Rediscovering America_ Exploring the Small Towns of Virginia & Maryland - Bill Burnham [77]
Lodging
The Bell House B&B is an 1882 Victorian on the Potomac River, once the summer home of Alexander Graham Bell. Guests can partake of a wine and cheese hour at 5 pm or a Potomac River dinner cruise aboard the innkeeper’s boat, Apolonia, on a Friday or Saturday evening (for an extra charge). The five-course meal with wine is offered May through November. The rest of the year, the dinner is served in the house. (821 Irving Avenue, tel. 804-224-7000, www.thebellhouse.com, $$)
The Plaza Bed & Breakfast is a 1903 Victorian with three guest rooms, a pool/spa, gardens and a wrap-around porch. A full breakfast and afternoon tea are served. (21 Weems Street, tel. 804-224-1101, www.colonialbeachplaza.com, $$)
Wakefield Motel – On the Point has rooms with kitchenettes. There’s a fishing pier on the Potomac for guests to use, and a beach and public boat ramp nearby. (1513 Irving Avenue, tel. 804-224-7311, www.wakefieldmotel.com, $)
Pet-friendly: The Days Inn Colonial Beach accepts pets with a daily charge of $10.75. (30 Colonial Avenue, tel. 804-224-0404, $$)
Information
The Colonial Beach Information Center, tel. 804-224-0732, is on the boardwalk, open in season only.
Colonial Beach Chamber of Commerce, tel. 804-224-8145, www.cbvacc.org.
TRIVIA: Colonial Beach was originally called Monrovia since it was first settled in 1647 by Andrew Monroe, a Scot and the great-great grandfather of President James Monroe.
Events
The Potomac River Festival, held annually for more than 50 years, is the first weekend in June, with parades, fireworks and music.
Sidetrip: Oak Grove
Spend a perfect day enjoying the fruits of nature just south of Oak Grove. At the Westmoreland Berry Farm and Orchard you can pick your own in season, buy them by the pound, or purchase dessert for a picnic by the river. You can even feed the goats, who are sometimes 20 feet above your head! The “goat walk” is a series of platforms and ramps built to satisfy the goat’s natural urge to climb. (tel. 800-997-BERRY (2377), www.westmorelandberryfarm.com; the farm has a harvest schedule online so you can plan a trip.)
Work off the calories on the six miles of trails at adjacent Voorhees Nature Preserve with observation points along the Rappahannock River and marshes. (tel. 804-224-9171)
End the day with a tour and tasting at Ingleside Plantation Winery and Vineyards. There’s a museum on the 1834 plantation, which has been a winery since 1890. There are tours, tastings, and a gift and wine shop. Open Monday-Saturday 10 am-5 pm, Sunday noon-5 pm (tel. 804-224-8687, www.ipwine.com)
Reedville
Around Town
This quiet fishing village on the Northern Neck may be the smallest town in Virginia serviced by a major four-lane highway. We’re talking about Route 360, the high road from Richmond that dead-ends at an old wharf in Reedville, population uncertain. Our entrance, on a quiet Sunday afternoon during the off-season, proved a solitary event – there was nobody else on this wide, wide road.
At a local restaurant we learn the answer to what, to us, was a mystery: Why would such a major highway service such a small town? Reedville is still a large commercial fishing center, as it has been since Elijah Reed built a fish processing operation here in 1867. Today’s modern fish factories are the reason for the wide road, getting hundreds of commuters to work during the week.
Reedville is a Southern town built by a Yankee that prospered thanks to a one-inch, bony fish – or more accurately, millions of small, bony fish. Elijah Reed, originally of Maine, heard about the menhaden fish to be had in the Chesapeake Bay. This is not fish for eating, but prized for oil and fertilizer (they’re also a mainstay in the diets of certain whales, like the humpback). So Elijah came down and built a menhaden-processing outfit in 1867. The town