Grandchildren coming? Our Top 10 list of fun things to do that won't bust budget!

Happy Father's Day weekend! In our edition today, we'll give grandparents tips for entertaining the grandchildren, and report on relief coming to York County's Queens Lake community.

Jun 14, 2025

2 women sitting on chair in front of table — Photo by Keren Fedida on Unsplash

“School’s Out!”, to quote my favorite Alice Cooper song. If that means your grandchildren are coming to visit, you will be looking for creative – and not too exhausting – ways to keep them occupied.

If you’ve lived in the Historic Triangle for any length of time, you probably have already checked off the biggest attractions – Busch Gardens, Water County and Colonial Williamsburg. And they certainly will want to go to one or more of those.

Then what?

Here is our Top 10 list of other attractions that will intrigue the kids without putting too big a dent in your wallet:

1. Take them to the library. Williamsburg Regional Library offers a variety of programs geared for kids, including a summer reading challenge that will pry their noses out of their smartphones. The James City County library on Croaker Road has an expanded children’s area and offers teen’s night out during the summer.

2. Take the Jamestown Ferry. Bring a bag of stale bread and let the kids have fun feeding the gulls that follow the ships on their crossing to and from Surry.

3. Pick-your-own farms. Once on the other side of the river, take them to pick flowers or vegetables at various venues.

College Run Farms reopens in July in time for blueberry picking season.

Winfield farms offers pick your own sunflowers in late July.

There are more farms and other attractions featured on www.surrycountytourism.com.

Pirates Fun. Some of the more adventurous young ones might enjoy a pirate adventure cruise in Yorktown.
Yorktown Beach and Riverwalk Landing. The kids can swim or build sandcastles, and the grandparents can browse the shops and stop in the restaurants and pubs facing the waterfront.
Farmers Markets. Williamsburg and Yorktown both offer farmers markets every Saturday. Besides fresh vegetables and flowers, there are a variety of treats and items the kids will enjoy having you buy!
Jamestown Settlement. Tour full-scale replicas of the Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery, watch musketry demos, grind corn in Powhatan Village and get a taste for early settler life.
American Revolution Museum at Yorktown. Hands on exhibits, explore a Continental Army encampment at the site where the United States defeated the British.
Colonial Ghost Tour. What kid doesn’t enjoy spooky stories at night?

10. Watermen’s Museum. Kids can build boats, learn about crabbing and join pirate-themed events and camps.

What are your favorite spots to take the grand kids? Please share in our comments section or email to digby@williamsburgwatch.com

Editor’s Note: This list was compiled using help from Chat GPT

Answer — residents, local, state and federal governments

pictures of silted Queens Lake — left to right: no water at this dock,Douglas Ellis at dam and spillway,aerial view of silting lake. (photos by Williamsburg Watch and Doug Ellis)

Queens Lake is a private residential area in York County. But the lake from which it takes its name serves as an important part of the local storm water management system. Who should pay for maintaining the lake, its earthen dam and the spillway that controls water flow into it?

Douglas Ellis, the former president of the neighborhood association and lake manager, says the answer is a partnership between the residents, and county, state and federal governments, because all contribute to the storm water runoff.

The 70-acre lake was built decades before modern storm water management practices, which now use retention ponds to capture water and silt from storm water runoff, Ellis said. Storm water runs into the lake, which feeds into Queens Creek, part of the federally protected Chesapeake Bay watershed.

Queens Lake handles the storm water that flows from I-64, the Colonial Parkway and several smaller neighborhoods, according to Robert L. Krieger, III, York’s public works director.

Its earthen dam is a century old and no longer complies with new regulations enacted by the state five years ago.

That’s a problem because Route 716, a two-lane road that runs over the dam, is used by motorists as well as school bus and emergency vehicle traffic.

After several years of studies, permitting and negotiations with local, state and federal officials, the neighborhood is finally getting some relief.

Work is set to begin late this summer or in early fall to upgrade the dam and the spillway, Ellis said. Contractors will also clean up the various ravines that feed into the water, adding rip rap to slow down water flow and reduce silting.

County and state officials worked with the neighborhood to obtain a $1 million state grant, which was matched by York County. Queens Lake, which had already spent $100,000 in studying the problem, agreed to kick in another $100,000, plus $20,000 a year in maintenance support, Ellis said.

Still left to be resolved is fixing the silt that has been filling in the lake for decades, leaving the upper part of the lake just a few feet deep in sections.

“What was waterfront is now a swamp,” Ellis said.

But fixing that problem, as Krieger told the York County board of supervisors at their work meeting last week, could cost upwards of $17 million. He said the county could be eligible for federal grants that would pick up as much as 75% of the cost.

Supervisors balked at the potential cost, but agreed to let the county administrator sign a non-binding letter of intent asking the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer to study what it would cost to fix the silting problem.

The county is not bound to proceed if the supervisors determine it’s too much money.