Category Archives: Food

What we are eating and where we mention food.

Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia – Part 2: British Food, the Courthouse, the Powder Magazine and the Blacksmith Shop

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continued... We picked a restaurant called Dog Street Pub, which served traditional British food. It was decorated in the colonial theme and the staff wore period costumes.

Eric ordered a sampler platter, which had ham, cheddar, stilton cheese (which wasn’t crumbly like Trader Joe’s stilton), apples, beets, hard boiled egg, salad greens, chutney and black bread. He loved it. Keith ordered bangers and mash, which was sausage served on a bed of mashed potatoes and peas and smothered in gravy. Keith liked the sausage and the potatoes, but he didn’t like the gravy… and since the gravy covered everything, he didn’t love his meal.

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Go Kart Racing and the FFX Family Show in Virginia Beach, Virginia

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Friday, July 11 was a mellow day. In the morning, Eric changed seagull water filter. It was the filter attached to the kitchen sink that filtered our drinking water. Eric has been buying the same filter since Kosmos was new, and it has become one of his metrics for tracking inflation. The cost of the filters goes up a little bit every time he buys one, and they’ve doubled in price in over the 19 years. 

Our big outing was to a Mexican restaurant called Lola’s, which was in one of the new complexes just northeast of the marina. Even though it was within walking distance, we drove since it was so ungodly hot out. Lola’s had a cheerful, beach themed decor and the menu had lots of non-Mexican choices.

Eric ordered a pina relleno, which was a half pineapple stuffed with grilled chicken, steak, pineapple, peppers and onions topped with melted cheese, chorizo, shrimp and sour cream. This version had a lot more ingredients in it than the versions we’d gotten in Hualtulco and Chiapas.

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Dinner at The Blue Talon Bistro in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia

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Monday, July 7, continued… As we stated earlier, we were confused about Colonial Williamsburg. It was apparently still an active town with restaurants and shops and other amenities… but apparently you needed to buy a ticket to go into the town? It looked like there was a small section of it called Merchant Square where people could see the historical buildings without buying a ticket. We decided to go there for an early dinner and try to get clarification on what exactly the sightseeing activities in Colonial Williamsburg entailed.

It was about a 10-mile scenic drive from Jamestown. As we neared the town, we drove through William and Mary College, which was founded in 1693. The old buildings were charming. We parked on Boundary Street, the street that separated the college from the edge of town. It was hot and we’d already done a lot of walking, so we didn’t do much exploring by foot. We picked the first open restaurant that looked good, a French restaurant called The Blue Talon Bistro which was around the corner on Prince George Street.

As short as our walk was, it was still pretty with all the mature trees and beautiful old buildings.

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The Moses Myers House and Gourmet Grilled Cheese in Norfolk, Virginia

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Continued… From Adeline’s room, we moved into the part of the slaves quarters that was above the utility room. The signs said that the Myers had dozens of slaves over the decades, but didn’t say how many slaves the household typically had at any given time. The guides did tell us, but we don’t remember now. But we do remember they always had several, not only one or two. There was a big binder full of information that we didn’t read. Some of the displays on the walls were bills of sale for the various people. One display showed a bill of sale for a mother and daughter. In the bankruptcy inventory, they were identified as “washer and daughter.” John Myers did allow at least one of his slaves to purchase his freedom. We didn’t go into the portion of the slaves quarters over the kitchen.

View of the back yard from the slave’s quarters. What is now a parking garage was once a creek.
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Repairs and Errands in Norfolk, Virginia

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Sunrise on Tuesday, July 1

On Tuesday morning, Eric went back to the hydraulic store in Portsmouth to exchange the fittings. He found fittings with angles that would work better in the space we had. Upon return, he finished installing the transfer pump. Much to his aggravation, one of the fittings was leaking. It was too hot to keep working in the engine room, so he gave up for the day. 

On Wednesday morning, Eric took apart, tightened and resealed both fittings on the fuel transfer pump. Since the transfer pump had fuel in it, it was messy. He captured the majority of the fuel in a bucket and used the oil pads (AKA diapers) to suck up the rest. In great news, it wasn’t leaking anymore! He started the transfer pump and it worked! Woo hoo!

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