Dateline September 3, 2019, Williamsburg and Yorktown
We arrived later in the afternoon at the home of Janice's cousin Kathy and her husband Eddie. It was a tender evening of talk, for Kathy had lost her mother, Helen, only the week before, at ninety-two. We sat together over the past and looked through the photo story and the keepsakes of Helen's life.
The Farmers Market. In the morning we went over to the old village of Williamsburg and walked the streets of the Saturday Farmers Market. Janice once kept a stand at the Flagler Beach Farmers Market, so the two of us are fond of a good market. There were plenty of stalls aimed at the tastes of the day, vegan, organic, and just plain expensive, but it was colorful and full of life, families everywhere with their dogs.
Here was a little husky, sixteen weeks old, and we must admit we are getting the bug to take on a small friend of our own, something more than two pounds and under fifty.
We happened by the Bruton Parish Episcopal Church and walked through its annual book sale, looking over a good many titles. We were told the church would be dedicating its new organ on Sunday, so we made our plans to come to the quarter-past-nine service.
Yorktown for the concert. Saturday evening, the Virginia Symphony Orchestra played an outdoor concert at the Riverwalk Landing on Yorktown Beach. We came early to find parking, left our chairs to hold a spot, and walked back to the Yorktown Pub for an early dinner. The food was excellent and the place was a lot of fun.
The beach was full of people, it being Labor Day weekend, and more kept arriving for the symphony, which started at half past seven. The theme that evening was music from cartoons; the Flintstones theme brought the conductor to the stage in a handmade "Yabba Dabba Doo" car, and all of it was the music we had grown up watching as children. Part of the evening was a contest for the best picnic presentation, and the couple in front of us took an honorable mention for their crab dinner and the spread they had set. Their desserts were marvelous, and they shared them with the four of us.
Bruton Parish. Sunday morning we went back to the Bruton Parish Episcopal Church with Kathy and Eddie for the quarter-past-nine service and the dedication of the new organ. It was a beautiful service, and the organist outdid herself with the music. The church is one of the oldest Episcopal churches in the United States, its walls standing since long before the Revolution.
Colonial Williamsburg. After church we took a stroll into the Colonial Williamsburg village. You need passes only to enter the buildings, and having done the full tour in the past we were content to walk the streets, until whatever Eddie and John had got up to in some earlier life caught up with them, and they were clapped in the stocks and made to pay.
Kathy got to talking about the old windmill that had stood in the village and had been moved over to a working farm on the far side of Williamsburg, where visitors can see it run. That set us off on windmills, and the sorry sight of the modern ones that, once they stop turning, are simply left to rust where they stand, an eyesore being repeated the world over. At least in Williamsburg they are putting an old mill back to work, so we can see how it once served the community.
Golf at Ford's Colony. We had the chance to play the Marsh Hawk Course at Ford's Colony, and to write about it, which is always a pleasure. Kathy's father, Bud, had been a member there for years, so it was a treat to play his old course. After about three holes the course backed up. There was a single behind us, so we asked if he cared to join us. He had moved to Williamsburg only about a year before and was a member at the club, and we had a wonderful time with Terry Moran. Some years back the group he worked with had given him "improve" lessons as a gift, and he was as funny as they come; there was not a remark made all afternoon that he did not have a comeback for. We enjoyed ourselves so much that we told him if he ever made it to Florida he had to let us know, and we would be thrilled to play with him again.
We had a nice dinner with Eddie and Kathy, who are eating plant based to look after their health, and it was not bad at all. It was a lovely evening, and in the morning we started for North Carolina. A great time, and we are looking forward to their visit to Florida this winter.
