Road trip day 5, Williamsburg again

 Our day began at the George Tucker House,  This property is a reception center for those of us who are donors to the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. We were there to meet a Nation Builder.

Nation Builders at Colonial Williamsburg are “interpreters”, actors who will portray a person from Williamsburg. You’ll find them at various locations throughout the historic area.  But conversations at the Tucker House are longer and more intimate.  Sometimes you might meet a famous person, like Patrick Henry or George Washington.  But today we met Jane Vobe, an ordinary woman, who ran a tavern on Duke of Gloucester Street.

While we were there, Drew bought a cookbook of colonial recipes.  Cookbooks were just coming into vogue on colonial times.  The recipes have been modernized, of course.  Can’t wait to try some of them.

Next up was the Peyton Randolph House.  He is the Founding Father you’ve never heard of. He was very active in Virginia politics and was the President of the First Continental Congress.  He died before the second Continental Congress met in 1776.  

Mr. Randolph was quite wealthy.  Here are the kitchen, the laundry and the slave quarters.

Yes, that game is Mancala.

The device in the last photo is a mechanical spit for toasting meats,

Inside the house,

We stopped in one of the shops on Duke of Gloucester Street and I bought a book of ghost stories, the tales told during the ghost walks.

Next up, we did some shopping in Wyeth Candy and Gourmet Shop and The Cheese Shop.  I bought bacon jam, onion jam, red pepper jelly …things that will be great on a charcuterie board.  I also got some mint chocolate truffles.  Then we ordered some sandwiches from The Cheese Shop.

After lunch we went back to the Capitol.  We’d been there for the witch trial, but I wanted to see the whole building.  You enter through the courtroom, then go upstairs to see additional rooms and a display of  Native American crafts, then downstairs to the room where the House of Burgesses met,

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We toured a few more buildings.  I loved the apothecary shop.

And then we walked over to the magazine.

Here in Williamsburg it’s currently 1775.  On April 20, 1775, the Royal Governor Lord Dunbar seized the gunpowder from the public magazine, thus sparking revolutionary feelings in the local population.  Dunbar was forced to flee Williamsburg in June.  By September of that year local militias were actively training for war.

Dinner was at Christiana Campbell’s Tavern.  I had an excellent meal of potato dumplings “in the Italian style”, crabmeat in butter sauce and spoon bread — a (gluten free) cornbread cooked in a cast iron skillet, it had almost a custardy consistency.

Then it was back to the Capitol for another trial.  This time we saw the trial of Israel Hands, a pirate who was Blackbeard’s second in command.  Blackbeard was killed in 1718, and 15 members of his crew were brought to Williamsburg for trial as pirates.

Our group found him “guilty”.

Then it was back to the hotel to packs- tomorrow is our last day here.