Rediscovering America_ Exploring the Small Towns of Virginia & Maryland - Bill Burnham [80]
The collection has had to move a couple of times, but since 1999, the museum has been in a very appropriate home, a mid-1800s farmhouse on Main Street, one of the oldest homes in town. The Kilmarnock Museum is open March-December, 10 am-4 pm Thursday-Saturday. (76 Main Street, tel. 804-436-9100)
Dining
There are about dozen or so restaurants in Kilmarnock. Here are a few:
Lee’s is a popular, family-operated and affordable restaurant in the heart of downtown. Three home-style meals are served every day but Sunday. (34 Main Street, tel. 804-435-1255)
de’Medici Fine Italian Ristorante serves prime rib, veal, poultry, pasta and seafood in “casual elegance.” (School Street, tel. 804-435-4006)
Jimmie’s Grille, which opened in 2001, provides an elegant atmosphere for wine and cocktails, lunch and dinner. Closed Sundays, tel. 804-435-7799)
Lodging
The Holiday Inn Express is new, and is the first hotel in town since Eubank’s closed a generation ago. It has 68 rooms and an outdoor pool. They’ll arrange golf and fishing packages for their guests. (tel. 804-436-1500, www.holidayinnexpress/kilmarnock.com, $$)
The only B&B in town at this writing is the Waverly House, a chalet-style home built around 1930 on three and half acres, just four blocks from Main Street. There’s an indoor swimming pool, four guest rooms, and the innkeeper serves a big Ploughman’s breakfast. Located at Waverly Avenue and Raleigh Drive. (tel. 804-435-0458, $)
Information
Lancaster County Chamber of Commerce, tel. 804-435-6092, www.lancasterva.com.
A Satellite Visitor Center run by the Chamber of Commerce is located in Kilmarnock Antique Gallery, 144 School Street (see page##).
Trip Journal: Northern Neck
One of our favorite things to do is pack a lunch and head out by car or kayak for a day exploring the peninsulas, or “necks” of Chesapeake Bay’s River Country. When you dispense with expectation and open yourself to wonder at simple things, serendipity stikes. We discover the best things – new to us, anyway – and meet the friendliest people.
We have two rules: You can’t be in a hurry to get somewhere, and you can’t get upset if you take a wrong turn. Sometimes great finds are down the wrong road.
One unseasonably warm winter day we packed a lunch of egg salad sandwiches and headed north to explore the Northern Neck. After poking around Kilmarnock, we head out to the Hughlett Point Nature Preserve for a hike with the dog and a picnic. Good old Virginia had blessed us with a 75-degree first day of February, and we just couldn’t stay inside and work any longer. We brought the camera and binoculars to check out this nature preserve on the Chesapeake Bay.
A mile’s hike through woods with boardwalks and strategically placed observation decks looking out over the bay, and then we hit the beach. We munch our delicious sandwiches looking out onto the Chesapeake Bay, then walk along the narrow strip of sand to the point, the late afternoon sun filtering through fascinating cloud patterns. We stop to watch some little sandpipers dodge lapping waves, sticking their thin, pointy beaks into the sand for food. Suddenly the wind picks up. Cool, almost icy air from the southwest mingles with an unseasonably warm humid breeze behind us. It starts blowing so hard it whips a mix of sand and spray around us. It’s a portent of the weather to come – the temperature is supposed to drop 40 degrees by tomorrow morning. We head back on the beach, as the sun comes out, warming us. I could live here, I think, it’s so beautiful. Just make a camp right here on the beach.
I think that we haven’t seen much wildlife, and then we hear geese honking. A LOT of geese. In a semi-sheltered cove we watch from quite a distance hundreds of Canada Geese and,