Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge

There's really only one time of year to visit the Great Dismal Swamp, and the time is now. In summer, the swamp tends to live up to its name: it's hot, dark, smelly, and the bugs. Oh, the bugs! By mid-May, the mosquitoes are out in swarms and they don't go away until October or November, and by then, things are pretty gray and flat and all of the singing frogs and birds have buried themselves in the mud or flown south for the winter.

But for a few weeks in early spring, the Dismal Swamp is like Goldilocks' porridge: juuuust right. Last Saturday just happened to fall in the right window and so that's when we visited. The trees were beginning to leaf out, but the branches were still bare enough to let in a little sun and warmth. The swamp seemed to be coming to life under our eyes. Everything was still and quiet, but with branches rustling and birds calling from the tree tops, it was one of the loudest silences I've ever heard.

The Great Dismal Swamp is huge, one of the last true wildernesses in the United States, and entrances for it scattered throughout Chesapeake, Suffolk, and northeastern North Carolina. After doing a little research, we settled on the Washington Ditch entrance in Suffolk. For a few reasons: first, the raised boardwalk trail seemed best for our little hiker. At a manageable 3/4-mile, it was a reasonable distance for Baby A. -- we knew that there was a good possibility that she'd be able to walk it without us having to carry her all the way back. Second, Washington Ditch is one of the only swamp entrances with bathrooms in the parking area, a boon that should not be discounted. Third, there have been very few black bear sightings (!) there recently. 

Anne enjoyed herself immensely. Who knew that toddlers were so keen on swamps? She listened hard for the bird and frog calls and mimicked each one; she found a stick and poked around in the murky water; she noticed every vine and leaf and amassed quite a collection of bright red maple seed pods. I enjoyed watching her watch everything -- there were honestly a lot of things I would have missed if I hadn't seen them through her eyes.

Sometime in the future, James and I would like to take Anne to hike the 4.5-mile Washington Ditch trail to Lake Drummond, one of the only two natural lakes in Virginia. The trail was surveyed by George Washington himself in 1775, and the placid ditch alongside was dug entirely by slave labor, a truly mind-boggling task once you see how long and wide it is and think about what that must have meant in the age before heavy-duty digging equipment was invented. We walked a little of the trail today, but it's going to be a long time before A. can manage the 9-mile trek in and out. Still, tween and teen hikers might be able to manage it, or younger kids, if there are bikes involved.

A word to the wise: any time you go into the Great Dismal Swamp, bring sunscreen and bug spray just in case, and be sure to plan for any eventuality -- cell phone service is spotty (at best) in the swamp. And remind your kids what poison ivy looks like. It's everywhere, all over the trees and creeping up the wood railings on the path in places. As the poet Thomas Moore reminds us his ballad, "The Lake of the Dismal Swamp," written in 1806, it really should be avoided at all costs:

Away to the Dismal Swamp he speeds--

His path was rugged and sore,

Through tangled juniper, beds of reeds,

Through many a fen, where the serpent feeds,

And man never trod before.

And, when on the earth he sunk to sleep

If slumber his eyelids knew,

He lay, where the deadly vine doth weep

Its venomous tear and nightly steep

The flesh with blistering dew!

Bennett's Creek Farm Market

I love food, and as such, I am always on the lookout for new and interesting places to eat, which is why, sometimes, in the middle of a conversation, someone will mention something about a sandwich they got at a roadside stand on the way to a wedding out of state and I will holler out, "WAIT. Go back to this sandwich."

This is exactly what happened with Bennett's Creek Farm Market and Deli. Aunt C. called to tell me about her doctor's appointment out in Suffolk, and oh yeah, on the way home she'd stopped and gotten she-crab soup at a little hole-in-the-wall deli. "WAIT," I hollered before she could move on to something else. "I need to know more about this soup."

She made it sound so good that I immediately made plans to find this place, with J. and A. And the minute we set food inside Bennett's Creek, I knew it wouldn't disappoint, just based on how amazing everything smelled. The food there is the kind of flavorful, down-home, retro-style basics: pimento cheese dip, macaroni salad, ham salad, collard greens. You get the idea stepping in the store that very little has changed in the 30 years since the market opened off of Route 17 in Suffolk. The front of the store is features homemade candy (pumpkin fudge!) and ice cream, and fresh veggies grown right outside the door (I mean that literally, they come from a field just outside the shop). 

We got sandwiches (pork bbq and reubens) and sides (ham salad and potato salad). The only drawback to Bennett's is that there's no seating area to eat inside, so we ended up having an impromptu car picnic. (But that was fun, too, even if I ended up having to scrub mashed up pickle off the backseat. Thanks, A.!) It ended up being a fun Saturday afternoon mini-road trip, and I picked up a few good recipes, too You know a place is good when they don't mind sharing their secrets on their website. 

We also got a pint of the famous she-crab soup, btw. It was just as good as everybody said it would be. I wish we'd gotten two. Next time!

Nansemond Indian Tribe Pow Wow

Our friend Angela has a knack for finding the most offbeat, most totally amazing things to do in the area (if she had a blog, it would definitely be one to read!) She was the one who told us about the Nansemond Indian Tribe Pow Wow this weekend; on Saturday, James, Baby A. and I drove out to the Lone Star Lakes Lodge in Suffolk to meet Ange and her husband, watch the dancers, listen to traditional songs and stories, and experience a little bit of local Native American culture.

Awesome things about the day: the grand entrance procession, watching the jingle-bell dress dancers, a group of young girls whose dresses glittered and flashed and jangled as they moved in time with the drums, and the big swooping wings of eagle and hawk feathers that seemed to sprout from the backs of every dancer. I have a thing for feathers, and these were definitely striking.

We had the chance to join the dancers on the field at one point, and Angela and I grabbed Baby A. and hauled her out with us. She had a blast standing in the middle of the long twisting line of people and observing, until one very serious male dancer with a full face of black and white paint bent down to smile at her and sent her scurrying to find us in the throng.

In between dances, we ate buffalo wraps and traditional Nansemond bread and strolled through booths of brightly-colored wares. The quote of the day came from a mother of about four preteen boys who descended on a table of spears: "I'm not buying any shooting, stabbing, throwing, or killing utensils, forget about it!"

I think one of the things that surprised me most about the day was learning that the Nansemond tribe (along with five other Virginia tribes) are still fighting to be recognized by the federal government. A bill to recognize these tribes was put up for consideration by the Senate in 2009 but was put on hold. Until it passes, these tribes won't be eligible for the benefits that other federally recognized tribes receive. (To read more about what the bill means for the Nansemond and the Chickahominy, Eastern Chickahominy, Upper Mattaponi, Rappahannock, and Monacan peoples, go here.)

We had a really good day. Thank you, Angela!