11 Fun Things to See and Do in Williamsburg With Kids

Back in the day I spent a fair amount of time in Williamsburg, Virginia, the recreated colonial town and HUGE tourist attraction.  (I graduated from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg and worked at the Kings' Arms Tavern as a "serving wench" for a couple of years).  Every year I used to watch as hundreds of teachers bored thousands of students to near-distraction stopping outside each building to talk about its history and function. Here's a selection of activities and sites that I think a teen/preteens might find more intriguing:

1. Governor's Palace.  Definitely take the tour through the Governor's Palace and gape at the pretentious display of "decorative weapons," the purpose of which was to cow us poor colonials into submission. This tour also provides a good overview of Williamsburg history from founding to independence. While you're there, take a brisk walk through the formal "grounds" and check out the stables, carriages, ice house, vegetable gardens, fruit trees, and ornamental duck pond -- all very British, so that the English governors wouldn't pine for home.
2. Capital Building.  Take the tour through the Capital building and learn more about Williamsburg's role in formenting civil disobedience and independence for the colonies. (Warning: the Capital can be somewhat underwhelming to view without benefit of a tour.)
3. Bruton Parish. Walk through the graveyard at Bruton Parish Church and admire the gruesome grave art, heavy on skulls, crossed bones, angels and urns. Compete to see who can find the oldest grave, or take rubbings of some of the ancient inscriptions or artwork. (FYI, you'll have to bring your own supplies if you want to do rubbings.) This is a wonderfully creepy thing to do right around dusk ...!
4. Other Colonial Destinations.  Other locations likely to be of interest to older kids: the armory, the goal (jail), the blacksmiths' shop, the printers shop, and the general store. The map they issue you at the Visitor's Center will show you where these are located.
5. Chownings Tavern.  Stop by Chownings Tavern for lunch and play a round of The Most Royal Game of Goose, a colonial board game that the waiterstaff are pleased to provide upon request (they will explain the rules too). Or simply ask for a colonial deck of cards and play war as you sip apple cider from pewter tankards over your plank table.  (It's pronounced Choo-nings, by the way!)
6. Colonial Muster. Check the schedule and try not to miss the colonial muster on the green behind the courthouse. Authentically dressed militiamen demonstrate marching and other maneuvers, accompanied by a fife and drum band. (The schedule may list other interesting seasonal and weekly events too, some of which may be well worth checking out.)
7. College of William and Mary. Walk around the campus of William and Mary, taking in the historical buildings and especially the Wren Building, designed by Christopher Wren himself. Explore the downstairs rooms, and especially Wren Chapel, which retains a true "colonial" ambiance and is still used today for services, weddings and college debates. Your middle schoolers/high schoolers may be becoming curious about colleges - W&M is a small, academically oriented institution with tons of history and a beautiful campus. (It was founded in 1694, making it the oldest chartered college in the US; 8 U.S. presidents graduated from W&M.) So go ahead and peak into some of the academic buildings too ...!
8. Jamestown. Drive another 5mls and take in the archeological excavation at Jamestown (your Patriot's Pass Williamsburg ticket should get you admitted here too). Fascinating opportunity to see archeology in action. Or, if your kids are more into reenactment than reality, take in the "restored Jamestown fort," built back when it was believed that the actual Jamestown site had been engulfed by the James River. Here they can learn more about what it was like to live in an armed fortification, living in constant fear of attack, starvation and disease.
9. Fossil Hunting on the James River. Stop at a beach along the James River and look for fossils. The river passes through the highly fossiliferous Yorktown Formation in this area, so it is not uncommon to find fossilized seashell remains litering the river banks.
10. Wythe's Candy Store. Stop by Wyeth's Candy Store in Merchant's Square (at the base of Duke of Gloucester Street) for freshly dipped caramel apples or chocolate covered rice crispy squares on a stick ... guaranteed to rot your teeth out!
11. Ghost Tours! If you can stay a little late, sign up for an after-dark "ghost tour". See the town as the colonials would have experienced it ... by lantern-light! These tours are actually a very good way to learn more about everyday life in Williamsburg ... how folks *really* lived day to day back in colonial days, and they are especially fun & spooky at this time of year, when dead leaves skitter across the cobbled streets at every gust of wind. Just be sure to go with a private company -- don't get suckered into the so-called "ghost tour" sponsored by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, which is watered down so much that it wouldn't even interest a toddler, much less a pre-teen.

Note that there are also a bunch of big theme parks in the Williamsburg area (Busch Gardens, Water Adventure World, Great Wolf Lodge) - not to mention tons of discount shopping - but have tried to confine my list to activities that are more in the spirit of a "colonial" family experience.

Most Romantic Movies Ever Made

What exactly makes a movie "romantic"? Is it romantic tension or sexual tension (or both)? Also, how are you supposed to compare classic explorations of love like West Side Story with frivolous romantic comedies like Sleepless in Seattle?  I've decided that the only way to be fair and comprehensive is to divide the genre into types, which gives me an excuse to include all my favorites ...

1. Star Crossed Lovers. The most venerable of all genres, this one has been around since well before Shakespeare penned Romeo & Juliet. Goodness knows why we enjoy being tormented by stories of love and lovers torn tragically asunder, but we do. We love it so much, in fact, that over the years this genre has spawned a host of subgenres, each well-represented by romantic classics.
1. First, there's the Married to Someone Else subgenre, as represented by Casablanca, Out of Africa, Bridges of Madison County, Now Voyager and Frenchman’s Creek. You’re not just crying because of love thwarted, but also because the characters who make the anguished decision to place marriage, duty and honor above their own happiness are just so damned noble.
2. There’s the Dead But Not Forgotten subgenre, in which the lovers are separated by that whole pesky not being alive thing. Think The Ghost & Mrs. Muir and City of Angels. But at least you have the consolation of knowing that eventually the lovers will find themselves on the same side of the Great Veil; and I, for one, like to think that Mrs. Muir is going to have the time of her non-life when finally reunited with the Captain.
3. The granddaddy of them all, however, is definitely the Separated by Class or Race subgenre. It was good enough for Shakespeare, and it was good enough for the directors of such blockbusters as Titanic, West Side Story, Officer and a Gentleman, Pretty Woman, and Dirty Dancing. Tony and Maria, separated by race. Rose and Jack, separated by class (and, eventually, a whole lot of water). Edward and Vivian, separated by the whole legitimate businessman/skanky woman of uncertain virtue thing. For obvious reasons, movies in this category have a tendency to end badly. Tony gets shot. Jack drowns. But sometimes the screenwriters take pity on us and seemingly insurmountable circumstances are surmounted by a grandiose gesture, as when Richard Gere whisks Debra Winger away from her dreary factory life in Officer and a Gentleman, or when he climbs up the ladder to rescue Julie Roberts from her tower. And no one puts Baby in a corner …!
2. Moving On. Who would have thunk it … a whole genre devoted to spouses who die and the loved ones they leave behind. Always. Sleepless in Seattle. Ghost. Truly Madly Deeply.  PS: I Love You. While we all say that we would like our spouses to find a way to be happy if – God forbid – we should predecease them, don’t we really want them to ache for us the way that Holly Hunter aches for Richard Dreyfuss in Always? The way Demi Moore aches for Patrick Swayze in Ghost? The way Juliet Stevenson aches for John Rickman in Truly, Madly, Deeply? Don’t we secretly want them to call radio stations and talk about how unforgettable we were, a la Tom Hanks in Sleepless in Seattle? Of course, after an appropriate amount of time we also want them to nobly give us their blessing to move on … and all the better if moving on means new love in the arms of a hunky, square-chinned Adonis a la Brad Johnson in Always. (Sorry – you guys have to settle for Meg Ryan.)
3. Sweet, Sweet Torment. They simmer. They glare. They brood – oh, how they brood! Nicholas Cage in Moonstruck. Lawrence Olivier as Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights. Not the kind of guys you want to take home to mama, but don’t we all secretly wish that we had the power to drive men mad with desire for us?
4. Bad Boys & the Women Who Love Them. Bad boys, bad boys … whatcha gonna do? They revel in their own irredeemibility, and yet we can’t help loving them. Gone With the Wind's Rhett Butler is an unabashed scoundrel, but did you see anyone else at that ball worth dancing with? Dennis Quaid in The Big Easy is another rascal, but there’s something about that Cajun accent and that wicked smile that makes us willing to forgive him anything.
5. Waiting for them to Figure It Out. Sometimes the romantic tension is there from the start, but it takes a whole movie for one or more of the characters to wise up. In When Harry Met Sally, Harry meets Sally at the beginning of the movie, but it takes a whole reel before he realizes that he is in love with her. And thank goodness for Cuba Gooding Jr.'s performance or I’m not sure any of us would have had the patience to stick around long enough to see Jerry Maguire finally figure things out. For all my irreverent bashing, however, I discover that two of my favorites -- Emma and Strictly Ballroom —fall into this category. We should all be so lucky to have a Mr. Knightly or a Fran out there waiting for us to notice them.
6. Lovin’ the Wrong Man. Related to the previous category but deserving of a category of its own, this one is all about the ones who are in love with Mr. Wrong, while all the time Mr. Right is right there, under their nose, just waiting for them to come to their senses. It’s enough to make you want to reach into the screen and give them a good shaking. At least in While You Were Sleeping and Sabrina, Sandra Bullock and Audrey Hepburn do eventually hook up with the right brother. But what is Julia Ormond’s problem in Legends of the Fall? Okay, so Brad Pitt is gorgeous, but why can’t she see that Aidan Quinn is the only one capable of making her happy?
7. Workin’ My Way Back To You. You have to love a guy willing to jump through hoops to prove that he is worthy of his inamorata’s love. Whether it’s leaving their guitar behind (Goodbye Girls) or reliving the same day over and over again until they get it right (Groundhog Day) or possessing the desperation (not to mention the upper arm strength) to hold an enormous boombox over their heads while Peter Gabriel croons In Your Eyes (Say Anything), there’s something irresistably compelling about a man who wants your love badly enough to work for it. (Be honest now – doesn’t hearing that Peter Gabriel song on the radio still make you want to take Lloyd Dobler to bed?)
8. Save Me, I’m Yours. Of all the genres, I confess a weak spot for this one. It may be primitive, but give me a guy with courage, strength, and moral fiber and I will go weak at the knees every time. (And if he happens to be wearing a loincloth, a breastplate, or a mask, my bodice may just bust of its own accord.) Daniel Day Lewis in Last of the Mohicans. (“Stay alive, no matter what occurs! I will find you.” – Oh, you will find me – I’ll make sure of that.) Russell Crowe in Gladiator. (“Leave this place and never think of me again.” If he really meant it, then he shouldn’t contrive to look so damn good-looking in that torn tunic.) Cary Elwes in Princess Bride. (“As you wish.” Enough said.) Be still my beating heart.
9. Going, Going, Gone. Man meets lady. Man and lady fall in love. Man (or lady) falls sick and dies. The end. While a part of me resents movies in this category for being unabashedly manipulative, some of them are so well done that I find myself able to forgive them, even as I am reaching for the nearest box of tissues. Love Story. Finding Neverland. Hint: If a characters coughs early in the movie, assume they’re a goner and start emotionally preparing for the inevitable.

Want to suggest a movie I’ve neglected, or propose a category that I may have overlooked? Let me hear from you!