Our Honeymoon in Colonial Williamsburg
Hello, friends! It feels like a long time since I have felt this light and airy about sharing our life here on the blog. Writing is such an interesting art form. On one hand, I still pushed myself to get through the past few months of writing here on the blog (with many weeks completely skipped), and on the other you can just tell by the tone that I was not enjoying. Or maybe that’s just me? Either way, it felt like hard work this year to get out the content that I so desperately wanted to share. And I realized this… I needed an inspiring vacation. Our honeymoon, while romantic and wonderful, was also truly inspiring in so many ways. Kyle and I both came home with fresh attitudes and are ready to look ahead to next year in our family, business, and farm(s).
But first… we got married! On October 5th we said our vows to each other and were wed in an old barn less than a mile down the road from our farm. Two days later we boarded a plane to Virginia and spent a week away from home exploring the Williamsburg area and soaking in each historical place that we could. It was just what we needed after an extremely thrilling and tiring year of engagement, wedding planning, hosting, and working. Kyle is a chemistry professor, so taking an entire week off was a bit of hassle for him, but I am really glad that he did for his own sanity.
Speaking of school… I believe we visited Williamsburg at one of the best times of year just because of that. There was hardly anyone there! I am not sure if it’s just because it’s not a popular tourist destination for anyone under the age of 65 or because school was in session, but we were extremely happy to find that the historical sites were completely uncrowded and that there was not really any traffic at all save for the locals. It felt like we had almost arrived back at home, which we were truly grateful for. If you love autumn weather and no crowds, I suggest visiting Williamsburg in October!
We stayed at the Westgate Resort in Williamsburg, Virginia. It’s about 5-7 minutes from the Colonial Williamsburg Visitor’s Center and Historic Downtown Williamsburg. It was a bit pricey for us, but we found a deal on AirBnB for a suite and figured we didn’t mind spending a little more on the room since it was our honeymoon. If it was just a leisurely trip, we probably would have gone for a different option. On the other hand, we were hoping to get a Colonial House, which are little recreation cottages in the village with a canopy bed and fireplace. Though we heard from some of the employees working in the village that the bathrooms in those houses are absolutely awful. I would highly recommend Westgate to anyone! It was so nice and easy to stay there; we really enjoyed it.
We spent the first two days of our trip exploring the Colonial Williamsburg village.
I am not sure what I was looking forward to most when we traveled here. As many of you know, the 18th century has been tightly woven into my persona and heart. Our first choice as a honeymoon destination was a tour of Scotland (which you can totally do within a week - I may have to share our original travel plans at some point!). As a lover of Outlander, and Kyle a newly introduced lover of the series as well, and having my own Scots-Irish heritage it felt like the place to see. Well, changing your last name and getting a passport seemed like a lot to handle in amongst everything else so we decided to save our energy and money and take the next best place… Colonial Williamsburg.
As with anything an Enneagram 5 loves, I knew that I was going to be excited about soaking in any and all information I could about this time period, culturally speaking, while we were there. Well, I have done my research thoroughly because a lot of what we learned I already knew! But I did have a wonderful time seeing everything in person and discovering that much of what happened in the historical villages were authentic recreations of daily activities such as baking, cooking, preserving, cleaning, housekeeping, gardening, and more. The volunteers and artisans do an excellent job of staying true to 18th century authenticity!
We decided to do America’s Historic Triangle Tour, which was 7 consecutive days of touring Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown Settlement and Museum, and Yorktown American Revolution Museum and Battlefield at our own leisure. This was so worth it!
Finding good food was really important to us, and we made sure to try as many local places as we could! We ate so much food that by the end we were about ready to be done with eating for several days - ha! Here are a few of the places we’d recommend eating and some that we would not:
GOOD PLACES TO EAT:
Gabriel Archer Tavern - This was by far our favorite place to eat! A little on the higher end price-wise, but the food was absolutely delicious. Locally sourced and made in a farm-to-fork style, the presentation was perfect and we loved that we could taste food from farms in the area. Something we find really important! The atmosphere, as well, was perfectly romantic, sweet, and relaxed as you sit under the pergola amongst the grapevines on Williamsburg Winery. Highly recommend for any foodie or local food fan!
Williamsburg Inn Rockefeller Room - This was probably the fanciest that Kyle and I have ever eaten in our lives, but it was something we definitely wanted to experience. As a child, my mom and grandma would take me to the Walnut Room at Marshall Fields in Chicago every Christmas, and this was similar but way more upscale. A local told us it was very “highbrow” motioning to his forehead, and it definitely was. I will say, however, that it made for a very romantic evening as we entered the ballroom and were seated on a cushioned couch equipped with pillows and candlelight, a bottle of wine, and sorbet in between courses. My goodness! The food was excellent. Though I would have to say I prefer farm-to-table/home-cooked style food the best. There is always more flavor, but the salmon I had melted in your mouth so it was still incredible.
Colonial Pancake House - Cute and quaint, a little old school. This place had the breakfast we experienced while in the area, even compared to the more popular Capitol Pancake House. Colonial Pancake was much less crowded, had kinder and better service, and had better tasting breakfast overall with fun seasonal pancake flavors. Capitol Pancake was so overcrowded, it made the waitstaff extremely forgetful and stressed.
Berret’s Seafood Restaurant and Taphouse Grill - We were really looking forward to local seafood on this trip, but we had a tough time finding any that looked promising and did not get a lot of recommendations. Apparently you have to go closer to the Hamptons or Virginia Beach, which is understandable! We decided to try this place after a few recommendations, and it was okay. I probably wouldn’t go here again, but they did have locally caught seafood like $1 oysters from the York and James Rivers as well as other salt-river fish. It’s located right in the heart of Downtown Williamsburg, so really easy to get to. 6/10 in my book!
The Cheese Shop - I feel like I am going to break a lot of hearts when I say this, but I do not understand what the big hype about this place is! It was decent fare and cheap prices, but we were unimpressed by the popularity of The Cheese Shop. This was everyone’s number one recommendation, so maybe it was because I had high expectations? We ordered the grilled cheese as told by y’all, and like… what was up with that thing? Yes, it had different types of cheeses on it, but the bread was never cooked on the outside and was just made with the most standard white bread I’ve seen. It reminded me of the Bread Garden Market here in Iowa City, which is way better (sorry, had to say it!). On the other hand, the shop was super cute and filled with fun local shelf stable foods.
Shield’s Tavern - This was our first food experience while in town, and we were extremely giddy like to little children at entering the tavern. We were hoping to eat at Chowning’s, but something was amiss in the dining room when we were on the hunt for food and Shield’s was the only place serving. I would take that lesson as this - definitely make a reservation for the taverns within the historical village. They fill up quickly because they are so small! We were led down into the basement of the building, which was enclosed in white washed brick walls, candlelit lamps, a roaring hearth, wooden tables and stools, and wooden barrels piled everywhere. It felt like we had just stepped into Outlander, and we loved every minute. The soups were divine, and we split the most colonial style meal we could find on the menu - a beef roast with gravy, potatoes, and beans. It was pretty good (though I think my own is better)!
We wound up walking around 30 miles during this entire trip, and we felt it by the end of the week! To say that it was fun, in many ways, is an understatement. I do think it was a beautifully relaxing start to our first year, even first month and week, of marriage. I’m so happy I found someone who can be nerdy with me about history; we even discovered some things about 18th century organic chemistry like shoemaking and preserving/fermenting foods! All in all, I would go on this trip again and again. I’d love to see Williamsburg at Christmas!
We made the trip back home on Saturday and were so happy to hug our baby and gift him some fun treasures from the area. I bet you can guess what our Halloween costumes are going to be! Stay tuned… I am going to be sharing a separate post on all of the colonial gardens! I took so many photos, it would have been overload all in one post. I also cannot wait to share our wedding photos - soon!
xoxo Kayla
