What a great city!
We got in yesterday afternoon, with a stop in Orange to visit Montpelier, which is the family home of James Madison. The town of Orange is neat - very small town cute and colonial. Montpelier itself is interesting if you're into history, which we are. I'm a geek for presidential boyhood homes; it's cool to see where and how they were raised, and to imagine this little boy playing in the yard and sharing a tiny room with his brother growing up to become President of the United States.
Last night we had dinner at Milan Indian Cuisine, which is right next to our hotel. I had amazing tandoori chicken with spicy curry sauce, and Monello had butter chicken; came with grilled veggies, basamati rice, and we got garlic butter naan to sop up the goodness.
Today we went to the Downtown Mall, which is a several blocks long stretch of stores, restaurants, bars, and other commercial venues. It's pedestrian only, so you park at one of the garages and take a stroll. It's really neat, similar to Beale St. in Memphis, but without the gritty atmosphere. This is college town and hippieville, and the bars and food choices reflect that.
We took a load off at the Whiskey Jar, which is a bar featuring, you know, whiskey and other libations of that sort. They have an enormous menu of just whiskies, ryes, bourbons, and scotches, ranging in price from cheapo to holy hell what does a $30 shot of whiskey taste like? (To me it all tastes like turpentine, so we had hard cider instead.) The plan was to have dinner there and listen to their dinner music, which tonight is a roots rock guy, but.....
We got to talking to one of the bartenders and Monello asked him what he'd recommend for a scenic drive. He told us we should take the road to Gordonsville because it's rural and goes through a bunch of horse farms and gorgeous homes, and ends up at The Barbecue Exchange. Oh PS, he added, they have 10 different kinds of homemade pickles. Um, yeah, we're there!
The que was super good, smoked onsite, with six different sauces on the table that the meat didn't need. I pigged out on pickles (don't judge) and this ridiculously good coleslaw that was crisp and fresh, not mayonnaised to death. Oh, and the ride there was pretty, too.
So far we're digging Cville. Tomorrow we're doing lunch at Michie Tavern and going to Monticello.
We got in yesterday afternoon, with a stop in Orange to visit Montpelier, which is the family home of James Madison. The town of Orange is neat - very small town cute and colonial. Montpelier itself is interesting if you're into history, which we are. I'm a geek for presidential boyhood homes; it's cool to see where and how they were raised, and to imagine this little boy playing in the yard and sharing a tiny room with his brother growing up to become President of the United States.
Last night we had dinner at Milan Indian Cuisine, which is right next to our hotel. I had amazing tandoori chicken with spicy curry sauce, and Monello had butter chicken; came with grilled veggies, basamati rice, and we got garlic butter naan to sop up the goodness.
Today we went to the Downtown Mall, which is a several blocks long stretch of stores, restaurants, bars, and other commercial venues. It's pedestrian only, so you park at one of the garages and take a stroll. It's really neat, similar to Beale St. in Memphis, but without the gritty atmosphere. This is college town and hippieville, and the bars and food choices reflect that.
We took a load off at the Whiskey Jar, which is a bar featuring, you know, whiskey and other libations of that sort. They have an enormous menu of just whiskies, ryes, bourbons, and scotches, ranging in price from cheapo to holy hell what does a $30 shot of whiskey taste like? (To me it all tastes like turpentine, so we had hard cider instead.) The plan was to have dinner there and listen to their dinner music, which tonight is a roots rock guy, but.....
We got to talking to one of the bartenders and Monello asked him what he'd recommend for a scenic drive. He told us we should take the road to Gordonsville because it's rural and goes through a bunch of horse farms and gorgeous homes, and ends up at The Barbecue Exchange. Oh PS, he added, they have 10 different kinds of homemade pickles. Um, yeah, we're there!
The que was super good, smoked onsite, with six different sauces on the table that the meat didn't need. I pigged out on pickles (don't judge) and this ridiculously good coleslaw that was crisp and fresh, not mayonnaised to death. Oh, and the ride there was pretty, too.
So far we're digging Cville. Tomorrow we're doing lunch at Michie Tavern and going to Monticello.
