9/2/15 - Taono, VA

This morning we got up a little later than usual.  After breakfast we drove to Yorktown Battlefield-Colonial National Historical Park.  This was the site of the siege and subsequent surrender of England's General Cornwallis to George Washington and the French Fleet under Lafayette.  It effectively ended the Revolutionary War.  The battle was won by the overwhelming artillery used by the Americans and French.  We drove all the roads in the battlefield.  At the site of Cornwallis surrender many of the captured English cannons were on display.  One of the cannons in the visitors center had a big dent from a cannonball fired by Lafayette during the battle. 

At George Washington’s headquarters we picked some Paw-Paws.  These are wild fruit and taste kind of like mangoes.  Then we went into historic Yorktown.  After looking around there we went to Jamestown Colonial National Park.  This was the site of the first permanent English settlement in the Americas, dating from 1607.  This is where Captain John Smith and Pochahontas lived.  Just as we arrived we heard thunder and it rained on us here.  We took shelter in the church and then the archaeological museum.  The museum had a lot of artifacts uncovered during recent excavations.  There were two complete skeletons that will be re-interred in an atrium.  On the way back we stopped at Alewerks Brewing again.