What a great day we had......we came over the bridge tunnel about noon and drove up 13, stopping at antique stores along the way. Our bed and breakfast was in Onancock, and check in was 4:00pm, so we took our time. I think we stopped at three or four places and I was exhausted by the time we got here! We found lots of good stuff for my new Etsy store, Virginia'sVeranda. Steve has turned out to be quite a good scout for the linens (see the Etsy store)! We also found lots of glassware at good prices.
We are staying at the Colonial Manor Inn in Onancock and it is charming. Linda is the owner and she's very friendly and tells us all about the antiques in the house, how she came to be here, and what to do around town.
She suggested Charlotte's for dinner, but we did some research and thought we might enjoy Mallard's a bit more. We did!
Mallard's is more of a local's place; when we called for reservations, and asked for a table outdoors, the waitress told us, "there is a live reggae band scheduled to play outdoors tonight, just so you know". Well, being the "older, non smoking" folks that we are, we opted to eat inside!
They have an eclectic decor and lots of memorabilia which is really fun to check out. According to the signage, they have a chef who plays the guitar, but we didn't see any evidence of that. Maybe because the reggae band was there?
Mallard's is on the wharf, which is only a few blocks down the road from the B & B. It is in a building built in the 1840's with lots of original wavy glass in the windows and tongue and groove paneling on the walls and the ceiling (with a gazillion coats of paint!). We had a great view of the harbor and sailboats. There were lots of locals hugging the staff and a big crowd outside. The music was just right from where we were.
The food was good, but surprisingly, the only local seafoood were the clams. We had steamed clams for an appetizer and they came in a big bowl with lots of garlic, butter, and thyme, served with pita bread. I enjoyed it immensely, even the garlic.
I liked that they brought the water in a carafe with lemon, so we could refill our own glasses. The wine was an Australian savignon blanc, nothing special, but I don't really like white wine anyway.
I had tuna, medium rare, with saffron rice and asparagus. The sushi grade tuna was topped with a dollop of gorgonzola, which was strange to me, but actually not bad. Steve had grouper topped with salsa, the same rice and vegatable as mine. He thought his had way too much pepper, in fact, all he could taste was the pepper, and he thought that he should have been given lime with the salsa. But, all in all, it was a great meal, we got some good pictures through the big old windows (with heavy wooden shutters on the inside), and we enjoyed the music from the inside and it wasn't too loud.
Sunday was spent doing more antiquing, I found two more French watercolors to go with the one I found at an estate sale at Chick's Beach. These were in a shop in Onancock and had been framed at a studio in Onancock. The shop, Market Street Antiques, belongs to Jeff Miller (no relation!) of Shen Valley Floors. Check him out on the Web, he's a very interesting guy.
We tried to do some fishing in Cape Charles, but all we got were female crabs, which you aren't allowed to keep, so that didn't last long.
So we finally got home and there is.....no place like home. It has been really busy since we got back. Got the leak in the roof fixed, painters coming Saturday, all the usual chores to do....
I want to write on here more, but I'm also trying to get things listed on the Etsy Store. I have tons of vintage lace, collars, linens, but it will be the first of the week before I can get back in that room to sort things out. The sciatica is really torturing me after the car trip, so that slows me down. At any rate, life goes on.......
