Jamestown & Yorktown

Jamestown 1607: The Virginia Company sends over some colonizers to exploit the riches in a new land.  They fail, but that doesn't stop more and more people from colonizing in the exact same spot for decades to come.  The Jamestown settlement location is packed with information, a reconstructed church, a fascinating archaeological museum, a walk with signage through the different parts of town (with excavated buildings that are now just piles of stones), a glass-blowing demonstration (which was under renovation when we arrived), and great views of the James River.  It's a good place to wander about on a nice day.  I liked the archaeological museum the best, which houses the remains of some of the settlers and is built over the spot where the New World's first democratically-elected leadership body met.

Jamestown's Church

The Governor of Virginia and Some Other Guy

Main Road Through Jamestown

Jamestown is connected to Yorktown via the scenic Colonial Parkway.  Although the Yorktown museum is a bit dated, they do have a huge ship that you can walk through and the video makes it pretty clear that Yorktown was a major turning point in the Revolutionary War ("His majesty will be most annoyed.").  If you like battlefield drives, Yorktown has two loops that show the main encampments and troop movements and the historic section of town is also preserved for you to take a stroll through.

Yorktown Victory Monument

What's a battlefield without a bunch of cannons?

Both sites are fairly interesting, but if there were only time to see one of them, I would definitely pick Jamestown.  I haven't gotten the opening song in the movie Pocahontas out of my head since.