Lighted to not less than the minimum illumination (29CFR1926.56)

TJ mostly went to Williamsburg for the swine, but I wanted to go for the fire. For the holiday season, the colonial village rejoices with open flames. I didn't want to fight the crowds at the official Grand Illumination the weekend before. But I did drag TJ to the nightly Illumination of Market Square -- if I had to put up with slaughtering, he had participate in some singing (top). Before the carolers took their porch stage, period re-enactors -- festively dressed in redcoats -- fired off some celebratory musket shots (bottom left). Afterward, I managed to get TJ to hum a few bars as we basked in the glow of the cressets reflecting on the Governor's Palace (bottom right). 

I rewarded TJ's capitulation to caroling by taking him back to Chowning's Tavern for a night of Gambols (left). We shared a table with a pair of particularly boisterous patrons, but we managed to enjoy the wandering entertainment and some hearty ale all the same (right). We even learned how to play the dice game "Ship, Captain, and Crew," which surely and easily could be converted to a drinking game. 

 

TJ and I didn't get sloppy, so we were able to get a reasonably early jump on the next morning. We started with a stroll around the College of William & Mary. A statue of Baron Botetourt, former governor of Virginia, showed the college's Christmas spirit in front of Wren Hall (top). An anonymous well-wisher rigged up some festive lights at the entrance to the Sunken Garden; in the small note attached the post, he or she expressed hope that the decorations would light a path to students' success on final exams (bottom left). Sage became quite studious when we stumbled upon a statue of Thomas Jefferson, an alumnus of the school (bottom right). 

Before heading home, we advanced to the Yorktown Battlefield, site of the last major conflict of the Revolutionary War (left). The grounds, part of the Colonial National Historical Park, are so widespread that you are encouraged to take a driving tour of the major sites. Not far from the visitor's center are Redoubts 9 and 10, where French and American infantries, respectively, conquered Lord Cornwallis' English army (right). With this victory, George Washington's troops were able to set up a second parallel line, which strangled the British soldiers and forced Cornwallis to seek refuge in some caves facing the Yorktown waterfront. 

When reinforcements by land and by sea were thwarted on several fronts, Cornwallis declared his desire to surrender. During a two-hour ceasefire, the official Articles of Capitulation were negotiated and signed at the Moore House, another stop on the driving tour (left). In an embarrassment, Cornwallis' troops were denied full military honors when they laid down their arms at Surrender Field (right).

 

A final stop on the driving tour is the Yorktown Victory Monument, located at one end of the village's Main Street (top left). Many preserved yet converted buildings stand along the street in Yorktown, including a historic house that is now used as an office for Virginia's 1st Representative District (top right). From downtown, it is a steep stumble down to the York River, but once you get there, you find a Waterfront Trail lined with markers outlining the history, economics, and ecology of the region (bottom). Along the path lies the Watermen's Museum, where TJ learned from a worker that we were a week late for the annual oyster roast. 

 

But we were determined to eat some shellfish, so we sauntered over to the Yorktown Pub, where we ordered a half-dozen on the half-shell (top left). Then TJ double-downed on a fried-oyster po' boy while I ordered an immense platter of fried clams (top right). The only things better than the local seafood were the local characters packing the place; they fit in perfectly with the laid-back Mason-jar ambiance of "The Ancient Mariner's Inn" (bottom).