This is a retrospective blog of my seven-week exploration of Virginia along with a journey through the Shenandoah National Park and on down the Blue Ridge Parkway to Cherokee, North Carolina. 'Retrospective' means simply that it wasn't written during the trip, but is being written in hindsight a little over a year later. Baaswell Sheep accompanied me and is writing the blog in the way he's done my later blogs, since he's so good with the color commentary. Unfortunately, since I didn't plan for this blog back them, my pictures are limited to the major attractions, but I'll try to make those galleries a little bigger than I do in my later blogs.
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We left central Virginia today for a week-long adventure on the east coast of Virginia, which does necessitate a 160 mile drive, and since we prefer back roads to interstates, that adds up to about four hours of driving. But, my companion has some specific things he wants to do out there, so away we go.
One of our favorite places to stop when we're in the area, Michie Tavern is a colonial tavern restaurant not far from Monticello. The dining building is not the original tavern, but a more suitable space built next door to the original tavern. They offer a form of an all-you-care-to-eat buffet, unique in that you go through the serving line just once, and then if you want any seconds, a server brings those out to you along with drink refills. The dining area is built to mimic the feel of those colonial period buildings and does a nice job of making you feel like you're back in the day, complete with tin cups for your drinks. The experience is a little on the pricy side, but well worth it for a once-a-year kind of splurge.
Years ago, my companion's aunt worked at the Science Museum of Virginia, and so he got to visit it many of the times his family went up to visit with her. Even though she's long since retired, it just felt natural to stop off at the museum and see what it looks like today. One of it's notable features is that it's housed in the old downtown train station, so it has that historic train station feel maintained throughout the building, including a room that has many large historic photos of the building when it was still being used as a station. The exhibits were intriguing, ranging from an exhibit on motion to an exhibit on space science to a special exhibit on steampunk art, something my companion knows a bit about. There's also an outdoor area with a few train cars and a large submarine (sorry, but unfortunately you can't go inside the submarine: you can only view the outside and read the descriptive panels about its history). One of the cooler parts inside is right in the lobby, where they have a huge example of a Foucault Pendulum, which shows the rotation of the earth through little wooden blocks that get knocked over by the pendulum as it swings back and forth. They've had that pendulum for over thirty years, maybe even forty, making it a mainstay of the museum.
Colonial Williamsburg, Williamsburg, VA
Our new home base for the next five nights and four days, we decided to partake of a deal they called "stay more, save more". By staying five nights in a tavern house room, we got a discount that more or less cancelled out the resort fee they charge. Translation: we effectively got free tickets to see the attractions of the historic city. We got in around dusk, so it was too late to do anything but get some dinner and then collapse into bed to rest up for our first full day in the colonial former capital city.
Please note that all restaurant and product names are used simply for referential purposes and links provided as a courtesy. Reviews are the sole opinions of the reviewer: no restaurant has paid to be listed here, and no restaurant is being explicitly endorsed. In other words, go out there, try them all, and form your own opinions!
One of our favorite places to stop when we're in the area, Michie Tavern is a colonial tavern restaurant not far from Monticello. The dining building is not the original tavern, but a more suitable space built next door to the original tavern. They offer a form of an all-you-care-to-eat buffet, unique in that you go through the serving line just once, and then if you want any seconds, a server brings those out to you along with drink refills. The dining area is built to mimic the feel of those colonial period buildings and does a nice job of making you feel like you're back in the day, complete with tin cups for your drinks. The experience is a little on the pricy side, but well worth it for a once-a-year kind of splurge.
