Well, it has been quite the week! I don’t think I’ll put all of it here but will break it up into two or maybe even three parts. The first leg to Williamsburg, the second to CT and the third being the trip home. So let’s begin:

Sunday 3/22, in the morning, we packed up and set off for two days in Colonial Williamsburg. Sue had never been there and was really interested in seeing it. We really wanted to stay at the Williamsburg Inn, but it had nothing available for the two days we wanted to stay so we settled on another part of the property: The Colonial Houses. They are part of the center or the historic area, walking distance to everything, especially the couple of restaurants we wanted to try out and were recommended to us so we made the reservation about a month or two ago and off we went. The seven or so hour drive was pretty seamless, our GPS routing us around a slowdown and we arrived around the time we would have had we been able to go straight up 95 and then over to 64. The address brought us directly to the magnificent Williamsburg Inn as the main check in was there, talk about a tease…it was exactly the kind of place we had hoped for, however, upon checking in we were given the directions to the Colonial Houses about a block or so away, we were cheerily told that we were going to be sleeping in the same location that Thomas Jefferson had stayed in back “when” [should have been red flag #1, but we were tired after the drive and it didn’t register]. We parked where we were told and just like James Stewart in “Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation” (if you don’t know the reference, shame on you), we schlepped from the parking area over uneven cobblestone paths to the back of the Tavern that we would be staying in…upstairs…. Now, it was not too bad except that Sue had one bag, one LARGE, wheeled bag, fully packed, and it needed to go up stairs that had not been changed since 1776 or so…

Well, up we went to find a room that perhaps Mr. Jefferson had slept in not in 1776 but the night before. The mattresses were on a sheet of plywood on a bed frame that likely predated the signing of the Declaration of Independence. There were two chairs that perhaps Ben Franklin was sitting in when contemplating electricity, two dim lamps that likely he tried his first electrical charge in and a bathroom, though containing all three necessary fixtures, was equally tiny. There was a small dorm size fridge and a tv but really no room to move or sit comfortably in (more about that later).

We were tired so we opened a bottle of wine and sipped in preparation for out 5:30 dinner reservation (the only thing we could get for that night and we planned that a few weeks earlier as well).

The first thing we discovered as we were looking at the map and planning the next days events was that over 50% of all the places were CLOSED on Monday and Tuesday, as were ALL of the restaurants and pubs within walking distance. So off to dinner we went, (about 1.5 miles away, the closest we could find). It was decent, the oysters were great and because we were so early, we hit the happy hour so it was only a buck a shuck, the meal was ok, the server was an absolute delight. We returned to the room and planned, as best we could, the following day based upon what seemed to be open, a bit more wine and off to sleep.

We woke up the next morning to an incredibly chilly rainy day, weather that was forecast to continue through out the day. We found out that the ONLY place open for breakfast was in the Williamsburg Lodge (as nice as the Inn, but also with no rooms available), so off we went hoping to start the day relaxed with maybe a nice Eggs Benedict and perhaps a Bloody…NOPE..only the dreaded breakfast buffet and no Bloody on the menu.

After breakfast we took off under our umbrellas and walked to the ONE exhibit we actually found open. The walk took about 8 minutes, the exhibit about 4 minutes. So we decided to simply wander the streets only to find just about everything closed, [remember it was raining steadily so even the outside places that were listed as open were not in action due to the weather]. We decided to simply stroll to a nice pub hoping to have lunch and a libation in front of a warming, colonial fireplace…NOPE…all closed..every…..single……one….

So we went back up to the room….and passed the remaining 5 hours till dinner playing phone games, joking, and trying to warm up a bit….in the uncomfortable chairs….

Dinner was actually great, it was a pub type restaurant (Blue Talon), and the food was really good {as was the martini I so badly needed}. We decided to get up early the next morning, earlier than we planned, and simply pick up some coffee on the go and head to Tori’s in CT…where we were very excited to be having dinner that night with “the gang” at Rowayton Seafood..and to top it off, in the Crow’s Next as arranged by Josh the general manager, sommelier, and someone we also call a friend.

Had we had a clue what we were getting into at Williamsburg we would not have made the stop there, the information was not really clear when we were making the trip. We realized it would be rustic, but we didn’t think we’d be living like actual residents in the restoration given the rather large “tariff” we paid. However, we were tired, frustrated, cold and wet but really none the worse for wear…Off we went on the next leg of the journey….home to see friends in CT….a tale for another day…