Final Day and heading home

On Sunday morning we played mini golf with Lyla and her family, before an emotional farewell and drive back to Washington Dulles airport. We were Premium Economy on the flight home, which was nice, including a nice glass of fizz. Only downside was arriving back in London on a wet Monday morning!

Chesapeake Bay and meeting friends

We drove over the bridge and tunnel to Virginia's Eastern Shore. We drove up the quiet peninsula, stopping off at Salisbury for lunch.  Our destination was Cambridge, where Izzy met up for the evening with her internet friend Lyla who had come over with her mom and dad from Baltimore. We had dinner and watched a pool movie all together.

The battle of Yorktown

We checked out of our hotel and headed to Yorktown, location of the siege that led to the end of the Revolutionary war. We went round the museum and then the battlefield itself, on the edge of the town. We saw one of the houses in the town that still has a cannonball in it's wall. Afterwards we drove down to Virginia Beach and our seafront hotel.

Colonial Williamsburg

In the afternoon we headed to Williamsburg, where the Colonial capital of Virginia was established after Jamestown was burnt down in a rebellion and lost it's importance. The centre of Williamsburg is one big Colonial reconstruction.

Jamestown

Today we went to nearby Jamestown, site of the first established English colony in North America, in 1607. There were 2 different locations, first the Jamestown Settlement which is a reconstruction of the site with costumed actors and a mile away the actual location, which is an archeological site and museum.

Clowning around

We drove down to Richmond, State Capitol of Virginia. We stopped off to do some shopping, Izzy wanted to pick up some Supernatural (the tv show) merchandise from a specialist shop and we picked up our Halloween stuff too!

We carried on down to the historic Powhatan resort near Williamsburg, where we checked into our lovely 2 bedroom suite.

Monticello

In the morning we drove to Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson. We had a really interesting tour from our guide Don, a real character. He was impressed we spotted a picture of Ironbridge hanging on the wall in the dining room too! We could not take any pictures inside the house, but in some ways it made the tour better as we could concentrate on what he was saying.

Charlottesville

We arrived in Charlottesville around 4 PM. After a rest we headed to the historic downtown for a walk and dinner at a nice old Irish pub.

In the blue ridge mountains of Virginia

After a hearty breakfast we drove into the Shenandoah national park entrance on the edge of Front Royal, a 105 mile drive along the blue ridge mountains of Virginia to Waynesboro. The trees were in their autumn foliage which made for a lovely drive. We stopped midway for a walk to the Dark Hollow falls.

Mount Vernon

After a light lunch we drove down along the Potomac river to George Washington's estate at Mount Vernon.

We had a tour of his mansion and the grounds, including his tomb. The views from the back of the house over the river were amazing.

We then drove up to Front Royal, catching some nice traffic, but got there for dinner at Cracker Barrel.

Arlington Cemetary

We went to a diner for breakfast, at Isobel's request.

We then drove to Arlington cemetery, saw JFK's grave and the memorial to the Unknown Soldier, where we watched the changing of the guard. Afterwards we went next door to see the Pentagon.

Memorials and Monuments

After a Subway lunch we walked to the White House and then down to the Washington monument. The weather had rapidly turned sunny and really warm, which was nice.

We then went into monument and memorial overdrive, Vietnam, Korea, WW2, Lincoln, Roosevelt, MLK and Jefferson, to name just some of them. The sun was out and it was 26 degrees C, really lovely, though we walked over 13 miles all day so we were pretty tired by the time we got back!