Some call it Richmond, I would love to call it home.

My first trip to Richmond was a year ago—a spur of the moment Valentine’s weekend trip. This year, when the topic came up about going away, Dutchboy and I both leapt at the chance to go back to Richmond. I’ve been home a week now, and my heart is still there. I love this city so very much. It’s a European feel with Southern hospitality; filled with gorgeous architecture and a fantastic museum….there’s so much to it. Basically there is a vibe there that tells me I’ve come home. That’s rare.

Anyway, we drove up on a Sunday, arriving in time to spend a few delicious hours wandering at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.











Again, this was our first stop last year, but we didn’t get to see everything due to limited time. This year, we started in the places we missed last year—the American Art Collection. It is a truly beautiful collection—there’s a lovely O’Keefe, and an Edward Hopper. But those pieces weren’t the ones that struck me as most beautiful. What they did have that surprised and thrilled me to bits was a Thomas Hart Benton!! I adore him!! With his curvy, surreal figures and exaggerated realties.


Brideship (Colonial Brides) by Thomas Hart Benton

Don’t you just adore it???

There’s also the Worsham-Rockefeller bedroom on display at VMFA. This room was removed as a whole from a New York townhouse before its demolition in 1937. The room design was commissioned by Richmond-native Arabella Worsham for her West Fifty-Fourth Street, New York, home. Later, John D. Rockefeller purchased the home. It’s an exquisite room—and according the placard, a perfect example of the Anglo-American Aesthetic movement. I would just call it gorgeous.







Rather than bore you with more details of the museum, I will simply post the photos of some of my favorites from the remainder of the museum. And no, we STILL didn’t get through the whole thing in an afternoon. There was much, much more I would have liked to revisit. Like the Modern Art Collection and most of the European Gallery.


A Spring Offering-- Francis Davis Millet


Lotus and Laurel by Henry Prellwitz


Peines de Coeur (Heartbreak) by Charles Sprague Pearce


Woman in the Studio by Alfred Stevens. (Belgian)


The Younger Brother by William-Adolphe Bouguerau


A room in the European Gallery.


Seated Ganesha from a Temple in India (let me step in here and say it pains me to see such gorgeous work chiseled from its rightful place of worship. It HURTS. Countries should retain their artifacts. In fact, there was an exhibition of Egyptian antiquities on loan from the British Museum that we did NOT pay to attend. Because I do not agree with the British Museum's refusal to return certain objects and antiquities. But that’s another story. We’re all thieves of history, I suppose. Maybe I should just let it go. /rant)


Lamps by Louis Comfort Tiffany

VFMA has an exquisite collection of Art Deco and Art Nouveau pieces. I could happily spend hours there, surrounded by the work of Horta, Guimard, Lalique and others.


Art Nouveau dresser designed by Hector Guimard.

Somehow, I seem to spend most of my time in this area ogling the bust of Nature by Alphonse Mucha. It’s almost impossible to get a decent photo of it—it’s gleaming metal and marble, behind glass. She is breathtaking. Or she is to me, anyway.





Now that I have inundated you with photos of art, and most likely bored you to tears, I’ll tell you about the evening. Because you’re all anxious to know about the food, right?? After being ushered out of the museum and them locking the doors behind us, we took the short drive to the hotel. We were staying at Linden Row Inn, in the heart of downtown Richmond. We stayed there last year, and loved it. And according to the hotel website, there are ties to the beloved Edgar Allan Poe:

“In 1811, Elizabeth Poe, an actress performing in a traveling company at the Richmond Theater, became ill and died, leaving two young children orphaned. Mr. and Mrs. John Allan raised her son Edgar Poe and gave him Allan for his middle name. Returning from a five-year trip to England, the Allans (including Edgar) lived with Mr. Allan’s business partner, Charles Ellis. It was in the gardens that Edgar Allan Poe played with the Ellis children. Local legend has it that the enchanted garden is the one that Poe mentions in his famous poem “To Helen.” Historians have also noted that young Poe first courted his life-long love, Elmira Royster, in the garden where the Linden Row Inn now stands.”

Anyway, we’ll hear more of Mr. Poe on another day’s post. Back to the evening at hand, after checking in we decided to walk to a restaurant for dinner. I’ve been dying to try Cous Cous, a middle-eastern restaurant that was about a mile from the hotel. So off we set—for a VERY COLD mile trek. We arrived starving and chilled to the bone and were greeted by…locked doors. They were closed. Talk about disappointed!! So, we decided to wander around downtown and find a place to dine. I had a list of roughly twenty restaurants in the area that I wanted to sample. We lucked upon one of them, not far from our hotel. A small, hole in the wall spot called Belvidere at Broad. There weren’t many people there, but it was cozy and they had a long list of beer and wine. And a lovely reputation for good food, as it turns out is well deserved. I started with a glass of Sauvignon Blanc and (completely vegetarian) French onion soup. I followed that with a roasted beet salad, with blue cheese, pine nuts and micro greens topped with ahi tuna (served rare, thank you very much!). It was outstanding food, artfully presented, with great service. You’ll have to take my word for it—it was so dimly lit that pictures were totally impossible.

We didn’t opt for dessert because my snooping little Dutch boy had ferreted out his valentine’s present—a bag filled with licorice and various types of his favorite chocolates. There was plenty of it to share between two loving and consenting married people. Besides—The Foo Fighters (Dave Grohl!!!) were on the Grammys and we had to rush back to the hotel so I could see that. You didn’t think this was going to end as a gushy romantic post, did you?? Filled with Valentine goopy sentiments and sexy details!?!?!? What kind of girl do you think I am?!?!?!? Well, you’re probably right, but I’m not posting about it. :-P

Foie Gras and Quail and Cod Fish, Oh MY! (Or the post where I compare dessert with a teen angst vampire flick)

Another day, another “culinary adventure”! That’s right kiddies, today we’re returning to the fantasy world of five course lunches prepared by culinary students at Wilkes Community College. We arrived a little early today but were seated immediately. And this time there was bread on the table!



Crusty, chewy fresh bread. And the cutest butter that I’ve ever been presented! I’m definitely doing this at home next time I have guests.



There was little time to enjoy that beautiful bread and butter as the fancier stuff began arriving.


Amuse Bouche --Stuffed Olive & Smoked Pork

As with all Amuses they were flavorful bites to wake up the palate. The smoked pork was perfectly cooked with good smoky depth of flavor. It was served with a sauce that wasn’t described on the menu, but I would describe it as a mustard-based barbeque sauce. It was tart, but not a vinegary tartness, more of a mustardy burn. as there was a bit of heat to it, too.

The olive was huge and stuffed with…I have NO idea. Menu fail on this one. It gave no clues. And whatever it was stuffed with was overwhelmed by the olive’s briny goodness. I love olives—so that’s not necessarily a bad thing. But I think they missed an opportunity here to wow me. Or at least give me a clue as to what they had painstakingly stuffed into the poor little dear.


First Course-- Foie Gras Torchon with Toasted Brioche served with a Sour Cherry Red Wine Compote.

Foie Gras was PERFECT. Buttery, meltingly soft and rich like an Arab oil baron. I could find NO fault with this. None. The foie gras was smooth and even,with no pockets of fat that indicate an improperly cooked liver. The compote was a tart counterbalance to the richness of the foie gras. Technically, I don’t know if this qualifies as a true compote. I would have called it more of a fruit red wine reduction, as it was smooth and lacked stewed fruit but hey I’m not THAT picky when it’s that good!! The brioche was crisp, and lightly sweet, just as it should have been. Everything on that plate WORKED.


Second Course—Poached Cod with Mango Salsa and Sauteed Plantains

Circle the bases, they knocked this one outta the park. The cod was moist, flaky and well-cooked. I’m always so pleased to get perfectly cooked fish. It’s not easy to get it exactly right, and they did. Cod can be very bland, any poached fish can be, but the mango salsa woke it up. It was bright and full of flavor. It was served with a creamy coconut sauce that accentuated the creaminess of the fish and the coconut base notes complimented the mangoes. If there’s any complaint to be issued with this dish it was the plantains. They were slightly under seasoned – the only component of the day that had that problem. Plantains, like potatoes, take salt better during cooking. If you wait until later, they NEVER get seasoned well enough. But honestly, it was hardly noticeable and entire dish didn’t suffer greatly, since they were well-prepared and not at all greasy.


Third Course—Baby Arugula Salad with Cherry Tomatoes, Red Onion and Fig Balsamic Vinaigrette

It’s arugula. It’s tomatoes. It’s a palate cleanser. It didn’t do much. The fig balsamic dressing was nice, but once again this week, I felt the salad was completely under dressed. It doesn’t have to swim in dressing but there should be enough so that you’re not munching through dry arugula which can be quite abrasive.


Fourth Course—Roasted Stuffed Quail with Mushroom Queso Fresco Cheese Tamales and Roasted Red Pepper Sauce.

Beautiful presentation. The quail was well-seasoned and the chorizo stuffing gave it a nice, peppery bite that cut through the richness of the quail. The red pepper sauce offered a sweet balance to all the savory. My companion said that poor little bird reminded her of the Foghorn Leghorn cartoons. It really did. You see it,too, don't you??



But I say, but I say, boy, bird was not my favorite part of that plate. It was the tamales! Creamy, corny goodness in a husk with earthy, slightly chewy mushrooms. In other words, it was like George Clooney in a corn husk. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm. To quote Ina Garten, "Who wouldn't want that?"


Fifth Course—Biscotti with Crème Anglaise, Poached Pears and Milk Chocolate Mousse.

There was a lot happening on this plate. And a little something wrong with all of it. The poached pear was robust, but still allowed the flavor of the pear to shine through. That was good. But the texture was off. Let me say, I don’t like mushy movies, sparkly mushy vampires, or mushy cooked to death fruit. But the pear was unyielding to my knife. It could have stood a few more minutes in the poaching liquid.

The mousse. Oh, my. I can’t say that I know exactly what happened with this mousse. But it had…issues. Like a “sparkly vampire stalker boyfriend who controls your every move and you stay with him anyway even though there’s a much hotter werewolf dude who would let you do what you wanted because he freakin’ worships the ground you walk on” kind of issues. It may look good from the outside, but when you get into the middle of it, it was a mess. Mousse is supposed to be light and airy. This was grainy. Like REALLY grainy. Whether it was over-beaten cream, or crystallized cocoa butter from overheating chocolate, I can’t say for sure. Maybe even a gelatin issue?? The flavor was good—it had a strong cocoa taste. (Hmmm. Maybe they used cocoa powder instead of melted chocolate and that caused a problem?) But I couldn’t overcome the texture issue, you can see the grain in the picture. Whatever it was that was on my plate, it wasn’t mousse.

Now. Let’s talk about biscotti. There are two things in this world that I love more than biscotti. My husband and my dog. That’s it. Anise seed biscotti, triple ginger biscotti, red velvet biscotti, pumpkin chocolate chip biscotti….I love them all. But there’s something you don’t do with biscotti. And that is slap it on a plate with a dribble of crème anglaise and call it done. No matter how much creamy vanilla goodness that crème anglaise contains. Biscotti are crunchy. It is "hard enough to break Chuck Norris's molars" hard. That’s why you serve it with coffee. Or tea. Or better yet, Vin Santo. I understand WHY it wasn’t served with Vin Santo. We’re not at George Clooney's Italian villa on Lake Como. And the college culinary department doesn’t have a liquor license. But coffee would have been nice. Or a nice little pot of something to dip the biscotti. It was a good biscotti. It had lots of stuff in it. The texture was spot on. But it was a little red-headed stepchild all alone in a mall without it’s mommy-- it was missing a very important companion element.

Overall, this meal was more solid than last week’s offering with only the dessert course falling flat. Seasoning was more even, the courses were more balanced. Dessert was only misstep and the flavor wasn’t bad, the execution was off. The foie gras really stands out. But for me it was the poached cod that took the prize for the day.

Both weeks offerings had a common thread. The menu card was lacking. I enjoy having the menu to tell me what I'm having, to be able to devour the meal in my mind before I take a bite. Sauces are SO important on a plate, but they are so rarely described. Key components are left out of descriptions. It may seem like a minor detail but if you're ordering in a restaurant, that description is your ONLY key. In that respect, even something as mundane as menu presentation becomes super important in your overall restaurant experience.

Another thing I want to add, both weeks I was able to purchase bread from the students. Last week a french baguette which was still hot from the oven and drove me to break my diet in the extreme! And today a lovely, lovely sourdough bread that is nothing short or exquisite. True sourdough, with layers of flavor. Kudos. And I paid a whopping $3 for it that boule of sourdough. What a bargain. If you get the opportunity to try one of the lunches or buy a loaf of their bread, whatever the type, do it. They may be students, but for the most part, you'd never know it.

A Culinary Adventure (In which I manage to mention lots of famous people without shame)

Today was a good day. Well, good for me. TERRIBLE for my diet but that’s the breaks. And what exactly does my diet have to do with travel, you ask??? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Unless you count that I traveled ten minutes, and crossed a bridge, to get to Wilkes Community College to have lunch with a couple of friends. Yes, yes, I can see you are rolling your eyes. Why do I feel the need to share this with the world??? BECAUSE I CAN. Hey, wait a minute. I can call this a culinary adventure. If I use the word “adventure” it’s like a TRIP and therefore acceptable on a travel blog. So there. Culinary adventure it is.

Wilkes Community College offers a culinary program. And every semester the students cook and serve meals in the Tory Oak Room. Some semesters there’s a weekly theme to the cuisine, say Indian or Eastern European for example. And other times, it’s a six course variety of flavor. That’s what I had today.

It started with the amuse bouche.


Grilled Onion and Apple Tartlets and Marinated Chicken Bites.

A very nice beginning! The onion and apple tart was actually heavily flavored with curry, which I love. I wish they had balanced out the flavors more, with a bit more salt and tartness to balance out the sweet onion. I think that’s what they were trying to do with the curry (which was strong enough to have included in the description of the dish) but it fell just shy of being excellent. Still very solid offering!
The chicken was good, well cooked and not dry, which is always a danger when putting small pieces of meat on a skewer. The sauce was mustard, honey, and a bit of heat. (IF I got this wrong, I humbly apologize—it’s the flavors I remember!) Nice.

The second course was Borscht.



Let me preface this by saying I was REALLY looking forward to this because I adore beets. I mean adore them like they are the Jack White and Dave Grohl of vegetables. But I was disappointed. This didn’t strike me as true borscht—it lacked beety rock-star goodness. It was sweet and seriously under seasoned, more like beet syrup. In the photo you can see I added salt and pepper. Something I would normally NEVER do. It’s insulting to a chef. The pepper really woke it up and cut the sweetness, while the salt did what salt does best: enhanced the flavor and cut the sweet.


Seared Tuna with Thyme, Roasted Peppers, Blonde Raisins (ehm, lets call them sultanas next time??? OR at least golden raisins?) Capers, Garlic, and Saffron Foam served with Smoked Eggplant Puree.

This was an EXCELLENT course. The tuna was perfect and that’s no easy feat. If I have to critique anything here, it’s that the flavors became muddled. There was a lot happening on the plate. The saffron foam was fantastic, especially with the raisins and capers. But I don’t think the roasted peppers brought much to the party and didn’t really belong with anything. The eggplant puree was once again under seasoned and seemed like an afterthought. Perhaps they were thinking to play the texture of the eggplant off the tuna, but it wasn’t necessary. That tuna was perfectly creamy, smoky and delicious on its own. But hey, I love eggplant, so I wasn’t too upset to get a bite or two of it.

Next up was the salad course.


Bibb Lettuce with Buttermilk and Tarragon Dressing, Croutons and Bacon bits (according to the menu).

There’s not much to say about the salad course, other than I don’t see croutons or bacon bits on the plate. The dressing was very good. But I got maybe a teaspoon of it. I could have used a bit more. I’m just greedy like that. A nice palate cleanser between the fish and the next entree.


Breast of Veal stuffed with Veal Mousseline, Spinach, and Portobello Mushrooms served with Cabbage Rolls stuffed with Spaghetti Squash cooked in an Herbed Tomato Broth, and Corn Pudding.

The breast of veal was very fatty, which normally I don’t mind. Fat is flavor! And the flavor of this veal was very good. But it was very tough, it could have withstood a braise in that delicious tomato broth. Or wine. Or something to breakdown the tendon a bit. The mousseline was excellently flavored though and made up in taste what the veal lacked in texture. The cabbage rolls were my favorite part of this course, so flavorful and meltingly soft. Corn pudding is always welcome on my plate. I would gladly have eaten a bowl of that and been content!

Finally, dessert!



Chocolate Cake with Praline Profiteroles and Rum Ice Cream.

Oh, my sweet lord. The entire cost of the meal (which at $10 was a bargain) was worth it for this dessert. The cake—dense and chocolately and filled with a nutty pistachio, citrus zest, sugar concoction what was divine. Rum ice cream. I wants it, precious. Smooth and slightly melted, oozing over the tongue like Jack Sparrow over the deck of the ‘Pearl. The profiterole was nice but if it hadn’t been on the plate I wouldn’t have missed it. It was stuck on there like a third wheel on a hot date. The cake and ice cream were the stars, Brad and Angelina, while the profiterole was more….Kim Kardashian.

All and all, it was solid offering from culinary students and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. One that I will joyfully repeat again next Thursday.

+++++
(If by chance a culinary student happens up this humble blog entry, let me reiterate I enjoyed the experience! I hope you are not insulted by my words, but understand that it’s what my palate experienced and take the words in the constructive way they’re meant.)

Zuiderzee Museum – Enkhuizen.

Photos taken at the Zuiderzee Museum in Enkhuizen, on September 28, 2010. I'm feeling nostalgic tonight and posting photos from my last trip to the Netherlands that I never managed to post. Just a few pretties, without commentary.

The Zuiderzeemuseum focuses on the past and the present of the IJsselmeer lake, the former Zuiderzee. The museum features living history, heritage, and crafts from the past.








(Apothecary figure on exhibition)


(Apothecary figure on exhibition)

Other arms reach out to me....Atlanta, Day the Last. And a wrap up.

And as all good things do, our trip to Atlanta was coming to an end. Atlanta, the last. And I was saving the best of last. Best in my book, probably not in Ton’s. I had planned a trip to the High Museum in Atlanta. They do allow photography of their collection, but do NOT allow online posting of the collection. And you sign an agreement when you walk in the door. I respect that, so I won’t post any collection photos. But they do have quite a lovely collection! And the museum itself if quite lovely, too.




The unexpected highlight of our trip to the High Museum was the works by sculptor Grainger McKoy. His atypical but incredibly detailed carvings of birds were breathtaking. Every feather, every vein, was perfect. You can visit his website and view it for yourself.

After leaving the High, we wandered through downtown Atlanta, past the Federal Reserve where they were having some sort of emergency alarm. It was surrounded by police, while office workers complained about their lunch being interrupted. I felt it wasn’t prudent to whip out a camera and take photos of them, considering the police presence. So, we continued up the street to our destination—Margaret Mitchell’s house.



It was here, in what was then apartment number one, that Margaret Mitchell wrote Gone With the Wind.
After that, I had seen all that I came to see in Atlanta and our time was up. Dinner that night was another highly recommended restaurant in Buckhead, Eclipse Di Luna. The food and service was fantastic but it is definitely a place where you want to go with a large group of friends and hang out. Not really a romantic, cozy place but more of a festive atmosphere. But that’s the heart and soul of tapas, so no surprises. I have to admit, I had too much sangria and forgot to take a photo of anything I ate. Bad me!!! NO biscuit!!! We followed up with a cozy coffee and dessert at our favorite restaurant of the trip, Buckhead Diner. We lingered over coffee (with kahlua, of course) at the bar, watched the regulars come and go, and planned our return trip home.

My feelings towards at Atlanta are mixed. It was a good trip, there is a lot of fun to be had in the area. But Atlanta seems to lack heart. There’s no pulse to the city, no heat. It’s too spread out to be walkable, and their public transportation is sadly lacking. I had been warned about violent crime but saw no signs of danger. In fact, I didn’t see much activity at all. We were there during the week, at times when downtown should have been busy. Instead it felt depressed, and slightly dingy. In other words, it was a nice place to visit, I have fond memories, but it left me with no desire to return. Oh, well. There are other places. And not everywhere can steal your heart like Amsterdam!

And lo, came Day the Third

And lo, the third day came and the sun rose and the city spread out before us. But that didn’t matter. We had aquarium tickets! Georgia Aquarium is a very big deal in the Atlanta area, even if it is supported by *coughcough*HomeDepot *coughcough*. I really wanted to go to see the whale sharks. That’s right whale sharks! And a dolphin show! But alas, it was the beluga whales that stole my heart. Such glorious, graceful creatures. We were some of the first people through the doors that morning, and for the first little while had the place seemingly to ourselves. Thus, my first glimpse of the belugas, I was alone in the filtered blue light of the aquarium. A beluga swam from the depths of its tank, and brushed against the glass. For long moments, I was alone, watching these creatures and getting lost in that surreal world. It was a moment I’ll never forget.



Georgia Aquarium is a “hands on” place, where they allow you to touch not only the regular horseshoe crabs (it was mating season, no thank you!) and stingrays (always a joy to touch one of those), but sea anemones and urchins, too. But if the beluga whales stole my heart, Ton fell for the penguins and sea otters. They even had an acrylic tube you could crawl through and enter the world of the penguin. It’s meant for children, but that didn’t stop Ton.




We did attend the dolphin theater show as well, but didn’t take a single photo of it. But it was a lot of fun—as was the 4-D theater. Nothing like getting misted with water and shocked in your seat!!

But the most lovely part of any aquarium experience is simply sitting near the large viewing tanks and watching the world swim by.



But one can stand only so much water, especially one who is deathly frightened of swimming (well more frightened of drowning if truth be told), before you have to escape back to dry land and sunlight. Next door to the Georgia Aquarium is the Coca-Cola Experience. Let me preface this by saying that I am not opposed to Coke, I prefer it to Pepsi! But the idea of paying to be inundated by advertising did NOT appeal to me. Ton, however, wanted to go. Being Dutch, the branding of Coke meant very little to him, the direct emotional marketing appeal of Coke being a bonding experience was not something he had ever picked up on. In other words, he WANTED TO GO. So, we went. We had to wait for a tour to start, so we stood in the lobby and admired the art work-- Coke bottles that had been carved by artists from around the world.




I always feel like somebody's watching me!!!

And I have to say, despite my doubts, I had a BLAST. The tour started with a guide telling you a short history of Coke, and a museum of Coke advertising products over the years.


(See that little cheerleader lady?? Remember her. She will visit us later.)


After that we were shown into a theater where we watched a hilarious animated cartoon—featuring all sorts of odd creatures—including furballs with red lips (one of whom was terribly sad because he had fallen in love with a dandelion who had blown away) and the bottle-shaped cheerleader lady. After the film, you’re left to explore the rest of the “experience” on your own. The various rooms radiate off a center hub, and you can do them in any order, culminating in a Coca-Cola tasting room with drink fountains with products from all over the world.

It was in this center hub that a strange things happened. I turned into a big kid and had the best time!!! They had the Coca-Cola polar bear there and you could get your photo made with him, but I wasn’t interested. Instead, they had the furballs with the big red lips!! And I could kiss them ! And play with them!!!




In the middle of my furry-lipped lovefest, who should appear but the bottle lady! I squealed with delight, but Ton started freaking out. He dared me to go up to her and get a photo made. OF course!! I loved it!!



Ton, however, started laughing. And freaking out. He could NOT get control of himself. It was the funniest thing I have ever seen. The figure approached him, he tried to get away. The more he resisted, the harder he laughed, almost incomprehensibly muttering, “It’s too surreal!” (Rather like my reaction when I see clowns, I suppose. But it's a lot funnier when it happens to other people!!!!)






See? He was almost crying!! It’s still hysterical to me. But maybe you had to be there.

ANYWAY.



After a visit to their 4-D theater, and tasting so many types of Coca-Cola products that we were slightly nauseated, we left downtown Atlanta behind. With our freshly bottled Coca-Cola, and happy memories.

That evening, we decided to eat at yet another diner, this one featured on Guy Fieri’s show, Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.


Marietta Diner was good, solid, diner food. I opted for the cheeseburger (I’ve had better) and onion rings (REALLY good) while Ton sampled their Greek menu with a gyro platter. But the main claim to fame for this diner is their desserts. When you walk through the door you’re greeted with a glass showcase FILLED with a myriad of cakes, cheesecakes, and pastries. This is what I was saving my calories for—the waitress recommended the house specialty, and I accepted.


Baklava cheesecake. Two layers of gorgeous baklava, with cheesecake sandwiched in the middle. It is served with a honey syrup that is divine. The portion was huge!! And yes, I ate every. Single. Bite.

After gorging on cheesecake, we went into downtown Marietta. What a lovely little town! They were having a concert/charity dinner on the town square—a vibrant lively little town square.



We walked around, enjoyed the music and the small-town feel. A lovely ending for our third day.

More photos are available on my Flickr account.