As Jason and I head down to breakfast we hear new voices coming from the tea room. As we enter, we realize it's the guests we had briefly met the day before. A middle-aged couple apparently in town for their anniversary as well. Juliette served us bacon and French Toast with homemade berry sauce. Amazing, as all her food is.
Jason and I grabbed our hot tea and Jason's plumb juice as we began to get to know the couple. They asked us more about the zoo experience, and Jason entertained them with the llama story. They both, like us, were extremely surprised a llama had been outside of a cage. The husband, I think his name was Mike, said that they had taken their 10 year old daughter with them to the same zoo, but that they also did the Safari ride where you feed more animals from your car. He said it had turned out to be an interesting experience, but his wife said it was probably better left to another time, one where we wouldn't be eating. I had mentioned that we would have liked to have gone on the safari ride, but decided against it since their website mentioned how some animals were prone to bucking cars if they weren't feed fast enough. The couple laughed and decided maybe they better go ahead and tell their story. Apparently, the couple had missed a sign at the entrance stating some animals were not to be fed and to simply drive past them. One of those animals was the water buffalo. Since they had not seen the sign and the buffalo appeared hungry, they began to try to feed it from their car. The husband said the buffalo wasn't very interested in the food he was offering so the buffalo decided to see what other food might be in their car. To do this, the buffalo placed his head in between the driver, Mike, and the steering wheel to find more food. At this point his head was fully in the car. Mike said they were, of course, unable to drive off and that they weren't sure what to do but wait for the buffalo to make it's move. After an awkward minute, the buffalo sneezed on him and his wife and then pulled his head out of the car to leave. Mike said they drove off with their daughter laughing in the back seat (she was perfectly clean and free from any remaining buffalo matter). They decided to quickly leave to go home and clean up. Guess we made the right decision. . . no safari ride or buffalo sneezes for us!
After we swapped stories with the couple, we learned that they, too, have the same anniversary date as us, October 9th. Not only that, but they also celebrated their anniversary at the same restaurant that we had, Byers Street Bistro. They said they had even seen us leaving right as they were walking in. Later on Jason and I realized that we had actually held the door open for them, but never recognized them! The couple said it was getting too weird and that, surely, we had planned our wedding date to be on the 8th and that the church must have canceled on us or something. We laughed and then Jason said, "actually..." and then he told them of how our priest bailed on the wedding, along with a groomsman, and the photographer. They were shocked and apparently also had the same issue with a photographer as well! Crazy! When we thought it couldn't have gotten any stranger, we later learned that they both had lived in Georgia for a few years near Atlanta as well. Small world.
After enjoying our amazing breakfast and saying goodbye to the couple (they were leaving today), we headed upstairs to plan our day. It was drizzling slightly outside and was colder today than any other day. We decided to get bundled up, grab our umbrella, and drive to the many antique shops in town. Apparently antiques is what Staunton is known for, one of the many things. We parked in downtown and walked into "Jolly Roger's Haggle Shop." There were three stories of antiques in this shop. The owner walked over and told us that if we found something we liked, he would give us a better deal on it. He was true to his word. Jason found this 1930s antique razor.
Jason and I left the Jolly Roger's and went to an antique store we had previously visited on the trip. It was right next to the Baja Bean restaurant that we loved so much. I was able to find a picnic basket that I've always wanted and for very cheap, compared to most baskets like this in regular stores or on-line. It was an amazing deal.
Perfect size for four people and big enough to put a blanket in, too. Perfect! The straw is still in perfect condition and extremely sturdy as well!
Jason also found this, which will be perfect for our sconces at home:
Also, we found a cool ghost!
After shopping, we decided to stop in the Baja Bean for lunch. We had a different waiter this time than the previous visit. He walked up, said "how are you two," and then held his hand up and began coughing a great deal. When he returned closer to our table Jason said, "I think the real question is how are you doing?" He laughed and then excused himself, stating the weather was changing and causing him issues. We live in Georgia, we completely understand. We both ordered the Baja Tostada, the same dish I had ordered the last time we were there. The restaurant was quiet as we waited, and the rain was making it a very calm atmosphere. Our waiter returned rather quickly to give us our food. As he went to set down my plate, Mexican music began to play. The song seemed to start at the middle rather than at the beginning and was about ten times louder than the previous song. Everyone was clearly startled, but our waiter handled it beautifully. He set my plate down, had only a brief moment where his eyes became very large from the unexpected sound, and then he said in a loud voice "Hey! Okay!" He clapped with the music as he quickly walked to the front of the restaurant to change the song. Took a while for us to stop laughing. He was pretty funny. Shortly after that, he brought a drink to the man at the table next to us. As he was leaving, he swiftly turned back around and said "Did you say lemon or no lemon?" The man next to us said "none." Our waiter walked back over to the man, out of eyesight for me (my back was to him). The next thing I see is a lemon flying in the air and landing on the floor. The waiter took it back! Haha! Pretty entertaining.
After lunch, we headed back toward the car. Once we arrived at the parking lot, I realized that all the other cars had tags they had purchased to park there. Apparently we parked without paying. We hurried to the car. We were lucky that we found no ticket and that our car had not been towed (we had left it for about two hours). Close one! How horrible would that be... car towed while on vacation many states away from home.
Once back at the hotel, we relaxed a little and Jason cleaned up his new razor. We also made funny faces at each other, cause we do that...
Tonight we ate at Kathy's. We had seen it on-line and discovered this was apparently one of the only places you could actually find good genuine Virginia country ham. Each place we ate at I would try to find Virginia ham, since ham is the only type of food they are known for here. Finally, I found it. They were also rating the number one breakfast spot in Virginia.
Jason ordered their quiche of the day with fried apples and a cranberry muffin. Jealous, right?
I, of course, got the Virginia ham with fried apples, mashed potatoes, and a role. Pretty good... was not aware of how salty Virginia ham is! I had heard it was, but I guess I just thought it wouldn't be to that extent. Kind of like when you hear that Katy Perry can't sing, but you just don't really know how bad until you hear her try yourself.
After we ate our dinner, we also ordered a Pecan Ball to share. This was amazingly awesome. Jason and I both completely dived in and started eating... wasn't until halfway through that I realized I hadn't taken a picture of it. I might take too many pictures, but at least now we can always remember how awesome it looked, even if the taste fades from our memory and mouth.
After dinner, Jason and I headed back to the hotel and are just relaxing. We did some on-line shopping and Jason is working on restoring his new razor... looks pretty shiny and amazing now. He's great at things like that. Oh, and before I forget... I remembered to take pictures of the tea room/breakfast nook at the B&B. It's so pretty!
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