‘Virginia’ Articles at Sweetnicks

Visit: Whitley’s Peanut Factory {Williamsburg, Virginia}

September 11, 2018 · Narrative

It’s almost a requirement that when you visit Virginia, you should get some peanuts. And so we did. Come visit Whitley’s Peanuts in Williamsburg, Virginia with us!

If you’ve been here long enough, you know that when I visit a new area, I always scope out the food scene. I mean, how can I not? I do everything from finding out what restaurants are NOT TO BE MISSED, and popping into the local grocery stores to see what they have versus what we don’t, to googling what that area is known for in terms of food. And so while I was googling what Virginia was known for when we were there in the Spring, peanuts came up on the list.

The first commercial peanut crop in Virginia was grown in the early to mid 1840s. They started to gain popularity when Union Army soldiers liked them and started taking them home with them, and in the late 1800s, the cry for “Hot Roasted Peanuts,” could be heard at P.T. Barnum’s circus as it traveled across the country. In the early 1900s, when the bull weevil destroyed the South’s cotton crop, peanuts started bringing in money and it is now a multimillion dollar industry in Virginia. In 2015, there were 175 peanut farmers maintaining 18,000 planted acres of peanuts, producing 67 million pounds of peanuts. There are four different types of peanuts grown in Virginia: Runners, Spanish, Virginia, and Valencia.

Finding out all this backstory on peanuts just reaffirmed the need to go find some legit Virginia peanuts, so I researched to find a peanut place near where we were staying, and that’s how we discovered Whitley’s.

A small non-descript place, it was easy to find and it has a dedicated parking lot. Once you walk in, there is no denying that they are all about peanuts.

SO MANY PEANUTS.

Everywhere you looked, there were a ton of different varieties to appeal to every taste bud or craving. There were samples available of almost everything, and I really wanted to buy so many (sea salt and caramel!), but the kids and I voted and went with three different kids: regular, salt and pepper, and bacon maple. I could have easily left with ten times that. Sweet, spicy, savory … no matter your pleasure, there was something for you. The peanuts we tried here definitely have a noticeable difference than what we usually get back home, and I think it might have to do largely with their freshness. Their bite is harder and crunchier, and once you have a handful, you’ll find yourself going back for more and more.

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Review: The Skrimp Shack {Williamsburg, Virginia}

August 18, 2018 · Narrative

Looking for an authentic food experience while visiting the South? Look no further than The Skrimp Shack in Williamsburg, Virginia.

One of my best and fail-safe tips of finding solid places to eat while traveling is to ask the locals where THEY eat, NOT where they send tourists. We’ve used this successfully while in Nashville, Wilmington, Canada, Massachusetts, and countless other places and it’s the best way to find good local food at reasonable prices without the bonus of tourist crowds.

And that’s exactly how we discovered The Skrimp Shack. I was talking with a hotel front desk clerk (and, surprisingly, not from the hotel where we were actually staying), and she gave me several excellent restaurant recommendations during our Spring trip to Virginia. She introduced us to Craft 31, and also The Skrimp Shack.

Before we left the area, I wanted to make sure we had a chance to chow down on some authentic Southern food, namely hush puppies and collard greens, and this place fit the bill.

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Review: Craft 31 Restaurant {Williamsburg, Virginia}

April 23, 2018 · Narrative

A bright and lively restaurant with a mouth-watering menu, let’s visit Craft 31 in Williamsburg, Virginia.

One of the tips that I give most often when it comes to travel is to ask the locals where THEY go, and a restaurant recommendation is no exception. But to be clear, I always say, “I don’t want to know where you send tourists. I want to know where you go to eat out yourself, or where you would take your family when they come to town.”

And so that’s how it was that we found ourselves pulling into the parking lot of Craft 31. A recommendation from a hotel front desk clerk (and, surprisingly, not even from the hotel where we were staying, but that’s a long story for another day), it was exactly what we wanted.

The restaurant is mid-size and was pretty busy considering it was a random Tuesday night in the Spring, but the hostess was able to seat us on their enclosed heated patio. I don’t think “patio” is the word I would use, but that’s how she described it. To me, “patio” is more outdoors, which was my initial concern because it was a bit chilly, but it really is fully enclosed and even has a bar in it.

Our waitress came by right away to take our drink order and, while on vacation, it’s time for Shirley Temples. I remember loving the special occasions I used to get them myself when I was a kid, and love that my kids will one day remember the same.

And now the menu … wow. I really wish the restaurant was closer to us, because I would make it my mission to work my way through the menu, one delicious item at a time. I had it narrowed down to a few choices, and when the waitress came back, I asked her which was the crowd favorite from my selections.

Blackened Blue Cheese Burger it was.

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Visit: Busch Gardens, Williamsburg, Virginia {Spring Break 2018}

April 13, 2018 · Narrative

Making our way through the East Coast’s amusement parks one rip roarin’ ride at a time, let’s visit Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, Virginia!

Busch Gardens is one of my fond memories from childhood vacations. I have no idea how old I was when we went, but I don’t think my sister was born yet, so that would put me at 9 or younger. I distinctly remember Busch Gardens and Colonial Williamsburg, and taking a visit to these destinations has been on my list for the past five years. It kept falling lower on the list because of the long six plus hour drive to get there, but this year, we finally got it done.

Interestingly enough, during our time in Virginia last week, we met a few other families that were actually there for the same reason. It was a vacation from their childhood that they wanted to share with their own kids.

Check and check.

Busch Gardens graciously comped me two admission tickets, which was quite generous given the entrance tickets for four years old and older are $90 a person! Eeek!

Unfortunately, while it was our Spring Break last week, it also appeared that everyone else was on Spring Break too! The traffic started about two miles before the highway exit for Busch Gardens. At first I just thought that it was late morning rush hour traffic. Unfortunately I was wrong. From that two mile mark to when we actually parked our car in the far-flung-Scotland parking lot, it was over an hour. It was so bad that the parking lot ticket agents were comping everyone’s parking, which was a nice savings of $20.

Given the weather was grey skies and a threat of rain and a cool fifty degrees, we weren’t expecting it to be as busy as it was, Spring Break or not. Apparently the employees thought the same because we heard several of them talking about the very unexpected 25,000 guests that were there that day!

Because we ended up actually entering the park so late, we actually stopped for food as soon as we got in. Probably not the best idea, because everyone else does the same. Busch Gardens is set up with different countries, and the first country is England. If we had walked a smidge farther, just into the next country, the wait for food probably wouldn’t have been quite so bad, but hindsight and all that being what it was, we stopped at the first place we saw.

Wanting to experience things, ahem, properly, because we were in England, I opted for the fish and chips, while my kids got chicken fingers, and salad. I actually ended up getting the kids meal for myself (pictures on the top left in the below photo), because it was three dollars cheaper and looked like plenty of food for lunch, and it was. The food was cooked to order, which was awesome in terms of freshness, but not so much in terms of the wait. It was about forty-five minutes before I had our tray with food, and luckily I stationed my kids outside on table duty since there are only a handful of tables to grab from to sit and eat. The pricing is akin to any other amusement park, lunch was around $34.

Once satiated we started scouring the nearby gift shops and rides. We actually ended up hopping on the train ride first, because it’s a good way to get a quick overview of the park and scope things out. It goes through four countries and makes a full circle, so you can either get off at a different country or take a round trip (we did the latter).

As a side note, we didn’t see any paper maps near the entrance, nor did the ticket staff hand us one when we went through, so we were kind of winging it through stumbling and finding things.

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