Breaking into Jamestown

First of all, Happy Birthday Naomi!  =)  She's getting so grown up.

This weekend we went to Jamestown for an employee/volunteer picnic.  We had to take two cars, since we only have small cars, and we have a large family.  Mike, Josh and Peter left first and picked up my brother, Dan, on their way.  I left later, after ELizabeth got done with work, planning to meet them there.

We got to Jamestown an hour and a half late (because of waiting for Elizabeth to get off work) and immediately suspected something was wrong.  There were no cars in the parking lot.  Surely they must have some employees showing up for the picnic?  I figured perhaps there was an employee parking lot I didn't know about.  We drove around and found a lot with a few cars, some parking spaces marked "Employees only" and two catering vans.  I figured that their employee picnics must not be very well attended, and we got out to try to find a way in.

All the building doors were locked, but one employee door opened when Elizabeth tried it, so we went in.  The place was deserted as far as I could see, but I figured they were probably down by the ships, on the grass.  We walked past the empty buildings, into the deserted Indian village, through the old settlement, feeling very much like the characters in Into The Woods wandering through the empty, cursed villages after the Pied Piper has taken everyone away.  

By this time we all really needed to go find a bathroom, and just past the silent settlement we saw signs to restrooms.  Hurray!

But they were locked.  WE could see down to the ships, and there was not a soul in sight.  Clearly the picnic was not here.  As we turned away from the locked bathrooms, an alarm began screeching.  I turned around to see Bethany shutting a sliding door and looking surprised.  Oops!

Suddenly a security guard came huffing along the path from the direction of the ships, waving his arms.  We just stood there, and I was reminded of my mother breaking into Monticello.  Apparently breaking into historic sights is becoming something of a family tradition.  We all have legacies we leave for our children.  Some are just more unusual than others.

I didn't give him a chance to ask anything.  "We're looking for the employee picnic," I yelled at him above the wailing sirens, before he could catch his breath.  

He shook his head, wobbling his many chins and looked at us.  "It's at the CSC."  

"The what?"  

He pointed off in some direction.  "Down 199, past the green 7-Eleven."  

Ummm...  "I'm from northern Virginia. I don;t know where that is."

He pulled out his walkie-talkie and told someone everything was alright, and to please turn off the alarm.  And we explained that we were just trying to use the restroom when we accidently pulled open the wrong door.

He kindly unlocked the restroom and let us relieve ourselves before ushering off the property.

We eventually did find the CSC, past the green 7-Eleven, and enjoyed barbecue sandwiches,  a giant slide, a hay ride and the live band.  It was good to see Dan, and the kids had enough fun to probably make the 6 hours of driving worth it.  Mike and Josh turned around the next morning and went back to sail the Godspeed.  They came home slightly burnt and worn out, but happy.

Have a wonderful Sunday.  This would be a great day to look at www.mormon.org.  Or www.lds.org.  For scriptures this morning I read part of the account of the Jaredites who left the Tower of Babel and were led to the Americas.  I read the bit about them taking honey bees and building their barges and wondering if they were really going to have to "Cross these great waters in darkness".  Don't worry.  They didn't have to.  It's a pretty cool story, and so ancient it feels.....ancient.  I love really, really ancient things, stories etc. 

Ok.  Gotta get ready for church.

Rebecca  =)