- 7/21-23/06
In July we went to Colonial Williamsburg for the weekend with our good friends Kim and Jack. We stayed just
off the main street (Duke of Gloucester) at the Brick House Tavern Shop, which is about as central as you
can get. The Shop is an old refurbished colonial building with two bedrooms on two floors and a living room
where we would sit and drink our wine in the evening before dinner and be all grand and formal and colonial
and share our great philosophical thoughts.
Colonial Williamsburg is at its most atmospheric in the early morning before the tourists get out there,
while the streets are empty and the locals are heading off to work in their period garb. This was my
favorite time of day.
So. On Friday we arrived mid-afternoon and checked in. Hunted for horses for Kim to make friends with. Saw
marching and gun firing on the village green. Walked to the Capital, and sat and rested there. And ate a
superb dinner at the Trellis Restaurant. On Saturday we walked around William and Mary College, took goofy
pictures of ourselves with the statue of Jefferson, checked out the Governor's Palace and street
theater with fife and drums (NB: freedom is not free). Also visited the apothecary, wigmaker, armory, and
other worthy commercial establishments. Our dinner on Saturday night was served at Christina Campbell's
Tavern; authentic eighteenth century fare, but presumably minus the weevils. Sunday we toured the
Capitol and witnessed a dramatic reenactment of the Declaration of Independence, following which Kim at
last found some horses to pet. Then we had brunch at the Blue Talon, and visited the gaol and the Benjamin
Powell house. After acquiring a mess of vittles at the Cheese Shop we piled back into our anachronistic
horseless carriage and headed off home. By now we were pretty much acclimatized and nobody really wanted to
go back and rejoin the 21st Century. . . but that's what we had to do.
