Gloucester, Virginia

Grandma's hibiscus still blooming in Virginia

Gloucester is in southeast Virginia, just off the coast and near Colonial Williamsburg and Yorktown. My in-laws live there on the Ware River, an estuary of the Chesapeake Bay. They've lived on ten acres of low land next to the water there since George was 10 or 11 years old (a long time! 1969). It's really nice to visit them, despite the distance, and every time we go I find myself amazed by what a different world they live in. Sure, it's the same country but the geography, the accent, the customs, the way the roads and houses are situated, the flora and fauna, it's all so different. Persimmons growing on the tree at Tree Lodge, the home of my mother and father-in-law. We brought six home, to ripen a bit more in the fridge, then make my FIL George's fabulous Persimmon Pudding (a Christmas treat we've been missing because we can rarely visit at Christmas anymore). My George will try to replicate it--we'll see, eh?

In Virginia everything is overgrown. 25-year old poplar and cedar trees are incredibly tall, and massive wisteria vines hang from them. Poison Ivy even gets thick vining trunks and climbs the trees, unlike here in Minnesota where it is usually just small little weeds.

The edge of the "fairy wood", as I call it, at Uncle Paul's place, Folly Farm. Uncle Paul lives in a very old home on a small clearing surrounded by deep dark woods. It is low and damp and I just know fairies and gnomes live there, just as you'd expect!

In my in-laws' part of Virginia you can be driving on a strip of road that looks like everywhere else in America, McDonalds and Starbucks and all that ugly crap, but then you turn off that road and you are in the country. Winding narrow lanes, deep dark forests, occasional farm fields and great big manor houses next to tiny little homes all mingled together with seemingly no planning or pattern. It boggles my mind and I still, after 13 years going there, don't feel comfortable driving around by myself. When I have, I've missed turns and gotten lost and found myself driving down lane after lane into woods and more woods.

Tree Lodge, or Grandma and Grandpa's house, to the kids, seen from the water side which they call the "front" of the house but it's not the side you drive up to!

The "front" porch, sadly vacant at this time of year. In summer everyone LIVES on this huge wraparound porch; all three meals of the day are taken here, and much chatting, napping and reading is done from these chairs and hammocks while looking out at the river and trying to stay cool.

The main reason for the crazy quilt style of roads is that this area is full of rivers and streams. You go down one road and you come to water, you go down another and there's a marina full of boats. Some people live on islands and many on marshy land that butts up to yet another river or part of the river you were near before. Another reason for the seeming lack of planning is that many properties were platted 300 years or more ago. There are former plantations still intact and some divided up. It appears that people just bought a piece of land wherever they could afford it, if it was for sale, and built their large or small home on it. It's so different from Minnesota where the towns are all based on squares, where we have ring roads around each town, and where even the country lanes are often at 90 degree angles to one another.

On our first full day in Gloucester, we attended a Revolutionary War battle reenactment at Warner Hall (above), a property near George and Betty's place. It was the Battle of the Hook, and it was a fun and interesting day. We learned a lot about re-enactors and the extent to which they are into their hobby! I think the day and the battle made an impression on the kids. The British surrendered at Gloucester, after losing the battle there and the battle at Yorktown. It was the end of the war.

These blue crabs made an impression on us, too. The kids and I had our first lesson in what do you call it, crab picking? I know this isn't the first time we've been there when crab has been served, but for some reason I think the kids and I have missed out on it. There are usually so many people at George and Betty's when we're there in the summer (the Zahn B&B it's called!) that I guess it's easy to miss things.

After being what-steamed?-out on the grill burner with some Old Bay seasoning and beer, they were brought into the kitchen still looking at us! Grandpa, Grandma and Dad gave lessons in crab anatomy and what to eat and not to eat.

Daddy was having a hard time doing any teaching, however, as he was so busy eating and licking his fingers!

Finally Grandpa and Grandma had to do the instructing...

The kids were uncertain about the whole thing, but at least they tried. Even Rose who is growing into a less picky eater these days! I thought the crab was delicious, but a lot of work kind of like artichokes (another of my husband's favorites). I guess I prefer Betty's crab cakes which we had a couple night's later--yummy taste, less work. I know! I know! So shoot me!

We had to drive a long way for it, but that blue crab was truly local food--caught right off Grandpa's pier.