On to Colonial Williamsburg

Opened in 1964, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel offers a "short cut" from the Eastern Shore to the area of Virginia where Virginia Beach and Norfolk. It was the ideal way for us to continue on our trip, heading to Williamsburg. The area that is crossed is 20 miles wide and has several high bridges and two tunnels, providing a number of shipping channels to both the civilian and military fleets.

Since I was driving, and yes, the speed in the two-lane tunnel is 55 mph, Graham took this artsy shot of the reflected head and tail lights in one of the tunnels.

Williamsburg, Virginia is worth the visit if you have any interest at all in the history of the United States, especially the time during the colonial era as it evolved into the Revolutionary War.

This was one of Rockefeller's projects. The area now part of Colonial Williamsburg contains many original structures but some have been moved to that setting and others are reconstructions. The brick house in the photo is actually a residence located across the street from the village setting. You can see how well maintained the structure is and how beautiful the grounds are. This white clapboard cottage had a marvelous herb garden; one plant was hosting a Giant Tiger Swallowtail.

The church is called Bruton Parish. It was modeled on the original Burton Parish church in England. The basic design of the church is used here in Huntington at St. John's, the church where Graham is a member and we all sing in the choir. This one had the traditional box pews and a beautiful pipe organ in the front balcony.

The Governors appointed by the King lived in a large residence, called the Palace. It was later occupied by the elected Governors before the Colony of Virginia formally became a state and the capital moved to Richmond.

One elected Governor was Thomas Jefferson, before the Constitutional Convention and certainly well before his election as President. As a student at William and Mary (along with George Washington, John Marshall, James Madison, and George Mason....all names known to lovers of colonial history) Jefferson spent a lot of time in Williamsburg.

The Palace has some interesting decor.....the room with the rug is the office (actually was orginally the dining room but at least one Governor used it as his office). The swords and muskets decorating the entry foyer not only provide interesting decor but are weaponry ready at hand....some 500+ weapons that were stored in the Palace. When the last Royal Governor left the Palace, he removed all the weapons and all the gun powder in the powder magazine, to keep it all out of the hands of the Rebels.

While the gilded leather on the walls in one room was something I had not seen before, I was a bit surprised at some of the colors in the Palace. I had seen the Prussian Blue in a pre-Revolutionary War mansion I had worked as a docent when I was a Girl Scout eons ago in New Jersey. I had never seen the green before, but the Palace docent assured us it was the color that was in vogue at that time.

Graham spent quite some time speaking with the Palace chef. He explained that all the food that was prepared for the Palace residents and guests were the best that was available in the error. He had several dishes on display that he himself had prepared that morning authentically in the colonial era kitchen, cooking over the coals or in the brick oven part of the eight-foot wide hearth.

He also explained the system of employment today in Colonial Williamsburg. He and the other tradespeople we met actually served an apprenticeship of 2-4 years before they could work on their own. They all use the authentic techniques and materials of the time. The chef, the printer, and the blacksmith all explained their jobs speaking as 21st-Century people.

However, the actor who played General Lafayette (and the American aide to a lessor extent) and one of the women preparing wigs were fully in their character and their responses and chatter were definitely 18th Century.

We had a delightful dinner at Christiana Campbell's Tavern. The waitress and the musician were fun to chat with and the meal itself was very enjoyable.

The sunset photo is of the Powder Magazine...where gunpowder and shot were stored. One event that precipitated the uprising in Virginia against the Crown was when the Governor, in the middle of the night, had his soldiers remove the ammunition from the magazine following the events in Massachusetts at Lexington and Concord. Up to that time many of the members of the House of Burgess had been trying to walk a careful road of demanding fair treatment while being loyal subjects to the King, but this was the proverbial last straw and the Governor soon left for what he thought would be a temporary time and the Revolutionary War started in earnest.

Yummy yummy crab

Crab is so yummy, but is pretty expensive, especially here in landlocked West Virginia. I felt I might appreciate the cost a bit more if I could see the work that goes into getting the crab meat from the sea to the market. So we toured a crab cannery.


The owner, using an old beat up crab trap, explained how the crabs get lured in with bait. The traps have small holes so undersized crabs can escape.



These 3 guys are sorting the crabs for size and also for softshell. Those are crabs that have recently molted and the exterior shell has not hardened yet.


Much of the crab that is brought to the cannery is sold to restaurants and wholesalers. Any that is not sold within 24 hours moves into canning process. First they are steamed under pressure for about 15 minutes. Without pressure cooking takes about 30 minutes.


Most of the workers at this cannery are Mexican guest workers. The factory has a long process each year to explain to the US government why all the positions can not be filled with local workers. Then they apply and receive so many visas...usually less than the number they really need. He said they could use about 60 and they had 35. Most had worked for him at least six years and several as many as 13. They come from Mexico to the eastern shore for 6 months and then go home for 6 months, always hoping the visas will come through for them the next year.

The people in this room pick out the chunk meat which goes into one plastic tub. The smaller pieces of back meat are in another tub. There is one guy who just picks the claws. He hammers and pulls, all in what looked like one seamless move. They work quickly as they get paid by the pound.


The tubs of back meat are opened and checked once again to make sure there is no shell inside.
The plastic tubs keep in the refrigerator for 2 weeks.

If they can't get all the available crab picked and into the plastic tubs within a day they then put them in cans, heating them to pasteurization level. They keep in the refrigerator for several months.

I asked him if the canned crab had the same flavor as the crab meat in the plastic tubs. I remember buying a can of crab meat years ago that was pretty awful with a metallic taste. He asked me if I got the can on the shelf near canned tuna and salmon and I had. He then said that most of those are from Asia and are cooked to a much higher temperature to have an even longer shelflife, but he feels the flavor is compromised a bit.

So, we have one shop here in Huntington that has fresh seafood brought in. We will check on availability of crab and we also know we can order from this cannery as well as the place in Baltimore where we stopped for lunch.

On the water-Chesapeake Bay

We really like staying at B&Bs. Like any other place to stay, there are good ones, there are some that provide the basics, but then there are some that stand out and you want to visit again. One thing that makes a B&B outstanding to us is the sense of calm and comfort we have there. We have stayed in places that were posh and others that were very basic....it really does not depend on the furnishings. It is always the host or hostess who sets the tone. One aspect we enjoy is that the B&B host can give local recommendations for dinner restaurants...places the locals enjoy, not just the tourists. Often the food is better and less expensive too!

The Queenstown B&B is definitely worth planning a repeat visit. Josh is a tremendous host, making us feel very comfortable and serving great food with pleasure. It is located about 8 miles from the Bay Bridge so if anyone wants an easy and enjoyable weekend, let us know. You can fly into Baltimore, rent a car and be at the Queenstown Inn in less than 2 hours....and in a whole different and peaceful world.

The screened porch serves as the breakfast area. The first morning we planned to be up and out for kayaking at 8am. So Josh left us a "continental" breakfast. There was a fruit salad in the fridge as well as juice, breakfast breads, and wonderful coffee all ready for us. The second morning he prepared a wonderful breakfast and ate with us.

The rooms were pleasantly decorated with items Josh's partner has acquired in his postings overseas in the diplomatic service.

The Queenstown Inn has two commercial tenants...a massage therapist and spa and a kayak touring service.

Last summer we tried sea kayaking and really enjoyed it. This time we had the chance to kayak in quieter waters of the Chesapeake Bay and a tidal stream. We were the only people going out that day, which means we had the guide, Robert, all to ourselves. We saw a lot of birds including eagles, herons, and egrets, and some shells of some horseshoe crabs. Robert says the crabs cover the beach where we stopped during their season in May and it is difficult for people to walk there then.

Graham is ready for us to purchase a sea kayak now......but perhaps we'll wait and see how he feels about white water kayaking once we go down the New River later in the trip!

Wineries, wineries and more wineries

This trip was sans kids....poor Sam. Whenever we take a trip and there are wineries he has to put up with our stop. This time, knowing we wouldn't be making him b-o-r-e-d, we planned to stop quite a bit, and we brought an empty wine box with room for 12 bottles. Well, we have 2 days left in our vacation and are not planning any more stops. I need to report that the box is full and we have about 3 others. We had one more, but it has been.....savored. *G*

We are wine snobs...or winos, as Sam puts it. We enjoy finding small wineries whose output means they do not have a large distribution. It is a pleasure to discover that there are many capable winemakers in this country.

Boordy Winery northwest of Baltimore, Maryland

On other trips we have purchased wine in wineries in California (of course, but only small places), Oregon (the biggest and best-we actually joined the wine club-is the King Estate outside of Eugene), Washington state, New Mexico, Colorado, West Virginia of course, Maryland and Virginia. Although we were very close to the Barboursville winery while in Charlottesville, we chose not to go there as it is fairly large with distribution at least regional if not national.

Little Ashby Winery

Eastern Shore, Maryland

Kent Winery, northwest of Williamsburg, Virginia

Williamsburg Winery reserve room

We’ve been using a GPS for about 18 months now and I really like it. Most of the time it is a great help, particularly if I am by myself and it is dark. But if you have one yourself, you know there are times when the GPS will take you places you had not planned to go. In the interest of saving a minute, if you have it optioned for the “fastest route” it may take you on back roads instead of staying on the main highway! Such was our arrival in Baltimore. I-70 ends at the loop around Baltimore and instead of sending us south on the loop, it told us to go straight…..the sign said to a park and ride lot. Okay, worse thing we figure we’ll come back out to the Beltway. But there was a local road and so we went on. First we drove through a heavily wooded area with signs for trailheads. And then into the slums of Baltimore. We were on Northern Avenue, traversing about 3 miles of mostly empty rowhouses; some with plywood boarded up windows and doors, and some with glassless windows. The streets were full of people, and I only could wonder if all the children would ever escape the life of poverty they must have.

We got to the B&B, Phoenix Rising, and it was in an area of similar rowhouses, but these were well maintained and the street had an aura of affluence. Our hostess, Jo, is an amazing woman. She loves to travel and the B&B is decorated with artifacts from the Caribbean, the Southwest, and Africa. We stayed in the Serengeti Room.

We had a delightful meal at the corner bistro, b, and recommend it to anyone who travels to Baltimore. The food was wonderfully prepared, the service was attentive and friendly, and as ate at a table out on the sidewalk, enjoying the evening weather.

That evening we got a surprise phone call. Liz Hance, a close friend in New Jersey since 6th grade, was in Washington, DC for a meeting and when she realized we were about an hour away, she came to visit for the day. We walked from Bolton Hill to downtown Baltimore and the Inner Harbor, enjoyed some crab cakes and shopping, and then she grabbed the train back to DC to get to her meeting.

Graham, who had been in a couple of meetings with colleagues, picked me up at the station and we headed out to a winery near Baltimore. We enjoy going to local wineries that are typically small and don’t have a large bottling output. We have tasted some great wines around the country and had packed an empty carton to hold 12 bottles. At Boordy we picked up two.

We then headed over to The Ambassador Dining Room. A patron at b, as well as one of the winery employees at Boordy had heartily recommended it as a great Indian restaurant. Located in the area of Baltimore near Johns Hopkins University, the building used to be a hotel but is now apartments. The restaurant is on the first floor with a large dining room as well as a covered terrace, where we enjoyed our meal.

Next morning we drove over to Fort McHenry. This was the location of the bombardment during the war of 1812 when, after burning Washington, DC, the British failed to get past the fort to destroy the larger city of Baltimore. We know the story well, as the author, Francis Scott Key, observed the battle from a truce ship where he and 2 others were held following the release of one as a prisoner. His poem, put to music, became the national anthem, The Star Spangled Banner. The fort continued in service through the Civil War, when it was a prisoner of war camp and World War I, when it was a hospital.

An aside here----from 1978 to 1982 I worked for an engineering and planning consulting firm and several of my planning assignments were plans for expansion capability for a number of military installations. Together with an engineer who would examine the capacity of the mechanical systems of whatever fort we were examining, my assignment was to help determine how much more population the mission of that installation could have. The photo of the WWI hospital mission at Fort McHenry clearly had packed the peninsula fully in wartime.

Finally, we set our car heading to the Eastern Shore, stopping only for lunch at a great roadside crab shack, the Crab Depot on the Ritchie Highway. They will ship crabs, picked crab meat, and crab cakes. Let us know if you want the info so you can order some.