VA Day 6 - Colonies, Cones, and Colorful Art
I got a bit of a late start today, because I slept in after partying hard last night. I decided to spend the day checking out an area called the Historic Triangle, which to see me sounds unnecessarily euphemistic. The triangle is composed of the first three major colonies in Virginia: Williamsburg, Yorktown, and Jamestown.
I started out in Williamsburg by getting a good brunch at Food for Thought. They came highly recommended, and their logo is also a winking Benjamin Franklin so rest assured I was sold. Everything there was great. For brunch, I got their homemade meatloaf with gravy and mashed potatoes and asparagus in lemon cream sauce. The meatloaf was perfectly textured and full of flavor, the potatoes were light and balanced nicely with the gravy, and the asparagus was the sleeper hit of the meal, that lemon cream sauce still lingering in my memory. For drinks, I got a flight of all their drafts which included a Caramel Macchiato Stout, a white ale, a lager, a brown ale, and an IPA. I actually liked everything including the IPA, as it was more citrus-y than hoppy, but unsurprisingly the brown ale and the stout were my personal favorites. Their was a couple next to me from Philadelphia, and we ended up bonding initially over trying sampling our flights at the same time and comparing notes, but then we got to talking about traveling, comedy, Broadway, and family, and the pleasant conversation carried through the entire meal.
After my meal, I drove through the William and Mary campus. Harvard likes to brag that we're the oldest continuously running university in the country, but William and Mary is the actual oldest. They just shut down temporarily during the Civil War because they would have been located much closer to the actual fighting than my old stomping grounds, and a much higher percentage of their students would have been enlisted. It's a beautiful old campus though. It's like a tiny little village just tucked in the woods, and it's funny looking at these charming old buildings only to realize that they're actually frat houses and god knows what those walls have seen.
I decided not to got to Colonial Williamsburg proper, because it's essentially a historic amusement park and the admissions were pretty expensive, but I discovered that the Colonial Arts Museum in Colonial Williamsburg was roughly a quarter of the price of full admission and more interesting to me so I bought a ticket to that instead. I didn't go right away though because it stayed open fairly late, but if I wanted to see anything in another leg of the triangle, I'd have to hustle.
I drove to Jamestown to get my colonial recreation fix because it was much cheaper than Williamsburg, much more like a museum. The recreation of what the colony would have looked like, as well as a nearby Native American village were really cool to walk through and explore, and the historical re-enactors were very informative and engaging. The big draw at for me at least, was the fully restored and functional colonial ships. They have three ships that they actually take out sailing in an effort to preserve the old sailing techniques and traditions that colonists would have used. For the boats that were docked, you got to go onboard and see everything and get a real appreciation for how awful and uncomfortable long journeys must have been. If you think flying United is uncomfortable, these boats are on a whole nother level, and you'd have to be on them for weeks as opposed to hours.
In the visitor center actual, there was more of an actual museum about the history of Jamestown. It's amazing how many times they would have all died if not for the help of Native Americans. At one point starvation was so bad, a lot of people abandoned camp and joined native american tribes to survive. It's very possible that if they hadn't discovered tobacco farming (again from the Native Americans), the colonies might never have been able to thrive at all.
There was also a special exhibit about representations of Pocahontas. I didn't realize how frequently she was used as an advertising icon for everything from tobacco (which kind of makes sense) and non-stick baking pans (which makes way less sense). It's amazing how little is actually known about her dynamic, because her own voice has been totally erased from history to make way for colonial narratives. Nobody knows if she really loved John Smith or Thomas Rolfe, if she was being an ambassador between her tribe and the colonists, if she was captured and making the best of a bad situation, or if she sold out her own people. It's kind of amazing how much is not really known.
After that I went to the Colonial Art Museum back in Williamsburg (I never did make it to Yorktown). The museum was in the former site of one of the first hospitals in the country ever designed to treat the mentally insane. It's all fairly barbaric by today's standards, but it was the height of progression at the time.
The museum wasn't actually focused exclusively on art from the Colonies which I was surprised by, but the exhibits that were there were great so I wasn't too upset. There were two main exhibits, one on folk art and one on decorative arts. I definitely preferred the folk art stuff, but both had some pretty amazing items. My favorite part was the folk instruments made from such varied sources as turtle shells and mule jawbones.
For the decorative arts, the for me highlight was their collection of porcelain and earthenwares.
There was also special exhibit on the evolution of pianos made in the states. It was very cool, but i was getting too tired to read everything I should have so I didn't really register what the differences were between types of pianos technologically. I just enjoyed looking at them aesthetically, but there was a lot to offer in that department.
There was also a small but really beautiful exhibit on the history of silversmithing in the colonies and beyond. Silver can really be a stunning medium especially as etching techniques got more elaborate. They even had a few pieces made by Paul Revere which I thought was pretty impressive.
After the museum, I drove up to Norfolk to see the Doumar's Barbecue, home of the original waffle cone. I got a vanilla waffle cone, and the BBQ pork sandwich. The waffle cone was exemplary, but I was a little disappointed by the BBQ because they mix coleslaw in with the pork which wasn't my kind of thing but the sauce was good so if you like cole slaw I'd definitely recommend it. Still not a bad way to the end the day though.
Favorite Random Sightings: Honey Butter Kitchen; Go Kart Plus; Christmas Mouse; Bubba's Ice Cream Shack; "Stop Drop and Roll won't work in Hell!"
Regional Observation: I've seen the most confederate flags I've ever seen so far, but I haven't experienced any animosity as a Northern boy personally, which I'm happy about. In fact nobody's really commented on me having an accent either, so I guess people are pretty used to that around the mostly college towns I've been visiting.
Albums Listened To: Intrinsically Intertwined EP by Fishbone; Introducing... by the Blue Greens (solid straight jazz album by a bunch of ska guys from New York); Irish Heartbeat by Van Morrison & the Chieftains (a great return to his roots and to form after a lot of lackluster 80s albums by Van the Man); Is a Real Boy by Say Anything (just Alive with the Glory of Love and Every Man Has a Molly); Is This It by the Strokes (just Last Night); Ispopanisad Radio Hour by the Mountain Goats; It Means Everything by Save Ferris; It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back by Public Enemy (a masterpiece); Itunes Festival London 2010 by Frank Turner (just Photosynthesis)
People's Favorite Jokes:
I didn't get any today so here's one from the internet:
It was two o'clock in the morning and a husband and wife were sleeping when suddenly the phone rang. The husband picked up the phone and said, "Hello? (paused for a few seconds) How the heck do I know? What am I, the weather man?" and slams the phone down.
His wife rolls over and asks, "Who was that?" The husband replies, "I don't know. Some guy who wanted to know if the coast was clear tonight."
Two Equally Beautiful Songs of the Day:
Boy does the face not match the voice
Easily the most lovably stupid song on an otherwise very intelligent
