Washington to Williamsburg

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Washington to Colonial Williamsburg.

After our previous laundry mis-adventure, I was determined to get my laundry done so I could once again start wearing clean clothes. We found one, made the ultimate mistake of not asking how much and the bill came to USD$50!! We were not amused.

I took the train out to the airport to pick up our rental car. Everything was going to plan right up until I had to drive back into Washington but the road I was on turned into a motorway and I didn’t know what exit to get off. To make matters worse, when I did get off, lots of the streets are one-way which isn’t helpful when you are driving in the opposite direction from where you want to go on the wrong side of the road (from NZ) and can’t figure out how to cross over oncoming traffic to turn where you want to be. Thank god for the iPhone or I would still be driving now.

I almost got given a black truck with pimped up mags when I got the rental car. I questioned this, since I had only ordered a standard car and I didn't really want to drive a truck, but they said that was all they had. Fortunately when I went to load my bags in, someone else was already in it because they had allocated it to someone else. They hastily gave me a brand new white camry which we have named 'Chuck'.

I took us an age for Chuck Camry to get out of Washington due to heavy traffic but we made our way out to the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center which is part of the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum. It holds the Space Shuttle Enterprise, SR-71 Blackbird, Enola Gay, and a Concorde. I was very excited about seeing a shuttle up close, Paula less so, although she enjoyed it when she got there. The shuttle was actually much bigger than I thought it would be which is unusual for these type of things which often look fake and small compared to how you imagined.

Afterwards we took off on a long drive to Colonial Williamsburg, home to one of the first colonies in America and once site of the capital of Virginia. Basically Rockefeller purchased all of the buildings in the town back in the 1930s and restored or rebuilt back to the look of the 18th century. All the people in the town are actors in period dress and you can take part in historical re-enactments. We did the ghost tour on arrival and then the ‘Cry Witch’ courtroom trial of a witch.
We also had a meal at the local tavern and I ordered ‘Welsh Rarebit’ which I had thought was called Welsh Rabbit. I expected cheese on toast but back in the old days, they mixed cheese with beer and mustard and threw it on a plate… Or should I say threw up on a plate. At least, that’s how it looked..and tasted for that matter. That is the last and only time I will experiment with 18th Century food. As I gagged on it, I couldn’t help thinking.. If you can taste it.. It’s in your mouth. Unpleasant!

We are staying in the Governor’s Inn which is a big step down from the Sofitel but it’s clean enough and just 3 blocks from the centre of the restored town. Two double beds so we get a bed each. Woo-hoo!

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