Williamsburg, VA

Williamsburg, VA area

My main memory of this trip will be the weather - who would have thought it would only be in the 60s in VA over Memorial Day Weekend!  It was in the mid to upper 80s when we first got there but a storm Friday evening and another mid day Saturday brought a fair amount of rain and a cold wind!  Sunday's high was only in the 60s.  On Saturday the three of us (Cierra joined us for the week end) went to the farmer's market and got strawberries and then went to the old town colonial area.  

The visit to Old Towne Williamsburg did not start great.  2 very slow employees to change our vouchers to tickets and the change in weather - we went from being hot to being cold in a half hour.  We did enjoy the town though.  There were several shops to stop and visit with knowledgeable staff representing shop owners of the time.  

We walked through a small vegetable garden and learned about how hard it was to get water in a drought and where on the plant a peanut grows.  Later we would hide out from the cold and rain and learn about cooking during the 1700s and how they only cooked one meal a day since they needed light to do some aspects of cooking such as deboning a meat or waiting for your oven to get hot and then to stabilize at the correct temperature to make bread.  The attendants were great at comparing what was happening in the 18th century to food trends that are happening now.

We also noticed a sign at the farmers market area for Old Towne Williamsburg about how it was illegal to sell your products before the official start of the market or to buy more than your household needed.  We were suspicious at least some of those rules were related to taxes especially after we learned that there had been taxes imposed on goods transported between individual colonies.  England had done a lot of things to keep the colonists as supporting players to mother England such as restricting the type of sheep allowed to be raised in the colonies so the colonist couldn’t compete with English textiles.  The above picture was taken in the blacksmith shop.  

We also visited the city and county courthouse (colonial capitol - council side was the courtroom).  It was interesting to hear details of court options and proceedings because it did dispel some beliefs I had of the time.  There was a story of a woman who had a farm and hired a man to deliver the goods to market only to ruin them on the way.  They did not agree on what percentage of the crop was damaged and the lady was able to take the man to court and win her case.  I had thought a woman could not do such a thing, but since she was widowed she could.

As we were leaving, we passed a field full of sheep baaing a lot.  In fact, some were going hoarse another person watching them said they had just been weaned from their mothers and were upset.

In addition to the Old Town area, we wandered around the campus of William and Mary.  Cierra is now a proud owner of a pair of William and Mary sweatpants since she had not brought any pants for the trip and her legs were cold!

  

The First day we were all there was Friday and it was warm - what we had expected for the whole week end.  Cierra had been advised to visit a winery or two while there so we went to  The Williamsburg Winery where we did a tasting on a nice covered porch.  We each had a different flight and shared ones we liked or thought someone else would.  It was a nice beginning to our trip. 

     

Our travels also took us to Yorktown which is only 18 miles away.  There we toured the battlefield.  Thanks to Covid an excellent app was developed that tells you what happened at various sites along the driving route.

We also visited Jamestown.  There is a parkway that connects the 3 towns.  I am sure back then it was considered a long ride to go from one to the other, but now a days they are each a short drive from each other.  I was surprised to learn that Pocahontas had been part of Jamestown; not sure where I thought she fit into US history!  There is the remnants of the fort that was built and the church is still standing.

One thing that surprised us as we drove around the sites was that often in the woods there was greenery.  It was not just dead leaves on the ground like we think of forests in say Missouri or Illinois.

Since the whole family was together, we planned a nice meal which turned out to be a 3 course brunch at a French restaurant called Le Yaca on Sunday.  If you ever visit Williamsburg, I would highly recommend it.

Washington DC

Jeff and I then slipped into DC for a couple of days to visit museums and the zoo.  We got to the zoo, but did not get to see the pandas.  That was disappointing, but the zoo was not up to its standards in general with many exhibits closed and animals offsite.  We did make it to one of the portrait galleries which was quite nice.  Above is an Andean bear

On our last morning we walked from our hotel in Chinatown to the National Mall only to find it rather empty.  It was us, a high school group, some protestors and just a handful of other tourists at 10 in the morning.

Baltimore, MD

Then it was onto Baltimore for a couple of days where we visited Fort McHenry.   The defiant commander of Fort McHenry commissioned a very large U.S. flag, known as "The Star-Spangled Banner" to insure the British could see it.  Francis Scott Key was inspired by the large flag flying triumphantly above the fort during the bombardment and wrote a poem that was later set to a British tune.  It was recognized by Congress in 1931 as our National Anthem.  

The Brood X of 17 year Cicadas were in good voice and everywhere during our visit.  They would land on you and if you didn't notice, you might take them inside.  Most creatures and a few people feast on the Cicadas.  I believe the snake below may have dined on them given how he wasn't moving much when we encountered him.  

Northern Georgia/Highlands, NC

We have started our summer 2021 grand tour.  It is not the original trip - attempt 2 to do the United Kingdom.   However we shall have some fun and still hoping to make Scotland in August. We are starting our trip with visits with friends and relatives.  The Atlanta Jays now own a mountain cabin right on the GA/NC state line and invited us to visit it.  I think it will be named Dillard Falls and will be available through VRBO.  I would recommend it.

Dillard Falls 2B/2B creek side rental

While we were there we got some hiking done (as much as my still recovering sprained ankle allowed), some good food and a little wandering both by car and by foot.  Like many a mountain hike many of them in this area include waterfalls.  Our first hike, Mud Trail starts quite near the cabin and in fact you turnaround just down the road from the cabin.  It has 2 waterfalls.  The trail ends at a structure that  spans the waterfall.  It is a neat old building, though a wash out makes it challenging to cross.

Our second real hike was the Glenn Falls hike near Highlands, NC which has 3 turnout spots to see the falls from different angles.  For this one, we went in full hike mode or our version of it.  We had our hiking pants for both hikes after Jeff thought he saw poison ivy and for this hike we added water and trekking poles.  It was our first time with the trekking poles.  We were glad to have them at times!  It was quite pretty and would recommend it to others.

Jeff's brother had warned us that it would be easy to gain weight up there since there are a lot of good restaurants around.  Unfortunately, we did run into staffing issues which meant we did face some restrictions on our choices.  We had wood fired pizza at Four65 Wood Fired Pizza followed by drinks at Hummingbird Lounge of the Old Edwards Inn.  The pizza was good as were the drinks and all in nice atmosphere.  Jeff's niece had told us to to walk around the Old Edwards Inn which we started to do while waiting for a table at the pizza place.  When we walked in the door, the front desk manager offered to show us around which is how we ended up in the Hummingbird lounge for drinks.  Another night we ate outside in the wine garden at Old Edwards Inns which was a nice setting with a little artificial waterfall artfully placed.  That night we had ice ream for dessert from an ice creamery - Kilwins which was quite good.  On our last day we were able to eat at one of the restaurants the Jays had recommended.  The Ruffled Grouse where we sat at the bar and shared the daily special of scallops followed by 2 desserts.  We enjoyed the atmosphere and the food was good too!  Earlier in the day we  wandered by car to Cashiers, NC and visited Whiteside Brewing Company.   We sat outside on their porch and enjoyed a couple of stout beers and sweet potato french fries before wandering to the local farmers market.

Speaking of wandering, if you are a big shopper then you need to plan time to wander the downtown streets of Highlands.  I am not much of a shopper these days, but even I saw something I wanted and got!  Both agreed we would be happy to wander back here again.  another place to wander is the Highlands Botanical Gardens - a pleasant surprise.

Cinnamon Fern

DC Cherry Blossoms!

Cierra, our guest blogger

I know you were promised a post about cherry blossoms, so here it is.

 

I have now lived in DC for a year and 2 months, but who's counting. Last year the Cherry Blossoms reached peak bloom a week into the lockdown. I really wanted to go and see the blossoms last year but between a sprained ankle and a pandemic, I was unable. 

 

This year I decided to go and see them but the Cherry trees reached peak bloom earlier than expected because of 2 days of extremely warm weather. I went on a Saturday after working at the ice rink. 

 

I rode the metro and walked to the tidal basin. There were a lot of people there but the majority of them were wearing their face masks, though keeping socially distanced was a bit challenging. 

 

Now without further adieu, I give you a ton of photos of cherry blossoms with some selfies mixed in. 

There are different types of cherry blossoms;
this is the white version

This is the pink and most commonly recognized version

 

       

360 view of the Tidal Basin with the cherry blossoms