Tag Archives: cannons

Day 14…. The Jamestown Settlement Re-creation. A photography ban, some chickens, and a salty character.

March 16, 2020 Rivergirl 17 Comments

This was the day we explored the Jamestown Settlement which is part museum and part living history re-creation.

The museum section was large….

But immediately pissed me off with the no photography allowed rule. (I took this one just because I’m ornery.)

We’d spent the last 2 weeks visiting museums filled with amazing artifacts and fine art, but this…. fake trees and cheesy dioramas…. was off limits? Go figure.

Okay….

Fast forward to the full immersion cinema we were learning were common in these parts.

Admittedly, when you’re there?

It’s pretty cool.

Especially when the smoke starts rolling along the floor.

Finished with the film, we headed outside.

Past whatever this was.

And into a Native American village.

It was basically the same thing we’d seen at Plymouth Plantation earlier this year.

Except there were no bare chested young Indian men to chat with.

Boo to that.

There were more huts.

And a couple of people making baskets.

And of course, because I find them everywhere…

Chickens.

Aggravated roosters…

And fluffy butted hens.

Next up was the harbor…

And the reconstructed vessels that brought the first settlers from England.

We toured the deck.

The husband chatted up a crew member.

We toured down below.

Where accommodations were small….

And pretty basic.

Unless you were the cook.

Who got his own room.

Of course it was also the kitchen, so there is that.

The husband chatted up another crew member.

And we enjoyed the views.

While marveling at how more than a hundred people could travel together for months on end in these small spaces.

And mind you, we were on the large ship.

The whole time were touring?

There was a soundtrack….

He was quite a character.

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Cape Cod Day 3, Plimoth Plantation English colony.

December 28, 2019 Rivergirl 20 Comments

Done with the Indian village, we walked through an exhibition hall full of 17th century replica pottery.

It was a bit odd. But there was a still…

And an 8 handed mug…

So that probably explains it. That, and the fact water was often polluted so they drank mostly beer and/or alcohol.

Onward to the colonist’s settlement….

First, the fort which commanded the high ground.

With it’s wonderful old cannons.

Then down into the settlement.

It was explained to us that all the employees would be playing the parts of characters based on the original inhabitants, wearing authentic clothing and speaking in the language of the period. We were encouraged to interact with them as such.

Before visiting here I was under the impression that the Pilgrims came to the new world to escape religious persecution. And while that’s true to an extent, it’s not the whole story. They actually fled to the Netherlands first, which explains all the windmills you see in this part of the country.

Read about it here.

The settlers in Plymouth were actually sponsored by England to colonize America. They were given ship’s passage and supplies and were expected to send back goods (mostly furs and pelts) to repay the investment. After 7 years of this, they were granted land… something working class people had no hope of obtaining back home.

Of course nothing went as planned. They were supposed to land in New York, but they landed in Massachusetts. They were supposed to land in September, but they landed in December.