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A Royal Visit
Release Date: 5/4/2007
By Mackenzie Carpenter, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
JAMESTOWN, Va. -- On the second day of a six-day official visit to the U.S., Queen Elizabeth II played tourist this morning at the historic Jamestown settlement in Virginia, touring its archaeological site and museum and presenting the people of Virginia the gift of a carved Windsor chair to celebrate the settlement's 400th anniversary.
Dressed in a bright teal coat trimmed in pale blue and a matching hat, the queen was first greeted by nearly 400 people --- friends and family of staff and volunteers with the National Park Service and the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, which owns the site.
Accompanied by Vice President Dick Cheney, the queen spent nearly a half hour in the Archaearium, a museum of excavated objects located near the James Fort site, which is currently undergoing excavation.
While touring the museum's exhibit, the 81-year-old monarch murmured quietly and appreciatively at the objects, which included clay pipes, jewelry, and skeletal remains of the settlement's inhabitants. At one point she stopped before a display of medical instruments that included one described as a "spatula for constipation."
"David!" she called to Cmdr. David Swain, a Royal Navy doctor who accompanies her on her trips. "Look at this!" Cmdr. Swain, lugging a large medical satchel, went immediately to her side and she showed him the spatula, murmuring, with the slightest suggestion of a smile, "You ought to have some things like that."
After the museum tour the queen went to a small brick church nearby, where she presented Gov. Timothy Kaine with a hand-carved chair made from Scottish elm and American cherry wood as a gift to the people of Virginia. "Try it out," she told the governor, motioning to the chair. "Why not?" he replied, and sat down, to applause and laughter.
After the church ceremony, the queen returned to the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, where she delivered a short address expressing admiration for "the extraordinary achievement that is Colonial Williamsburg itself," and said that, on a personal level, her visits to Jamestown and Williamsburg "symbolize for me the warmth of the welcome Prince Philip and I have always received during our many visits to the United States over the years."
After the speech, the queen headed to Kentucky for a private visit, which will include attendance at the Kentucky Derby, followed by a resumption of her official visit to Washington and a state dinner at the White House Monday night.
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