Virginia Trip Report 12/22-26
Dec 28th, 2007, 06:08 PM
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2007
Posts: 36
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Virginia Trip Report 12/22-26
Since I had 5 days off over the weekend my wife and I decided to take a roadtrip.
In another posting I asked for suggestions where to go in either Virginia or Carolinas.
Based on the feedback I got Charlotte sounded like a winner but was a bit too far for the amount of time I had. So I decided to go to Virginia.
Cassandra reported that Richmond would be surprisingly interesting. Birdie told me Williamsburg is open on Christmas and that Norfolk had a good art museum. Someone else suggested Charlottesville. Someone else suggested that I leave late to avoid traffic.
I took all that advice and my trip went as follows.
Friday went to the car rental place, they didn't have the car I reserved so they upgraded me to a red Volvo S40. I was happy about that. The car was a pleasure to drive.
We left Friday night at midnite. Since I would avoid traffic that way I decided to head for Charlottesville first. A quick 5 and 1/2 hours later I was in Charlottesville at 5:30 a.m. When I rolled into town it wasn't obvious where the center of things was so I drove around for a while and stopped off at a 7-11 where the clerk told me where to find the 'historic downtown'. He also told me about a good place for breakfast, 'The Tavern'. I drove past the UVA campus. When we got to the historic downtown I found my way to a restored strip of stores. We took a couple of laps there but I realized the buildings were probably early twentieth century , not very historic. We walked around there a bit and saw some nice older homes.
We went to 'The Tavern' and had some excellent banana pecan pancakes and a feta cheese, tomato omelette. The guy from the 7-11 was right, this place was good.
I took a look at my Fodors guidebook and read that T. Jefferson helped design the UVA campus so Then we headed to Monticello. on the way out of town we took a longer look.
Charlottesville seems like a pleasant place and no offense to the person who recommended it but unless I missed something, there's not a whole lot to see there.
The trip there wasn't wasted however as I always wanted to see Monticello.
So we headed over there in time for the 11:30 tour. The house was very interesting. I was surprised though to find out that Jefferson had only invented one thing , a farm plow.
Someone told me years ago that Jefferson had a special way of air conditioning his house. But the guide told me that was a myth.
After Monticello we headed off to Richmond.
Before leaving home, I reserved a room at the Omni Hotel. It was easy to get on Priceline so I got a good rate. We had a little trouble finding our way to the downtown as the mapquest directions are very confusing when 64 gets to 95 and 195. After driving back and forth a few times I finally figured it out. When we got to the Omni , I realized it was good to have arrived on Saturday night since street parking was unrestricted on Saturday and Sunday.
We loved the hotel, the bed was a king size and oh so comfy. The room was extra large. The shower had fantastically strong water pressure such that you don't want to come out. I would like to return to Richmond just to relax at that hotel for a week.
It turned out the hotel was right in the middle of the cool Shockoe Slip neighborhood. Cobble stoned streets and a lot of restaurants. We ate at the Phoenix Palace. We have a lot of good chinese food up her in NYC, but the food there was as good as any I have had , and the portions were large.
We walked around after that and found our way to the christmas decorations at the James Center. That was really cool , there were about 50 to 100 reindeers sculpted from wire frames and covered in white lights all across a big lawn.
The next day , Sunday, we went out to explore Richmond. I was going to walk around, but my wife wanted to take the car around. After seeing how hilly and how spread out things were, I was glad we did. We started out with breakfast at Millies diner.
My wife had eggs, corned beef and potatoes, I had the crab cakes. It was a good breakfast to start the day. Then we went exploring the neighborhoods. Drove through Shockoe Bottom and up to Church Hill. Then we drove the other way back to the Virginia Museum of Art. We enjoyed the museum and being able to see new painting by our favorite painters.
There was a collection of Boudin paintings. I learned something new as I never heard of him , but found out that he was a mentor to Monet. I was also impressed by the Mellon collection of sporting art.
When we left the museum I drove around the Cary neighborhood but didn't find anything there. I passed a restaurant, forget the name , near VCU that had a sign for milkshakes outside, so I stopped off and got one, it was pretty good. They had all kinds of exotic combinations but I stuck with chocolate.
We drove around the fan neighborhood I was impressed with some of the large brick homes there and the monuments on Monument ave.
I checked my fodors for something else to do and decided to head over to the Holocaust museum. It was a very moving experience, and when I left there I couldn't get it out of my head for days. I can never get over the cruelty people are capable of.
After that we headed for our next stop Williamsburg. I reserved 3 nights at Governors Inn. When we arrived there I was a little disappointed that the hotel was not right in the Colonial area, but as I was to find out the next day, it was only a short walk away. The free included tickets was a nice bonus as well. We ate dinner at Milanos in town. A mediocre italian dinner.
The next day was Christmas eve. We spent the day touring the building of Colonial Williamsburg. At dark they had a nice tree lighting ceremony which included a rousing march by the fife and drum corps and the shooting of the cannons. They also passed out candles to everyone to hold as we listened to a singer sing Christmas songs.
I wasn't able to get in to any of the Taverns for dinner so we ate in town again. We came back at night for the 'Capitol Evening' event. That included an entertaining puppet show followed by a reenactment of a colonial ball room dance.
The next day we saw a reenactment of George Washington and another of Martha Washington. From there we made a quick tour of the museum of folk art. We went to walk around some more but my wife was starting to get bored, so we went into Chownings for some 'gambols'. It was only later that I read that this was where some famous colonials like Nathan Hale and Jefferson met to discuss things.
The next morning after an ample continental breakfast we departed Williamsburg.
I was having a tough time deciding where to go next , considered Jamestown and Yorktown but finally decided to go to Norfolk to see the Chrysler museum. It was good timing as the museum was free on Wednesdays. It was so nice to be in a museum that wasn't crowded.
We enjoyed adding to our 'viewed collection' of paintings by our favorite painters (the impressionists.)
I normally don't give much attention to medeival and renaissance paintings but they seemed to have a really nice collection here.
I liked the room of painters , contemporaneous with the impressionists who paint realistically. I think this is the pinnacle of painting before painting became modern.
The glass collection was unbelievable and would take days to take it all in.
After the museum, someone told us about Colley ave , so we headed over there and found 'No Frills Restaurant' where we had a delicious rack of ribs and a salad with chunks of tuna steak. The only thing I don't like about eating out in Virginia is the high sales tax.
After eating I found out how to get to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel. The wife and I were amazed at this feat of engineering. There was a small storm going on so the water was rough. I was wondering if anyone had ever got washed over. I stopped at the rest area in the middle of the bridge and got out to experience nature's fury.
We drove all the way back home in 6 and 1/2 hours.
All in all we really enjoyed Virginia. I would go back to Richmond , there's a lot there still to see. We also liked Williamsburg, though I think it's a bit overrated it was very interesting and educational.
Thanks everyone help planning this trip.
--Sandman
In another posting I asked for suggestions where to go in either Virginia or Carolinas.
Based on the feedback I got Charlotte sounded like a winner but was a bit too far for the amount of time I had. So I decided to go to Virginia.
Cassandra reported that Richmond would be surprisingly interesting. Birdie told me Williamsburg is open on Christmas and that Norfolk had a good art museum. Someone else suggested Charlottesville. Someone else suggested that I leave late to avoid traffic.
I took all that advice and my trip went as follows.
Friday went to the car rental place, they didn't have the car I reserved so they upgraded me to a red Volvo S40. I was happy about that. The car was a pleasure to drive.
We left Friday night at midnite. Since I would avoid traffic that way I decided to head for Charlottesville first. A quick 5 and 1/2 hours later I was in Charlottesville at 5:30 a.m. When I rolled into town it wasn't obvious where the center of things was so I drove around for a while and stopped off at a 7-11 where the clerk told me where to find the 'historic downtown'. He also told me about a good place for breakfast, 'The Tavern'. I drove past the UVA campus. When we got to the historic downtown I found my way to a restored strip of stores. We took a couple of laps there but I realized the buildings were probably early twentieth century , not very historic. We walked around there a bit and saw some nice older homes.
We went to 'The Tavern' and had some excellent banana pecan pancakes and a feta cheese, tomato omelette. The guy from the 7-11 was right, this place was good.
I took a look at my Fodors guidebook and read that T. Jefferson helped design the UVA campus so Then we headed to Monticello. on the way out of town we took a longer look.
Charlottesville seems like a pleasant place and no offense to the person who recommended it but unless I missed something, there's not a whole lot to see there.
The trip there wasn't wasted however as I always wanted to see Monticello.
So we headed over there in time for the 11:30 tour. The house was very interesting. I was surprised though to find out that Jefferson had only invented one thing , a farm plow.
Someone told me years ago that Jefferson had a special way of air conditioning his house. But the guide told me that was a myth.
After Monticello we headed off to Richmond.
Before leaving home, I reserved a room at the Omni Hotel. It was easy to get on Priceline so I got a good rate. We had a little trouble finding our way to the downtown as the mapquest directions are very confusing when 64 gets to 95 and 195. After driving back and forth a few times I finally figured it out. When we got to the Omni , I realized it was good to have arrived on Saturday night since street parking was unrestricted on Saturday and Sunday.
We loved the hotel, the bed was a king size and oh so comfy. The room was extra large. The shower had fantastically strong water pressure such that you don't want to come out. I would like to return to Richmond just to relax at that hotel for a week.
It turned out the hotel was right in the middle of the cool Shockoe Slip neighborhood. Cobble stoned streets and a lot of restaurants. We ate at the Phoenix Palace. We have a lot of good chinese food up her in NYC, but the food there was as good as any I have had , and the portions were large.
We walked around after that and found our way to the christmas decorations at the James Center. That was really cool , there were about 50 to 100 reindeers sculpted from wire frames and covered in white lights all across a big lawn.
The next day , Sunday, we went out to explore Richmond. I was going to walk around, but my wife wanted to take the car around. After seeing how hilly and how spread out things were, I was glad we did. We started out with breakfast at Millies diner.
My wife had eggs, corned beef and potatoes, I had the crab cakes. It was a good breakfast to start the day. Then we went exploring the neighborhoods. Drove through Shockoe Bottom and up to Church Hill. Then we drove the other way back to the Virginia Museum of Art. We enjoyed the museum and being able to see new painting by our favorite painters.
There was a collection of Boudin paintings. I learned something new as I never heard of him , but found out that he was a mentor to Monet. I was also impressed by the Mellon collection of sporting art.
When we left the museum I drove around the Cary neighborhood but didn't find anything there. I passed a restaurant, forget the name , near VCU that had a sign for milkshakes outside, so I stopped off and got one, it was pretty good. They had all kinds of exotic combinations but I stuck with chocolate.
We drove around the fan neighborhood I was impressed with some of the large brick homes there and the monuments on Monument ave.
I checked my fodors for something else to do and decided to head over to the Holocaust museum. It was a very moving experience, and when I left there I couldn't get it out of my head for days. I can never get over the cruelty people are capable of.
After that we headed for our next stop Williamsburg. I reserved 3 nights at Governors Inn. When we arrived there I was a little disappointed that the hotel was not right in the Colonial area, but as I was to find out the next day, it was only a short walk away. The free included tickets was a nice bonus as well. We ate dinner at Milanos in town. A mediocre italian dinner.
The next day was Christmas eve. We spent the day touring the building of Colonial Williamsburg. At dark they had a nice tree lighting ceremony which included a rousing march by the fife and drum corps and the shooting of the cannons. They also passed out candles to everyone to hold as we listened to a singer sing Christmas songs.
I wasn't able to get in to any of the Taverns for dinner so we ate in town again. We came back at night for the 'Capitol Evening' event. That included an entertaining puppet show followed by a reenactment of a colonial ball room dance.
The next day we saw a reenactment of George Washington and another of Martha Washington. From there we made a quick tour of the museum of folk art. We went to walk around some more but my wife was starting to get bored, so we went into Chownings for some 'gambols'. It was only later that I read that this was where some famous colonials like Nathan Hale and Jefferson met to discuss things.
The next morning after an ample continental breakfast we departed Williamsburg.
I was having a tough time deciding where to go next , considered Jamestown and Yorktown but finally decided to go to Norfolk to see the Chrysler museum. It was good timing as the museum was free on Wednesdays. It was so nice to be in a museum that wasn't crowded.
We enjoyed adding to our 'viewed collection' of paintings by our favorite painters (the impressionists.)
I normally don't give much attention to medeival and renaissance paintings but they seemed to have a really nice collection here.
I liked the room of painters , contemporaneous with the impressionists who paint realistically. I think this is the pinnacle of painting before painting became modern.
The glass collection was unbelievable and would take days to take it all in.
After the museum, someone told us about Colley ave , so we headed over there and found 'No Frills Restaurant' where we had a delicious rack of ribs and a salad with chunks of tuna steak. The only thing I don't like about eating out in Virginia is the high sales tax.
After eating I found out how to get to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel. The wife and I were amazed at this feat of engineering. There was a small storm going on so the water was rough. I was wondering if anyone had ever got washed over. I stopped at the rest area in the middle of the bridge and got out to experience nature's fury.
We drove all the way back home in 6 and 1/2 hours.
All in all we really enjoyed Virginia. I would go back to Richmond , there's a lot there still to see. We also liked Williamsburg, though I think it's a bit overrated it was very interesting and educational.
Thanks everyone help planning this trip.
--Sandman
Dec 28th, 2007, 11:59 PM
#4
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2007
Posts: 36
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Sorry for the grammatical errors. I edited before posting, but I must have not clicked something correctly, because the unedited version got posted.
Anyway I'm glad you enjoyed the report. I know that fodor folk like to see what happened with the people who asked for advice.
Yes, we really enjoyed the three art museums we went to. Prior to this trip I didn't even know they existed.
Anyway I'm glad you enjoyed the report. I know that fodor folk like to see what happened with the people who asked for advice.
Yes, we really enjoyed the three art museums we went to. Prior to this trip I didn't even know they existed.
Dec 29th, 2007, 04:49 AM
#7
Sandman - I am so glad you posted. It sounds like you had a good time. I felt badly that I had abandoned you in the week before your trip and didn't suggest restaurants. It was a very busy time for me. You did well on your own except Milanos. How horrible!! I truly let you down. Anyway, I'm glad you enjoyed the museums and had some fun. I get a thrill every time I cross the CBBT.
Dec 29th, 2007, 07:19 AM
#8
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2007
Posts: 36
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Birdie,
I was wondering what happened to you. I figured either you were really busy for Christmas or something had happened to you. I'm relieved to see it was the former, and that you're fine
. Hope you had a good Christmas.
I actually saw your restaurant recommendations in an older post , but I stupidly neglected to write them down.
As you can see from the trip report, your other recommendations were really useful. Thanks again.
--Sandman
I was wondering what happened to you. I figured either you were really busy for Christmas or something had happened to you. I'm relieved to see it was the former, and that you're fine
. Hope you had a good Christmas. I actually saw your restaurant recommendations in an older post , but I stupidly neglected to write them down.
As you can see from the trip report, your other recommendations were really useful. Thanks again.
--Sandman
Dec 29th, 2007, 11:11 AM
#9
Guest
Posts: n/a
Great report. Was a little nervous when you reminded us each of what we'd promised (e.g., I said Richmond would surprise you)... but pfew, you liked Richmond!
Thanks so much for coming back -- those of us who take time to write longish recommendations are never sure they're noted or appreciated.
Thanks so much for coming back -- those of us who take time to write longish recommendations are never sure they're noted or appreciated.
Dec 29th, 2007, 01:57 PM
#10
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2007
Posts: 36
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Cassandra,
Richmond looks like a city on the upswing. There's certainly enough there for a visitor to have a good time.
If you haven't seen the Christmas decorations around the James Center you should go see it.
Thanks again for the advice.
-- Sandman
Richmond looks like a city on the upswing. There's certainly enough there for a visitor to have a good time.
If you haven't seen the Christmas decorations around the James Center you should go see it.
Thanks again for the advice.
-- Sandman
Dec 29th, 2007, 02:37 PM
#11
Join Date: Mar 2006
Posts: 4
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Hi!
As a life-time resident of Richmond, I was so excited to read that you enjoyed your visit here. It's a beautiful small city with lots of history, culture, fine dining and friendly people. Hope you'll return soon!
As a life-time resident of Richmond, I was so excited to read that you enjoyed your visit here. It's a beautiful small city with lots of history, culture, fine dining and friendly people. Hope you'll return soon!
Jan 7th, 2008, 05:53 PM
#12
Join Date: Jul 2004
Posts: 9
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Dear Mr. and Mrs. Sandman: Loved reading your account, especially of my home--Richmond. How amazing that you found Millie's Diner--it's the best. Next time please visit Lewis Ginter Botanic Garden. Not as big as some other gardens (such as the amazing Chicago Botanic Garden) but it's so smallish with interesting separate gardens and even cool in the hot, Richmond summers. Some time, drive down Rt. 11, parallel to the biggie Hwy 81, and view the mountains (southern size) and meadows. Very pretty. If you make it as far as Waynesboro stop at the Artisan Center of Virginia to see great arts & crafts made by creative types from all over VA. If you go to Powhatan just 40 min west of Richmond's center, visit Becky's Tea Cafe inside the Virginia Pantry, just to make your wife happy. Best salads and service you'll find for many counties. If you visit again make it in October and drive some through the Blue Ridge Parkway. The leaves are so beautiful we post alerts in the newspaper, highlighting the "peak" times for viewing.
