Williamsburg Virginia - Day Six

Hello Again!  What a busy day we had today.  I lost out on my pledge last night when I said I was gonna fake an injury.  Beth woke me up this morning at 20 minutes after 6:00 am and told me that I was gonna get to try out my new shoes after all.  There was no bruising to my dislocated feet and my ankles had not swollen like I had told her I was sure that they would.  We ran.  I didn't wanna run, I wanted to eat donuts and drink coffee and sit in the living room in my boxer shorts and play with the dog. But noooooooooo, Miss Jogger USA wanted to run!   "I got an idea! Why don't you go and" SLAP!  "Honey, let's go joggin, I said."

I get tired just looking at our route.  She ran about 20 miles an hour I guess and finished in 30 minutes.  I finished sometime after lunch so doesn't that mean I get a beer?  Don't you eyeball me.  Beer has all sorts of healthy bits like barley and wheat and hops and vitamin B and 2 vitamin E's and a vitamin R is what I heard.

These Garmin Forerunners work really well so I can always prove that I went running.  Except for this afternoon of course.  I wore it all day but she wouldn't believe that I jogged 143.7 miles and averaged 71mph.  I can't believe she didn't believe me.

We really did go 143.7 miles this afternoon but obviously, it wasn't on foot.  I'll tell you about it in a minute or two, whenever you get down to the bottom of today's blog entry.

After joggin, and before the sun hardly climbed above the horizon, we showered, ate yogurt (yuck) and got in the car and drove to Historic Williamsburg to look around.  That was cool!  We took over 100 pictures while we were there and ate sammiches and had a beer and petted a horse and saw a cow and bought a postcard. Here's a few pictures we took....

Entrance to the Historic Williamsburg area.  It's a beautiful place, but again, we were a bit disappointed when they wanted money to see everything doggone near.  It may be hard to tell it here, but the "table" on the bottom of the picture is a replica of Williamsburg with 3D building sticking out of the table.  It's equipped with street names and and the surrounding terrain. A beautiful waterfall trickles down in the back ground.  Very Nice!

I had to laugh because I told Beth I could read sundials (just after I looked at my watch). She was amazed that I knew it was 11 minutes after 1:00 pm!

The Redcoats are here!  Officers rode around on horseback whilst the enlisted troops marched along on foot.  Those uniforms have to be hot and they are authentically made of wool.  No Thank You Ma'am!  There were several places that we couldn't go without giving them more money so.....we didn't go.  Don't get me wrong, they did a really nice job maintaining everything, but I felt like everytime I turned around, they were asking us for more money.  Negative on that one!

Some dude was hittin' on Beth.  She said he introduced himself as Thomas Jefferson but I bet he was just trying to act cool.
There were tons of shops and buildings to look in and shop at.  There were speakers and story tellers (that we missed, bummer) and there were guided tours all about the area.  We'll have to plan another trip down this way soon. It sure is a beautiful area.

The time here was really fun.  To see the whole slideshow of pictures we took of Colonial Williamsburg, please click HERE.

Again, we had a really fun time in Colonial Williamsburg and while we were there, we stepped out of the "towne" and entered into the market area cause Beth had some power shopping she "needed" to do.  On of the first stores we came upon was a Peanut store that sounded fun so we went in.  The fact that they had dog bowls outside with water and biscuits made us like the place before we even went in.  When we got inside, I almost had to laugh out loud because there were many opened peanuts cans allowing people to take taste tests.  The funny part is, the BAPE's (Big-Arsed Peanut Eaters) SLAP! sorry, the "occupiers-of-more-space-peanut-eaters put such serious looks on their faces as they were cramming their hands into the cans of peanuts.  They looked like they were professional wine tasters as they approached the peanut cans with slobber on their chins and twinkles in their eyes.  SLAP... sorry honey,  the non-starved starving peanuts eaters enjoyed their jobs as peanut taste testers very much. 

As you can tell by the large bag in the background, Beth was successful at her shopping adventure and found a Williams-Sonoma store that was calling her name.  After all that touring and shopping, we were starving.  I only had one beer for lunch (it was 34 ounces & YAY! For lunch, we ate at "The Cheese Shop" and it was delicious.  We still had a few more hundred-thousand places to see before the day was over so we finished our lunch and headed back out on the tourist scene to continue our journey back in time.   I was enjoying the day but looking forward to stopping by the Piggly Wiggly on the way back to the room and buying a couple of big ole thick steaks, along with some corn still in the shuck, and asparagus, and sweet potato's to cook all on the grill.  Hmmm Hmmmm mmmm!  Just a few more minutes and we'd be on the way to start the grill!  Nice!

Here's a quaint little colonial house with some folks sitting outside chatting.  I bet the conversation was quite a bit different back then. Not any less important mind you, but quite a bit difference.  What would you talk about?  No internet, no email, no tv, no football, no aircraft, no space shuttle, no radio... I guess we'd talk about chickens and heffers.  Speaking of which, we saw a few.

What a fun looking tree to climb!

Look at that cute lil thing.  I suppose back in the day, these cattle were like gold.  I've no idea how old this little thing is, but it sure does look cute though.  I'm not sure what the purpose of the harness is on it's little head, but it looks like it can get in the way of it opening it'll little mouth and getting a hooter in to have a swaller of milk.  Well, I think at least that it'll lead a long and happy grass-eating life and not be put in the veal line.  You go little fella!

 

Honey,  I know it's 5:00 o'clock PM, but can we go to Virginia Beach?

HUH?

So at 5:00 pm tonight, we left to go 70-something miles to Virginia Beach Virginia, and I don't know why?  This will be fun, a nice long walk along the beach watching the sun go down (behind us) cause we'll be looking to the East at the water while the sun goes down behind us.
The beach was beautiful when we go there. The bird population though, was 50,000 birds to 1 acre of beach land. Don't look up!

We had been to the beach for about 6 minutes and had just only seen the water and wave for 22 seconds when I heard....
OK, we can go back now.

HUH?

uh uh, oh no we ain't.  We drove 900 miles to Virginia Beach at midnight and we ain't just turning around and leaving now.  We're doing something!  Damnit!

SLAP!

K, honey, uhm, ouch!?

We walked about a mile down the beach and went into the Maui Maui restaurant located inside the Radisson Hotel.  We had a great seafood dinner at 10:00 pm and then left to go back to Williamsburg.  It's 12:45 am tomorrow now so I'm going to bed.  Ya'll be safe and be particular!

Shane & Beth 

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Williamsburg Virginia - Day Five

Amelia Did It! or maybe it was Earnest!  No No Wait, I think it was Lemont.  Maybe!

Well hello again.  This afternoon/evening turned out to be pretty fun; this morning, EARLY this morning, Beth made us go to the gym to lift weights, and then during the business hours of the day,  Beth had some followup work to do, but that's not a problem because it gave me the chance to work on next weeks Penn State lesson, which if you remember from an earlier blog is the ADDIE model. Beth is working on Excel spreadsheet stuff that spawned from her meeting in Austin on Tuesday so we both planted our behiney's in the living room and worked till 3:55 pm; honest!  The dog didn't move the whole time either.

We looked at the various brochures for the area an know of a few places that we want to go while we're here.  For starters, we're definitely going to visit the "Historic Triangle" which includes Williamsburg, Yorktown, and Jamestown. Having already been to Yorktown, we have Williamsburg and Jamestown remaining.  We took off and headed to Jamestown after getting ready and arrived at 5:03pm  Bummer! They closed Jamestown at 5:00!  Po thing, Beth stood out front with her bottom-lip sticking out.  We'll have to get over there tomorrow or Saturday. We are supposed to check out on Saturday but that doesn't mean we have to leave in the morning!  There's still lots to see around here!  Oh Yeah!

Entrance to the Jamestown Settlement.  The only "sad" thing about it is, they completely commercialized it and charge you to even look at it.  This is quite different from Valley Forge where we live. One can spend all day in the park (often we do) and never be charged a dime. Plus, there are running/jogging/riding routes all over the place.  It's nice to run, I mean the view is nice while running although the running part ain't fun.  I'm filing for workman's comp if she makes me run anymore damnit!  SuuuuLAPPPPP!

I was looking at Beth, Beth was looking at a boat, and the boat was flying up the James River making all the wildlife lose their minds.  I do wish the park had been open because just up the waterway floats three large historically accurate replica's of the ships of the day.  We didn't see them so I don't know if they were the Santa Anna, Santa Barbara, And Santa Claus.

We drove along Colonial Parkway for a little bit and snapped a couple of photos from the information posts that are stuck in here and there.

Jamestown:  Across the swamp lies Jamestown Island; Powhatan Creek below you, takes its name from the Indian Chief. To the right is Glasshouse Point, place of early glassmaking and later a part of the suburb of "James Cittie"

Neck Of Land - near "James Citty": This area, like a peninsula and bounded on three sides by marsh, is just across Buck River from Jamestown Island. In 1625 there were a number of houses and 25 persons were living here.  The settlement had close community ties to "James Citty" and sent representatives to the General Assembly there.

The sun down here has been really nice, and except for the humidity, the weather has been quite perfect.  Surprisingly, I have only been bitten a couple of times by skeeters and Beth's hasn't been bitten once.  Beth wanted to buy a sweater before the dinner theatre tonight so we left closed-up Jamestown and headed for the shopping center.  I still hadn't gotten nuthin', but that is about to change.  YAY

Marshalls' Is The Bomb!  I was throwing stuff in the grocery cart like a crazy woman at a shoe sale!

Beth found a pair of shoes and a sweater that she is wearing right now, but I found 3 pairs of shoes, 3 socks, 2 Zune speakers, and 2 history books on the area.  I was so tickled pink that I was grinning from ear to ear like a mule eatin' bryars! Mmmm Hmmmm.

Whilst Beth was in Austin working, I had been online trying to find plays that were showing in the area so we could go out one night and get educated to the finer thespian and theatrical events of the area.  She didn't know I was doing this and therefore couldn't suggest to me the lateral limits of which theatrical performances I could select from.  As a result, I picked GhostBashers at the all-you-can-eat Captain Georges house of seafood, grits, and hominy.  We had a brilliant time!

Captain George's is huge!  It has a seating capacity in its main restaurant area of 800 people. Honest!  We had to stand out in the back yard to get our tickets - no, not from a scalper - but the entrance to the theater area. Some dude in pajama's walked out to brief us on what would be happening as we approached the hour of 7:00 pm.  He would come out every 5 minutes beginning at 6:30 to tell us the same thing; I think he was crazy too.  When we finally got seated, Beth needed a beer or four!  Ok Ok, perhaps those ALL weren't Beth's, but then again......

The pajama'd fella led us all into the buffet area and turned us loose, table by table.  I started with all the unhealthy fried stuff (oysters, fish, clams, chitlens, grits, tomatos, ice-cream, shrimp, mussells, and donuts), while Beth started with a salad.

The lady sitting next to me started with dessert and a lot of it.  I was nervous that all the cheese cake and rice pudding would be eaten by this lady before I had a chance to choke some down.  We had 30 minutes to eat before the show started, but we would be allowed to go back during intermission 1 and intermission 2.  At intermission 1, Beth and I ran back and got a couple of small desserts and a fresh Yueng-Ling. Intermission 2 somehow found me at the fried chicken pit holding a chicken's breast in one hand and a piece of cornbread in the other.  I managed to eat my own body weight tonight.  The lights dimmed and the show began ...

When we were first seated, the cast members came to each table (We were table 2, front-row center), and passed out a clue sheet and money that we would use to buy clues.  The show was about a series of hauntings and shortly after the show starts, one of the main characters is murdered!  Lawd Ham Mercy!  Through the rest of the show, the audience attempts to solve the murder case using their clue sheet and filling in the blanks as they are acted out on stage.  Beth and I both figured it out!  Ok, Beth figured it out and I figured she was right, especially after I looked at the dessert lady's clue sheet and she had the same thing too so I copied their sheets and joined them on the slueth's list.

This fella is Emmet, who is one of the GhostBashers.  I wanna be a GhostBasher too!  He's been called out to assist in capturing ghosts here at the Quarterway House.  The house was built in 1630 and believed to have been built on an ancient Indian burial ground and the place of the death of Chief Powhatan.  The Quarterway House has become one of Virginia's most historic and well-known Bed and Breakfasts.

This is Pete McGowan, owner of the Bed and Breakfast  where the haunting and the murder takes place.  Not sure if you can see them in this picture of not, but the picture of the lady on wall there to the right has eyes that light up.  I think she has pink eye or something.

After the show, Beth asked them if we could take their picture and the next thing we knew, they had drug us up on stage and some other fella had our camera and was snappin' photo's left and right. 
We really did have fun and I'm so happy that we went.  The food was superb and the performance showed us a great time.  If you ever find yourself in Williamsburg, you may want to go down to Captain George's and have some grits and a show. You'll not be disappointed!

We had a great night tonight and I can't wait till tomorrow to get up and do some more fun stuff.  This orange/pink picture by the way is the inside of my hand. I was just about to snap a photo during the show when all the lights went out (by design) and I didn't want the flash going off and spoiling a surprise that they might be working to setup so I covered the camera with my hand.  We just thought it was a cool looking background color for something so there you go!  Alrighty then, its time for bed as it's almost midnight again.  Shhhh, Beth thinks we're going running tomorrow but I'm about to act like a pull a muscle here in about 5 minutes. I'll let you know how it turns out.  G'Night Ya'll, Be Particular.

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Williamsburg Virginia - Day Four

I faked an illness this morning so I was able to get out of running. Instead, Beth made me walk for about 15 miles.  If I knew then what I know now about the length of marathon walk for beer that she made me go on, I would have made it easier on myself and ran the doggone thing.  Speakin' of dog's, I'm happy to say that Beth liked Alexander Poe but she's making me turn him in to the front desk.  sigh.  I'm only turning him cuz I want to! "Damnit!" SLAP "Damnit" SLAP "D" SLAP!  "Hey, I didn't say Damnit!" SLAP! "You're lucky I have an illness".

Today we both had work-work to do so it was a light day after the marathon walk that we did.  Not much to report on during the business hours.

This evening, we did go to Yankee Candle in Williamsburg, which is by far the largest collection of candles and candle bits that I've ever seen in my whole life!  There was every kind of scent that you can think of.  Just imagine a smell that you like and I bet if you go to their site, they'll have it. 

We spent about an hours time at the Yankee Candle and Beth bought a couple of smell-goods and then it was time to find dinner.  We drove down the road to the New Town Shopping Center - which is a neat area full of shops in a clustered neighborhood.  It was fun to look around but we were both starving so we didn't dilly dally too much before agreeing on the Center Street Grill. Beth selected a spinach salad topped with Salmon and I chose the a brisket sandwich.  Our appetizer was ribs rubbed with coffee and bbq sauce. They were amazing!  The picture below is an aerial shot of Newtown Shopping Center.  

We had a pretty easy day today and it was a "free" day as we both did work-work most of the day so it was a tele-commute day for real.  Beth is working on a big project located down in Austin an I'm working on a training package for work.  We were both surprised at how fast the day and week has gone by!  Ya'll be Particular!  G'Night.

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Williamsburg Virginia - Day Three

Hi Again! Beth is not back yet, although I'll be leaving in just a little bit to pick her up; just after I clean up this pigpen!  Oh, guess what?  I found a dog.  It's over there sleeping on the sofa right now.  I told Beth about him (his name is Alexander Poe) and she's a little bit nervous that we now have another dog.  I guess someone just left him and that's sad.  I had to laugh though because when I told Beth his name, she asked, "you can just steal someone else's name?"  I had to chuckle knowing that she was thinking of Edgar Allen Poe and I said, "oh honey, you're thinkin' about Cleetus Allen Poe down yonder on 3rd street". She's not here to light me up so I was able to get away with that one.  She'll be home soon though and I'm hoping she's forgotten my jab by then. 

I got up this morning bright and early at 10:13 am and did not go running, as I said I wouldn't.  I decided against having a beer for breakfast though as I think it probably sounds better than it actually is.  I was gonna not brush my teeth too, until I smelled my own breath. Then I had to because I was teetering on the verge of passing out from funkadelic breathadiametrics a/k/a bad breath to the hilt.

Today I didn't really plan to do a lot of anything. I do have some work-work that I have to do and get emailed in to the office though.  I'm taking a course  at Penn State University on the ADDIE model and I have homework that's due first thing in the morning so I'll send it in tonight and not have to worry about it anymore. 

We haven't shown you a picture of the place we're staying at yet so here is a couple of shots of the area.

It really is a pretty place with lots of shaded walking areas.  There are a couple of golf courses surrounding the resort and we even have 6 FREE rounds of golf to play while we're here.  If I'd have thought about it earlier than just right now, I would have played a round today.  I did sign us up for a round on Friday afternoon - which is the time that they "assured" us we would not have to team up with anyone.  We, uhm, how do you say in English, suck!  We have golfed once before and it took us two hours to play one hole.  We were the last two in a tournament and the tournament ended before we finished the second hole.  I was trying to be cool and stuff, showing off in front of Beth and I shot a 37 on hole 10; which is the hole we started on. I do pretty much play golf like Stevie Wonder hang glides.  

Oh, back to the resort place. They also have BBQ grills outside so maybe Friday we'll cook out and have some steaks and corn and asparagus and taters and beer and stuff.  I'll let you know.

I'll show you a picture Alexander Poe.  He's been very good and hasn't pee'd or shed in the room here.  He's been very quiet and hasn't been a pain at all.  I'm not sure he'll be good at playing catch cause anything I throw may be bigger than he is.  Beth doesn't know just how small he is yet and I ain't tellin' her either.  Speaking of which, I have to be on my way now and drive to Richmond to pick her up. Her plane lands in an hour and a half so I best be on the way.  Let me leave you with a close up of Alexander Poe.

I found him under the coffee table. Ain't he cute?

I'm heading to Richmond; ya'll be particular.  G'Night.

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Williamsburg Virginia – Day Two

"Honey, I'm on vacation too and I say we ain't running nowhere, damnit!" SLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLAP!

This morning we started the day with an early morning run around the area.  Boy was it humid too!  After re-inserting my eyes from which they had been slapped loose, and getting my mouth washed out with soap for cussing, I grabbed my lil Garmin Forerunner and away we went.  The route was actually not that bad, although there were a bunch of hills - and I hate hills!  Lots of pretty houses though to look at and help me try to forget that I'm out there doing something healthy.  Why can't we drink beer for breakfast whilst on vacation?  Is there a rule on that? 

  I think we probably ran 50 or 60 miles, or perhaps three but don't tell no one.  Shhhh, we're on vacation!

Today Beth had to go to Austin Texas for a work meeting that takes place all day tomorrow. After we finished running Beth packed up her work stuff and we left around lunchtime to go the airport.  I took a shortcut on the way and got us thoroughly lost, but it's was a vacation lost so it wasn't as bad as a late-for-work lost.  She ended up having to fly down yonder to Charlotte first and then catch a connecting flight out to Austin.  We didn't know it at the time, but I could have went into the airport with her as it (Richmond International) is built much more user friendly, having places and things to see before having to go through security.  We could have eaten lunch in a nice restaurant/pub inside the airport.  We'll know next time....

After dropping off Butterbean (Beth) at the airport I followed the signs around to the other side of the airport to the Richmond Aviation Museum to go and have a look.  There's a ton of older aircraft and a few newer ones, including one designed by Dick Rutan that is powered by a lil C150 engine that propels the little 2 seater in excess of 200 mph!  I'll have to get one of those one day. 

I spent about an hour walking around the museum looking at all the various static displays and reading the descriptions of each.  I guess I'm becoming a history buff in my old age, especially since yesterday's time spent in Yorktown was still fresh on my mind; I was really enjoying reading the history of each of these older aircraft.  Some of these aircraft, however, aren't that much older than the Viking Witch.  If we hadn't of wanted to bring the bikes down with us, we'd have flown her down.  I hope she's doing well back yonder in BlueBell PA.  I betcha she is! We'll be flying Nicole back up to Alfred University on Sunday when she goes back to school.

Here are some more pictures of just a few of the many aircraft that are in the museum.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had a great time walking around the Aviation Museum here at Richmond International Airport.  As soon as I walked out of the building, my phone vibrated telling me that I had a voice-mail.  It was Beth letting me know that there was shopping and restaurants and such in the public area of the airport and I could come back in. The voicemail was an hour and a half old so I knew I'd missed the opportunity.

I headed back to the car and was now going to drive over to look at a bunch of presidential grapes!  Actually, the place is called Presidents Park and it features busts of each of the presidents.  Each "statue" stands 16-20 feet high and the park also has either the real fuselage or a mockup of the original Air Force One.  I'll have to research the info later to see if it's the actual one or not.  Rather than post all 103 pictures that I took of Presidents Park, I'll post a link HERE that will take you to a slide show to have a look if you'd like.  It's a very cool place.  I'll still post a couple of photo's to give you an idea of what you'll see if you elect to look at the whole slideshow. 

Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Our 19th President
This Statue Is 18 Feet Tall

Collage Of Photo's Taken At Presidents Park

The park is really neat to walk around in and learn interesting facts about the presidents.  For example, did you know that President Andrew Jackson was our only president to have been a prisoner of war, had a slash down his forehead, and 2 bullets in his body! Or, which president was a preacher, a teacher, a college president and orator? Hmm?  Why that would be President James Garfield. 

I would have included some pictures of the original Air Force One but unfortunately it has been packed up and sent off to the national convention. Oh well, looks like we'll have to come back down to see it another time. 

Who watched the ballgame tonight?  Monday Night Football bixtweenst the Eagles of Philadelphia and the Dallas Cowboys.  Beth and I are were both obviously hollerin' for the Eagles but unfortunately for us, the Cowboys pulled it off in the end, 41 - 37. For those that saw the game though, maybe you'll agree that it was one of the better Monday night games. 

Just hung up with Beth on the phone (in Austin).  She sent me this photo taken looking out of her hotel room window (this is not the Capital in DC, although it looks like it at first glance). This is the Texas State Capital building.

OK Ya'll,  It's time to go to bed as it's almost tomorrow and I'm tired.  Beth won't be back until midnight tomorrow so I'm having beer and cheerio's for breakfast and you can bet I ain't running tomorrow; this time for real.

Ya'll be particular! G'Night!

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Williamsburg Virginia - Day One

Howdy!  Beth and I arrived last night around 9:00 pm, so I guess, technically speaking, that today is day two, but for the sake of argument, this IS our first real day of vacation. We did, however, go down the road to get some dinner and listened to some live bands performing as part of  HRMUSIC.TV.  They were pretty good too! 

Today we had a great day and met some neat people and saw some really cool stuff!  The header image is driving down Colonial Parkway enroute to Yorktown where we toured the River Walk and snapped a bunch of photos.  The parkway wasn't foggy like the picture is suggesting; I think the camera's aperture or some other diddly-bop on it was open too wide and this is the result.  I took another one with the camera and my head out of the window, but ended up liking this picture better. 

Earlier in the year, when we were down at Hilton Head for our summer 2008 vacation, we were flipping through the Marriott Vacation Spot's book to see other locations available to go and have a looksie at.  Since we were at Hilton Head at that moment, we elected to look elsewhere for a quick trip that we could bring the bikes with us to do some riding, and also be close enough to Philly so that if we didn't have the vacation time to spend the entire week, it wouldn't have taken too long to get there to begin with.  Make sense?  I've confused myself already!  Anyway, long story short, neither of us had been to Williamsburg Virginia before so we chose this spot and are both really glad we did.

It's beautiful and just 5 hours from home.

We're in Yorktown now!  There are about 240 folks that still work and live here today. Victory Center is on the West end of town, while Yorktown Battlefield sits over yonder on the East end of town. Here in town, one of the cannonballs still lodged into the home of  Thomas Nelson, Jr.  He was one of the signer's of the Declaration of Independence, and not only that, but also a Governor of Virginia, and commander of the Virginia Militia during the siege of Yorktown.  Being down here has really given me a sense of value in knowing American History.  As we walked along the fields where historical battles took place, I could visualize in my minds eye the chaos of war and the fear in those men's eyes as they stood out in the open and courageously faced the enemy. I've been in war, but never standing in front of the exit-end of an enemy's cannon.  Such crude weapons by today's comparison. I'm getting ahead of myself, let's run down to the RiverWalk first where we ate a superb lunch and walked around the shops that were scattered throughout the area.

We'd started the day at the RiverWalk just close to lunchtime so our first mission was to find somewhere open to get a bite to eat.  We found a place called Nick's Riverwalk Restaurant  down near the water and sat on the back patio under the canopy. It was hot-n-humid already and the time was just barely reaching twelve noon.  Beth had a large salad with all sorts of bits and pieces on it while I had a flounder sandwich that was the size of a catchers mit folded over.  Hmm Hmm it was good!  Lunch was delish but Beth had shopping to do! 

The whole area has shops littered throughout the waterfront.  Beaches serve as book-ends to the shopping area and each "beach" has enough space to accompany smaller crowds. Certainly not Florida Beach size, but it's very quaint and cozy.  We watched this fella trying to launch a large kite and accidentally got it caught up in the lamp post. The village Sheriff rode up (on his bike) and provided assistance.  The other policeman, driving a "mule", continued to eyeball the shoppers to make sure no riots broke out. 

All the shops had enough cool stuff to have kept us in them all day long.  I didn't get nuthin!  I just asked for one little fish and after we looked at the price tag and damn-near had a stroke at the $500.00 asking fee, I decided that I didn't want no fish no more.  I'd settle for the fish sandwich that I'd just finished 30 minutes earlier!  There are so many cool things here to look at - you should do yourself the favor of visiting this area one day.  We continued to walk around the shops for the next couple of hours and I continued to not get nuthin.  I never get nuthin'.  I did take a picture of a boat though.

This big model of a boat sits just outside the Waterman's Museum.  Unfortunately, it wasn't open at the time that we were there so we didn't get to go in.  From what I could tell though, it was a fisherman's museum that I'm sure was very interesting inside. 

We went a bit further and were, in fact, on our way back to the car to go somewhere else to tour, when we came upon a shop called Claire Murray.  I stuck my head in the door and almost turned around to leave when Beth suddenly changed my mind...  SLAP! Sorry Honey...... when I elected to continue into the store for a look around.  I had just made the comment (when I realized the store sold carpets and rugs and such) that, "Honey, you can't buy a rug on holiday".  Guess what? We bought a damn rug!  ok ok, I'm down playing it here and am honestly very happy that we went in.  The shop keeper, Sherry, is a wonderful lady and full of smiles.  Beth shopped around whilst I stood there and tried to keep from walking on any of the merchandise.  The rugs are hung, folded, draped, and also just laying on the floor.  Sherry noticed that I wasn't doing to well avoiding stepping on any of them and she said "that's fine to walk on them, they are durable and well made".  Sherry tended to a few of the customers and soon, Beth and I were the only one's left in the store.  We struck up a conversation with Sherry and learned about the origins of many of the design ideas for some of the rugs that Beth was most interested in.  Loving Sunflowers, Beth had my hands full of flowered rugs of all shapes and sizes.  I looked like a rug tree - if one such thing actually exists.  Soon I realized that I was now a tool as they both continued to drape rugs over me and besides getting tired from the weight of these wool works of wonder, I was getting hot.  Ok, so perhaps I'm stretching the truth, I wasn't actually a Rug Ho, I just didn't have a real role in this sun-flowered rug knowledge transfer session that was in full swing.  The two of them looked so cute with arms flailin' every which-a-way as they talked about favorite patterns, kids, building houses, college life-styles, and their five-fingered super secret for-official-use-only clandestine non-verbal communication method.  I can't say anymore about that, but if you're ever in Sherry's store and you get five fingers, RUN cause it's fixin' to hurt! 

After I had held just about every rug in the entire store and adjoining warehouses, Beth decided on one to "start" with.  This scares me and tends to make me think that driving or flying down to Claire Murray's is going to be a recurring event.  I still ain't got nuthin myself!  We continued to talk with Sherry and I must say that she is such an elegant lady and what an exciting history she has.  While in college, she was THE Chef for Rose Kennedy. She told us story's of her times and as she did, we could see the passion in her eyes as she spoke of them; she could see each event as if they had happened only yesterday.  If you go back and look at pictures of Jacqueline, you may want to take a second look to ensure that they aren't pictures of our new friend Sherry. Seems that photographers often mistook Sherry for Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in their expeditious effort to meet each days deadline.  That was a real treat for us to meet her and I'm sure we'll cross paths again - especially since Beth loves Sun-flower rugs and Sherry has about 624,325 of them for sale.  I still ain't got nuthin!

Yorktown Victory Monument
Commissioned by the Continental Congress in 1781 to commemorate the great victory at Yorktown. 
Constructed between 1881 and 1884.

Top of Victory Monument (above)
Bottom of Victory Monument (left)

 

We walked about the village of Yorktown and was able to go into most of the buildings and houses that remained standing.  The majority of the structures are original and only a few reconstructed when absolutely necessary.  The entire town (village) is only 14 blocks.  Lots of interesting artifacts are on display in each of the dwellings. Remember up at the top of today's blog when I showed you a picture of a cannonball in Thomas Nelson Jr's home?  Well, it was he who shot it!  Really! See,  Thomas Nelson Jr targeted his own home when he suspected that General Charles Lord Cornwallis was using as his own HQ (after the English took control of Yorktown). The house (with it's 18 inch thick walls) held firm, quite unlike the majority of other structures that cannons shot at.  There is another cannonball still lodged into his house as well.  Later, on October 19, 1781, General Cornwallis was forced to surrender to General Washington’s combined American and French army. This victory in Yorktown secured independence for the United States and significantly changed the course of world history.

What a fun day we had in Yorktown.  While we're here on holiday, we'll be going to Williamsburg (proper) and Jamestown so I'll tell you about them sometime later this week.  There is a local TV channel down here that has documentaries on 24 hours a day.  Its really cool to hear again, all the things that took place here and us having the opportunity to walk along those same trails and inside those same buildings.  A really cool day indeed.

We're taken the trolly back though cause we've been walking for about 23 hours and up and down stairs and up hills and over yonder and back.  I still didn't get nuthin.

Beth has to go out of town tomorrow through Tuesday so I'm not gonna make the bed, not gonna bathe, not gonna shave, not gonna run, not gonna clean, and not gonna brush my tooth! Damnit!  SLAP! Yes Dear, I'll floss too.

We went back "home" to the room and showered and kinda hung out for a bit recuperating from all the rugs I had to hold and carry today, and perhaps all the walking we did too.  Tonight, we went and listened to the kettle-drum playing-dude over at Berret's Restaurant & Taphouse Grill while we had seafood and a beer or 4.  Dinner was delicious and we'd definitely go back. 
It's been a long day and it's time for bed so we wish ya'll happy dreams and we'll write more tomorrow.  Tomorrow night the Eagles take on the Cowboys and Beth will be in Austin.

Take care!  Beth & Shane  

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