Edenton Part Two

Last I wrote, we were just on our way to Sean's for dinner...

For a Wednesday night in January, this restaurant was quite busy. A few large parties of people were already seated plus another one was on the way (according to Sean, a genial bald man who greeted and sat us).

I wasn't terribly hungry so I ordered a glass of Rodney Strong chardonnay (something I used to drink a lot of but don't see around here that much) and a Caesar salad with grilled shrimp. Mr. B ordered a french dip and a beer (they were having a lot of trouble with their beers on draft; the only thing they had was Bud Light...yuck). Mr. B opted for Sam Adams Winter Lager.

The service was friendly and the food was quite good. I was surprised by how tasty the Caesar dressing was...although not AS good as Mr. B's, it was pretty close. And the shrimp, wow; three JUMBO ones nicely grilled. Mr. B's sandwich was served open-faced along with a side of red skin potato salad. He said it was pretty good.

After Sean's, we walked back (or, rather, were blown back) to the B&B, smoking a cigar along the way. We stayed out on the porch to finish them up (since it only took 5 minutes to get there) and attempted to stay out of the gusty wind. Don came out to put up chairs on the porch as they were in danger of blowing away.

Since we paid extra for the jacuzzi tub, we took advantage of it after our cigars (sure helped to warm us up, too; BRRR).

The next morning our coffee arrived on time at 7:30. We were in no huge hurry to get going so we sipped on the coffee and ate the yummy breakfast bread that was left with it. Breakfast was at 9:00 so we went down (looking sort of tussled and unshowered but oh well) and wow, was it something else! They started us off with a nice plate of fresh fruit, OJ and more coffee. The entree was a spinach and white cheddar omelet served with what Don called "Yankee Grits" but what would really be better named "Grit Sticks". Mr. B surmised that Chef Diane had done a grit casserole, cooled it slightly, cut the casserole into the sticks and then sauteed them a bit to brown them up. In any event, they, and the rest of the breakfast, was well worth the 9:00 call!

After getting cleaned up, we set out to explore the town of Edenton. We wandered down towards the Albmarle Sound where we nearly got blown away by the wind and it was quite chilly, as evidenced by the below picture of Mr. B.

Next, we went back over to the waterfront area (where Sean's was) and looked into the windows of the stores and took a picture of a Confederate monument (complete with the prison dudes mowing the lawn underneath it).

We went into the local coffee shop to get a warm drink to take off the chill. Warm; more like scalding hot!

We walked down to the Visitor's Center and looked at the exhibits and the gift shop. We thought about taking one of the walking tours and/or trolley tour but thought it might be too cold.

Mr. B on the B&B steps (before we went back out again in the car)

We headed back to the B&B (via the not so nice part of town) where we ran into Don who asked us what we'd been up to. He jokingly chastised us for not, at least, watching the movie at the VC about Edenton's history. So, back we went (in the BMW this time) to watch the movie (Edenton pretty much had a glorious history...up until right after the Revolutionary War where it pretty much fell off the map). It IS an extremely pretty city, though; at least the "good" part (the "bad" part was fairly seedy).

Next, we drove around taking some more pictures. We were trying to find a teapot, which is a monument to the Edenton Tea Party (a group of women right before the Revolution had their own little "Boston" Tea Party as a protest against the British taxing tea and other imports). We couldn't find it before when we were out and had asked at the VC. We finally found it, stuck on a fence post near the Court House. Sort of an odd place for it, we thought!

We ultimately ended up back at Sean's for a beer (we were still STUFFED from our huge breakfast). Sean was there again and he said, "Well, I've seen you walking all over town, you must be considering moving here!" Uh, no, but, we did discuss amongst ourselves that a town like Edenton would be a great place to live if a) you did not have to work or your work could be done completely out of your house and/or b) you wanted to live somewhere in the boonies and/or c) you didn't want to be bothered.

Despite the rundown area we walked through, it also appears to be a fairly safe town. Don said the door to the B&B doesn't even lock (meaning the door to the rooms; each of the rooms have locks). Frankly, I thought this was a bit too trusting given while we were there, only one other room was occupied (the second night). All of the other rooms were open (I know because I wandered into each of them to check them out!) Someone could easily walk up from the street, open up the door, go up the stairs (8 rooms upstairs, two rooms downstairs near their quarters) and go into the open rooms and steal whatever; T.V.s, furnishings, towels, etc. So, I have to surmise that they've never had this happen and the town is, in general, very safe.

On our way back to the B&B for our daily nap (one of the best things about being on vacation, IMO, is taking long naps), we picked up the Edenton paper, The Chowan Herald, which was so small it appears it is only published once per week!

Next and final installment...our yummy four course dinner!

Mrs. B