Road Trip Guides Archives - Ashley Hackshaw / Lil Blue Boo

For spring break this year we spent a few days in the Outerbanks and then were headed up to Washington, DC. I noticed that Colonial Williamsburg was on the way to DC so I thought it would be fun to stay there for a few days. I hadn’t been to Williamsburg since around 1991, the last time my parent’s had taken us there.

My favorite thing about Colonial Williamsburg is how some of the workers never break character. It’s like taking a time machine straight back to colonial times. I think it would be a great experience to work in such a place. Here we are meeting James Madison and his horse Homer.

I have this same photo of me and my siblings…I wish I knew where it was right now!

Learning some new DIY at the silversmith:

Boo loved the wig shop, and that the wigmaker never broke character. When I asked if we could sell Boo’s long braid to her she replied, “Oh no, it’s too damaged from the sun and elements.”

Brett is such a good sport. I volunteered him for the “Order in the Court” mock trial we went too. He grabbed Boo’s hat and played a colonial attorney with gusto:

I loved all the textiles we saw. Two rug designs from the Governor’s Palace:

Wallpaper in George Wythe’s house:

Yarn rainbow at the weaving shop.

Speaking of weaving, I love how these branches were woven together to grow this archway:

In the afternoon when it was hot we ventured over to the Art Museums of Williamsburg. There was a great exhibition on doll houses and as soon as Boo saw this she was yelling at us to come see:

It looks so much like her old dollhouse we found at a thrift store a few years ago:

We stayed for a short play called A Gathering of Hair, a fictional Revolutionary-era story of a freed woman and her two enslaved friends, but loosely based on three actual women they researched and connected with. These three women, Deirdre, Hope & Katrinah, wrote the play back in 2013 and are still performing it today. It was really great. Boo wanted the play to be longer so she didn’t have to leave:

Our last day Boo wanted to visit two places: the blacksmith shop and revisit the wig shop. First thing we found the blacksmith kitchen well underway with lunch. The original farm-to-table:

Boo was ecstatic to see a female apprentice at work in the blacksmith shop, especially since she has been saying she wants to grow up to be a blacksmith these days:

When we got to the wig shop there was a longer wait than expected. Boo quickly made a new friend, Aubrey. Aubrey sat patiently with Sienna and taught her how to write secret messages using Pig Pen Cipher.

When Boo asked what she should write Aubrey gave her a Revolutionary War-era example of “you could write a secret message to the blacksmith shop and have them send more bullets.” So Boo sat there for a very long time and wouldn’t let us leave until she had finished her message, even adding her mailing address in the cipher code. As she was doing it Aubrey said to me, “I think she’s writing a real letter” and I started to worry that Boo was really expecting the blacksmith to “send more bullets” if she wrote out that secret letter. When we said goodbye Aubrey tucked Sienna’s little note into her pocket.

Two weeks later we checked the mail and there was a package addressed to AGENT SIENNA from A FRIEND IN WILLIAMSBURG. Inside was a little brown paper package, hand stitched closed with thread. Inside that package was a secret message written back and a hand embroidered handkerchief wrapped around two musket balls. Needless to say, Sienna was thrilled. She’ll never forget that kind gesture. Neither will I. The world is full of amazingly kind people.

P.S. We stayed at the Williamsburg Woodlands right at Colonial Williamsburg. I picked the Woodlands because it’s located right next to the visitor’s center. It was so convenient to be able to catch the shuttle each day right at our front door. Boo wants to go back soon. My parents spent Christmas in Colonial Williamsburg the year before my dad died. I’d love to spend Christmas in Colonial Williamsburg one year.

P.P.S. I also bought a bunch of seeds for my spring garden from Colonial Williamsburg’s heirloom seed collection. Can’t wait to see how they end up:

Our first stop for spring break this year was the Outer Banks. I haven’t been to a North Carolina beach in probably 20 years so I was excited to go, especially with all the National Park sites. Here are the places we visited:

The Outer Banks

Cape Hatteras

The morning we drove to Hatteras it was so foggy we couldn’t even tell that we were going over a large body of water. This was on the Bonner Bridge that crosses the Oregon Inlet between Hatteras and Bodie island. It was a little eery…I shouldn’t have watched the movie The Mist:

The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse was built in 1870 and stands 187 feet tall. I had been to the the lighthouse before but when we were walking around it was the strangest thing: nothing was familiar. But then I realized it had been moved…I didn’t remember that until I saw the sign at the beach. They moved the lighthouse 2900 feet in 1999. The island’s shoreline had been slowly moving due to natural erosion. The moving of it was pretty amazing. More info here.

The Light Keepers Houses were also moved:

The Cape Hatteras beach was like a painting…and we were all by ourselves as if it were our own private beach:

Poor Boo left her favorite Sanuks behind in the parking lot so she had to go barefoot the rest of the day.

So many shells.

I take a lot of photos of dead things. Strange I know. I thought this was sad, haunting and beautiful all at once. I think he might be a little blue heron. He was much bigger than a loon or a seagull:

Bodie Lighthouse

The Bodie Lighthouse was picture perfect. Built in 1872 and 156 feet tall.

The Wright Brothers National Memorial

The National Memorial was much more than I imagined. There was the visitor center, the flight line of the December 1903 flights, 1903 camp buildings.

The monument on top of the hill:

There’s a huge sculptural re-enactment of first flight. Interesting fact: the wings were different lengths because of the placement of the motor.

Boo assisting Orville:

Fort Raleigh and the Lost Colony

Boo is now on National Park #37. She gets her NPS Passport book stamped everywhere we go at the visitor centers and always asks for the Junior Ranger booklet so she can take her oath. What a cool program. She’s dead set on visiting all the NPS sites which is around 400. Read more at the Fort Raleigh NPS site.

“Explore, Learn, and Protect!”

Passport to Your National Parks “Since its inception in 1986, the Passport program has introduced millions of visitors to the national park system. The program consists of a Passport guidebook, an annual series of commemorative sticker-style stamps, a companion mobile app, and the famous ink cancellation stamps. Nearly all 409 national parks participate in the Passport program, as well as some national trails and scenic rivers and certain park and program offices.”

The Town of Manteo

Years ago (1993) my father flew us into the tiny Manteo airport. He used to fly a Beechcraft Bonanza and we all barely fit inside. I just remember it being so hot and that he was worried about the short runway…and that there was just one little pay phone if you needed assistance. It was my parent’s 20th anniversary and they were taking us on their honeymoon route (I have 1973 photos too!)

Such a cute little town:

The Roanoke Marshes Lighthouse:

Elizabeth II is a replica of a 16th-century sailing ship, similar to one that would have brought the first colonists to Roanoke Island in 1587:

After lunch at…we went to Dare County Arts Gallery…and they had an Art-o-Mat! I had to explain to Boo that this machine used to sell cigarettes. But the retired cigarette machines have been converted and now they sell tiny pieces of art! Read all about the Art-o-Mat here. You can even submit artwork!

Avalon Pier Beach / Kill Devil Hills

I always tell people I’m not a beach person…but I realize I was wrong. I’m a cool, foggy, secluded, solitary beach person.

I loved these little gems of tumbled seashells on Avalon beach:

Underneath the pier:

Boo played under the pier all afternoon one day:

I was re-reading a book on the beach: House of Sand and Fog. Perfect for the weather. This seagull stared at me for three hours:

He wouldn’t even leave when Boo tried to convince him:

He left me this:

I really wanted a kite to fly on the beach so I got this $10 kite when we stopped to buy Boo some new flip-flops:

It was so oddly satisfying to fly the kite on the beach!

Another feathered friend:

Our last morning Boo wanted to see the sunrise. She wanted “to see what happens when the sun peeks up into a flat horizon.” It had never hit me before that she’d never seen a sunrise or sunset outside of the CA desert or the NC mountains.