Earlier this month, I drove to Lexington, picked up my sister, and drove to Williamsburg for a girls' week of fun and frolic!After settling in and figuring out how to navigate the city (it's divided by train tracks, and you're always on the wrong side), we took a day and drove up to Baltimore to visit The Girl and her family. The Son-in-Law had told her Williamsburg was about 1 1/2 hours away, but as it turned out, it's 3 1/2 hours - ONE WAY. Thank you, MapQuest!
We went anyway.The Girl directed us to Fells Point in the Inner Harbor, where we caught the red water taxi and rode it round trip back to Fells Point. It was a glorious day on the water - sunny and breezy, the boat wasn't crowded, and we got to eyeball all the sights of the Inner Harbor in comfort from the water. Much better than trudging around cobbled/brick streets with a stroller!
After we left to head back to Williamsburg, I took a little detour to show my sister something The Girl had pointed out to me when I visited for the second grand's arrival. Here's a picture:
These bushes are in a CEMETERY. The carefully trimmed shapes are weirdly appropriate, don't you agree? They must be the work of either a disgruntled employee or someone totally clueless.
We think it's hilarious.
Yes, my family has a twisted sense of humor.
Anyway, back to Williamsburg. Planning this trip, we were ready for loads of Colonial and Revolutionary history, but we didn't anticipate seafood. Restaurants serving oysters, crabs, lobster, and crab cakes were EVERYWHERE.
Upon further consideration, it makes sense. Williamsburg sits on a peninsula, between the James River and the York River, ending at the Chesapeake Bay. Archaeological excavations at Williamsburg and Jamestown have uncovered tens of thousands of oyster shells (yes, they actually count them).
By the end of the week, we had a favorite - Fat Tuna Grill and Oyster House. I confidently ordered oysters on the half shell. Our server asked what kind I wanted. Well, raw, of course. No, no, what KIND of oysters did I want - and oh, by the way, they were out of Blue Points. Uh...what? On the board above the bar, there were listed at least FIVE kinds of oysters - this one is fairly sweet, that one is the saltiest... We'd had no idea!
We also ordered crab cakes, and they were nearly all crab - hardly any bread crumbs to hold them together - and HUGE. A young couple near us ordered whole crabs, and when the bucket arrived, those peoples' eyes boggled! I don't think they knew what part of which crab to start cracking.
And the hush puppies - oh my!
We went for the history and fell in love with the food!
We had made a wish list of places we would have liked to have visited, but we ran out of days and barely scratched the surface. We saw Williamsburg, Jamestown, and Yorktown. We visited The Girl and saw the Inner Harbor. We went to a harpsichord/organ concert. I took a short class in spinning wool into yarn using a drop spindle. We bought running shoes at an outlet mall (you have to keep your priorities straight)!
So here's the list of leftovers for the next trip to Virginia (in no particular order):
- Virginia Beach
- Washington, DC
- Chincoteague Island
- Asateague Island National Seashore (wild ponies!)
- Fredericksburg
- Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge
- Monticello
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