Williamsburg

We left the Fluhartys and headed south over / under the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. Huh? So, to cross the Chesapeake Bay the road starts out as a bridge and then it plunges into the water for a tunnel and then back up to a bridge only to plunge again and back up above the water for another bridge. The reason it has tunnel sections is because cargo ships pass overhead to bring their goods into various ports. The tunnel portions are 13’6” tall meaning that the Busse Bus had about four inches to spare – a bit hairy! As we were approaching the first tunnel a cargo ship had just passed overhead:

Talk about being nervous! Check out the video:

To add insult to injury in order to reach our destination we needed to traverse additional bridges and tunnels. We got to see these naval vessels:

We were so happy to finally get away from the bay and out of Norfolk. We traveled another hour or so before we arrived just outside of Williamsburg at the Anvil Campground. We found Anvil to be quite tight to park the rig and then small all the way around including the dog park.

Instead of viewing the historic sites first we headed over to Busch Gardens to ride some rides! I guess that we are just kids at heart. First off we hit their new ride, Pantheon:

After hitting another roller coaster we felt that maybe we are getting a little older as our heads were hurting. Therefore we decided to check out the amusement park in other ways. Busch Gardens is organized by countries meaning that there are different themes for physical areas of the park. We walked into a store in Italy and discovered that they had wine tasting. Katrina purchased a tasting ticket that allowed four tastes at three different countries. Here’s Italy:

Nora was terrific!

From there we walked over to Germany to taste theirs:

Joseph was good as well! We found these glasses:

Aren’t they funny? So appropriate!

We stopped for a german lunch at Das Festhaus before heading to France to sample their wines.

Desiree was a lot of fun!

Since it was so hot we decided to ride the skyway to cool off:

From that advantage point we got to see some of the animals that were outside:

Our heads felt a little better (maybe it was time or maybe it was the alcohol) but we decided to ride another roller coaster named Verbolten in Germany:

Excellent roller coaster with an unusual twist (can’t give it away here). Well after the ride our heads were pounding again so we decided to leave. Good call as the rain started right after we got in the truck. Our overall opinion of Busch Gardens Williamsburg was that it could be a lot more fun if it wasn’t so hot and if all the attractions were open – some were closed due to lack of employees. Oh, and if we were a bit younger….

The next day we went to see colonial Williamsburg. Again another extremely hot day! We started at the visitors center where we learned that in order to see the demonstrations (barrel making, horse shoeing, basket weaving, etc.) that it would cost each of us $48.00. We decided to just walk around the old town. Here’s the Governor’s Palace:

The main street (Duke of Gloucester Street):

The Capitol:

To cool off we stopped at Chowning’s Tavern for a drink.

Colonial Williamsburg was an interesting stop where some of the buildings were original, but most were reproductions built on the original foundations. There were 88 buildings in all and we assumed that the demonstrations might have been good, although we didn’t pay to see them. There were very few people there visiting as it was so hot! We decide to head back to the coach.

We went to a local gyro shop for a quick dinner before trying the Brass Cannon Brewery. Very cute place:

The beer was fairly good and we learned that the place was closing for good in October. Another pandemic victim!

The following day we went to the Williamsburg Farmers Market:

A wonderful farmers market!

We had planned on visiting the ruins of Jamestown and the replica built on more solid ground nearby but we decided to scrap those plans as the heat was brutal. We settled for the air conditioning of the Busse Bus instead.

We had dinner reservations at Berret’s Seafood Restaurant & Taphouse Grill in the commercial portion of Colonial Williamsburg right next to Williams & Mary College.

We started at the bar since it was happy hour with drinks and oysters. Amy, from Wisconsin, was our bartender:

After finishing the oysters, we moved outside to listen to the band:

We got them to sing Turn the Page, but they didn’t remember the words so we had to prompt them at the beginning of each stanza. Had fun and laughed a lot!

The meal was decent and we had fun with the entire event. We headed home to start packing up for our departure planned the next morning.

Up and out and on our way to mooch-dock at Tom Connor and Alice Clark’s (to make life easier for me: T & A) house in Virginia.