Rosewell Plantation

Molly and I have been talking about taking the kids on a few day trips this summer, to get away from our comfort zone of library and splashpad and park, to explore some destinations a little further afield from Hampton Roads. Our first trip was to Rosewell, an 18th century plantation house in Gloucester, Virginia.

At one point in time, Rosewell was known as the most beautiful house in the American colonies. Built by the Page family in 1725, it encompassed over 12,000 square feet of living space plus several outbuildings. For almost 200 years, Rosewell hosted some of the country's most elaborate and luxurious parties and balls. Thomas Jefferson was a frequent guest, and actually wrote a draft of the Declaration of Independence while staying there.

The house burned down in 1916, and today, only ruins remain. Not much besides the four corner chimneys and some of the exterior walls are left standing, but we still found plenty to see while we were there. Unbeknownst to us, the ruins themselves are off-limits (there were no signs posted, so we just waltzed up the stairs and poked around inside -- oops), but two walking trails leading through the woods to nearby Carter Creek and to the old ice house are perfect for a kid-sized hike.

After exploring, we had a picnic lunch under the trees. The kids ran out some energy and had a mock swordfight or two on the grounds of the old Page family cemetery (nobody's buried there now -- the graves have been moved to a nearby churchyard). On the way out, we stopped by the small gift store and museum, which features artifacts found in and around the house during a recent archeological dig.

Bring boots (the grass isn't mowed), bring bug spray (ouch, is all I'll say), and watch out for poison ivy. But make the trip, it's worth it.

Happy weekend!

Where to eat in Colonial Williamsburg

Last week I posted Part I of our trip to Colonial Williamsburg with friends. Today I want to post Part II:  namely, the two can't-miss places to eat (with kids or even without them) when you're in town.

My little sis went to William and Mary, and so our family got to sample many of Williamsburg's great restaurants when we visited her. But in my opinion, the only place to get lunch when you're there is The Cheese Shop, a little gourmet market/sandwichery on Duke of Gloucester Street. It has everything: the food is fantastic and it's just a short walk to the main attractions and sights across Henry St. Plus, there is heaps of cheese, and also wine. By the time we'd finished outletting on Thursday, we were all starving and so I suggested The Cheese Shop as our lunch destination -- and by "suggested" I mean that I basically told the others in the group they would regret it for the rest of their lives if we went anywhere else.

The only drawback of The Cheese Shop is that wait times can be upwards of 15-20 minutes for your food to be prepared and also, seating is limited, and most of it is outdoors. Because we hit it just at the lunch rush, our option was basically one of the benches that line DoG Street. We parked ourselves and our strollers, and tucked in. I think the verdict across the board was YUM and well-worth waiting for.

Try: the super-sized grilled cheese sandwich, with a locally made Chowning's Tavern root beer -- and don't forget to pick up a bag of bread ends for $1, to dip in the wonderful, mustardy house spread.

And then, for dessert! After Molly and I said goodbye to our friends B. and J. and Baby T., we drove by Sno-to-Go on our way out of town. The tiny, walk-up frozen-treat place is open only part of the year, and the last time I was in town, it was closed for the season. It opened back up in March, and I've been dreaming of it ever since. I raved about it so much that Molly had no choice but to join me in my pilgrimage.

Sno-to-Go's specialty is shaved ice snow-cones in literally hundreds of flavor combinations, which can then be "stuffed" with soft-serve ice cream. The combination at first sounds strange but you'll have to believe me when I tell you that the end result is one of those perfect "why didn't I think of it?" pairings. Even if you're not a shaved ice fan, the soft serve by itself is worth the drive -- it's thick and creamy and custardy delicious.

We ordered treats for ourselves and the kids even though it wasn't really the day for it -- 46 degrees and sleeting (!). We sat in the car with the heat blaring and shivered while we ate. But sometimes you just have to go for it -- Sno-to-Go is amazing, any time of year.

Try: Tiger's Blood (mixed berry and coconut) shaved ice stuffed with vanilla soft serve.

I think this face says it all:

Ain't nobody taking Baby Anne's Sno-to-Go. 

She will cut you, watch out. 

A day in Colonial Williamsburg

I won't lie: a deep and abiding love of history was not our main purpose for our road trip to Williamsburg. Rather, it was the outlet malls that called our names.  Yesterday morning, Anouk and I met up with some friends and set off: four adults and four kids and dozens of premium outlet stores just waiting to be plundered. Maybe that makes us Philistines? I say it makes us dedicated to a bargain.

But because it seemed cruel to subject a group of toddlers to endure a forty-five minute car ride and then a forced march through an outdoor shopping mall, we decided to incorporate a trip to the CW into our agenda. And by the time we'd finished at the outlets, we desperately needed it. The kids were antsy, had eaten their way through the snacks we'd packed and were clamoring for more, two had melted down in the J. Crew checkout line and at least one (mine) had accidentally shoplifted a headband. So we all piled back into our cars and drove down to Duke of Gloucester Street where we threw open the doors and set them free.

There are several day pass options for Colonial Williamsburg that will let you into dozens of tour sites set up all over town, but because we hadn't researched them beforehand, and because it's a little confusing, once you're there, to figure out where and how to obtain the passes, we didn't bother. And it turned out that there was plenty to do without them. We walked the entirety of DoG Street, taking in the sights. We petted horses and waved at the carriages going by, stopped at a few open-air markets, peeked into 17th century style spring gardens and posed for pictures with colonial era townspeople. There were a few of the tour stops I would have loved to go into -- the weavers and dyers, the tailor's, the milliner's, mostly the clothing-related ones -- but to be quite honest, I'm not sure our age group (3 and under) would have gotten much out of them, if we had.

At the end of the street, we turned the kids loose on the lawn in front of the Governor's Mansion and they pretty much ran until they dropped (which made the walk back longer than the walk there). For the better part of an hour they climbed on the old cannon, explored the neighboring gardens, and watched a group of W&M students playing touch football on the grass.

It was so low key that at first I wondered if I had enough material from this visit for a blog entry, but in the end, I think that's what I loved about our visit: that it was so low key. When I was little, a trip to Williamsburg was a special thing, and meant an over-the-top, quasi-vacation-like experience. And CW can be that. But it can also be a casual day-trip destination spot that doesn't require a lot in the way of planning or packing or a big expenditure of cash. It can just be an everyday experience, albeit in a special setting. All you have to do is go.

(All the same, I think we will end up buying the pass. Right now, the annual adult pass is about the same price as a one-day ticket if you buy online! And I have to go back soon, to see those hats. What are some of your favorite CW destinations? Let me know, and I'll add them to my list!)

Road trip to Cape Charles

After visiting Kiptopeke State Park on Saturday, James and Anne and I set off on a little road trip. The toll to get over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge to the Eastern Shore is pretty steep ($17 round-trip), and it seemed like a waste to drive right back without exploring a little more. We ended up spending a few hours poking around Cape Charles, and by the end of the day, decided we'd definitely gotten our money's worth.

(As an aside, I think I've decided that winter is one of my favorite times to visit beach towns. It's not crowded with tourists, which means the locals aren't sick of us yet, and that means we can spend more time talking to them and getting to know the ins and outs of the place. Also, you can have a good scope and find out the best spots -- that way if you do come back in summer, you'll already know just where to go to have a good time. And finally, the beach has a special kind of beauty in the winter -- the landscape is so austere, and without the distraction of sand toys and swimming and boogie boards and sunburn, you can appreciate its beauty a little more. Bonus: THERE ARE NO MOSQUITOES. The Eastern Shore has a little bit of a mosquito problem in summer... my mom likes to tell a story about visiting Wallop's Island for work and looking down to see her nude pantyhose BLACK with the little suckers. Shudder.)

We started off our Cape Charles adventure with lunch at Sting-Ray's restaurant in Capeville. Sting-Ray's is a quintessential stop if you're in the area, one of those places that should be featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives (if it hasn't been already). From the outside, the restaurant doesn't look like much -- it's actually located inside of an Exxon station. But the food is amazing. Tons of fresh, local seafood, including oysters, crab, and fried drum, navy bean soup and clam chowder, and homemade pies for dessert.

After we ate, we took a turn down a long country road and found ourselves at the old site of Arlington plantation, home to the Custis family (Daniel Custis was the first husband of George Washington's wife, Martha). In it's day, Arlington was the most architecturally sophisticated house in the country and was an important location in Bacon's Rebellion, an important clash between the American colonists and their English governors. Unfortunately, Arlington is no longer standing, but the old foundation has been preserved, along with the family tomb (the O.G. Arlington cemetery) situated picturesquely by the bay.




From there, we headed down to the Cape Charles Historic District, and spent a while walking and viewing some of the town's old Victorian mansions. Did you know that Cape Charles has the highest concentration of Victorian buildings anywhere on the East Coast? The town was planned and built between the 1880s and 1920s, which means every single house we saw was loaded withgingerbread scrollwork, turret towers, and roof gables. We stopped for a while at Central Park and at the Cape Charles beach, which happens to be the only public bayside beach on the Eastern Shore. It was gorgeous, with a seawall and a sweet beach pavilion -- and even a few intrepid swimmers braving the cold, cold waves. We didn't -- we're not that adventurous. But we did promise we'd come back and test the waters when the weather is warmer.

We finished with a trip to Rayfield's Pharmacy, which features an old-fashioned soda fountain and jukebox, where we got chocolate malteds and watched Baby A. boogie down.

 

All in all, it was a rambly day, full of local flavor, new and interesting sights and sounds. The stuff the very best road trips are made of.

Have you ever been to Cape Charles? What are your favorite Eastern Shore destinations?

Big Woods State Forest

Hunting season is right around the corner! So today we went to the woods to scout for deer. At least, that's why James went. Anouk and I were there because we want to live deliberately and suck out all the marrow from life. 

  
The Big Woods State Forest is located in Wakefield, Virginia, way out in Sussex County (It's about an hour and fifteen minute drive from the Ocean View area of Norfolk -- more with traffic). I had never heard of Wakefield before, but it turns out it's kind of a big deal when it comes to peanuts. The first peanuts in America were planted in the town, before it was a town, and peanut-flavored dishes are served in many of the town's restaurants. 

As you can also see, Wakefield is also kind of a big deal when it comes to reality TV stars. Peanuts and TV? How can that be anything other than a winning combination?

After we had tramped through the woods (and these were real woods, with very authentically woodsily overgrown trails, it should be noted), marked some deer tracks and had a snack, we drove around Sussex County for a while and saw the sights. One prominent one being miles and miles of fields of cotton in full bloom (does cotton bloom?) I have probably passed fields of cotton a million times before in my life, but this was my first in full bloom, and seeing a stretch of this gorgeous, purest white all the way to the horizon made me feel mindful of a lot of things. Of the great beauty in the world, the great work it would have taken to plant and tend and pick, and the great numbers of men and women who were made to plant and tend and pick it over hundreds of years. I think everybody should try to see a field of cotton in full bloom once in their lives, to feel these feelings.

Quote of the day:

ME: There's mud on my duck boots!

JAMES: They're duck boots...they can handle a little mud.

ME: I bought these duck boots for FASHION.

Some other things to see near Wakefield, VA:

-Virginia Diner (in Wakefield): featuring peanut pie and peanut dressing
-Miles B. Carpenter Museum Complex (in Waverly, VA): with a Victorian House, folk art and peanut museum.
-Country Store (in Waverly): You can buy bacon, fresh from the pig! And also hog jowls. But let's focus on the bacon.