Escape from DC!

Finally, after months of being cooped up in our cave (aka basement), we were able to escape to a nearby adventure.

The adventure begins at Petersburg National Battlefield.

For those of you who read the book or watched the movie Cold Mountain, the opening scene of the book/movie is the horror of Petersburg. The Union army had a division of men from the Pennsylvania Mining Company who came up with the great idea to dig  a tunnel under enemy lines.

Once deep into enemy territory, they then filled the tunnel with explosives and ka-boom!!! Very clever idea, right? And, it would have been except that once the air had cleared, the blues then proceeded to run right into the crater created from the explosion. Why?! I'm not sure anyone knows to this day, but needless to say, it was pretty easy pickings for the greys once the blues had jumped into a hole with no way out. The other horror of this particular Civil War battlefield is unlike similar battles that were over in days or weeks, this one lasted for months. Nine long months. I think the Park Ranger summed up the feelings of the veterans the best when he pointed out that unlike many of the other civil war battlefields, this one has very few monuments.

None of the veterans wanted to remember this tragedy. None from either side. I know. Sounds like a bleak start to our adventure, but if we don't learn our history, how will we move forward, instead of back?

To continue our historical weekend, we then traveled to Colonial Williamsburg. By this time, it was getting late and we had dinner reservations at our hotel, so we went straight there and checked in. Now, I had done copious research to find just the right place for our first night out in months. I looked at the websites for pretty much every hotel, resort, and B&B in Williamsburg and finally settled on The Wedmore Place, which, conveniently is also a winery. Believe it or not, that is not the reason I chose the place. I chose it because it looks like this:

And the room I chose looks like this:

Enchanting, right? Yeah. I'm pretty sure that room was cursed. The absolute first thing that happened was I caught my brand new, just finished knitting, shrug on this door and ripped a hole in the sleeve.

Shortly thereafter, the SigO whacked me upside the head while pulling his shirt off.

The fire wouldn't catch.

The hot water ran out before the tub was full.

A series of incidents continued through the night, but by far the kicker was early the next morning when the birds began attacking their reflection in the window. We tried everything. Opening the curtains to reduce the reflection. Banging on the window to scare them off. Finally, we took my lipstick and drew giant faces on the window. I'm not sure if that actually did the trick, or if the angle of the sun finally changed enough that they no longer saw their reflection.

Let's just say this was one of those things that's funny in retrospect, but not so much at the crack of dawn on your day off.
Dinner cetainly wasn't cursed, by the way. I had Foie Gras (I know - I'm a horrible, horrible, barbaric person) and the SigO had Lobster ravioli for the appetizer. We both had venison (again with the barbarism - now I'm eating Bambi's Mother!) for our main course and I had Lemon Panne Cotta while the SigO enjoyed a decadent brownie with ice cream.

Saturday in Colonial Williamsburg was a gorgeous day.

The period actors were entertaining.

and we found this really cool tree - no idea what it is -

but check out the bark.

Also, speaking of bark - wouldn't this be more fun than just putting the SigO into the doghouse?

Look at that furrowed brow.
Oh - and just for giggles - here I am - being me.

Yeah. I'm groping Thomas Jefferson. What can I say - I told you I'm a barbarian.

Honey's BDay Celebration

Well, today is the SigO's birthday. He claims he's like to just forget these annual events, but he knows that won't fly with me - I believe in celebrating your birthday, no matter how old you get. Some would say celebrating your birthday beats the alternative. I wouldn't know, having never experienced the alternative, but still, I say Carpe Diem - let's party.
So, we went to The Grille at Morrison House Saturday night. They offered us the choice to dine in the bar (pictured on the site) or in the dining room. I am so glad we chose the bar - it was open mike night. Now, I've been to some pretty sketchy open mikes. In one instance, I was actually serenaded. Sounds romantic, I'm sure - and it might have been - if it hadn't been our first date!! Then, it's just awkward. But, I digress. Open mike night at the Morrison House was mostly professional singers who seemed to just want to do it for fun.
The pianist was quite talented - as was his accompaning trumpet player, who, in this video, is actually singing.

That's me coming in at the end - I know - I'll keep my day job.
And speaking of day jobs - this man's day job was for the Washington Opera.

And, this couple was engaged to be married, so one of their table-mates sang a song for them - he was the only non-professional singer, but he roped one of the others to sing with him to keep it on key.

It was very entertaining. One older man with a very deep voice seemed to enjoy singing show tunes from plays such as Oklahoma and Paint Your Wagon - his voice was perfectly suited for the songs he chose.
All of this was our entertainment through a lovely meal, which included:

1. Artichoke pate with black truffle oil paired with a sparkling wine
2. Cauliflower Bisque (I know - sounds bland - but it was quite good) paired with a Chablis
3. Pumpkin Ravioli with Duck Confit paired with a Pinot Noir (our favorite dish for the night)
4. Salmon paired with a Chardonnay
5. Lamb paired with a Meritage
6. a small Cheese course paired with port
7. Dark Chocolate cake paired with a dessert wine

We really enjoyed the evening and stayed til around 11:30 - I haven't stayed out that long since...well, OK - since my birthday - but still.

We weren't ready to call it a night, so when we got home, we opened a nice bottle of Two Hands 2009 Lily's Garden Shiraz and stayed up chatting til 3:00 AM.

Now that's the way to celebrate another year of life!