We drove into Baltimore, MD and spent a few moments driving around seeing the stadiums of the Baltimore Orioles and Ravens, which are located in the Camden Park area. We both thought that it looked like a very fun area - with a sandwich place called Potbellies and a pub called Pickles.
We stopped for a few minutes on the Frederick County Wine Trail in Maryland at a vineyard called Elk Run. After tasting their select wines, we chose a bottle that was cleverly labeled Maryland Merlot (the label has the famous image of Marilyn Monroe from the Seven Year Itch...). They were just finishing their harvesting of their Cabernet Franc grapes. We also finally found another bottle of Wine Away (blatant product endorsement), which is a magical spray that takes stains of red wine, strawberries, and all things red out of everything (we have yet to find a situation where it hasn't worked).
We entered the 15th state of our journey - Virginia. See sign below.
The reason that we have very little to stay about Virginia, is that we were there for only a very short time, and never actually got out of our car.
We were on a mission to visit Harper's Ferry, WV, which is a significant historical site. Of course, before we got to Harper's Ferry, WV, we were sidetracked by a Bavarian restaurant which our book said was the best Bavarian restaurant outside of Bavaria, Germany, with an actual chef from Germany. Being that one of us is of German descent, and that David had never had spaetzle noodles, we had to stop.
We started with a Bavarian Sausage Sampler - with Weisswurst, Knockwurst, and Bratwurst along with sauerkraut and curried crab soup (yes, we realize that curried crab soup is not really German, but it sounded tasty). Our entrees included the traditional Wiener Schnitzel along with red cabbage and spaetzle and a wild game meatloaf of venison, wild boar and elk along with whipped potatoes and asparagus, along with real German beer. Delicious! And, of course, our inside out German chocolate cake topped everything off nicely!
We did then however continue on to our destination of Harper's Ferry, WV - which is the location of John Brown's attempted raid of an arsenal to arm slaves in hopes of a rebellion to end slavery. We were quite impressed with John Brown's ability to grow the incredible beard that he had in one year! (Look it up if you've never seen a picture of him - it is a sight!)
Above is a picture of where the original arsenal stood, as well as the sign describing the events that took place. As part of the National Park Service, the whole area was very well signed and we really enjoyed the John Brown museum. We saw the location of John Brown's fort, where Lewis and Clark purchased supplies for their expedition, walked a bit on the Appalachian trail (and saw a through-hiker who had clearly traveled further on foot that day than we did!), and saw the preserved 1800's village.
On the road again, we headed back to Virginia toward Richmond, VA, where we were to stay with great aunt Anita. We arrived around 8 PM, were greeted with glasses of wine and dinner waiting for us. Aunt Anita is quite spunky and we enjoyed a great time of conversation with her.
10.28.2009: Our day started deliciously with coffee and Sunday Morning Eggs (even though it was Wednesday, aunt Anita still made them for us). We toured much of Richmond, VA with Anita as our guide. She drove us all over the city, showing us Saint John's church (where Patrick Henry delivered his famous "Give me liberty or give me death" speech and where Edgar Allan Poe's mother is buried), Carytown (a hot spot for university students), civil war memorials and statues, and many incredible viewpoints of the city and river.
We toured the State Capitol and learned much about Virginia's history. We also saw a life size marble statue of George Washington (pictured below from the balcony), which is considered to be the most valuable marble statue in the country. The statue shows him exactly as he looked - a plaster mask was made of his face and all his dimensions were measured (in case you are curious, he was 6'2" and weighed 210 pounds). We also toured the Governor's mansion and saw the old city hall building.
Aunt Anita then took us to a restaurant - The Hill Cafe - which she claims has the best burgers in town. Below, a picture of David's Hill Burger.
We took a lovely walk to Pony Pasture, about 3/4 of a mile from Aunt Anita's, where actual Civil War ponies were pastured to rest. It is a beautiful park running alongside a fairly wide and shallow river with big rocks. We sat on the rocks overlooking the James River for a while and enjoyed the beautiful stars before headed back to Aunt Anita's for dinner and to watch Game 1 of the World Series.
10.29.2009: Today we realized that staying at Aunt Anita's is like a homey bed and breakfast. She believes that we should be spoiled, and she is doing a great job of spoiling us! This morning we had country ham with baked apples slices and homemade crepes. We looked at our wedding pictures with Aunt Anita and then we were tantalized with the upcoming homemade crab cakes that were going to be made for dinner. We didn't think that she could top the pork with marmalade, spinach and squash from night one, or the ravioli and Italian sausage with fresh salad and avocado from night two... We sure are excited for tonight (and we get to have a copy of her famous recipe too!)
And, we would like to wish our brother-in-law Dave and our good friend Simone very happy birthdays today!! :)
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