THE LAST WEEKEND

Mike left the next morning, Saturday, so that left Chris, Tom, Lorri and I to do a little sight seeing while Bob was hard at work. We headed west on Route 5 toward the James River Plantations, a series of preserved and restored plantation homes open to visitors.

This is "Sherwood Forest" the home of John Tyler (not Robin Hood as you might think), an old president of the US. His descendents still own the home and live there.

After a strenuous walk around Sherwood Forest we were getting mighty hungry and were amazed to find a very good restaurant/tavern out in the middle of nowhere. We had a very fine and memorable lunch and if you ever find yourself out in the middle of nowhere, Virginia, I highly recommend that you stop and eat here, the Indian Fields Tavern.

Next stop was "Berkeley" the ancestral home of a few Benjamin Harrisons, including one who signed the Declaration of Independence, and William Henry Harrison, who was another old US President. The property was occupied by the Union Army during the Civil War. The photo on the right is of a cannon ball allegedly fired by J. B. Stewart, just to remind the Union guys not to go out walking in the woods alone.

Not to be outdone by those pesky Pilgrims up in Massachusetts, Berkeley claims to be the home of the first Thanksgiving, celebrated in 1619. You can read the inscription. I suppose it's true, but they didn't have a big turkey dinner so it couldn't have been THE real first Thanksgiving. I'm sticking with the Pilgrims version.

SUNDAY & MONDAY

Tom Lucey left on Sunday. Of course Bob was working, so Lorri, Chris and I just sort of hung around town, maybe watched some football, or something.

On Monday, the three of us went to see a couple homesteads of historical significance, Lee Hall and Endview.

This is Lee Hall. Both Lee Hall and Endview are about 10 miles east of Williamsburg and both of them were used by both armies during the civil war.

This is Endview.

This is the end.