Playing Tourist in Richmond

This was last Saturday, sorry for the long delay. Most of my blog fans seem to binge ready anyways, so you won't mind too much.

Last Saturday we decided to get out of the house and explore some. We didn't want to spend too much money. I really wanted some photos from Richmond. I am going to make Thank You cards to send back home, so many of our friends and relatives gave us going away gifts.

We started the day by going to the South of the James Farmer's Market. It was pretty busy, and parking was crazy. It was mostly white patrons and farmers. Obviously I've been volunteering and learning a lot about access to food. So it was really obvious that our  neighborhood is pretty much half black and half white, but the market did not reflect the entire city.

We were pretty disappointed in the selection. All the farmers had the same options: squash, peppers, some lettuce or micro greens, onions, peaches. I know there is a fair amount of Vietnamese people in the area and a few other minorities. I guess they don't own land? There were no Asian farmers at the market, which was really sad. So the options were not as diverse as we are used to. There were lots of choices in soap and things. There were also a more food trucks than at our markets. We got really fresh, delicious limeade.

It was in the low 90's. The farmers market in a parking lot at a park, so even the locals were complaining about how hot it was. So that was a challenge for us.

Tanner had packed us a lunch, so we wanted to stop and eat somewhere. We were driving along a road that parallels the river, on the south side. We pulled into one parking lot, to discover there wasn't really access to the river. So we tried another. It was a little hike, across a pedestrian overpass that crosses the train tracks, then down.  Great views.

The access was to the dry rocks. This part of the river has ended up in a channel, with some rapids. There is a famous island, Belle Isle. Then on the other side of the island is a field of rocks, with some pieces of river running through them. The water is low right now, so it was even more exposed. A lot of people passed us, walking over to Belle Isle. We just found a nice spot and hung out. It was so hot we decided not to explore too much this time.

There are a few abandoned buildings on Belle Isle, mostly mills and power plants, that kind of thing. From here you can see the city a little, a freeway bridge and the old railway is a pedestrian/bike bridge. 

We also saw a little lizard! He is on the website for the James River Park System, he is the mascot.

The parks look great. There is a long hiking trail. Also a mountain bike trail. We saw lots of locals, families and tourists. There is also flat water canoeing and kayaking, and white water kayaking.

We then drove up to the north side of the river. Tanner drove me past Brown's Island and some other sites. Some other tourist attractions we might visit later.

We decided to walk around the state capital. I wanted photos in front of it.

This is a epic monument. George Washington is the on the horse. Then there are five or six founding fathers of Virginia standing. Then some sitting angle type ladies, which represented different Virginian values

Tanner for scale 

The girl in front was a teenager who organized other students to walk out of their school, her case became one of four that turned into Brown vs the Board of Education. So this was a four sided monument, to their efforts, including her pastor, lawyers and others

Governor's mansion. It is not the oldest Governor's mansion, but it is the oldest one that is still in use

Virginia State Capital 

Under this hill is the visitor's center 

But when we went in the visitor center we discovered not only is open on Saturdays, but they offer free tours. We love tours! So we took that.

The building is in fantastic shape. They have put a ton of effort into keeping it up. They also dug up the entire hill in front, and put in the visitor center, then put the lawn back. They did this before the White House decided to do the same thing.

Our tour guide was great. She really had a southern accent. She obviously liked her job. We learned a lot about the building, how it has changed over the years. They are really proud that Thomas Jefferson designed the building, even though it was not built to his designs right from the beginning.

The top one is John Smith, a good likeness. He is a still a hero of Virginia, for organizing the colony, so they didn't all starve to death. Below is a Native Lady, they know she is not Pocahontas, even though that is who the artist says is in the painting

Yorktown, where we won the Revolutionary War, is also in Virginia

Copy of a copy

Awesome reconstruction of the original model that Jefferson made, what he wanted the state capital to look like

Best likeness of George Washington. 

I have been to Monticello, and loved it. It reminded me of that visit, and I can't wait to take Tanner there.

We then went and parked and walk up and down Carytown. I didn't really take photos. We were tired, hot and grumpy by this point. We can go back and take more photos another day. It is similar to the Ave, mixed with Fremont maybe. But smaller, all the neighborhoods here are smaller. There are second hand clothes store, then high end, designer home decor shops. There are a few fine dining restaurants, and the best, cheap gyros in Richmond.

Sweet Frog! We tried one last week on Friday I guess? We had been running errands all day, so we stopped and got some frozen yogurt. It is just as good as the options back home
 

We ended up bickering. We couldn't pick a place for dinner, and the one place we wanted to try had a line. We gave up and got back in the car.

We ended up in Shockoe Bottom. That neighborhood is like Belltown or Pioneer Square. Some really old buildings, but mixed in with some of the downtown business towers. We went to an Irish themed bar. It was supposed to have good beer options.

I got a Killian's Red on draft! That was exciting. Tanner got a cider, poor choice, it was like juice. I have no idea what he was thinking. The food options were not inspiring, so we just got happy hour appetizers. The decor was really Irish. But the food options were not, and Tanner was not impressed with the Irish whisky selection. We won't be going back there unless someone else picks it. Though they do have live music sometimes, which might be fun.


Then we went home and basically fell asleep on the cough at 8 pm. We really pack a lot in when we do things like this. Going to have to take it slower. But I got a few cute photos!