Day 2 started bright and early with a trip to my new favorite place, the Williamsburg Winery.
All the times that I’ve been to Williamsburg and had their wine, I had never been to the winery itself. Clearly, I was stupid, as it was awesome. We found a deal online where you could do the tour and tasting, as well as lunch at the adjacent restaurant, for a very reasonable price – I would highly recommend this option to anyone heading to the area!
The tour took us through the winecellars, where we saw a number of wine barrels.
The tour guide told us that these wine barrels, which are very expensive, can only be used four times before they have to be discarded. To try to recoup the cost, the winery sells the old barrels to various places, including Colonial Williamsburg, to be used as trash cans. Until then, though, they are put to good use. This one was making Merlot:
The tour guide told us that these wine barrels, which are very expensive, can only be used four times before they have to be discarded. To try to recoup the cost, the winery sells the old barrels to various places, including Colonial Williamsburg, to be used as trash cans. Until then, though, they are put to good use. This one was making Merlot: Next, the tour took us past the room where the wine is bottled (the tour guide thought that this was their blackberry dessert wine being bottled here),
and into a room which displayed a number of wine-related antiques, including old bottles that lined the display cases.
Finally, we arrived at the tasting room, where we tasted six of the wines that were available
out of our pretty souvenir glasses (because that’s what I needed – another wine glass!).
After the tasting, we headed over to the restaurant for lunch.
They seated us on the outside patio,
and soon, lunch was served, including this gorgeous cheese platter that Taryn ordered.
and into a room which displayed a number of wine-related antiques, including old bottles that lined the display cases.Finally, we arrived at the tasting room, where we tasted six of the wines that were availableout of our pretty souvenir glasses (because that’s what I needed – another wine glass!).After the tasting, we headed over to the restaurant for lunch.They seated us on the outside patio,and soon, lunch was served, including this gorgeous cheese platter that Taryn ordered. After lunch, we headed back inside to the gift shop to make our wine purchases. The winery gave a discount if you purchased more than 12 bottles of wine, so we decided it was only polite to take advantage of this generous offer.
On the way out of the winery, we stumbled over something quite surprising – our foreign friends from Sunday, the ones from the first plantation, had followed us to the winery and were heading in as we were heading out. Luckily, no one used any racial epithets this time, and we were not there to watch them harass yet another young female tour guide. We can only imagine that it would have been worse here, as there was alcohol to fuel their interrogation.
After we left the winery, we headed over to Jamestown, where Taryn had never been. For those of you who haven’t been there before, this is the site of the first permanent English settlement in America, and it’s still actively being preserved by archaeologists. A good deal of the site has been identified or reproduced already, including the remains of a tavern,
a church,
and a fort.
The site is right on the James River, and still has a great view (which I'm sure was foremost in the mind of the starving, freezing colonists).
They also have a very 70’s-looking museum that displays some of the artifacts they’ve unearthed, and other historical information. And also air conditioning. We were ready for air conditioning by then.
On the way out of the winery, we stumbled over something quite surprising – our foreign friends from Sunday, the ones from the first plantation, had followed us to the winery and were heading in as we were heading out. Luckily, no one used any racial epithets this time, and we were not there to watch them harass yet another young female tour guide. We can only imagine that it would have been worse here, as there was alcohol to fuel their interrogation.After we left the winery, we headed over to Jamestown, where Taryn had never been. For those of you who haven’t been there before, this is the site of the first permanent English settlement in America, and it’s still actively being preserved by archaeologists. A good deal of the site has been identified or reproduced already, including the remains of a tavern,
a church,and a fort.The site is right on the James River, and still has a great view (which I'm sure was foremost in the mind of the starving, freezing colonists).They also have a very 70’s-looking museum that displays some of the artifacts they’ve unearthed, and other historical information. And also air conditioning. We were ready for air conditioning by then.After Jamestown, we went for a quick drive around the Yorktown Battlefield, stopping at the most photogenic sites, including British redoubts (now helpfully protected by a chain link fence so you can’t impale yourself on the spikes),
cannons,
and an old house called the Moore House, which was the site of surrender negotiations in 1781.
cannons,and an old house called the Moore House, which was the site of surrender negotiations in 1781.To finish the day, we headed to Colonial Williamsburg. We shopped for awhile, including at The Allergen Store, as I like to call it:
We also saw the reality of what happens to wine barrels when they become old and decrepit:
and also, a colonial squirrel! This one is for you, Larry:
and also, a colonial squirrel! This one is for you, Larry: We went to dinner at the King’s Arms Tavern, or, as a work colleague of Taryn’s calls it, The King’s Armpit.
Despite the nickname, the tavern ended up being a rather lovely way to end the day – any place that has champagne cocktails and wine coolers (real ones that were a lovely blend of red wine and lemon soda, not those sickening things that come in bottles) on their menu is fine by me! After dinner, we headed back to the hotel to prepare for the next day, arguably the most exciting day of them all – Busch Gardens day!
Despite the nickname, the tavern ended up being a rather lovely way to end the day – any place that has champagne cocktails and wine coolers (real ones that were a lovely blend of red wine and lemon soda, not those sickening things that come in bottles) on their menu is fine by me! After dinner, we headed back to the hotel to prepare for the next day, arguably the most exciting day of them all – Busch Gardens day! 
5 comments:
We'll keep all of the blog readers in suspense wondering whether or not our foreign friends followed us to Busch Gardens ;-)
Or if there were any other inappropriate comments made by strangers, be they foreign or just young...
So, I was trying to comment on the first entry and it kept showing up here, so I must be an idiot. Then a weird name kept showing up and I thought I was maybe accidentally commenting under camp's account, but I wasn't...I guess I have a blog now?
Therefor you now look like someone kept spamming this entry, but it's just me! :)
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