Colonial Williamsburg

Grandma Stone had one request for her visit to Washington, a visit to Colonial Williamsburg. Liam rented cars, George researched BBQ on route and girls picked out stylish outfits. We were set.

Unfortunately mini-vans are crazy expensive so we had to travel in convoy. Car 1: Liam, Janelle, Ngila, Bea and Charlotte's Web read by EB White. Car 2: Grandma and Granddad Stone and...I can't speak for what went on in car two.

I am thrilled that our girls have graduated from kiddie tunes to audio books, I hadn't read Charlotte's Web since I was 8, I thoroughly enjoyed to 2 hour car ride to Williamsburg.

Should you find yourself within two hours of Colonial Williamsburg, make the trek. An entire working colonial city. They make yarn, die it, weave it and make clothes, they make shoes, silver pieces, farming implements, the whole thing. You get to wander around in their world, observe and ask questions. Of course it is a tourist trap, but the souvenirs seems less offensive when you can watch them being produced (ED Note: We were there on a sunny March day with the temperature around 26 degrees Celsius. Stones in Washington make no promises of good times in the summer when the temperature climbs to 40 degrees and the humidity increases. The parking lots were nowhere close to full which suggests that Williamsburg has the capacity to trap many more tourists at other times of the year).

Liam will not leave Washington without sampling real BBQ, for those of you south of us, we recognize we haven't really gotten there yet but The Wild Hog BBQ in Toana, VA is doing pretty good work. I struggled through what can only be described as pork chop smothered in apple-cherry pie filling , while the girls tried alligator, catfish and pink lemonade. Across the table their carnivorous Dad and Granddad did in a large platter of BBQ samples; ribs, chicken, brisket and I don't know what else. I paid dearly for the gluttony the next day, the rest of the Stone clan was fine. Almost 10 years in and I still can't keep up.

(ED Note: the use of the world "struggled" suggests that Janelle's dish was unpleasant. In fact, it was a delicious blend of savory and sweet and Janelle is being a bit of princess, demanding that her dinner and dessert come on different plates (and not stacked on top of one another). I guess it's like feeding swine to pearls.)