The HVDU founder checks out our country's roots

Ahoy there, HVDU fans!

Your HVDU founder is preparing for the Fall 2010 HVDU debate season, and part of that preparation was a desire to reach back to the roots of debate in this country. So I decided to go (along with my New Lovely Bride) to Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. I've been wanting to go down there for ages, long before I started the HVDU. Since The NLB and I needed a honeymoon, and had a gap open on our calendars, we loaded up The Silver Fawn and motored down to the Virginia Tidewater and hit the place over the weekend of the Glorious Fourth.

Advice to all: Have you ever thought about going to Colonial Williamsburg? Do it. If you're an American, or if you're a lover of freedom, you need to go there. Because it all started there. Plus Jamestown and Yorktown are right next door, easily accessible over the Colonial Parkway. We hit all three places, and it was great. We expect to go back sometime.

First: It's the perfect place to channel your inner patriot:

Also: Are you into stocks? You can do that there, too:

And do you want things that go boom? Does the smell of black powder in the afternoon make you feel like victory? Then "CW" is your kind of place:







Plus, you never know who's going to show up. You've got famous Frenchies like the Marquis de Lafayette:



Even traitors like the one and only Benedict Arnold come riding into town:



As you stroll along Duke of Gloucester Street in the morning, you can meet the big meat:



And check out the big Scottish flowers in the garden:



And CW has all the hottest bands come into town. The hottest 18th Century bands, that is. They lay down a nice beat and you can march to it. All the kids are into it:











If you motor over to Jamestown -- a quick trip along the cars-only Colonial Parkway -- you can do some sailing:



Yorktown, at the opposite end of the Colonial Parkway, is also a boom town:



And, when you get back up to W'Burg, you can hang out at the Royal Palace:



All photos courtesy of The NLB

Anyway, more on the trip later. Hope you like this so far!