Blue Moon over Tall Ships
Well, we’re set up and ready as we can be, other than the fact I need to finish Susan’s garb tonight. Yesterday we scoped out the area and visited the Virginia Air & Space Museum, which as it turned out is hosting some of the Blackbeard Festival activities. The museum was pretty interesting, and very interactive. I enjoyed it despite the fact that bunches of school kids were touring as well.
Last night we had supper at a little hole-in-the-wall called "Sam and Steve’s House of Beef". The food was good, the east-coast variation of old-fashioned home cooking. The restaurant looked like a time warp from the 70’s by the décor. Sue and Tomas liked it, I thought it was okay. Its someplace the locals go, we discovered.
Today we set up on site, which turned out to be a small park by the waterfront. At first I thought we were going to be in the reinactment area, but thankfully we aren’t. We’re just outside. My outfit is a little too "renfaire" for reinactors, and I would have felt like a peacock in the chicken coop. The festival is shaping up to be quite large, though scattered. It is reminding me of a cross between Mardi Gras and a Jimmy Buffett concert so far, with a little renfair thrown in. They are closing off streets for vendors to set up trailers, like at Fall Festival in Evansville. The locals are all docking their boats, festooned with pirate flags and gaudy kitsch. The reinactors are pulling into the park and packing in a little encampment, like a miniature SCA event. Here is one especially egregious example of someone who went overboard on the decorating.
And four tall ships have pulled in, several sounding their cannons upon their entry to the harbor! We walked down to look at them today, since we won’t have time to see the "battles" tomorrow, at least if things go well. One is an actual tall ship, two are smaller-scale replicas, and one is a modern look-alike cruising ship. I loved seeing them. We couldn’t swing a tour (those don’t start until tomorrow) but just getting close up to them was fun. Here are two of the four; in the foreground is the Royaliste, a small-scale replica, and in the rear you can see the much larger Kalmar Nyckel.
On our way to the tall ships, we saw some more local wildlife. Apparently the herons around here are completely accustomed to humans, as this one paid us no mind, though we were only a few feet away! He just kept on fishing. He practically posed for us.
Lunch was at another local place, called Marker 20. A microbrew bar and restaurant, the food was pretty good. The clam chowder is excellent, though it is not what most folks away from Chesapeake would call chowder. Rather than milky, this was more along the lines of vegetable chunks in broth, with plenty of clam. Some places skimp on the clam in chowder, but not here.
The moon has been full, and the weather hot, though not as much so as Tennessee. We’re skipping the black-tie ball tonight so I can sew. There isn’t much point in us "hob-snobbing" with the local uppity-mucks. I’d rather get a good night’s sleep so I’ll be alert tomorrow.
Last night we had supper at a little hole-in-the-wall called "Sam and Steve’s House of Beef". The food was good, the east-coast variation of old-fashioned home cooking. The restaurant looked like a time warp from the 70’s by the décor. Sue and Tomas liked it, I thought it was okay. Its someplace the locals go, we discovered.
Today we set up on site, which turned out to be a small park by the waterfront. At first I thought we were going to be in the reinactment area, but thankfully we aren’t. We’re just outside. My outfit is a little too "renfaire" for reinactors, and I would have felt like a peacock in the chicken coop. The festival is shaping up to be quite large, though scattered. It is reminding me of a cross between Mardi Gras and a Jimmy Buffett concert so far, with a little renfair thrown in. They are closing off streets for vendors to set up trailers, like at Fall Festival in Evansville. The locals are all docking their boats, festooned with pirate flags and gaudy kitsch. The reinactors are pulling into the park and packing in a little encampment, like a miniature SCA event. Here is one especially egregious example of someone who went overboard on the decorating.
And four tall ships have pulled in, several sounding their cannons upon their entry to the harbor! We walked down to look at them today, since we won’t have time to see the "battles" tomorrow, at least if things go well. One is an actual tall ship, two are smaller-scale replicas, and one is a modern look-alike cruising ship. I loved seeing them. We couldn’t swing a tour (those don’t start until tomorrow) but just getting close up to them was fun. Here are two of the four; in the foreground is the Royaliste, a small-scale replica, and in the rear you can see the much larger Kalmar Nyckel.
On our way to the tall ships, we saw some more local wildlife. Apparently the herons around here are completely accustomed to humans, as this one paid us no mind, though we were only a few feet away! He just kept on fishing. He practically posed for us.
Lunch was at another local place, called Marker 20. A microbrew bar and restaurant, the food was pretty good. The clam chowder is excellent, though it is not what most folks away from Chesapeake would call chowder. Rather than milky, this was more along the lines of vegetable chunks in broth, with plenty of clam. Some places skimp on the clam in chowder, but not here.
The moon has been full, and the weather hot, though not as much so as Tennessee. We’re skipping the black-tie ball tonight so I can sew. There isn’t much point in us "hob-snobbing" with the local uppity-mucks. I’d rather get a good night’s sleep so I’ll be alert tomorrow.