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Day 2 – Susquehanna State Park // Maryland/Virginia 2023

Isaac Church — Sun, 12 Nov 2023 23:00:54 +0000

Today was our first day waking up in Maryland. It was a fairly chill day; we didn’t have many planned activities.

Sunday Morning

In the morning, we woke up, ate breakfast, and hung around the house until it was time for church. We visited William and Anna’s church for an excellent service. They were scheduled to teach children’s Sunday School afterwards, so Faith and I left, taking the scenic route back to their house to kill some time.

Vignon Manor Farm

Church

Susquehanna State Park

Faith and I drove over to Susquehanna State Park, a 2,753 acre park on the Susquehanna River. There were still some leaves on the trees, making the drive very scenic. First, we drove down to the Deer Creek Trestle Bridge, where an old railroad track has been converted into a greenway of sorts.

Deer Creek Trestle Bridge

From the trestle bridge, there were some spectacular views of the river and the five islands in the center of the river: Robert, Wood, Snake, Spencer, and Steel Island.

Susquehanna River

From the trestle bridge, we drove downriver to the Rock Run Gristmill. The historic mill has a 12-ton water wheel.

Rock Run Grist Mill

We left the park, driving back to the house to get started on lunch and put Walker down for his nap.

Susquehanna State Park

Sunday Afternoon

We spent most of Sunday afternoon relaxing at the house. A crowd from church went to go play Frisbee at the park, but my knee/ankle still aren’t allowing me to run much. Instead, I spent some time catching up on photo editing from our western trip, and took a cat nap while Faith read and took some fall photos of Walker.

Dinner

In the evening, I went to pick up sushi for the adults’ dinner, while Anna fixed some food for the kids. We placed an order from Johnny’s Sushi House in Perryville on the other side of the Susquehanna River. We got a variety of rolls to try: salmon, salmon mango, crunchy crab, tempura shrimp with sweetpotato, Sakura (tempura salmon, cream cheese, crabmeat, fish roe, scallion, sauce), and an Angel (tempura shrimp, spicy crabmeat, snow crabmeat, and sweet mayo). All the sushi was excellent, especially the specialty rolls and the roll with sweetpotato and shrimp.

While I was out, I also got some vanilla ice cream, vanilla gelato, and Peppermint Park ice cream from Food Lion. We made affogatos using William and Anna’s espresso machine, and stayed up late hanging out and making plans for the week ahead.

Johnny's Sushi House

Tillamook Peppermint Bark Ice Cream

Johnny's Sushi House

Perryville, MD

Great sushi with some creative rolls on the menu.

* – Would definitely visit again

** – Exceptional, must visit if you’re in the area

*** – Worth making a special trip to eat there

For more info on food ratings, click here.

The Best Things we Saw Today

Isaac

The best thing I saw today was… “the Susquehanna River”.

The best thing I ate today was… “shrimp tempura roll with sweetpotato and Sakura roll”.

Faith

The best thing I saw today was… “the train tracks by the river”.

The best thing I ate today was… “the shrimp tempura roll with sweetpotato”.

Conclusion

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Tomorrow, we’re going to drive into Pennsylvania to visit Gettysburg.

– Isaac

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Day 1 – Intro, Travel // Maryland/Virginia 2023

Isaac Church — Sat, 11 Nov 2023 23:00:00 +0000

We’re back on the road again! This time Faith, Walker, and I are headed up to Maryland to visit Faith’s sister Anna, her husband William, and their kids. They live in Havre de Grace, MD.

Spraying // Leaving

We woke up around 05:30 Saturday morning and began loading the car. I decided I’d spray our annual preventative bug treatment in/around the house before we left, so after we’d loaded the car I made the rounds with the sprayer. We finally left the house at exactly 06:30, and started our journey north.

I’d decided we’d take the slightly longer route up I-95 instead of taking I-81 through the Shenandoah Valley. This was partly because I wanted to have more options for stopping with Walker if we needed to. This was also partly because we will be meeting Mom and Dad next Friday in the Shenandoah Valley to spend a couple nights there.

Eating // Drinking

In Winston-Salem, we stopped for breakfast and coffee at Waterbean Coffee, an NC-based chain. Faith got a latte and I got a pour-over, and we both ordered a breakfast croissant sandwich with ham, salami, cheese, and some kind of mustardy aioli. It was a very good breakfast, and I would definitely visit one again.

Waterbean Coffee

Breakfast croissant sandwich - Waterbean Coffee

Unfortunately, we realized that even though we’d carefully planned our itinerary to align with Walker’s eating schedule, we were going to be off because he wasn’t hungry at his normal breakfast time. Faith attempted to feed him, and I even walked around in Academy Sports for a while because I was distracting him, but nothing worked. Oh well; onward we went…

Resting // Eating

We didn’t stop again until we reached one of Virginia’s famous rest areas, where we stopped to feed Walker and let him move around for a while. After a quick stop, we were back on the road again.

I-95 in Virginia

On the north side of Richmond, we stopped at a Chicken Fiesta (a local Richmond chain famous for their charcoal-roasted rotisserie chickens) to eat lunch. We both got combo plates with chicken, rice, and tortillas – a delicious meal.

Chicken Fiesta

Driving // Eating

Because traffic in DC looked terrible on our map app, I decided to swing east and take US-301 around the city. It turned out to be a very scenic drive, and even though it might not have saved much time, it certainly prevented some stress. We crossed the Potomac River into Maryland, and stopped at Landon’s Ices & Creams in La Plata to get some dessert, and to feed Walker again.

Crossing the Potomac River

The flavor selection at Landon’s was very interesting. I got sweet potato pie and triple chocolate cookie dough, and Faith got pumpkin pecan and honey vanilla. However, it was one of the only ice cream shops I’ve ever been to where they refused to give free samples, so they definitely lose points for that. And, it took an eternity to get four scoops of ice cream, even though I was probably the only customer they’d had all afternoon. Nevertheless, the ice cream was very tasty.

Landon's Ices and Creams

Arriving // Sleeping

App was playing football at Georgia State while we were on the road. Faith slipped in some noise-cancelling headphones, and I stayed on the phone with Dad, who gave me a play-by-play of the game over the phone. At 18:30, we finally arrived in Havre de Grace, exactly 12 hours after we’d left Boone. For dinner, we had leftovers from a Thanksgiving gathering Anna and William had hosted with some of Faith’s siblings who’d visited the week before. We visited for a while and then headed to bed, exhausted from the long drive.

The Best Things we Saw Today

Isaac

The best thing I saw today was… “the scenery in southern Maryland”.

The best thing I ate today was… “the breakfast croissant at Waterbean Coffee”.

Faith

The best thing I saw today was… “finally getting to the Pinkertons’ house”.

The best thing I ate today was… “lunch at Chicken Fiesta”.

Conclusion

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Tomorrow, we’ll explore some of the area around Havre de Grace.

– Isaac

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Day 5 – American Revolution Museum // Colonial VA 2023

Isaac Church — Mon, 23 Oct 2023 22:00:08 +0000

Today was the final day of our trip to Virginia’s Historic Triangle. This morning, we checked out of our Airbnb, loaded the cars, and headed out for breakfast.

Breakfast

We decided to go back to Mobjack Bay Coffee Roasters and Petite Cafe for breakfast and coffee. Breakfast was relatively small; most of us got blueberry turnovers, with a couple bombalini on the side (this time one vanilla- and one Nutella-filled). While waiting for and consuming our breakfast, we sat upstairs in one of the cafe’s historic rooms.

Mobjack Bay Coffee Roasters and Petite Cafe

American Revolution Museum

Morgan and Faith stayed at the cafe to hang out a little longer, and Cody and I drove over to the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown. The indoor section of the museum is generally divided into 5 sections:

The British Empire and America
The Changing Relationship – Britain and North America
Revolution
The American People
The New Nation

American Revolution Museum at Yorktown

We watched two different films at the museum; both were very well-made and informative.

American Revolution Museum at Yorktown

The outdoor section of the museum has two sections:

Continental Army Camp
Revolution-Era Farm

The camp had a musket-firing demonstration, exhibits of how the camp would operated, and some replicate tents and building you could go inside.

American Revolution Museum at Yorktown

Cody in a tent that slept 8 men

American Revolution Museum at Yorktown

The farm section was a working recreation of an 18th century farm from this area, complete with garden, kitchen, smokehouse tobacco barn, and a farm cat.

American Revolution Museum at Yorktown

It was really interesting to see how the farm operated, especially the preserving, drying, and curing processes. They also were growing an intriguing selection of heirloom plants and herbs. I made lots of notes and took plenty of pictures for inspiration in case we ever have a small homestead/farm.

Lunch

After finishing up at the museum, we drove over to Williamsburg, making a last-minute late lunch reservation en route. Our eatery of choice was Berret’s Seafood Restaurant and Taphouse Grill, a Williamsburg staple. For an appetizer, we split a hot oyster sampler, with baked oysters (seasoned crabmeat, country ham, and breadcrumbs), southern baked oysters (surry sausage, fresh tomatoes, and pimento cheese), and oysters Rockefeller. We also got an order of warm creamy pesto crab dip with homemade pita.

Lunch - Barrett's Seafood

For the main meal, we all got the same thing: a “double crab” sandwich, which was the lunch special. It was a giant crab cake with crab salad on top, and came with a side salad or fries. The meal was delicious, and a great value. The crab cake sandwich wasn’t as good as what I’d gotten in Norfolk, but it had twice the meat in it for less money.

Lunch - Barrett's Seafood

"Dinner"

After lunch, we parted ways for the journey home. Faith and I stayed on the road until Winston-Salem, where we stopped at Trader Joe’s to buy some groceries and get a snack for dinner. We bought some grab-and-go charcuterie packs for dinner, and then headed back to Boone, stopping in Wilkesboro to buy petrol.

Charcuterie - Trader's Joes

The Best Things we Saw Today

Isaac

The best thing I saw today was… “the farm and garden at the American Revolution Museum”.

The best thing I ate today was… “pita bread at lunch”.

Faith

The best thing I saw today was… “the farm and garden at the museum”.

The best thing I ate today was… “the fresh pita bread at Barrett’s”.

Conclusion

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There will be another trip coming soon, so keep an eye out for that!

– The Churches and McKinneys

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