Baltimore, MD and Williamsburg, VA – Days 1&2

Day 1

So we got off at BWI (airport) from Columbus, OH, and it was awful. I felt like I was gonna puke. The pilot wasn’t as good as the first one, I guess, and also because I don’t think that after four years of not being on an airplane, two a day was not a good idea. But after going to the baggage claim and getting our bag, I sat down and felt a little better. My dad soon picked us up with a Chrysler PT Cruiser. Haha, I’ve never really ridden in a Western car before (except when carpooling). And, I gets to ride shotgun. |D On our way to my dad’s house I saw M&T Bank Stadium, home of the Ravens, I think.

Over at my dad’s house, we got settled in, and then went shopping at H-Mart (in Chicago too), Asia Market, and Wal-Mart for stuff we’d need for our trip. I got a good look at Baltimore, and apparently, some weird mayor wanted Baltimore to be a city of townhouses. So pretty much all the houses are connected together and reallyreally squeezed together. Their all really narrow. And old. At some parts of the city there are foreclosed and really rundown townhouses. :(

For dinner we had lettuce, noodles, kimchi, sauced meat, and nato. :)

Day 2

Couldn’t sleep on the first night, as always. But the East is humid-hot. We headed toward to Williamsburg, VA, which took about 3-4 hours. We packed lots of goodies, since we’d be staying there for 3 days and 2 nights.  There were lots of really weird road names like Good Luck Rd. and Paint Branch Pkwy. Closer to the destination I saw Opitz Rd., Dumfries Manassas, and Prince William Pkwy. (he also has a forest park named after him). The East also has lotsandlots of trees. Stick-straight and really tall, ones that I’ve never seen in Chicago. At some point (not sure, but prolly Annapolis) on the highway, I saw the obelisk Freedom monument or whatever it was again, and I saw the top of Capitol Building. Maybe we can stop by DC on the way back to Baltimore??? :D

(If you kill a a mosquito in your car that has just bitten your mom about 30 minutes ago, you can see all the dark red blood.)

We got a little backed at some point near where I saw the tips of DC on I-95, and so I just took some weird pictures. And when we went to get gas, I saw that their gas contains 10% ethanol, which I thought was pretty cool, because you don’t see that in the city (or at least, I’ve never).

Other weird cities include Tappahannock and Mechanicsville, along with a museum called Weems-Botts. Not making fun here, just a little bit of linguistics-slash-culture shock. :)

We arrived, checked into the hotel (Marriott’s Fairfield Inn) and headed over to Jamestown Historic Settlement. There wasn’t much, but I did learn that there were 104 settlers that came to VA in the 1600’s. We went on and took an island drive. It was veryvery hot, like 106 degrees hot. DX –dies- Living in a cold city like Chicago’s rubbed off on me, I guess. We crossed several bridges over marshland, and at some point we saw little tiny brown crabs crawling sideways. I told my mom to take a picture, but they were too small. :( Also, on the drive, we saw a speckled baby deer (cute!!! but we couldn’t get it on picture; it decided to camouflage behind some grassy leaves) and prolly its mother a mile or two away. We also saw bamboo, which my dad said was very strange and mysterious, because why would something so Zen and Asian be growing in VA? And we also went through this reallyreally long and dark tunnel. Veryvery cool. :)

Next, Colonial Williamsburg. It was basically just one street (the Duke of Gloucester) where we saw a mini marching bad playing fifes and drums for 15 minutes (really just hired people). And then there were lots of old houses. See, this trip to the Historic Triangle (Williamsburg, Jamestown, and Yorktown) would be interesting, except we’re not American. And you’re not getting anything out of me, because I have absolutely no patience for hot weather and old ruins and forts and houses and churches. Definitely not churches. We rode a shuttle bus around the place ($6, $2 per person) and we passed through houses with people dressed in colonial clothes. This is why they’re paid, because I would never wear all those layers and long clothes voluntarily. I sure pity them.

For dinner we went back and I got to taste beef-like tofu that we bought in Asia Market. I think after this, I wouldn’t want to go vegetarian/vegan. And we also had Korean instant ramen and other pickled veggies.

It’s the end of Day 3 that I’m blogging this, but I’ll do Day 3&4 tomorrow. :)

Happy summer.
_julie_   B-)

EDIT: Apparently, someone decided to give me some flames, which I don’t happen to appreciate, so I’m replying. You may like Williamsburg, but I didn’t, so don’t be such a critic about a friggin’ blog post about my experiences.

Colonial Williamsburg is just one street? Hmmmm.... I guess you weren't really there, or you would know that it is an entire restored CITY with 88 original buildings. How did you manage to miss that?
The Fife and Drum were "hired people." What did you expect? Retirees from the American Revolution? Ghosts?

I didn’t say is was just one street, I said basically. And how did I manage to miss it? I JUST DID. It’s fine if you just want to correct me on the details, but no need to be such a butt about it. Besides, I didn’t read the pamphlet.
Yesyesyes, I did expect ghosts. In fact, I expected zombies—dead colonists back from the grave. Just being Captain Obvious, you got a problem with that?
Why did you decide to be anonymous? What could I do? Stalk you just to tell you some very colorful words?