Checking out Beautiful Richmond, VA

(Richmond, VA) Hi 77 Lo 56 – Wonderful day for sightseeing. Mike and Terri took us on a tour of Richmond. They've lived here 20 years and know how to get around.  Our first stop was the Poe Museum and  Gift Shop. Edgar Allan Poe grew up and started his writing career in Richmond back in the early 1800's. The museum is made up of four separate small buildings around a pretty courtyard.

Jim at the street entrance of the museum


No photography was allowed inside the buildings, but I got a couple of pictures of the courtyard and garden.




The courtyard area was attractive, but not particularly well-tended. The grass needed mowing and there weren't many flowers. There was a stone bust of Poe at the far end, which you can see in the top photo above if you click on it and enlarge it. The exhibits inside the buildings consisted of mostly sketches and paintings of Poe and his family members, some personal belongings and pieces of furniture from the several homes he lived in, and a lot of hand-written manuscripts and letters. There were also many first editions of his books on display. Jim, being a book lover, really enjoyed seeing those. It was interesting to learn about the first, and one of the greatest, American authors. He's thought of mostly as a writer of horror stories, but he also wrote many detective and science fiction stories and books too. It was a nice visit, and at only $5.00 admission price (senior rate), a pretty good value.

After that we drove around downtown Richmond. The city is larger than we thought it would be. We always thought it was about the same size as Raleigh, but it's much bigger.




This is the Sauer factory, where they make vanilla extract.


Flooding was evident on the James River, which flows across Richmond.



A flood wall runs along the river and across a large portion of downtown.


Monument Avenue is a beautiful drive, with large monuments every block or so. They're mostly civil war-era generals, but there's also a monument for Arthur Ashe, the tennis great from Richmond.


Mike is a NASCAR fan like us, so he took us by the Richmond International Raceway.


A cobblestone street in one of the downtown neighborhoods.


I love interesting looking homes.




The famous Byrd Theatre, the oldest movie house in Richmond.


On the way home we stopped for pizza at Anna's Italian Restaurant. It was highly recommended by Mike and Terri, and it didn't disappoint us. The pizza was terrific!


Thank you Mike and Terri for being our tour guides for a wonderful day in downtown Richmond.