Open till...

Late that's when! This has to be my new favorite "hours of operation" sign. It was taken at Culver Haven, which is located atop Culver Downs. Every trip to IOW includes a trip to Culver. During the early part of the twentieth century, Culver served as a military fort, signal station and military battery. It was closed to the public until the late 1950's when most of the military equipment was dismantled. During WWII, the island was fearful that they could be bombed by the German's. The IOW was home to a signal station that relayed radio signals to ships at sea.

Today, all that remains is the concrete shells of the artillery mounts. Rusted out door frames and hooks are still visible in pock marked and graffiti stained concrete. Their sunken positions would have been invisible to approaching ships and low flying aircraft. Bob said that the military used to worn the local residents before test firing guns because of the noise they put off.

Today, The National Trust has taken over Culver. Presently, the only structures that populate Culver, besides the sheep, are some homes and the exquisite Culver Haven.

We lucked out and took the front sun room. Culver is affiliated with Badger Brewery, out of Dorset. So I immediately beelined for the bar to have my first pint of Tangled Foot poured.

In the past, I have enjoyed Culver's pork medallions in a whiskey peppercorn sauce. Unfortunately, I did not find them on the menu. To make up for my disappointment, I took a 180 degree turn and ordered the sausage and chips. After all, while in England...

Alan and Bob had hot baguettes, Zoe had a prawn sandwich and Wendy had a bacon butty...which you might simply recognize as bacon on white bread. In typical fashion, I sampled three of the five lunches. They were all delicious and served with very generous portions...thus why I was able to sample so many. One thing I enjoy about pub grub is the attention to detail. Where else could you order chips and sausage and still get garnish that looks like this:

Back home, you would be lucky to get some lettuce half flung onto a plate next to some crusted on nacho sauce that did not quite make it off in the dishwasher.

The pub staff was great. I even took some good American ribbing when the staff mistook my credit card for a "one-pass" card. After an unsuccessful attempt at giving it the ole "one-pass" and nothing happening, he realized his error. I told him that I was not that advanced. The staff then took that opportunity to highlight the fact that they had something that "we" did not. We laughed as they stated, "that doesn't happen very often..."

After our hearty lunch and a few pints, we walked the down. The weather was fabulous. The whole stop reinforced why I like Culver so much.