April 7th, a day I will never forget. The start of something that changed me forever. The start to one of the best weeks of my life. A trip I looked forward to for my entire life.
On Saturday at 4:00 am my dad and I spent half an hour or so in the school cafeteria along with about 130 other families. It was the start of an all-day across the country journey, that I would endure with only my friends. No parents. Just some money, and a few teachers to give us tickets and time.
Soon enough though, we were in the air, enjoying the beautiful sunrise.
When we arrived in Virginia, our first stop was dinner. All the dinner spots were buffet style and really comforting. When we looked out the bus window we saw snow. For the first time, I saw snow. It was so amazing. And I was really, really excited.
Our first visit on Sunday morning was a Glassblowing Ruins, built in 1608 in between Jamestowne Island and Jamestown, Virginia. It was beautiful and very warm. We were privileged to observe three glassblowers demonstrating the interesting art.
Thes are pictures from the grounds around the Glassblowing Ruins.
After our trip to the ruins and gift shop, we hopped back into our tour bus and drove over to Colonial Williamsburg. Colonial Williamsburg is a recreation of a town in Williamsburg and also has four boats based off of the Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery. They are all historically accurate and lifesize. In the town, they had an actor demonstrating how they shot the guns they used at that time.
After the Colonial Williamsburg trip, we went to Jamestown. Jamestown was the capital of the Virginia Colony, founded in 1699, lasting until 1780. It is probably one of the coolest places on the trip (besides being able to see a part of one of the twin towers in Washington D.C.). They had horse drawn carriages, blacksmiths, silversmiths, and the apothecary.
After our busy day, we went to Golden Corral for dinner and headed back to our hotel. I wish I could say we crashed in our rooms...Instead, we hung out in the pools and hot tub until 10:30 and talked and played cards in the hallway until midnight. Then we watched vines until 1:00 am.
The next morning, we woke up bright and early for some breakfast and then hit the road. We drove to Monticello and visited Thomas Jefferson's estate. Unfortunately, photography was not permitted in the house, so enjoy some pictures of the snow, grounds, basement, and gravesite.
After our freezing trip to Thomas Jefferson's estate, we ate lunch and checked out a little gift shop. Then we made our way to Washington D.C.
(This diary is one of three. It is the first diary of the series. Since the trip was so long I had to split my diary into three parts. Stay tuned for next Monday! :))