June 28, 2009

Today was a pretty uneventful day from a “happening” standpoint. Since it was overcast we decided to go to the outlet mall in Williamsburg because we didn’t know if/when there would be any other cloudy days.

Turns out we were right as there wasn’t another overcast day the rest of the trip.

I’m Finished
I don’t know exactly how many square feet it covered, but there were around 120 stores. Just walking around all of the stores would take 90 minutes or more and that’s not looking at ANYTHING.

Tammy had made it through three stores, actually two and a half, before we were texted by Jake and Ben saying they were done.

Maybe they didn’t realize there were THREE buildings with stores or maybe they thought we’d just up and leave because they were done, I don’t know. But we were no where close to being done so they sulked and pouted around the outlet grounds for the next few hours, stopping to get Ben and Jerry’s before camping out on a bench and laughing at people walking by.

There wasn’t much more to write about since we were shopping. I’m sure Tammy could tell you more about the bargains, or lack thereof, but I’ll spare you. All I know is I was able to get a pair of Under Armour shorts for $20 less than I had seen them at other stores.

Feelin’ the Blues
Since we first woke up that morning, I was already looking for where we’d be eating dinner. I don’t want to be eating at places that we can get back home so I’m always thinking about where we’ll be having dinner. That’s one of the things I love about vacation.

While I don’t think Virginia is known for it’s BBQ, I had seen a place that I had eaten at about 10-12 years ago and since I knew Tammy loves some good pulled pork (hehe) I figured she’d enjoy it.

She had even spotted it in on of the 238 catalogs we had about Williamsburg, and other places in Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia, so we headed there after we closed down the outlets (7 pm).

The place is called Red, Hot and Blue, and they serve St. Louis style ribs that can be ordered in three different flavors. Of course, I got the dry rub/Memphis style ribs and pulled pork combo. Tammy got the same combo but instead of the dry rub she got her ribs with a sweet BBQ sauce. The boys got burgers… figures.

As we ate we watched the manager just stand at the front of the store, just looking out at everyone. We didn’t see him do anything other than standing and watching but there was something creepy about him. He just had that look of someone that is hard on his employees. Even Tammy said something about it. It was just weird.

We saw they had ‘nana puddin’ (banana pudding) on the menu and decided to get two orders to go, that way Tammy and I could let the BBQ settle before adding a layer of puddin’ on top to help soothe everything out.

We took our puddin’ back to the room and once we were settled broke them out. I was looking forward to some good homemade puddin’ and couldn’t’ wait to taste it. After I ate the first bite, I thought maybe something was wrong with my taste buds because it wasn’t nearly as good as I was hoping. Took the second bite and figured I was tasting the plastic in the spoon. After the third bite I thought I’d just stop eating for a while. That’s when Tammy said she didn’t think the puddin’ was very good. Whew, it wasn’t just me. We didn’t even come close to eating half of our containers and ended up throwing them out.

Real Stinkers
After we got back to the room, the boys took off to walk around the complex where they found an arcade. Since this is a time-share place, the games were free and had a 15-minute time limit on the games so everyone could play. Jake and Ben signed up to rock out on Guitar Hero but had some time to kill before they took the stage.

Anytime two teenage boys have time to kill it equal’s trouble. Of course this time I had provided them with ammunition, not literally, but they chose to put it to use in the crowded arcade. The ammo of choice was stink bombs. The little glass containers that you break on the floor and it smells like sulfur, rotten eggs.

I had to admit that at least they chose a good time to use them because they had tried some in Gettysburg with no one around. I had told them it’s more fun to do it in a crowd of people so you can see their reactions. Guess they actually heard my advice.

When they came back to the room they were laughing so hard as they told us about what they had done. They dropped one and waited for the reactions. People were holding their noses, shaking their heads and waving their hands in front of their noses, but there was one kid that made it all worth it. They said he yelled out, “Shew! Someone let out a stinky,” and kept smelling his hands. Maybe he thought he had touched something and gotten the stink on him, but the boys thought it was funny that he kept smelling himself.

That’s it for tonight…