The Inn at the Olde Silk Mill (1707 Princess Anne Street, 540-371-5666) was an 80-year-old, long, two-story, wooden building that didn’t really stand out at first glance. The interior, though, was resplendent. The rooms were lovingly renovated to provide guests with subdued luxury and a sense of stepping back in time. Although the Inn sat slightly outside of Old Town Fredericksburg, it possessed the same character as the Old Town area. As with Old Town streets, rooms at the Inn at the Olde Silk Mill also bore the names of British royalty, though for different reasons. The Queen Elizabeth Room was named for the owner’s sister and the King Edward Room for his father.

The Inn’s décor was antique-chic with heavily carved Queen Anne furniture throughout. King and queen suites had four-poster beds that stood waist-high and were topped with pillow-top mattresses and adorned with red-and-gold brocade shams and comforters. Cream-and-red toile silk curtains hung in every room as an homage to the building out back, where a silk mill once operated.

After getting settled, Dawn and I traveled a few blocks north to what we thought would be a kitschy dive, but the 2400 Diner (2400 Princess Anne Street, 540-373-9049) was anything but. When we saw the large neon sign proclaiming “Let’s Eat” and the flashing arrow pointing to the front door, we expected the fare to be typical greasy spoon. But what we discovered was delightful surprise.

The interior harked back to the ’50s: checkerboard floors and a row of post-mounted stools along a long, gleaming counter. As expected, the menu contained plenty of inexpensive American cuisine, but the house specialties were a variety of delicious Greek dishes. The waitress informed us that the owners were Greek and cooked all the specialties themselves. Dawn ordered one of her favorite Greek standards, gyros, and I experimented with a dish I’d never had before: dolmadakia (ground beef and rice wrapped in grape leaves and coated with a lemon sauce). I must have moaned in delight when I took my first bite because Dawn started laughing at my reaction. What can I say? It was delicious and I was enjoying it too much to care what I looked (or sounded) like.