"Pi" Day

This Friday was a perfect “Pi” Day! It may seem “irrational” but we wish this day could “keep going forever”! It started with Ladd out on the balcony taking a picture of the sunrise over the ocean. I did sit up to see what on earth he was doing, looked out at the gorgeous sunrise, smiled, and promptly went back to sleep. Later when the “Retired Sleeping Beauty” arose <g>, we walked to a Waffle House for brunch. Ladd had eggs, sausage, home fries, and toast. I had a waffle and bacon. The owner of the restaurant, who comes from New Jersey, said he could “tell” we were coffee drinkers and kept our cups full!
Today was another bright, sunny day without a cloud in the sky! It was still a little windy, but somewhat warmer than yesterday. Full from our brunch, we walked the boardwalk. There were even more people on the boardwalk and beach today. There were walkers, bikers, and skateboarders out. There were parents with their kids, and even the warm coats and gloves couldn’t stop them from playing in the sand. We watched the container cargo ships and cruise ships on the ocean. Pay loaders and tractors were replenishing and rebuilding the beautiful beach sand. We looked up in awe as jets from the Naval Base soared over the beach. Right in front of our hotel a little corral is set up with eight horses for horseback riding on the beach. The horses were busy today, and it was fun to watch the riders on the beach. There were a large number of runners of all ages running to prep for the “Shamrock Marathon” which begins here tomorrow. On the boardwalk down a little way from our hotel workers had set up a HUGE, white dining tent for the “Shamrock Marathon”. Today they were setting up other smaller tents, water, beer, banners, and other supplies for the marathon. From our conversations it seems this is a big marathon with 3,500 runners registered! It was such fun walking on the boardwalk watching all the action that Ladd and I walked FIVE MILES! We felt good, but one five-mile walk does not a marathon runner make! We will be watching “The Shamrock Marathon” from our balcony in the morning!
Then Ladd settled in to work his “computer magic” researching restaurants for dinner. I headed out to do my “shopping magic” as I cruised the shops along Atlantic Avenue.
Ladd did it again and found us an AWESOME restaurant. In fact, throughout our four-week trip through eight states this is definitely one of the top three restaurants we’ve eaten in! It is named “RockafellerS Restaurant”, and is located right on the water at Rudee Inlet. They have a happy hour at their bar, so we decided to start there first. As someone left and Ladd and I sat down, it was then a full bar. At the bar we first started talking with a gentleman from Staten Island. His main house is still there, but he has a condo near the restaurant. When I told that gentleman I had just retired from teaching that led to a conversation across the bar with a couple, Bob and Maryanne. Bob was from Binghamton, and Maryanne is another long-time teacher now retired! New Yorkers and teachers…they’re everywhere; they’re everywhere! Maryanne told me she taught elementary school in Virginia Beach for forty-three years! I told her it was the first time I’d met a teacher who “beat” my forty years. Hmmm…I may just have to go back and try to make four more years…LOL! As Ladd was telling them about our trip blog the Bar Manager, Ben, then joined in the conversation since he will be starting a blog about his fantastic “On the Rocks” bar! (If you read this, Ben, we hope you have fun with your blog, and we would gratefully accept any “tips” for our trip blog you might wish to put in our comment section. Thanks for the great drinks and good luck with your blog!) We then moved to a table in the restaurant by the window overlooking the Rudee Inlet. This inlet was chock-full of big, expensive, gorgeous boats! We went in time to make their “Early-Bird Specials” menu. O.K., even if you are now laughing at us going for the “Early-Bird Specials”, it doesn’t bother us in the least because this was an incredible first-class meal! The other early-bird dinner we had in Williamsburg FELT like an early-bird dinner in quantity and quality…smaller portions and good. “RockafellerS” early-bird dinner did NOT feel like an early-bird dinner. It was awesome both in quantity and quality! We both “added on” a cup of She Crab Soup. This soup was hot, sweet, rich, and full of nice pieces of crab. Our waiter, Nathan, brought us Caesar salads and a basket of warm, moist corn bread, both included with our dinners.  (Nathan was an excellent, attentive waiter, who also had a good sense of humor.) Ladd had the fried shrimp entrée, and I had the broiled salmon entrée. Both came with in-season mixed vegetables and roasted red potatoes. The portions were so generous, but more importantly they were prepared perfectly and absolutely delicious! Ladd was done then, and I SHOULD have been done then, however Nathan told me that dessert was also included with the meal. I ordered Chocolate Mousse and told myself that I would just have a spoonful or two with our coffee. Fellow-dessert lovers will understand that when I discovered this was just as great as the meal, one or two spoonsful would not suffice. It was so smooth it just slid down…<g>! We wish to thank everyone at “RockafellerS” for a great night and an awesome meal! If we lived around here you can be sure Ladd and I would be very regular customers.
After all we ate we should now walk another five miles on the boardwalk! But since I’m already in my nightgown and robe….  Oh well, there’s always the “Shamrock Marathon” tomorrow! (Please just call 911 for us now to prepare them…ha!)  
   

"Driver, Turn This Bus Around - NOW!"

This trip-blog entry for Thursday will probably be the shortest one, but it provided a needed “rest day” and seemed to fly by, too.
You have probably noticed the somewhat logical geographical progression our travels have taken to date. That is to say, south and southwesterly from NY, through VA, TN, AL, and on to NOLA. Then easterly to PCB and Savannah followed by a turn to the north to Charleston, Myrtle Beach, and thence Williamsburg.
The pilot in Ladd finds such logic compelling. The bus driver in him; however, reacted immediately upon hearing the scream from the back of the bus – “Driver, turn this bus around – NOW!”
Yes, it was I, not a school child shouting out but hey, freezing rain, snow on top of the ice, single digit temps, two hour delays and you expect me to continue heading north? – get real!
In the late morning we left Williamsburg and drove (south) to Virginia Beach. It was a beautiful, sunny day, but very cold: a high temperature of about 39 degrees for the day! All of Virginia Beach seemed to say, “Brrr!” (Of course, I know it’s all relative since at home everyone is enduring rain, turned to ice, covered by five or so inches of snow! They are probably saying, “Yuck! Yuck!! Yuck!!!”)
Upon arrival to Virginia Beach we stopped at the Visitors’ Center. As Ladd looked through the travel brochures I talked with the two ladies working there. They were both long-time, now retired, teachers! Of course we were “comparing notes” about our teaching experiences in different states. Ladd and I are both amazed at how many teachers I have encountered and conversed with throughout our trip!
It was really too cold and windy to walk very far, so we drove around Virginia Beach to check it out. I found the hotel on the beach where my mother, Dean, his friend, Max, and I stayed probably about fourteen years ago. Most places seem to have stayed the same, but there are some new hotels and stores. Virginia Beach has a GREAT shore line/beach “strip”! The hotels are on the beach, but they are BEHIND a beautiful, long two-part walkway: one part is for bikes, skateboards, etc. and the other part is for walkers/runners. The beach and ocean is on the other side of the walkway. When we were here “in season” with Dean and Max when they were little there were nightly fireworks down by the pier and nightly free entertainment by a central spot on the “strip.” They even had outside movies at night, too.
We checked into our hotel, “Sea Hawk”. After unpacking we watched the walkers, runners, and ships on the ocean from our balcony. Even at this pre-season time and in this cold weather, Virginia Beach is a beautiful spot!  I then took a short nap while Ladd researched places for dinner on the computer.
“Reginella’s” was the spot we chose for dinner. It is an Italian restaurant, a family-run business that had excellent reviews online. The restaurant was so cute and clean. Our young waiter was polite, efficient, and had a good sense of humor, too. Even though we only ordered pizza, the waiter brought us some bread with our wine and beer. NATURALLY we had to try it…ha! It was warm and some of the best we’ve had. We ordered the “Speciale Reginella” pizza: Neapolitan-style pizza with tomatoes, roasted red peppers, chicken, and mozzarella cheese. The fact that the pizza tray had NO PIZZA LEFT on it will tell you how fantastic it was and how very much we enjoyed it! (Boy, oh, boy, are we full!) As we paid our bill to the owner of “Reginella’s” he asked how everything was. I told him how very much we loved it, and that I would be saying this on our trip blog. This made him smile!
This hotel has a laundry room, so I’ll close for today and do a little “catch-up” laundry before hitting the hay.  

From Judge to Judged

Oh, how quickly they fall: Tuesday a Justice of the Court, Wednesday in the pillory! We started today at “Colonial Williamsburg” seeing the empty pillory and went in for the “photo op”.
Next we walked to the “Wythe House” and since we were early birds, got a very personal tour for just the two of us! (The tour guide was originally from Buffalo.) Mr. Wythe was the first law professor at William and Mary College, and taught/mentored Thomas Jefferson. You could tell from the house and furnishings that Mr. Wythe was well-respected and of the gentry class. When we went upstairs we met “Mr. Wythe” at work in his office. He told us about his work with nature/science and how he valued education. When I told “Mr. Wythe” I was a teacher for forty years, he thanked me. As we said our good-byes to Mr. Wythe, I shook his hand, and he acted shocked since that would not be the appropriate way to bid adieu in Colonial times. He then taught Ladd and me the correct way to “courtesy” (different for men and women) to say good-bye. We went behind the Wythe house to see the gardens and to visit the basket-making house. As we were learning about basket-making, we heard voices from out on the Green that sounded like a reenactment.
We headed out quickly to the Green in front of the “Governor’s Palace” to find a reenactment practice happening. Hooray! They were reenacting the time the Governor took the colonists’ gunpowder and weapons out of the “Magazine”. They were supposed to be stored there since they belonged to ALL the Williamsburg colonists when needed for protection. The Governor feared the Colonists were getting “restless” and took the gunpowder and weapons out of the “Magazine”. The reenactment showed the Speaker of the House, the head of the Militia, and some of the Militia on the Green marching to the “Governor’s Palace” to confront him about the missing gunpowder and weapons. Other actors were portraying interested colonists, slaves, and bystanders. The head of the Militia and members of the Militia wanted to use force to enter the “Governor’s Palace” to find the gunpowder/weapons. The Speaker of the House was trying to calm them down and use reason to speak to the Governor. The Governor and his guards came out of the Palace and told the Colonists that he had just moved them for “safe keeping” since it was “rumored” that the slaves were planning a rebellion against their owners. Absolutely no one believed that, but the Speaker of the House convinced the Militia to stand down and the Governor and his guards returned to his Palace. (We learned that the Governor and his family “ran away” during the night.) As this reenactment was occurring and we were watching, we were spoken to by the actors/actresses as if we were Colonists, too. They expressed their views to us and encouraged us to participate. What GREAT fun! When it was over and we walked by the group of Militia actors I told them I had a strong feeling they should “go for it”! LOL! We’ve done many, many interesting things and learned lots in “Colonial Williamsburg”, but I think this was the most fun. (I REALLY wish I could sign up to be one of the actors at “Colonial Williamsburg”!)
The next event was held at “The Secretary’s Office” for “The Capitol” of “Colonial Williamsburg”. We got to meet with Thomas Jefferson for the second time of our visit! (One more time and he may well become my new B.F.F.! <g>) The actor portraying Thomas Jefferson spoke in this small building to a group of approximately 40 tourists about the work he and the other Founding Fathers did to help to establish a self-governing republic. Again, he answered spontaneous questions from the audience at the end of his presentation. This presentation by the same Thomas Jefferson actor was just as impressive as yesterday’s was!
We then went to “Merchants’ Square” to find the “Cheese and Wine” shop, which is also a deli, to have lunch. I had a Virginia Ham (What else??!!) and Swiss cheese sandwich, and Ladd had a roast beef sandwich that we ate outside on the square.
We had just enough time to head over to the Art Museum for the next presentation there. This was called “A Conversation with Patrick Henry”. Before the presentation started I got talking (no surprise) with the woman seated next to me. I discovered that she had been a teacher in Boston for 36 years! No wonder we were of “like minds” throughout our conversation! This actor was great, but not as fantastic as the Thomas Jefferson actor. “Patrick Henry” shared his thoughts, memories, and beliefs of his life.
For our short break before the next presentation, Ladd and I looked at some of the exhibits in the Art Museum. One exhibit was the first “hospital” for those with mental problems. It showed the transition over the beginning years, but let me just say, “YIKES!” As I said to Ladd, “If you weren’t ‘crazy’ when you came in here, you most certainly would be in a very short time!”
Our last presentation for the day in the Art Museum auditorium was entitled “My Daughter, My Mistress; My Mother, My Slave”. Two actresses performed the reuniting of Betty Hennings and Martha Jefferson at Martha’s new home, Monticello. Betty Hennings was a slave who raised Martha when her mother died two days after her birth. Later Betty Hennings had six children by Martha’s father. In this presentation Martha’s father had “willed” his slaves including Betty and her children to his daughter, Martha. Their reunion was at first touching and then tense as they confront the harsh truths that will alter the lives they once knew. These actresses were super, too, and also fielded questions so well after their performance!
We caught the shuttle bus back to the Tourist Center. It was now 4:30 and the gift shop there closes at 5:00. Do you think I had time to explore the gift shop and make a purchase in time? If you said yes, you are right! I FINALLY found the type of wine glass with “Colonial Williamsburg” on it that I was looking for!
When we returned to the hotel, Ladd and I decided to walk across the street to a restaurant called “The Whaler” for their early-bird dinner specials. (O.K., I guess we are now officially seniors seeking early-bird dinner specials…ha!) Ladd had clam chowder for an appetizer and a seafood platter for his entrée. I had shrimp scampi over linguine. We both enjoyed our meals and the fact that we just had a short walk back to our hotel.
Our time in “Colonial Williamsburg” was so, so interesting! Should I start a second career, you may just find me in colonial garb participating in a reenactment!