Sunday, September 09, 2007

The Jamestown Quadricentennial - Part 3

Wednesday, June 13

Early in the morning we received a text message similar to yesterday's: we were to be at the Marriott between 6:30 and 7:15. We didn't eat breakfast before leaving, because we knew we'd have plenty of time after the meeting.

This time we were fairly early, so there were still empty parking spaces. Several families had already arrived, and were waiting in line. This line began at the closed double doors leading to the entrance of the auditorium, and extended through the hotel doors out onto the sidewalk.

We chatted with a couple families while we waited to go in. Soon the door opened, and the line began to move forward. One by one, the families entered the auditorium. As people found their seats, the announcement rang out:

"Sleuths sit up front! You will find your name on your seat. Everyone else, please sit behind the designated seats. Again, we request that you be silent. When the moderator comes, there will be no talking and no questions. Thank you."

When the moderator came on stage, everyone held their breath. What was he going to say? Well, he said something like this:

"Jack is disappointed."

When this had sunk in, he went on.

"You were given the chance to prove that you could work on your own, but you showed that you could not. Many of you simply gave up. That is not what Jack wants in the fifth trustee."

But after that, he was a little more encouraging. He said that Jack was proud of those who persevered. I felt a little better. :o) Then it was time to separate those who were eliminated from those who would continue.

"When I call your name, please stand and remain standing."

Not hearing my name called, I figured that these were the ones who would continue. Good for them! However, I soon discovered I was wrong when I heard my name called. Bummer!

After a few final words, we were dismissed. As each family exited the room, their sleuth was given a Jamestown 400 T-shirt for being in the 100.
We chatted in the lobby, and met more sleuths and their families. Before long, the remaining sleuths filed out of the auditorium and headed out the door to begin another assignment. We congratulated them and cheered them on. They followed the rules, and said nothing about their assignment.

We left soon afterwards and went back to our hotel to eat breakfast. When we finished, we decided to go back to Duke of Gloucester street. We didn't get to enjoy it very well the day before, and we were also prohibited from taking pictures during the hunt. So, now we could explore DOG street at our leisure and take plenty of pictures! The pressure was off!

We did not purchase a ticket, so we couldn't go in any of the buildings except the stores. However, there was still quite a bit to see! We met a few more families from the Quadricentennial, and some of them were curious about this hunt, so we told them what it was about.

We saw a muster and watched a fife and drum corp parade down the green. We explored the stores (one was a replica of an actual general store from Colonial Williamsburg), and walked up and down the street. To our delight we found a Scottish store, and spent some time looking around there.


The wall decorations were neat!



We spent most of the day touring DOG street. Then we had supper and lounged in our hotel room until bedtime.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hey! Great post! thanks for the pictures... I forgot our password so I'm going to have to leave this as anonymous, but it's me, SC!