Our second anniversary was September 26, 2022. We had made arrangements to stay at the Richard Johnston Inn in historic Fredericksburg, VA, on Saturday, the 24th, roam about town, eat well, and attend LifePoint Church Fredericksburg before heading home on Sunday. As it was, after having made our reservations, we found that a couple whose wedding earlier in the summer we helped out with and are now mentoring, go figure, was scheduled to get baptized on the 25th. After conferring, Clare and I decided to see if we could push our reservation at the Inn back to the following weekend and were successful at doing so. So we were able to attend the baptism and join Ernest and Patricia along with an old friend of Ernest’s and her family for a long lunch after church. It was a great day!
Anyhow, we headed off to Fredericksburg the next Saturday, 1 October, in the midmorning. We made good time getting to Fredericksburg including finding a nice back way into the historic district and our lodging. We were very early for check-in but were graciously allowed to park the car in the Inn’s parking lot as needed. As we were anxious for a cup of coffee, we parked the car and headed off on foot, in the on-and-off rain, for Agora Downtown Coffee Shop, a couple of blocks down Caroline Street from the Inn. They were doing a pretty brisk business but we were able to get served in a timely and pleasant manner and get the last available table to sit at.
There we plotted out our next move which was to hit the Visitors Center and get some info on good places to visit, mostly indoors out of the rain. The plan turned out to be to hit Chatham Manor first, have lunch at Amy’s Cafe next, and then go to the Gari Melchers Home and Studio, also called the Belmont House for reasons as yet unknown to us. All these stops were on the east side of the Rappahannock River from historic Frederick. We wouldn’t have known anything of that side of town had we not somehow managed to get routed into town that way from i95. It worked out quite well as we bypassed lots of one-way streets and stoplights and got the parking at the Inn with ease.
Chatham Manor is now a National Park Service property having been willed to it on the passing of the last and longest owner, JohnLee Pratt. It was built in 1771 and occupied almost ever since. Before the Civil War, the plantation was “home” to nearly 100 slaves. During the Civil War, it was home to thousands of Union troops and a field hospital. The house and the gardens are beautiful. The house unfortunately was missing what looked like wonderful porticos on the riverside. From the house, the view looked out over the Rappahannock to historic Fredericksburg. The overlook served as a good vantage point for Union cannons, two of which are still pointed across the river.
Our next stop after lunch was at Gari Melchers Home and Studio. Gari was an American artist, mostly a painter, with a career based on a variety of different styles. He was said to be not stuck in one particular style as many artists can be. His studio on the property consisted of three good-sized rooms and one smaller room with paintings on display, many of them his. The house was gorgeous. We had a great docent who showed us around both the house and the studio. She was very friendly, easygoing, and informative. The grounds themselves were very nice but as it was early fall, there wasn’t a flood of colors like we might have seen there in the springtime.
After relaxing a bit and pondering our dinner options, we decided to skip Fahrenheit 132 Restaurant and Cocktail Bar and consider both Rebellion Bourbon Bar and Kitchen and Billikens Smokehouse At the Chimneys. All came well recommended. Fahrenheit was a good 8 or 9 blocks away from us while the other two were within two blocks. We leaned toward Rebellion but it looked pretty busy and mostly had handheld entrees which weren’t what we were looking for at the time. So we headed back toward Billiken’s which was down the street a block past the Inn but got distracted by Sammy T’s, where we had lunch last year, and ended up stopping there. I had a very nice Mediterranean shrimp couscous dish with sundried tomatoes, olives, etc., while Clare had a vegetarian dish based on Summer squash that was unfortunately pan-fried or baked a bit dark as to be nearly burnt on one side of the cubes. She ate most of it nonetheless. It did taste good!
Somewhere, sometime in our ventures, we ended up at Riverby Books. As always, we could spend hours in bookstores. This one, which we have visited before, has one of the greater selections, on three floors, of used books that I have seen. Contrary to my usual book purchases, I got three relaxing mystery adventure type easy reading books for those times when I just need to mellow down easy and not strain my brain on non-fiction political, cultural, current events, and/or religious subjects. I found at least one John Le Carre book that I hadn’t yet read. I didn’t even realize he had any new books out since the last one I read which I believe was “The Constant Gardener.” I see looking online that there are many more out there that I have missed. My fascination with John Le Carre dates back to probably the early 70’s when I read “The Spy Who Came In From the Cold” and “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.”
To cap the evening off, we went for ice cream a few doors down from Sammy T’s at Abner B’s (Abner Butterfield Ice Cream Company) where I had a delicious coffee ice cream w/ chocolate chunks in it and Clare had a tasty mint chocolate chip if I remember correctly. By the time we got back to our room, it was getting late so we settled in to chat, review our day, and read a bit before calling it a night.
I slept fitfully. Clare and I have problems sleeping sometimes on our queen-size bed so the full-size in the room made for a challenge. First-world problems right? I was up in the morning Sunday around 0700 so I got decent and went down to the common area to get us some coffee so we could wake up and do our prayers and devotionals in the quiet of our room before breakfast at 0900. Breakfast was fresh fruit, more coffee, with a hot from-the-kitchen frittata, toast, and hash browns. That made for a tasty, pleasant way to get the day started. We had a good time talking with a couple from Ashville, NC, who were on a road trip and were in Fredericksburg for a family reunion. There were fewer people sharing breakfast at the large table in the common area than last year during high covid! The Inn was booked up but it was just the four of us at the table for breakfast.
Our plan was to go to the 1115 service at Lifepoint Church in Fredericksburg. Since we had a bit of time before we had to check out and leave for church, we ventured out, again in a bit of rain, to Agora for a cup of good coffee. I bought a pound of beans, a Peruvian Ethiopian blend to bring home with us. We enjoyed our coffee at the shop before wandering back to the Inn to get in the car to head to church.
Lifepoint was good as usual. The worship music was enriching and enlivening and the “At The Movies” series they had just started was good. The movie for discussion was “The Pursuit of Happiness.” The theme of the message, if I remember correctly, was that along the path of life and in pursuit of our goals we may run into many obstacles and difficulties but with faith in God and his plan for us, we can overcome. At church, we ran into Jonathan who is the Next Steps Director. We met him last year when we visited and he remembered us. He’s a really great guy and a strong asset for the church especially in the position he is in, welcoming people and helping them find their place in the church.
Last but not least, I found in my pocket while we were worshiping the key to our room at the Inn. When we got to the car after the service, I called the Inn to let them know we would be returning the key shortly. Since we were back downtown and had been thinking again of coffee, we left the car in the Inn’s parking lot and walked back down to Agora for another cup of coffee. It was a nice way to wrap up the weekend in Fredericksburg before we drove home. The drive was mercifully easy and quick so we got home with plenty of the afternoon left to continue to relax, restore, and spend time together before we had to think about the work week ahead of us.
