The British Aren’t Coming! — Colonial Williamsburg

Well, we did Shenandoah National Park . . . partially, before we got rained out. We did the Outer Banks—great for lighthouses and other scenery.

Today, we discuss and view Colonial Williamsburg, which Ursula and I actually visited on Friday. We opted to not spend the extra money that would have afforded us unlimited entrance into the various buildings where we could watch craftsmen performing their arts. I was much more interested in the exterior architecture and the outdoor sights, and all that is free.

Fortunately, the weather held for most of the day with only intermittent cloudiness marring some of the building shots (I much prefer photographing buildings against mostly blue skies with just a hint of interesting cloud formations to interrupt the monotony.

Just outside the more touristy areas, in Merchant Square, are some really neat shops, including a Williams-Sonoma for kitchen gadgets, a great little camera shop (Massey’s) with some surprisingly good prices (I purchased an Omni-Bounce at Massey’s for my Canon 430EX flash unit—the owner was very knowledgeable, helpful, and friendly; call him for equipment prices and you might be pleasantly surprised), a nifty little gourmet restaurant for lunch called the Blue Talon Bistro (playing old episodes of Julia Child’s The French Chef on the television—one of my favorite shows as a child, and a rather pleasant break from the normal ESPN/Sports Bar combination), and the charming and very well stocked College of William and Mary Bookstore (actually run by Barnes & Noble, and where I had an interesting conversation with a fellow author who specializes in illustrated children’s history books—very, very clever stuff; unfortunately, I cannot recall his name).