Devil Went Down To Staunton

March 28, 2015

Jason and I woke up early today. We wanted the room cleaned and decided it was easier if we didn't sleep in too much. Also, we were hungry. After showering and getting ready for the day, we made our way to the cold streets of Straunton. I say this not because the streets are unkind but because it was 30 degrees and windy. I, being the exact opposite of a boyscout, brought a sweater and forgot my coat. It was freezing. Our noses quickly became red and our ears frozen as we walked the streets looking for breakfast. We quickly stumbled across The Pampered Palate. It was a small, southern style restaurant with Easter decorations lining the windows. We walked toward the register and waited for a table. Two tables were without people, but they had yet to be cleared. A woman came out from the kitchen wearing a baby bjorn and a small, cheerful baby bouncing on her stomach. She greeted us and cleared the table near the window. We browsed candy in the small shop at the back of the restaurant and made our way to our seats the moment she finished cleaning. A young boy (I assume a relative of the woman that greeted us) asked for our drink and order. Only moments later, our food arrived. They are pretty quick here. Below are pictures:

My bagel, fruit, and homemade sausage:

Jason's Turkey, bacon, and coleslaw croissant with a side of chips:

After breakfast, we made our way to a few stores. We decided it was too cold for me to simply wear a sweater. I would need an actual coat. We popped in a cute little boutique shop where we were immediately greeted by this lovely creature...

 In my head I called her Sammie.Scarves and hats (in the shape animals, I might add) were available but no coats. I asked the kind woman in the shop if she knew where I might buy one. She said there was a clothing store across the street from her or possibly a store called "17." We thanked her and walked over. There were indeed clothes across the street; however, only a queen can purchases them. Also they didn't have coats. We then made our way to "17." It was a very very cute store that was three stories high. Inside was a cute antique shop, filled with older clothes from the 40s and on. I found numerous coats, all about four sizes bigger than me. I decided if I were going to spend $20 on a coat, I'd rather just get a new one that I could wear all the time. So, Jason and I went back to the hotel and decided to drive to the nearest Target or T.J. Maxx.

As we drove, we stumbled across a GoodWill store. Without much thinking, we immediately turned in. It was huge!! It was much bigger and the clothes way better than the one in Newnan. Toward the back of the store we found the coats (almost typed goats... what a weird Goodwill that would have been!). We found maybe 5 that could have easily worked. Jason spotted a brown one that was lined with fake fur. It was sooooo warm. I told him it felt like a bear was hugging me! It was $8. Score! Here is a picutre:

And, yes, it does come with a hood! Can't beat it. After GoodWill, we drove back to the hotel. Today was going to be another relaxing day. We wanted to do some antique shopping and go visit Juliette at the Bed and Breakfast Anne Hathaway House. Jason and I emailed Juliette yesterday asking if we could pop by sometime today to purchase some of her wine jelly. She said yes, so we were definitely going to make a stop at her place. But first, antiquing.

Once back at the hotel, we tried to find the antique store where Jason purchases his razor on our last trip. Sadly, we were unable to find it. We ended up walking around in the bitter wind until stumbling across Suntrust. We realized we needed cash for the wine jelly. We began to become numb from the cold, and decided to warm up in the nearest antique shop. Not sure the name, but it was a great antique store. They had a original drawing of Woodstock and Snoopy that was drawn by the original animator of Charlie Brown. It was only $135. If I had the money I would have bought it. We also stumbled across a dream chest/trunk that I've always wanted. It was large and round on top. The kind I always imagine pirates use to hold liquor. Sadly, it was also $150, which is honestly an amazing price for that. But I don't have that kind of money or the room for it at the moment. Jason also stumbled across this:

It's where self-absorbed people go to see three versions of themselves... there's even a pull down light at the top. Jason--being hilarious and not self absorbed--walked in, looked at me in the mirror, and said "Which one is the real me?!" I love him! He's fun to be around even doing mundane things. After we could begin to feel our ears again, we made our way to Juliette's home. We had forgotten how long of a walk it was. We ended up popping into one other antique shop to warm up. This last shop didn't have much of anything to note... just warmth. Wasn't too long before we were back on sidewalk. We saw the old homes we passed two year prior and the beautiful church that I loved so much. Soon we could see Thornrose cemetery. We had previous planned to walk through the cemetery as we did before, but it appeared too cold for such a walk.

As we came upon Anne Hathaway's B&B, we noticed a large group of people leaving her home. We knocked on the door, Juliette's husband answered. He asked if we were checking in. Once we said, no that we had emailed his wife about buying some wine jelly today he said "Oh, on no. Uh... I know nothing about wine jelly. I'll have to get Juliette." He seemed rather flustered. He told us it had been a crazy day and that Juliette went to try and take a nap. We apologized and said we could easily come back some other time, but he insisted on waking her. He said it was useless--there was too much going on for a nap anyway. She quickly came from around the corner, looking somewhat frazzled herself. We purchased two jars of wine jelly (we went through the last one rather quickly). We apologized again, thanked her, and then hurried off so she could rest.

The walk back was less cold, as the wind was now on our backs and we were walking downhill. As we passed different stores and buildings, we came across this little fellow on one of the walls:

This is what I love about Staunton. It's an artsy town. It's somewhat like a game of where's waldo here... at any moment there could be a painting on a wall or a picture of House on a door. You just have to keep an eye open for it. After passing this friendly bunny, we saw a young couple with a small boy with them. Right as we passed, we saw the little boy look up at his mom and she said "We'll go inside soon." The little boy replied "I don't care where we go as long as we're inside." We laughed to ourselves and fully agreed with him. We made our way to our now favorite coffee shop in Staunton, the By&by. Jason and I both realized we were a little dehydrated and began to feel lightheaded... something to drink was just what we needed.

The same girl from yesterday greeted us. We both ordered Black Tea today. All the tables were full so we took a seat at a bar in the middle of the room. A man at a nearby table, asked if they could move for us (since they were taking up two or three tables). We thanked them but said they were okay. Our tea arrived shortly after this. We listened to kind people next to us discussing the tv show Arrested Development as we sipped the warm refreshment. We also learned that one of the women at that table worked with missiles. Oh the interesting things you hear at a coffee shop. We left after drinking our tea and headed back to the warm hotel, right around the corner.

Before retuning, however, we decided to go ahead and purchase tickets to the White Devil play that was showing tonight at 7:30 at the Black Friar's Playhouse. We walked in and were greeted by two women. I asked for two tickets, if they had any left. They chuckled and said "For you, we can make that work." I guess they had a lot of seats. She asked what seating preferences we had. We told her we had never been there, so just pick where she would want to sit. Jason did say, he'd prefer something that faced the stage directly instead of from the side. She picked row J, seats 11 and 12. As she rang us up, we noticed a drawing of a cat. I told her I liked her cat and then the other lady pointed to three other cat drawings near her computer. I told her I liked the one with the eye patch on it the best. She said they named it Purricles. Super cute. We left and walked four feet over to the hotel. 

After resting and blogging a bit, we decided to go to dinner at the Clock Tower... another favorite restaurant of ours. We walked some ways in the cold but were greeted by the warm bar inside the restaurant. A young, bubbly woman sat us to our table. We picked the high-top table in the corner. Here is a picture of Jason:

We ordered spinach and artichoke dip for an appetizer and two waters. Here is a picture:

 The lady took our order moments later and also discussed Jason's desire to purchase a flight of beer. He picked all Virginia beers... we can't remember what they were called but they were good. Here is a picture of Jason with his flight. Side note: our waitress laughed about how her coworkers were making fun of her for arranging his flight from lightest to darkest. Jason said he would have done the same thing.

 Our waitress noticed we took a picture of the beer. She turned to her coworkers that had previously laughed at her and said "See! They're taking pictures! That's why you arrange them like that!" She then brought us some bread and our sweet potato andouille. It was stupidly delicious!

 As we finished up our soup, the dinner arrived. Below are pictures of my Chicken Parmesan with spaghetti noodles (almost spelled noddles), and Jasons lasagna. Again, stupidly delicious!

After finishing up, we asked the waitress for a picture together. We almost never can get good pictures of both of us when we go on vacation, but she seemed nice and trustworthy with a camera.

After dinner, we made our way to the Split Banana, possible the best ice cream spot in all of America (I haven't been to a ton of ice cream places). It's actual homemade gelato that is sure to add 100 pounds with each bite and 20 years happiness to your life, somehow at the same time. I ordered one scoop of apple pie and one scoop coconut. Jason--one scoop cookies and cream and another scoop of kick-you-in-your-crotch-fantastic peanut butter. Deloicious!! We ate at the bar because all of staunton was currently getting ice cream and no seats were left. That's how good this place is.. it's freezing outside and the ice cream place is packed.

 After ice cream, we dropped off at the hotel for a second. Turns out there was a wedding at the hotel. We quickly caught a glimpse of the bride, sporting a beautiful pair of thick, black, hipster glasses and a stunning wedding dress. After half an hour we made our way to the Playhouse for the White Devil. We were seated in the most perfect spot. It was right in front and just far back enough to see the whole stage. Below is a picture... I later found out I wasn't supposed to take this picture, but no one told me not to until later. They do let you take pictures of the place after the show, so I'm probably okay. Here is the picture:

 What's amazing about this palyhouse is that it is a recreation of Shakespeare's original indoor theater.  They also are held to the same conditions the actors themselves would have been subject to during this time period. Meaning, they had roughly 48 hours to rehearse the play. There was also a gentleman with the script on the sidelines in case someone forgot a line... which no one did. One of the male actors was cast as a female role just as it would have been in Shakespeare's time. It was great! They also had something called gallant stools, which are the stools located on the sides of the stage. This is where you could pay to watch the stage up close and personal. The gentleman to the left, closest to the camera fell asleep a couple times during the play--should have picked a different seat. There were roughly 4 to 5 seats empty on stage so they allowed others to upgrade right before the play started. Also, the house lights were kept on during the entire play, just as it was during Shakespeare's time.

The play was amazing! The actors phenomenal. It had a good mix of humor and drama and even creepiness. Jason and I joked about how the actor Glenn Howerton would have made an excellent Flamineo. The actor even looked like him. It was so good. Right before the play began and during intermission, the actors would do a concert in the balcony for everyone. They all were so talented. They could all act, sing, play different instruments (guitar, flute, sax, banjo, etc). It was incredible!

After the play Jason and I returned to the hotel where I promptly passed out. Jason and I had walked so much today that we didn't even need to try to finish our 10,000 steps for our fitbit challenge... we finished those steps right at dinner time. It was a fun day but I was ready for some sleep!