We booked a room at the Williamsburg Hospitality House, which was walking distance to historical Williamsburg and directly across the street from the campus of William and Mary. We figured we'd go to Colonial Williamsburg and tour the campus of William and Mary during the day on Saturday and then hit up some college bars that night. Then, we'd spend all of Sunday at the water park and drive home that night.
Williamsburg Hospitality House
Day One: Colonial Williamsburg
We started out the day by trying to find a place for lunch. We thought it would be a great idea to go to one of the local college eateries, so we started Yelping some places on campus within walking distance. During our search we realized that our hotel was actually on William and Mary's "strip," which consisted of only THREE bars. The bars were deli's by day and "bars" by night. So we walked across the street to the College Delly & Pizza, which also doubled as one of William and Mary's favorite hangouts.
From there we headed to Colonial Williamsburg. Although I wasn't as excited as Kevin to go on this part of the trip, I actually ended up having a very fun time. The whole area is like a "living museum" where everyone was dressed in colonial garb. There were shops, restaurants, horses, and exhibition sites around every corner. There was even a parade that started from the Governor's Palace and went through the entire town. It's free to walk around the area, but if you want to enter the exhibits and listen to the historical monologues then you have to purchase a ticket. Adult tickets were $45.
If you are really into history and want to learn all about Colonial Williamsburg, then I suggest purchasing a ticket. If you are just there to see the sights for an hour or two, then there really isn't a need to buy a ticket.
Governor's Parade
Williamsburg Farmer's Market
One of the houses on the main street. House Lannister?
Someone's in trouble!
Colonial fashion show
We learned about the weapons of the time
Pretty garden
After walking around and listening to a few exhibits, Kevin and I decided to find a tavern for some drinks. We saw a sign for a tavern that had a long line outside the door. We figured this must be the place to hang out, so we got in line. When we walked in, we were ushered to a side room and told to grab a seat. The side room was actually a bedroom... and it was at this point that we realized that this tavern wasn't a tavern as in a "bar," it was a tavern as in a "hotel" and we had waited in line to sit through yet another exhibit.
We sat through one lecture in the first room that was actually pretty interesting. Then we walked into another room and sat through another lecture. From there we had to pass the front door to head upstairs. It was now or never so we made a break for it, ditched the tour and sneaked out the front door in search of an actual "bar" tavern. We came across some taverns that were restaurants, but people were waiting outside for tables so we opted for lemonade instead.
Very deceiving sign
After some root beers and a lemonade, we headed to the Governor's Palace for another tour. This one was extremely interesting and was lead by a wonderful tour guide. You could tell that she loved her job and was very happy to be there.
Our wonderful tour guide inside the courtroom
Outside view
After that tour we took a non-guided tour of the public gaol where the pirate Blackbeard was jailed for a short time. Then, we headed over to the area where the Brickmakers work. This exhibit blew my mind. There were actually teenagers who's summer job it was to make bricks. Not just a few bricks, hundreds of bricks a day per person! I felt so bad for the poor girls who signed up to be actresses in Colonial Williamsburg and were assigned to brick duty. Oh, you're a waitress at the tavern? That's nice. Oh, you sit in the air conditioned palace and tell people about the American Revolution? That's nice. I make bricks ALL DAY in the blazing hot sun. I even overheard one of the girls mention how she hadn't gotten to take a break for an hour. Her "break" was talking to the group about how the bricks are made instead of being the one making the bricks.
Left: Poor girl making the bricks by hand. Doesn't she look angry and sad? Right: Other girl talking about how the bricks are made during her "break"
The kids walk on the mud to make it soft enough to be molded into bricks
Kevin in Blackbeard's cell, doing what he does best
After a long day in Colonial Williamsburg we came home and got ready for dinner. Since we realized that the college nightlife of William and Mary was nonexistent and the food on campus was subpar, we decided to look for a restaurant in town. We stumbled upon this all you can eat seafood buffet called Captain George's Seafood Restaurant that had AMAZING Yelp reviews and decided to give it a shot.
We got there around 5:30 and the line was out the door. Not just out the door, but down the entire side of the restaurant. Kevin had to drop me off so I could get in line and he could park the car and join me. By the time he parked the car and joined me, the line had doubled in size. It was the craziest thing I've ever seen.
We made friends with a lot of people in line and they told us to stay and wait it out because this was about to be the greatest meal we've ever had. We stuck it out and the line finally made it inside the door. Once we got inside the line still wrapped around some railing and people were split into two sections: parties of 4 or less and parties of 4 or more. Finally we made it to the end of the line and were seated.
Our good friend in line was right. This was by far the best seafood buffet I had ever eaten in my entire life. Better than anywhere I'd eaten in Florida and for only $30 a person! There were two massive buffets of snow crab legs, mussels, clams, crawfish, seafood stuffed mushrooms, seafood fettuccine alfredo-- basically everything you could imagine. Then there was another massive dessert buffet with peach cobbler, apple cobbler, cherry cobbler, cheesecakes, chocolate cakes, vanilla cakes, carrot cakes, chocolate pudding, banana pudding, etc. I was in food Heaven. Kevin gave the buffet a wonderful run and our friend from line complimented him for eating "so much for such a little guy."
It was glorious
Day Two: Water Country USA!
After waking from our food coma, we were ready for a day at Water Country USA! This was the day I was waiting for! We threw on our suits and took the short drive to the water park. Before we got there we had heard about these Quick Queue passes that let you skip the lines for five of the slides. The catch is that they only sell a certain amount each day and you have to buy them before they are gone. They cost about $20. Since we got a $20 discount on our tickets for being a Virginia resident, we decided to get the passes. Best. decision. ever.
We chose to go on Sunday instead of Saturday to try to avoid some of the crowd. This was also a good decision, as there was not an outrageous amount of people there. We purchased a locker with unlimited access for the day and stored our towels and clothes. Then we headed to the slides. We decided to get there right as the park opened and hit up the slides where our Quick Queues wouldn't work first, then spend the rest of the day cutting the lines on the Quick Queue slides.
We rode every single ride in the water park, went on both lazy rivers multiple times, hung out in the wave pool (which is not as good as America's First Wavepool, shoutout to Point Mallard) and grabbed some lunch along the way. My favorite slide was called Vanish Point. This slide was two slides in one. On the first one, you are put into a chamber one person at a time and the floor drops out of the chamber and you free fall for a few feet before you slide down the slide. The other is a speed slide where you shoot down the slide as soon as you sit down.
This woman just realized the bottom dropped out of the slide
The blue/green slides are the speed slides
Another one of my favorites was the Aquazoid, where you get in a large raft built for four people and shoot through pitch black tubes. Here is a video of what it looks like:
The Aquazoid and Vanish Point were both Quick Queue slides and we got to skip the entire line to get in front of everyone and go first. You should have seen the looks we were getting. In the line to Aquazoid there is a bridge where people stand and wait in line. There is a sign on the bridge that says, "From this point, there is only a 15 minutes wait!" A couple in front of us with Quick Queue bracelets dubbed that bridge "The Bridge of Death" from all of the death stares they got as they walked passed the people on it. We thought that was hilarious and told all of our fellow Quick Queue-ers. We unofficially renamed this slide "The Bridge of Death."
After spending the entire day at Water Country USA we stopped at another all you can eat buffet for dinner. This time it was an Asian buffet with a sushi train, Mongolian BBQ pit, Thai section, Chinese section and a "make your own Pho" section. It was called Peking Restaurant and it left me in another food coma, this time for only $12. Who knew that Williamsburg was the "all you can eat" capitol of the world?
All aboard the sushi train!
We had a great mini vacation in Williamsburg, VA and highly suggest all of the places we went. Other great places to visit in the area include Busch Gardens, Jamestown and Yorktown.
