I thought that I'd contribute my three cents worth to the After Action
Reports for the weekend.

First, Emily and I thoroughly enjoyed the weekend. The funny thing is
that it looks like some of our reasons for enjoying the event were the
same reasons that some did not...proof that 100% of the people can't
be pleased. Keep in mind that my wife and I are 31 and 28,
respectively, so that will have some bearing on what we found
interesting.

Saturday morning, we parked at our designated lot (CW Visitors Center)
and had an extremely pleasant check-in process. Our wait for a bus to
the event site was about 15 minutes, which I thought reasonable. In my
opinion, the entire concept of keeping the Colonial Parkway closed to
all vehicles but buses from Route 199 to Jamestown was brilliant...our
trip was fast and enjoyable.

On the way, we (along with others on the bus) tried to decipher the
printed schedule, which had an appearance of being color-coded, but
apparently was not. We gave up, and decided to wing it.

On arrival, we headed straight for the "World of 1607" exhibit,
because we knew it was there for a limited time. Really neat stuff,
nicely displayed.

Next, we headed over to Anniversary Park to catch some activities. We
got to see and hear James Earl Jones from a distance, but hundreds of
people got there before us, so we kept moving. The Corning Glass Road
Show was really neat...if we had more time, I would have spent hours
watching them. The exhibit that compared 1607 with Moon expeditions
was an interesting premise, but a little dry for my taste.

I didn't want to play the "scrip game", so we went over to the
Settlement site and ate at the outdoor cafe that was being handled by
2nd Street, an area caterer. The line looked daunting, but only took
about 10 minutes. A comment on the scrip system: As a past planner of
festivals and events (some with as many as 25,000 people), I can say
that this scrip, or voucher system is used quite a bit by festivals.
Sometimes it is to protect vendors from having large amounts of cash
on hand, sometimes it is to ensure that the event host gets their
"cut" of profit. I never chose to use this system, but I had folks on
my board who wanted it.

While eating lunch under the trees in front of the Settlement Center,
we noticed that while the lines to board the shuttle bus to Jamestown
Island was very long (several hundred people), it moved very fast. So,
we hopped in it, and found ourselves on a bus in 10 or 15 minutes.

Once arriving, we marveled at the new NPS visitor center, which had
been built since I was last there. I started collecting things in the
bookstore (like books, go figure), and Emily reminded me that I would
have to carry them on the island, so I put everything back for then.

We went across the new causeway, and saw a friend on Emily's who works
on the archeology staff. We sat on the edge of the river for awhile,
watching the boats pass. Then, we got in line for the Archearium...it
was a long line, but the wait was pleasant. Once we got inside, a
docent thoughtfully informed people that the long line was for the
room that contained human remains, and that folks who didn't want to
see them could move on into the rest of the facility. Everyone stayed.
Everyone was respectful, Everyone was interested. I got the "tingle"
of being at a special place at a special time...I know others did as
well.

We headed back to the visitors center and bought some loot (we also
bought items, including a U.S. Mint coin, at the JYF gift store). On
the bus ride out, we saw the black panther group protesting. I could
have been upset, but I thought to myself, these folks are exercising
their right to free speech on Federal property, and that's fine. I
might think that they would have had a different attitude about the
event if they had actually gone to look at the exhibits, which were
very multi-faceted, but whatever.

Like Randy, we were fortunate to have access to the hospitality tent
at the festival site, and had dinner before the concert started. After
dinner, a decent thunderstorm came through, and we used that
opportunity to visit the tourism/travel tent. Unlike some others on
this list, the headliners for Saturday night's concert did turn us on,
and the thump, thump, thump coming from the stage was enjoyable.
Frankly, we wanted to see how Bruce Hornsby, Chaka Khan, and Ricky
Skaggs would interact on stage...very fun show indeed.

At the end of the concert, we headed back to the buses, and again, the
line wasn't terrible...only about 15 minutes. We were back in our
hotel by 10:30pm, after spending about 13 hours at the site.

Someone commented that they wished for a more extravagant event...I
thought that it was professional, well done, and memorable. A great
deal of money in the past few years has been spent on permanent
improvements to the site, including the exhibits and building at the
settlement, the new Godspeed, the new Island visitors center, the
Archearium, and the acquisition of the former Jamestown Campground
site, which also held part of the 1781 Battle of Green Spring. I'd
rather see my tax, corporate, and foundation money go to these things
which are lasting.

We headed home Sunday afternoon very satisfied, tired, and happy. We
didn't see everything, but we saw enough to take great memories home.

Scott Smith
Lynchburg, VA