The next day we decided to go to Jamestown, the place of the first English settlement in 1607.  I really didn't know what to expect of this center.  I had seen a few photos on the website, but I have to say that the Jamestown Settlement was far beyond what I was hoping for.  The main building itself was beautiful.

The had storefronts, rooms you could walk through to see how people lived and the type of furniture and tools that were available to them.

They had a lot of hands-on exhibits, reconstructions and computer generated programs.  It was very informative.

This was the inside of a ship.

and the inside of an Indian abode.

They also had some pretty amazing multi-sensory media presentations.  This pictures was at the very end of our visit, but the first move we saw had smoke and surround sounds and a lot of picture-in-picture perspectives.  It was really cool. 

We then walked outside to a completely reconstructed Indian settlement.

After we walked through there, we went to the harbor where they have a reconstruction of all three original ships that brought the first settlers across the Atlantic.  (The Susan Constant, The Godspeed & The Discovery)

The Susan Constant allowed us to walk on board and explore every nook and cranny of the ship...which the boys loved.

After we walked through the ships, we walked back up the hill to the reconstruction of the Jamestown settlement.  This was also really splendidly done. 

(the boys were determined to lay down on every single bed available to them!)

The guy did a big demonstration on just how the old muskets worked and how long it took to reload them.  It was a really informative demonstration.

The church.

This guy took us through the armory.

And that concluded our trip to Jamestown.  I would highly suggest visiting it to anyone who had the opportunity.