Neel will always choose history for his favorite way to spend a day, and we're lucky enough to have lots of options around these parts. His pick for Father's Day was Historic Jamestown, the first permanent English colony in America.

Lucky for me, his pick for lunch was one of my all-time favorite restaurants. I'd thought it was just me who loved the place (we don't get to go very often, and I think I can remember every single time I've eaten here), but no! Neel loves it too!

Everywhere we go, we try to have mussels now.

And we started with the historic tap water and (some of us) moved straight to the champagne cockails. Good call.

It's a great spot, the Blue Talon Bistro, with Julia Child (although that's Jacques Pepin) always playing above the bar, and if you're ever in the historic triangle of Virginia, I suggest you stop in.

We didn't linger because we wanted to get to Jamestown. The drive (called Colonial Parkway) between the center of Colonial Williamsburg and Jamestown only takes between ten and fifteen minutes, but it's so gorgeous, you almost wish it took longer.

I'm going to be really honest here and admit that I'm not real keen on visitor's centers. I get very sleepy in them every.single.time. Most musesums too. I'm okay in art galleries though. Weird. So I yawned while Neel and Callum wandered around the visitors center (and really, Cal wanted to mostly wander around the gift shop), but pretty soon I was able to encourage them outside to the good stuff. You cross a bridge over a marsh to get to the settlement, and wildlife come to greet you.

Once there, the past comes up to greet you.

The church, whose tower you see here, was built in 1639 (that's old for us, folks!), but the foundation of the original church, which dates back to 1617, can be seen under glass below the floor.

The site is still an active dig, and they've uncovered portions of the original fort as well as graves of some of the first inhabitants (including a fourteen-year old boy).

Jamestown, it was a British colony, you know!

And even here, at the first breath of America, other bits of our history creep in.

If I had just landed in America, I would probably want a view like this too.

This is the original road that went around the Jamestown settlement. We followed it down to some more ruins.

When I was a girl, I used to rake the leaves in our backyard into "leaf houses," laying them out like floorplans. That's what these ruins remind me of.

I could look at them for days.

It's symbolic that you cross a bridge to get too and from the settlement. Stepping into and out of time. We took a drive around the island after we left the visitor's center and slipped back into freeway traffic and headed home. And on the way home we watched some jackwagon zip in and out of traffic, tailgaiting one of those big car transporters. And then he totally rearended some poor sap who was probably just driving home from Father's Day like us. I feel bad for the guy who got hit, but for the guy who did the hitting? What a jerk!

We live near a local university and for the last several years an organization has sponsored a concert series on a grassy lawn adjacent to a row of shops behind the school. We thought last year was the final year for these free, family oriented concerts (rumors of a new basketball practice facility intended for the space were floating around), but the lawn remained and the concerts continued.

Saturday's concert, which featured a group called Malt Liquor Sundae, was the first of the summer.

It really is a family affair. People bring beach chairs or blankets and all manner of food and drink from beer and wine to margaritas in John Deer cups.

Babies cling to their mommas before getting brave enough to veture out.

The whole area is fenced in, leaving the kids free to roam (within reason) while the music plays. See that little guy trying to escape?

Of course Neel and Cal took a ball and their gloves, leaving me alone long enough to soak up the scene and the music.

A girl walked past me wearing a shirt that said "Daddy's Little Girl," but the way it was laying on her torso, it looked like "Diddy's little girl!"

At one point there was a woman a few blankets ahead of us bent over her picnic in a skirt too short to be bent over in! As soon as I nodded to my friend Catherine to point it out, the skirted-woman's husband came over and must have told her the same thing because she promptly straightened up! Good man.

Men wandered among the crowd drinking Mickey's Big Mouth, which brought back a host of memories for me. That was our college beer. Appropriate to drink during a concert by Malt Liquor Sundae.

A Lady in Red got up and danced for everyone. Braver woman than I could ever be.

Kids darted in and out and over blankets. Playing and fighting and playing more.

There was face painting.

Malt Liquor Sundae is described on the concert series brochure as playing funk/reggae/rock. Hmmm. That's quite a combo! But you know, they did it all, and pretty seamlessly too. When they played Wagon Wheel, I got tears in my eyes. I'm not a huge concert goer, but live music can do that to me. And it was everything. The sun setting and all those happy families around us. Our friends on the blanket next to us and knowing that we'd run into even more friends (I love small towns.). Summer. Saturday night. Contentment.

history man {life}

summer concert series {life}