We made our way from Chincoteague, VA to Williamsburg, VA and arrived about noon. We were able to check into our hotel early, so we found a dog-friendly restaurant called Craft 31. Eddie was quite appreciative after being left so much in Chincoteague. The food was pretty good, and the weather was just about perfect. As often happens, Eddie attracted the attention of a gentleman who commented on the fact she is so well behaved. His name is Scott and he and his wife and a couple of friends were visiting Williamsburg from Pennsylvania. We shared about our driving trip, and he said he and his wife want to do the same thing sometime in the near future. Scott also told us about a restaurant in Old Town Williamsburg called Berrets. They are famous for their $1 oysters they serve from 4 PM until closing. We had planned on going to the Colonial Williamsburg attraction, which consists of shops from the colonial period as well as people in period costume, but the price of admission was $50 each and it was due to close in an hour and a half, so we decided to just wander the streets of Old Town Williamsburg. We saw homes from colonial times – it is so interesting to think about the fact we are looking at houses that were built when we were still a commonwealth of Britain. Of course, compared to Europe nothing here is very old, but it is the very beginnings of what is now the United States.
I like Williamsburg. They build a whole road just for us. It called DOG road.
Eddie, nice thought. It’s true that they are very, very friendly towards dogs, but that street is called the Duke of Gloucester Street. Okay, the initials work.
We also saw William and Mary College (beautiful grounds and lots of students) and quite a few upscale and touristy shoppes. As we were walking around, we happened on Berrets restaurant. It has outdoor seating (for Eddie) and live music (for us) so we grabbed a couple of glasses of wine and listened for a while. The performer’s name is Todd, and he has a nice voice, but his real talent is his guitar playing. It was really good; at one point he even played a box guitar his brother-in-law made him. I’ll post a couple of videos on of him on Facebook as the weak Wi-Fi signals at the places we are staying will not load them on our blog. First world problems. After Todd stopped playing for the evening, we struck up conversations with the people at the tables around us (Eddie once again being the catalyst as they noticed her dancing to AC/DC as Todd was singing “Dirty Deeds”). However, our chats were cut short as we realized our parking time was about to run out. So, we beat feet back to our car and drove back to the hotel. We went to bed soon after as we will be up very early for our 9 – 10-hour drive to Atlanta.
I liked that place. I was really cutting up the rug. And they had SQUIRRELS!!!! Squirrel, Squirrel, Squirrel.
We hit the road at about 6:30 AM and we don’t have much to say about the drive to Atlanta, GA except that we drove through 4 states to get there (Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia) and we hit the 4,000 mile mark for our trip on Highway 84 in North Carolina. Did I mention it was a VERY LONG drive? However, we eventually arrived in Atlanta, had a quick Firehouse Sub salad a little TV to wind down and to bed.
Are we turtles?
Eddie, what?
Are we turtles? We crawl around on 4 paws and have all we own on our back. We ARE turtles! I’m a ninja turtle! I want to be Leonardo. I’m the leader.
Nice try Eddie. You are not the leader.
Okay. Then I’m Michelangelo! I look good in orange. I’m a NINJA TURTLE!
Okay. Whatever.
We thought we could eat breakfast at the Hilton where we were meeting our bus tour but oddly, you can only eat at the restaurant if you are staying at the hotel. The clerk did point us towards a local restaurant called “The Atlanta Breakfast Club” so off we went to find it. We found it pretty easily and the food was really good but again, oddly, there was no diet coke or green tea to be had. They had regular coke and strange sounding herbal teas. We assumed they catered to the local college kids who can still burn off nearly 40 grams of sugar in a regular coke. The highlight was a young food server. We talked with her for quite a while about books and museums. She told us she loved the J.P. Morgan library in Manhattan, and we told her about one of the books we read for book club called The Personal Librarian. She shared how much she loves books and has thought about being a librarian – book lovers are truly everywhere.
If anybody cares, I’m stuck in a metal crate somewhere in Atlanta.
We arrived at our tour meeting area and met Luke our tour guide and Marvis our bus driver. Luke was very entertaining and Marvis, bless her, was very skilled at driving the narrow and crooked roads of Atlanta. We were quite surprised to discover that the population of Atlanta proper is about the same size as Long Beach, CA. The tour took us by the CNN building which isn’t actually the headquarters anymore as the company relocated to a different part of the city when Warner Brothers acquired them. We also drove by the Coca-Cola headquarters and the World of Coke attraction. We spent about 20 minutes of the tour in downtown and then we ventured out into the neighborhoods surrounding downtown. It is very lovely here – the homes are very southern in style but most of the homes were built after the late 1860s because Sherman burnt most of Atlanta down in his “march to the sea”. Feeling still run high on this subject. The tour also took us to the Martin Luther King Jr. Center where he and Coretta Scott King are entombed. It is quite beautiful there with an eternal flame, the freedom walkway and a stunning reflecting pool. Quotes from Dr. King’s speeches and Coretta King’s writings are displayed on the walls, and this is where the Center for Nonviolent Social Change is headquartered. It was a powerfully moving experience to be there.
After the tour dropped us off, we decided we needed some down time, so we just went back to our Airbnb and chilled. We also decided we needed BBQ for dinner, so we went by the Georgia rule (probably more a southern rule) that the more run down and/or funky a place looks on the outside, the better the BBQ is on the inside. It certainly held true for Daddy Dz’s BBQ Joynt. Trust us when we say the BBQ was pure heaven. Juicy, succulent and falling off the bone for Michelle’s chicken and just plain finger likin’ good for Sandy’s pulled pork. Sandy even scooped up the leftover BBQ sauce and ate it with a spoon. The collards were delicious and riddled with ham hock remnants. After that incredible meal we packed up to get ready for our 8-hour drive to New Orleans in the morning.
