors center we then took a driving tour of the battlefield.  A free audio guide is available to download, which we did and thoroughly enjoyed.    

This brought a smile to our faces, but I don't think it's centuries old!

Leaving the national park we headed north along the James River to Williamsburg.  No, we didn't go to Busch Gardens, nor did we visit Colonial Williamsburg; we did both of those in the late 1970's, but since it was Joni's birthday we headed for the #1 rated restaurant in the town, the Fat Canary. 

It lived up to its reputation.  Everything was exceptional.

Lobster, Fettuccini, Peas, Pistachios, Chives

oyster stew 

soft shell crabs

Profiteroles