Last Trip to Staunton?

With our plans to move away from the east coast becoming more and more real (for too long I feared moving was just a pipe dream), we headed to Staunton to enjoy the town and the American Shakespeare Center.

We've been many times before.  See previous blog posts on Aug., 2013 (1st entry), Feb., 2014, Mar., 2015, Oct., 2015, Dec., 2015 (3rd entry) and Feb., 2017.

Because we've been so many times before, we are emotionally drained from life under the current administration (nuf' said about that!), and the weather didn't beckon us outside, we decided to just hang out between plays.  We were seeing 3 plays at ASC over 2 days.  That in itself can be emotionally draining!

The view from our window.  Just as we were entering our room, the Amtrak train was pulling into the station.  We always said that some day we'd take the train.  Just couldn't do it this trip because we wanted to take our new (well to us, it's a 2016) Subaru Outback on a road trip.  Compared to our old Mountaineer, the gas mileage was amazing!

Note the snow still on the hillside.  No need to go outside unless for sustenance.

For dinner we went to the Mills.

What this restaurant lacks in quality, it makes up for it with quantity and noise.  The only reason we went was we could see it from our hotel window and we had eaten there before and lived to tell about it.

The Friday night play was Richard II with Sarah Fallon in the lead.  Yep, a woman was cast to play the King.  Why not?  In Shakespeare's day, men played the women's parts.

With legs like these, it's never hard to get George to go see some Shakespeare.

Saturday morning we had a late breakfast at our favorite place near the hotel - Cranberry's.

You can find out what's going on in the community and pick up any sundries you forgot to pack.  This trip I needed and found Aloe Vera oil.  

They have a limited but very nice breakfast menu.  George had the grits casserole and I had an omelet.

In honor of St. Patrick's Day.

We discovered a new shop across the street from Cranberry's.  If you're into Renaissance Festivals, this is a great place to get your outfit.

Poodles on parade.  Staunton is very dog friendly.

We saw Hamlet in the afternoon and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead in the evening.  The company at ASC is small, so you see the same actor playing multiple roles within one play and in all of the plays.  It was fascinating to see the same actors play the same characters in these 2 plays.  John Harrell and Chris Johnson were brilliant, but they always are.  If these truly are the last plays I'll get to see at ASC, I couldn't have picked a better 2. 

Between the 2 plays, we had a delightful reunion with dear friends, Carl and Margaret Oosterman.  We had a lot of catching up to do and it was great to hear about their travels.

Dinner was at The Bistro, another favorite.