Denied!

We made it out today, we didn't see any damage or flooding anywhere.  It was still raining and a little windy but not bad at all, and yet things were closed...

Stu in front of the Jamestown Settlement museum, which was closed.

And here I am in front of the Colonial Williamsburg Visitor's Center, which was also closed, trying to make the best of a rotten situation.

It has since stopped raining and tomorrow should be better. Hopefully things will be open, we only have two full days left, something better be open!

Hunkered Down

So here we are, it's been raining since before we got up yesterday morning.  We haven't been out all day and are bored to tears!  I just noticed that I haven't put any pictures on of the time share, so here we go...

This is the master bedroom.

Master bath.

The guest bedroom, which has the bigger bed.

Kind of hard to tell from this picture, but the wind and rain has picked up.

It's 4 pm right now and I think we are past the worst of the storm (hopefully).  It's still raining and a little wind, but not too bad.  We are hoping that tomorrow is better and we can get out and see some sights.

Awaiting Sandy...

This is what we have had all day so far, just a rainy day, not much wind and just a steady rain.  We'll see what the next few days bring us.

I was stationed at the Naval Hospital in Portsmouth, VA back in 1989, seems like forever ago...  Anyway, I came up to Williamsburg quite often since it's only about an hour or so away.  Now, as you can imagine, the colonial part hasn't change much since then, but other wise this is a completely different place!

We did go to Captain George's seafood restaurant for lunch, all you can eat...and we did!

I used to come to the Williamsburg Pottery Barn, it was one big huge building, nothing fancy, for sure.  

Well, it's gotten fancy!

Well, we've got food, water and candles, let's hope we won't need the candles!!

Williamsburg, Day 2

We went to the center of the downtown historic Williamsburg this morning and ran into a farmer's market, lucky us!

We walked away with a bag full of local cheeses...kids in a candy store!

We are still bracing for the storm coming, but were determined to get out and get a little familiar with the area.

It looks cold and blustery, but it's pretty comfortable out.

As we were walking we ran into a group in period costume getting ready to "Storm the Palace".

The Governor's Palace.

The colony's gunpowder was taken during the night by British sailors.  The Williamsburg Independent Company plans to march on the Governor's Palace to demand its return.

Look at that color!

The "Gov" has a pretty nice gate, I told Stu we should get one... 

Check out this tree...

That's a hard life!

This is the courthouse.

I love this time of year!

Beautiful!

Maybe a carriage ride later in the week...

Williamsburg, Virginia

We made it to Williamsburg, Virginia yesterday afternoon.  Just in time to get ready for the big storm coming up the East Coast.  We've got our fingers crossed hoping that it goes out to sea...

Anyway, we are staying at The Historic Powhatan Resort a time share through the Armed Forced Vacation Club.  

We took a walk around the grounds, this is a 270 year old restored manor.

The grounds are beautiful!

That little building is called The Kitchen, it's a restaurant.

The reason we went out was to see the Fife and Drum demonstration.

The outdoor pool looks inviting, it's certainly warm enough.

A stop off at the restaurant/bar on the way back... Now that' a cold beer!

We are going to get out and explore a little bit today, weather permitting.  Our friends Jerry and Sylvia are due to come join us on Sunday, hopefully the weather will cooperate!

Inn Of The Patriot's

Yesterday we headed to a Bed and Breakfast in Grover, North Carolina, The Inn of the Patriot's.  

These were taken from the Foothills Parkway, right down the road from our house.

It was a beautiful day!

I guessing the leaves are at peak color, we even started to see a lot of bare trees on the way home today.

We got to Grover early and decided to check out the big "attraction" in the area.  Kings Mountain National Military Park

We didn't have enough time hike the trails, but we did get to see a weapons demonstration, check out the museum and see a short film about the battle.

Thomas Jefferson called it "The turn of the tide of success".  The battle of Kings Mountain, fought October 7th, 1780, was an important American victory during the Revolutionary War.  The battle was the first major patriot victory to occur after the British invasion of Charleston, SC in May 1780.  The park preserves the site of this important battle.

On to the B & B...

The Inn and Mansion was built in 1879 by Doctor Alfred Frederick Hambright an Assistant Surgeon/Hospital Steward during the Civil War.

There was a nice gathering area at the back of the house around a fire pit.

This fireplace was part of the slave quarters.

If you look closely at the mulch, you'll see some wine bottles...they were everywhere!

Like I said...everywhere!

The dining room.

A little history...  Grover, NC was named for Stephen Grover Cleveland, who was the 22nd and 24th President of the United States. Cleveland is the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms (1885 - 1889) and therefore is the only individual to be counted twice in the numbering of the presidents.

We stayed in the "Baby Ruth" Room.  Named for the President's daughter (She also had a candy bar named after her, how cool is that?!). 

We did have a private bath...  Very creative, the shower was in one closet space, yes, I said closet.  It was bringing back memories of Italian showers.

And the toilet was in the other closet space, not quite a cramped as the shower, but we were glad to have it!

This is the main sitting room, they have lots of local history memorabilia everywhere.

The owner's are Marti and Stormy Mongiello, both prior Navy.  Marti is a retired CSCS, (you can see his shadow box at the left of this picture) and served at as a White House/Camp David chef under President Clinton.

We had a nice, short, but nice stay.  Back home again, we have a lot to do before Friday... We are off to Williamsburg, VA for a week.  Can't wait!