#also in general ice cream only ships should have milkshakes more often

[lettersfrombeyondthegrave]

I'm sorry it makes me a bit mad when a shop gets my hopes up by saying they do milkshakes

And then it HAS to have boba in it???

Milkshakes are milk, ice cream and ice !!! If I want boba I'll ask for the boba tea like god intended!!! Tapioca balls in my milkshake are NOT canon

[charmingturkeysandwich]

Knock, Knock Ch. 25: New Beginnings

Full disclosure: I literally just got off an actual real life pirate ship excursion and I might be a little drunk. But I wrote this sober, promise! I hope you enjoy this chapter - things are definitely wrapping up for our pirating lovebirds.

Read on AO3.

Read from the beginning on Tumblr.

Recovery wasn’t like it was in the movies and TV shows. Well, not in the happy ones at least.

Emma was miserable a lot of the time. Her voice was mostly back to normal, but the aching in her chest was still pretty severe. The burns she and Belle had suffered were admittedly minor by comparison to what they could have been, but they still hurt like a bitch (and didn’t look very aesthetically pleasing either).

And the pain. Ugh. The pain was nearly constant. She’d stopped taking the pills the doctor had given her – the addiction videos did their proper job of scaring the living daylights out of her – but now she was left at a constant 6-7/10 pain scale (definitely the level of one of the miserable looking emojis) and it was negatively impacting just about every part of her life.

“For God’s sake, Emma, is there any meal you will eat?!” David snapped at her, deeply frustrated by her current distaste for all food that wasn’t ice cream, frozen yogurt, or milkshakes.

“Sorry, dad, I’m just not feeling lasagna today. Especially not since you most definitely just bought this from Granny.”

“Well my pregnant wife and I got sick of putting in so much effort to try to cook you delicious, homemade meals just to have you turn your nose up at them! I know you’re going through a lot, Emma, but, quite honestly, you’re acting like a toddler. Mary Margaret and I are happy to have you here and we love you but I swear to God if you don’t eat this lasagna I’m going to throw it at you.”

Yeah, most people were at their breaking point with her.

Killian was the most patient, of course, but he’d finally broken just the day before. And what a delightful break that was (sarcasm).

You see, if this had been some movie, then Emma would have done some rehab to the tune of a quirky alternative rock song, would have had some montage where she slowly healed and Killian helped her do things while she beamed with her incandescent love, and most importantly she would have been on his fucking boat when he finally needed to get down to business (and not to defeat the Huns).

Ever since she woke up in the hospital she’d been dreaming of that first piratey excursion they’d have after her recovery. She’d probably have some bandages but play it off like it was all part of the costume. It would be fulfilling. Triumphant. It would make her forget how fucking stupid she could be sometimes and how that affected the people around her.

But no. The meds had made her loopy and the lack of meds had made her cranky. Saltwater hitting her wounds was a super ouchy – she discovered that just sitting at the goddamn docks, no less – and it turned out the rocking of the boat was something that really angered her severely battered insides.

So, yeah. Killian had to get back to work, had to execute some of her meticulously crafted plans – without her.

Today was the first one. It was the start of a weeklong camp, and Emma had been so excited for it. They were going to cover the history of the town, the types of creatures in the waters below them. And most importantly, they were going to tell stories. In trying to figure out how exactly to make these summer kid-adventures more interesting (and different from things they already offered), Emma wracked her brain about what really appeals to kids – what they want and what they need.

She’d had a shit life. Obviously. Well, most of it, anyway. But as is true with anyone, she still had those bright spots in her life that shone through all the darkness. Oddly enough, most of them involved fiction.

That’s what hit her. The reason that Killian’s pirate ship tours were so interesting wasn’t because people were interested in actual pirates – no, historically they were rapists, murderers, and thieves with halitosis and scurvy. What people were interested in were the stories. The folk legends. The fairy tales. So on the last two days of this camp, Killian would tell stories of his own – fake ones, of course, as Belle had already done a lesson on the “real” pirates of the region – and then the kids would create their own.

It’s something Emma had done a lot. Not in a controlled, educational setting, of course. More like while hiding in the woods from her abusive, mentally unstable foster father who was threatening to kill her and all the kids with a sawed off shotgun. But it was the same concept. We’re fascinated by fantastical things, fictional adventures, but when it comes down to it, we have all the ability inside us to create our own worlds and stories. And that’s something really powerful for kids – even the ones who aren’t damaged beyond all belief.

You could say Emma was bitter the night before Killian’s camp began, seeing as she wouldn’t be participating. In fact, the pregnant lady was going in her place, because apparently growing a child allowed you more capabilities than her own predicament did.

So she may have started a fight with Killian just before bed.

Despite it being less than 24 hours prior to her lasagna refusal, the details of the encounter were escaping her. What she didn’t forget, however, was Killian’s meltdown. It went something to the tune of you’re the one who put yourself in danger and tried to fucking leave me and you think you get to hold the burning building card forever, well I’ve got the same card in my pocket and I love you so much I can’t even put it into words but funny enough I have a lot of words for you right now that have nothing to do with love.

Emma reacted like a brat, which wasn’t fair. And Killian didn’t call her a brat – or any other b word for that matter – but she could see it in his eyes.

It was so damn frustrating not recovering quickly. Why couldn’t she just be Buffy Summers? Ugh. That’s right. Thinking she was Buffy Summers is exactly what got her into this mess in the first place.

(Non-slayers should probably await the firefighters’ assistance when exiting a burning building. She’s learned her lesson. Please, no more lectures.)

“Emma!” David’s voice boomed, bringing her out of her bitter reverie.

“What?” (She sounded like a sullen teenager, even to herself.)

“I’m giving you ten seconds to start eating that lasagna. One.”

“Or what, you’ll burn all my stuff? Too late. ”

“Two.”

“David, I’m not a child!”

“Three.”

“Seriously, you need to stop this.”

“Four.”

“You realize your kid isn’t even born yet, and you’ll already an annoying father.”

“Five.”

“You’re really not going to give this up, are you?”

“Six.”

“I’m going to text your wife and tell her you’re having some kind of pre-baby meltdown.”

“Seven.”

“Remember how I have serious injuries?!”

“Eight.”

“Burns and scrapes and sprains!”

“Nine.”

Emma crossed her arms and stared, I dare you written across her eyes.

“Ten.”

Before Emma could open her mouth to triumphantly declare having called David’s bluff, he reached over the table, picked her slice of lasagna up off her plate –

–  and (gently) smashed it onto her skull.

“What the hell?!”

“I warned you. Now go clean up while I cut you another piece. That you’ll fucking eat this time.”

David wasn’t one to swear very often. He was very Steve Rodgers about it all.

But Emma had broken him. Just like she’d broken everyone else.

-

The kids couldn’t have been happier. It was a lovely summer day – the storms of the weekend had given the coast the drink it desperately needed, so the flowers were blooming bright and the trees and grasses were greener than ever. The fish were jumping and the birds were cawing and there couldn’t possibly be a single thing missing in that perfect day.

You know, except his pirate princess of a partner.

She was feeling like shit. And he was trying so hard to just let her work through it all herself. Her guilt about everything was tangible, her mild regret about her heroics constantly on her mind – especially when it came to the limitations it was currently imposing on her. He knew that she was being a bitch because she was in pain and missing out on things and sorely unable to take the next step they’d promised each other because of her slow progress.

But there was only so much a man could take.

He regretting yelling at her. Why it had turned to a fight the previous night, he really couldn’t be sure. But he’d been bottling some bitter of his own and the thing about pushing down your feelings is that they inevitably come bursting out. Generally at a most inopportune moment.

So Emma had slept on the pull-out couch rather than in the guest room (their room), and he’d left in the morning before she’d awoken, and now he was on his ship carrying out her wonderful plans, all without her.

Mary Margaret could tell he was only half there. She was picking up a lot of his slack like a damn champ. She was answering all the kids’ questions and keeping them excited, even when Killian had clearly been somewhere else in his head. He was endlessly grateful for the fairer Nolan for putting her child-corralling expertise into practice while he… gathered his bearings.

He’d get through today. He’d put on a great show for the kids, make sure they learned something and were excited for tomorrow, and then he’d get home and fix things with his admittedly still ailing princess.

Deep breaths.

-

After washing her hair (and changing her shirt), Emma quietly walked back to the kitchen, sat down at her place at the table, and ate two full pieces of lasagna without a word. David just stood there, arms crossed, looking at everything but Emma (while clearly also keeping an eye on her in his periphery to make sure she wasn’t tossing scraps in the trash).

With the newspaper already opened in front of her, Emma started browsing. The police reports were always fun – small seaside towns had some quirky little problems, to be sure – but it was the Classifieds that caught her attention most.

Especially the 2-bedroom house for rent just a couple of blocks from where Killian kept his ship. It was so close to the water that they could probably see the shore from the upstairs. Was that where the bedrooms were? Could Emma get so lucky as to live in a house overlooking the sea with her perfect pirate prince?

(Her life was never this easy.)

It was around one in the afternoon, so Mary Margaret and Killian wouldn’t be home for at least another three hours – more if the kids really wreaked havoc on the ship (hopefully not). And David didn’t have to go into work until 7 (he was doing overnights since Emma needed someone with her in the daytime, yes, like a fucking child).

She shouldn’t be asking David for any favors, but this one was probably acceptable. Because it was a big step and hopefully at least somewhat proof that Emma could do more than brood (and yell at the people who love her).

“Hey, do you think we could swing by this house? Pretty please?”

“Not until you shower. You still smell like marinara.” When Emma finally met David’s eyes, they softened and his scowl gave way to a smirk. (Guess she only broke him momentarily).

 The house wasn’t that far from the Nolans’ so they were there by two that afternoon. And as luck would have it, the agent was having an open house until three. So after staring at it from the outside for far too long (she still had some fear, OK?), David and Emma walked up to the door and knocked.

“Hello! Are you folks interested in the house?” A bright-eyed redhead (who wore far too much green) greeted them, ushering them into the foyer.

She was struck by the… cuteness of the place. It wasn’t the vast, column-adorned mansion type. And it wasn’t a cottage in the woods. But it was homey. It was sweet.

And why the fuck was it just for rent?

“Uh, well, yeah. I mean I’m interested in the house. This is my… brother. He’s just, um, helping me.” Emma unconsciously tugged at one of her bandages, suddenly feeling awkward about needing a chaperone. But the woman seemed to realize immediately who she was.

“Oh my goodness! You’re Emma Swan, aren’t you? The girl who tried to save the meth head?”

“Uh, I think it was PCP, but yeah. That’s me. Hence the bodyguard. Sorry.”

“Goodness, no, don’t be sorry. I suppose I should be sorry for being so forward. I do hope you’re recovering well.” She extended her hand and offered another, more sincere smile. “I’m Zelena.”

What a name. “Nice to meet you. This is David. He’s here to stop me from running toward fire. At least until these heal.”

“It really was a wonderful thing you did. It seems Jefferson is finally going to get the help he needs.”

“What he needs is a punch to the face,” David muttered, but Zelena either didn’t hear him or chose to ignore it.

“Can I show you around?” she asked, Emma already wandering about to see the details of each room.

“Yeah, but I mean, I’m already thinking this is too good to be true. Why would someone put this up for rent? It’s so… nice.”

“Well, renting doesn’t mean slumming it, my dear. I’m truly sorry for the loss of your last home, but renting doesn’t always mean it’s small apartments with crappy heat and thin walls. The gentleman who owns this property and many others simply enjoys renovating houses. And he’s found that he generates a nice, steady income from renting them out. And he likes to give people a starter home they can be proud of. Is that something you’re looking for?”

God, if she only knew. “Yes, yeah, that’s… that’s what I need.”

“Then allow me to show you around.”

The tour really only solidified her too good to be true feelings (worries). The carpets were new and the walls were freshly painted. The bay window in their (hypothetical) bedroom would be perfect for curling up and reading. The closets were small, but the basement wasn’t awful, so they’d certainly have room for storage.

And best of all, their view of the bay was perfect. So perfect, in fact, that she could literally see Killian’s ship, out there on the water, molding young minds to be adventurers, explorers and dreamers.

(And yeah, that second bedroom might someday be able to hold a young adventurer, explorer, and dreamer who just so happened to share DNA with her and Killian.)

In short, it was pretty damn perfect.

“Now, I do have several people interested already, but I know that glint in your eye, Ms. Swan. You’ve found your home, haven’t you?”

It was a tactic. Emma knew this. She could spot a slimy salesperson from, well, all the way out to the ocean, probably.

But it’s not as if Zelena was wrong.

-

The kids had been incredible. It kind of made him feel guilty for being the little shit he was as a child, but it’s all about circumstance. He didn’t have nearly the support these kids did.

Then again, if he had, he may never have crossed the pond, may never have met Milah, may never have loved her and lost her and then found himself on a ‘pirate’ ship and living in a tiny apartment, just one thin wall away from what would become a most magical journey.

It’s funny to think about cause and effect. Because sometimes it could set your insides on fire with anger, with guilt, with regret. But there were those other moments that the cause was something unexpected, terrible, that you’d never wish on your worst enemy – and somehow the effect was, what – happily ever after?

(The lesson plans and build the kids’ imaginations was clearly affecting him.)

Once he’d put the Emma situation (mostly) out of his head, it was a really great day. They talked about colonization and the ships that came to America from the far-off lands. They talked about the wars that had been fought here, the things that had been discovered. And they talked about the heroes of Storybrooke and other surrounding areas – the corrupt mayor who’d been defeated by a brave young woman, the young boy who’d stopped the curse of scarlet fever, the brave huntsman who’d given his life to save a young princess from a faraway land. There were historical accounts of each of those tales, of course, but they weren’t quite as fun as the folksy versions. Killian was careful to tell both, though, and the kids were captivated.

When he bid them all farewell and he and Mary Margaret packed up their things, they both had a glow about them (and his clearly had nothing to do with pregnancy). It was more fulfilling than he’d ever imagined to be using his powers for good, so to speak.

Frat boys guzzling rum made him money, but damn did this new arrangement just give him so much more.

“What do you think the whiner and her warden have prepared for us for dinner?” Mary Margaret asked, her being the only one really taking Emma’s constant crankiness in stride.

“Oh, who knows. Emma probably won’t even be there. I sense she’ll be avoiding me. Again.”

“Oh, she will not. I heard your fight – well, part of it. Our walls aren’t that thin. But you needed to let it out! And I know her. She’ll understand. And maybe you showing how her sullenness is affecting you will finally make her clean up her act a little bit. I love her, but damn. She’s a level of bitter I haven’t experienced before. And I was there when she was attempting to live in her car.”

“I know all the stories, Mary Margaret. I think she’s angrier because she was happier? I think the fight last night started all because she’s just mad that she couldn’t go on the ship today. After all her planning and being so dedicated to trying to really cultivate the whole ‘educational’ and ‘family’ aspect of the business, she’s stuck at home. She’s taking it out on us which is super not OK, obviously. But I know from experience that your emotions hit you harder when there’s actually something you feel you lost.”

“Well I’m sure she’d recover faster if she’d just try a little harder. But don’t tell her I said that.” Mary Margaret looked over at Killian and smiled for a moment before focusing back on the task of backing into their driveway. It was nice, the camaraderie he had with Mary Margaret and David, Emma’s only “family” – despite their not being blood-related.

They were all this little unit. Along with Belle and Will and Regina and Ruby and Robin – somehow Killian had found his people.

All because of Emma.

When Mary Margaret and Killian entered the home, they found a surprising sight: Emma and David were making dinner. Together.

Emma was actually contributing to the meal’s preparation. She was even – gasp – smiling?

Until she saw him. At that point her expression morphed to something between fear and panic. Was he accidentally dressed like Freddy Kruger?

“You’re home!” Emma stuttered, visibly nervous.

“I can finish this. Why don’t you go… chat?” David suggested, bumping Emma out of the way with his hip while he stirred what looked like sauce.

“Uh, ok. Just… keep stirring.”

“Just keep stirring, just keep stirring, just keep stirring, stirring, stirring,” David started singing, continually moving the wooden spoon through the substance in the skillet.

“David. You’re not Dory,” Emma chided, a hint of a smile on the corners of her lips.

(David was breaking tension. Which meant there was something up. Fuck, he couldn’t deal with any more drama.)

Emma approached him overly cautiously – the kiss she laid on his cheek so quick he barely felt it. “We’re having this tortellini veggie bake that I found on Pinterest and I don’t want him to fuck it up. I’ve read it’s delicious.” Emma seemed to be trying to explain her nervousness away, to blame it on cooking. But there was definitely something more going on.

She took his hand and led them to their room, Emma awkwardly standing in the doorway even as Killian sat down on the bed. She was quiet for far too long, staring all over the room instead of looking at him.

Until she finally blurted out, “please don’t be mad at me!”

Which took him by surprise. “Uhhh, are you talking about last night? Because I was just frustrated and I shouldn’t have said what I did – I’m annoyed at you, admittedly, but I’m not mad, per se, and I don’t want you to think I hate you because I don’t, I’m just – ”

“No, Killian, I get it. I’ve been a bitter, frustrated bitch and it’s not fair and you needed to get it out. No harm done except me feeling guilty for being awful. That’s – that’s not what I’m talking about.”

“Then why would I be mad?”

“Well, you know how you worried that I’d be mad when you made a big decision without asking me?”

“… yes?”

“You really don’t see where I’m going with this?”

“Yes, Emma, I obviously see that you made a decision without me, but I’m not sure what that decision might have been so I’m waiting for you to explain it before I assure you I’m not mad!”

“Well, I may have, um… put down security deposit and first and last month’s rent on a house. It’s adorable! I promise! And it overlooks the water and has a bay window and it’s mostly new and we don’t have to share any walls with psychopaths and it has a brand new fire alarm and sprinkler systems and a fireplace and I just want us to move forward and I’m sorry that I’m terrible at recovering and I know I should have asked you first but you were with the kids and I knew you couldn’t text or call and the slimy sales lady was all I have other people interested and making me feel like I had no choice but to take it right that second and I shouldn’t have fallen for it, but Killian, it’s our house. I could feel it. So. I took the leap.”

Emma was out of breath from her babbling, so Killian gave her a moment just to breathe, to attempt relaxation – however impossible that might be. And then he stood, grabbed her hand, and pulled her to sit next to him. He put his hand on her leg and gripped it tightly, willing her to listen to his words and stop her damn panicking.

“Emma. We have got to stop worrying that each other is going to leave just because we took a positive step forward. Or, perhaps we need to communicate with each other before taking steps. I don’t know, it’s one of the two. But the point is: I’m very happy that you found us a house. It sounds perfect. And I’m so happy to be starting a life with you. Not that it hasn’t already started. I mean, we’ve kind of been living a joint life for a while now. But you know what I’m saying. We’ll start our fully independent life together.”

“I know I should have resolved last night especially first. I’ve been terrible. I’m still going to be terrible – I swear I can only control my snark about 45% of the time. I resolved long ago, just after everything with Graham, that I wouldn’t ever use you as a punching bag. Even when you’re offering yourself up for it. And I failed. I know that. I know I let myself just let go and take everything out on you and Mary Margaret and David. I know that’s why Robin won’t even come visit and why Belle gets short with me. I mean we dealt with the same trauma and yet I’m the only one going all Cruella de Vil because of it. I’m working on it. I promise to always work on it. Because, you know, I love you.”

“As I love you. Now how about you show me this home I apparently have because somebody just couldn’t wait…” Killian put his forehead against hers, brushing her cheek with his thumb.

“After dinner. I’m serious about the tortellini. It’s supposed to be near Godly and it took us a Godly amount of time to cook it, so we’re damn well eating it. But then I’ll take you to see the house! It’s perfect. I promise I made a good decision, even if I shouldn’t have done so alone.”

“Oh, love, any house would be perfect with you in it.” Killian kissed her cheek, her nose, her forehead, and then captured her lips in a deep, loving kiss.

“Only my dinner should be that cheesy, Jones.”

Go to Next Chapter

I have finally experienced the type of excursion that I’ve been writing about for over a year, and I’m happy to report I was correct about what it was like. So yay! Cheers, friends & thank you for reading : )

[billydmacklin]

A Guide To Our Beach Town: Cape Charles, Virginia

I know it’s odd to be posting a beach-centric travel guide after summer’s over, but Sherry has been fielding so many questions lately about what to do in Cape Charles that we wanted all the answers in one place. Now people can just drop in on this post for all the details. And boy, are there details (have you met me? If not, hi, I’m John “Thorough” Petersik).

So if you’re thinking of making a visit to our favorite little beach town (which was also recently voted #3 Happiest Seaside Town by Coastal Living!), or are just curious about why we chose this place to renovate two vacation homes, this post is for you! We’re covering some fun activities for the family, our go-to meal places, and other reasons we think Cape Charles is the perfect place to unwind and soak up some pretty memorable sunsets.

Where Is Cape Charles?

Cape Charles is located near the southern tip of Virginia’s Eastern Shore right on the Chesapeake Bay. The Eastern Shore is a small, rural portion of the state that’s separated from mainland Virginia by the Chesapeake Bay. Cape Charles is a small town (the historic area is roughly a six block by six block square) that sits on the peninsula’s western coast… meaning you can sit on the beach in Cape Charles and watch the sunset right over the water. Highly recommend that.

It’s about a 2.5-hour drive from our home in Richmond, which culminates in crossing the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, a 23-mile long stretch of several bridges and two tunnels that offers quite the impressive welcome to the area (gorgeous water views). It’s also accessible from the north via a quiet drive through Maryland (it’s about 4 hours from Washington DC). Or, if you need to fly, the Norfolk International Airport is just across the bridge-tunnel – about 45 minutes away.

The town is relatively unknown and only in the last 5-10 years has it been experiencing an upswing as people have discovered it as a low-key alternative to your typical beach town, which means lots of homes are getting fixed up, new restaurants and shops are opening up, etc.

It has been really amazing to watch this town spring back to life and be revitalized, beautified, and enjoyed. Especially because the historic area is home to hundreds of beautiful 100+ year old houses, many of which needed a lot of love, and many of which have been lovingly restored. And our two are tucked right into the middle of it all.

The Beach

First lets talk about the beach, because it’s what sold us on Cape Charles (and it’s usually our go-to place every time we visit). It’s uncrowded, low-key, and easy to get to. Since it’s on the Chesapeake Bay, not the Atlantic Ocean, the water is calm and shallow.

At high tide you can walk out several dozen yards and still be barely waist deep in most parts (I’m sitting in the photo below, so the water is only about 18″ deep there) and at low-tide you can park your beach chair right in the water to keep your feet cool. It attracts lots of families like ours because kids can play for hours in the water without us parents having to fear the break of a big wave or the pull of a sudden riptide.

Our kids have spent HOURS splashing around, riding on floats, or even hunting for hermit crabs (yup, you can find them walking around on the sand in low tide).

Yup, these are all little hermit crabs we collected one evening at low tide. They’re such a novel thing to discover with kids, and they can put them in a bucket to watch them swim (and even witness them switching shells if you’re lucky!) and then toss them back in the water before heading out.

I you crave a bit more activity when you go to the beach, Cape Charles Beach is great for kayaking, stand up paddle boarding, fishing, jet skiing, or boating. On a windy day you’ll even see kite boarders. If you don’t have your own, there are a couple of rental places, like SouthEast Expeditions and the Oyster Farm at Kings Creek.

The other great thing is that PARKING IS FREE AND PLENTIFUL! You can park right along the beachfront street, Bay Avenue, with no problem – even on most summer weekends. No circling the block to find a spot or having to pay for metered parking. We LOVE that fact. There are also public restrooms with showers behind them near the big “LOVE” sign at the corner of Mason Ave & Bay Ave, and on summer weekends there’s often a delicious taco truck and an Italian Ice stand parked nearby.

Where To Stay

For such a compact town, there’s a surprising variety of options for your stay. We should first mention that there are vacation rentals through sites like HomeAway and Airbnb, which can be great for long stays, like a full week. The one shown below was even featured on HGTV! Just be mindful that those sites often return results outside of the historic district (but being inside the historic district is where you’ll get the most proximity to the beach, shops, and restaurants). So just double check that it’s actually in Historic Cape Charles if you plan to walk to shops, the park, the beach, restaurants, etc.

There are also a lot of bed & breakfasts in Cape Charles, like the Bay Haven Inn (below), Cape Charles House, and Alyssa House to name a few. We had the chance to visit several during a holiday open house event and they’re all beautiful with great historic details.

Another great option, especially for shorter stays, are hotels. The two in town are both AWESOME, but very different. Hotel Cape Charles is a modern “zen-like” hotel with loft style rooms (think: exposed brick, reclaimed wood, and those glass balconies that you see in the photo below). They also have fun perks like golf carts and bikes that are available to guests. We stayed there one night while tiling the pink house and loved it!

By contrast, the newly opened/restored Northampton Hotel has water views (it’s closer to the beach) and a more historic/Southern feel (like a giant front porch with a haint blue ceiling where you can have coffee and breakfast, with lots of traditional and ornate details like wallpaper, detailed molding, etc). There are also some more bargain-priced hotels and motels just outside of Cape Charles if you just need a place to plop your head at night.

Lastly, Kiptopeke State Park offers campsites and a few cabins (even a yurt!) nearby – as does Cherrystone Campground. Both are also waterfront, so you can enjoy the beach there without coming into town. But we’d definitely recommend venturing into Historic Cape Charles just to check out a few of the places we’re about to talk about below.

Where To Eat

The restaurant scene in Cape Charles is, well, not quite a scene yet. But that doesn’t meant there aren’t plenty of good meals to stuff in your face hole. Most of the commercial action in Cape Charles is concentrated on Mason Avenue, the town’s de facto “main street.” But our favorite dining spot is actually a short distance away, called Shanty. It’s a casual seafood place, complete with an oyster shell parking lot and an old boat out front full of plants. It has a ton of fresh fish tuna, shrimp, and oysters (for either lunch or dinner) as well as great options for non-seafood lovers and children as well (chicken fingers, quesadillas, burgers, etc).

It’s on the water so you can catch great sunsets, and in the summertime they often have live music on weekends. It’s popular with locals and visitors, so if you want to avoid a long wait it helps to come early (before 5:30 is the best time to aim for), or get a reservation (typically you have to call the day before to score one). Or just put your name on the list and they’ll text your phone when your table is ready – so you can walk around outside or even play corn hole out back and watch the boats in the marina while you wait.

Another favorite of ours is Deadrise Pies, which is a pizza/Italian place operated by the Shanty folks.

It’s also super kid-friendly, has great outdoor seating, and is also really nice when you need some easy carryout. We often get pizza and take it to eat on the beach at sunset! Some argue that Gerry’s Ristorante outside of town has better pizza (we like ’em both) but Deadrise wins for location and ambiance.

A newer favorite of ours is Cape Charles Brewing Company, which serves food and has great outdoor seating. We ate at shaded picnic tables while the kids played corn hole and ladder golf nearby and it was perfect!

Kelly’s Gingernut Pub is also a good option for kids, and people recommend Hook-U Up and The Oyster Farm for nicer adult date-night dining excursions, but since we’ve always got kids with us we haven’t tried them yet.

Our go-to spots for breakfast are the Cape Charles Coffee House and the cafe at The Northampton Hotel (above), or you can eat more casually at Rayfield’s soda fountain. We like to grab lunches at Gourmet Alley or Tim’s Place too. There are also other staples outside of town (like fast food and carryout Chinese) and in other exciting news: it looks like we’re getting a couple of new bakeries soon!

Where To Treat Yourself

A satisfying meal is all well and good, but one of our favorite parts about Cape Charles (and, well, life in general) is DESSERT. And if you’re more into the “grown-up desserts” (aka, drinks) we’ll cover that here too.

Reigning dessert champ in Cape Charles is Brown Dog Ice Cream. This charming ice cream parlor with an ever-rotating menu of flavors was named among the “Top 10 Best Ice Creams in America” by TripAdvisor. They’ve got plenty of classic flavors, but I always love their experimental ones with names like Lemon Curd Coconut Hot Milk Cake and Peach Raspberry Goat Cheese Crumble (the one below with sprinkles is Caramelized Fig with Mascarpone & Coco-Ginger Dust). And you can get any flavor as a milkshake, malt, float, or an ice cream sandwich too.

The new kid in town is Peach Beach Shave Ice Shack, which was started out of someone’s shed. They shipped in an authentic Hawaiian shave ice machine to make finely shaved treats that are distinctly better than your typical snow cone. Plus, the interior is super charming! They’re only open in the summer season for the most part, but they’re awesome on a hot day.

A less known, but also less expensive dessert option is CC Kool Eatz, which is hidden in a residential area on the north side of the historic downtown district (at the corner of Jefferson & Strawberry). They have some great soft serve with little tables to enjoy it outside. We also got a new candy shop this year, the Cape Charles Candy Co, which was opened by the family who was featured in the episode of HGTV’s Beachfront Bargain hunt that our house photobombed!

As for places to grab an adult beverage, in 2018 Cape Charles got a brewery, a distillery, and a cidery. Sherry likes to call it the trifecta of hipster spots to grab a drink – and they each have some pretty great atmosphere and that craft-brew feeling. As I mentioned above in the food section, the Cape Charles Brewing Company serves meals for the whole family and has lots of outdoor space as well as craft beer (flights, samplers, etc). We haven’t been to Buskey Cider on the Bay yet (an offshoot of a Richmond cidery!) but it has lots of board games and outdoor games (think oversized Jenga) on their outdoor patio. The Cape Charles Distillery is a decidedly more grown up space that sells upscale whiskeys, bourbons, moonshine, and vodka.

And if wine is your thing, Chatham Vineyards is just up the road. They even offer a “Paddle Your Glass Off” tour where you kayak to the winery on a guided tour and then get to sample some wines when you get there.

What ELSE To Do

You’ve hit the beach, stuffed your belly, and enjoyed the sunset. Now what? Cape Charles is certainly a quieter beach town than those you may think of with a boardwalk, mini golf, arcades, and outlet malls (although there is one of those beaches right across the bridge). So our “to do” list here usually involves a lot of relaxing, walking, and exploring.

The town’s main street, Mason Avenue, has lots of charming shops – including beach souvenirs, decor, clothing, jewelry, vintage furniture, art, wine, and more. Some of our favorites for browsing are Chuckletown Productions, The Boardwalk, Destination 23310, and the gift shop at The Northampton Hotel (seen below).

There’s also a large park that’s centrally located in the historic district (yup, it’s actually called Central Park – just like our old favorite in NYC). It has a large public field for tossing or kicking a ball around, a walking path, a playground, and tennis courts. We use it most for the playground and every Saturday in the summer they host live music in the gazebo and people bring lawn chairs and food/drinks to enjoy on the field while they watch the musicians play.

We usually end up doing a lot of walking around the downtown area to check out all of the houses (especially if we remember to bring the kids’ scooters). But if you want a more natural hiking spot, the Cape Charles Natural Area Preserve is a shaded boardwalk through the woods that’s just a short drive from town (I run there in the mornings from our beach house). Further out of town is the Southern Tip Hike & Bike Trail which is a wide 5-mile paved trail that terminates into a Nature Center that we haven’t visited yet, but we hear it’s good for kids (it and Kiptopeke State Park have more trails too).

We also really enjoyed a visit to the Barrier Island Center about 15 minutes up the road…

…and we took a day trip about an hour north to Chincoteague Island this summer to see the wild ponies. That was INCREDIBLE. We took this tour, but we hear there are a bunch that are good.

Cape Charles is also great for fishing, crabbing, boating, and golfing – but none of those are pastimes of ours so we’re not really qualified to advise on them. But there’s a free fishing pier in town and just outside the historic district are two signature golf courses (one Nicklaus, one Palmer – that means something right???).

When To Come

Someone asked recently if there’s anything to do in Cape Charles in the off-season. The answer is “Yes!” but also with a little bit of “no.” While the town is truly at its best in the summer months, it is still fun to visit in the Spring, Fall, and Holiday season too. Heck, we’ve had beach days – including going in the water! – as early as April and as late as November!

There are lots of activities and events in the off-season, so it’s probably best to plan around one of those. We’ve come for the garden tours in April, a trunk-or-treat event in October, and their holiday main street celebrations in December (complete with Santa and free movies at the historic theater – last year they played Home Alone and it was awesome). We also came for New Year’s Eve this year, where they dropped a decorated crab pot to ring in 2018! Doesn’t get much more small-town-quirky than that.

The only thing to note is that business hours get a bit funky in the off-season with shops and restaurants being closed more often (or even completely), so it’s always a good idea to call before heading out anywhere. Don’t trust any website to be updated! We have found the January through March months to be especially slow, but if you’re just looking for some quiet time it could be perfect!

I’m sure we missed some stuff – especially since new things are popping up every few months. We’ve got a cute little bookstore in the works down the street, and I just noticed a sign for another upcoming bakery. We hope you guys have a great time if you ever decide to slip through Cape Charles! And if you ever see us out and about while you’re visiting, please come say hello and tell us what we’re missing on this list! Ha!

The post A Guide To Our Beach Town: Cape Charles, Virginia appeared first on Young House Love.

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A Guide To Our Beach Town: Cape Charles, Virginia

I know it’s odd to be posting a beach-centric travel guide after summer’s over, but Sherry has been fielding so many questions lately about what to do in Cape Charles that we wanted all the answers in one place. Now people can just drop in on this post for all the details. And boy, are there details (have you met me? If not, hi, I’m John “Thorough” Petersik).

So if you’re thinking of making a visit to our favorite little beach town (which was also recently voted #3 Happiest Seaside Town by Coastal Living!), or are just curious about why we chose this place to renovate two vacation homes, this post is for you! We’re covering some fun activities for the family, our go-to meal places, and other reasons we think Cape Charles is the perfect place to unwind and soak up some pretty memorable sunsets.

Where Is Cape Charles?

Cape Charles is located near the southern tip of Virginia’s Eastern Shore right on the Chesapeake Bay. The Eastern Shore is a small, rural portion of the state that’s separated from mainland Virginia by the Chesapeake Bay. Cape Charles is a small town (the historic area is roughly a six block by six block square) that sits on the peninsula’s western coast… meaning you can sit on the beach in Cape Charles and watch the sunset right over the water. Highly recommend that.

It’s about a 2.5-hour drive from our home in Richmond, which culminates in crossing the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, a 23-mile long stretch of several bridges and two tunnels that offers quite the impressive welcome to the area (gorgeous water views). It’s also accessible from the north via a quiet drive through Maryland (it’s about 4 hours from Washington DC). Or, if you need to fly, the Norfolk International Airport is just across the bridge-tunnel – about 45 minutes away.

The town is relatively unknown and only in the last 5-10 years has it been experiencing an upswing as people have discovered it as a low-key alternative to your typical beach town, which means lots of homes are getting fixed up, new restaurants and shops are opening up, etc.

It has been really amazing to watch this town spring back to life and be revitalized, beautified, and enjoyed. Especially because the historic area is home to hundreds of beautiful 100+ year old houses, many of which needed a lot of love, and many of which have been lovingly restored. And our two are tucked right into the middle of it all.

The Beach

First lets talk about the beach, because it’s what sold us on Cape Charles (and it’s usually our go-to place every time we visit). It’s uncrowded, low-key, and easy to get to. Since it’s on the Chesapeake Bay, not the Atlantic Ocean, the water is calm and shallow.

At high tide you can walk out several dozen yards and still be barely waist deep in most parts (I’m sitting in the photo below, so the water is only about 18″ deep there) and at low-tide you can park your beach chair right in the water to keep your feet cool. It attracts lots of families like ours because kids can play for hours in the water without us parents having to fear the break of a big wave or the pull of a sudden riptide.

Our kids have spent HOURS splashing around, riding on floats, or even hunting for hermit crabs (yup, you can find them walking around on the sand in low tide).

Yup, these are all little hermit crabs we collected one evening at low tide. They’re such a novel thing to discover with kids, and they can put them in a bucket to watch them swim (and even witness them switching shells if you’re lucky!) and then toss them back in the water before heading out.

I you crave a bit more activity when you go to the beach, Cape Charles Beach is great for kayaking, stand up paddle boarding, fishing, jet skiing, or boating. On a windy day you’ll even see kite boarders. If you don’t have your own, there are a couple of rental places, like SouthEast Expeditions and the Oyster Farm at Kings Creek.

The other great thing is that PARKING IS FREE AND PLENTIFUL! You can park right along the beachfront street, Bay Avenue, with no problem – even on most summer weekends. No circling the block to find a spot or having to pay for metered parking. We LOVE that fact. There are also public restrooms with showers behind them near the big “LOVE” sign at the corner of Mason Ave & Bay Ave, and on summer weekends there’s often a delicious taco truck and an Italian Ice stand parked nearby.

Where To Stay

For such a compact town, there’s a surprising variety of options for your stay. We should first mention that there are vacation rentals through sites like HomeAway and Airbnb, which can be great for long stays, like a full week. The one shown below was even featured on HGTV! Just be mindful that those sites often return results outside of the historic district (but being inside the historic district is where you’ll get the most proximity to the beach, shops, and restaurants). So just double check that it’s actually in Historic Cape Charles if you plan to walk to shops, the park, the beach, restaurants, etc.

There are also a lot of bed & breakfasts in Cape Charles, like the Bay Haven Inn (below), Cape Charles House, and Alyssa House to name a few. We had the chance to visit several during a holiday open house event and they’re all beautiful with great historic details.

Another great option, especially for shorter stays, are hotels. The two in town are both AWESOME, but very different. Hotel Cape Charles is a modern “zen-like” hotel with loft style rooms (think: exposed brick, reclaimed wood, and those glass balconies that you see in the photo below). They also have fun perks like golf carts and bikes that are available to guests. We stayed there one night while tiling the pink house and loved it!

By contrast, the newly opened/restored Northampton Hotel has water views (it’s closer to the beach) and a more historic/Southern feel (like a giant front porch with a haint blue ceiling where you can have coffee and breakfast, with lots of traditional and ornate details like wallpaper, detailed molding, etc). There are also some more bargain-priced hotels and motels just outside of Cape Charles if you just need a place to plop your head at night.

Lastly, Kiptopeke State Park offers campsites and a few cabins (even a yurt!) nearby – as does Cherrystone Campground. Both are also waterfront, so you can enjoy the beach there without coming into town. But we’d definitely recommend venturing into Historic Cape Charles just to check out a few of the places we’re about to talk about below.

Where To Eat

The restaurant scene in Cape Charles is, well, not quite a scene yet. But that doesn’t meant there aren’t plenty of good meals to stuff in your face hole. Most of the commercial action in Cape Charles is concentrated on Mason Avenue, the town’s de facto “main street.” But our favorite dining spot is actually a short distance away, called Shanty. It’s a casual seafood place, complete with an oyster shell parking lot and an old boat out front full of plants. It has a ton of fresh fish tuna, shrimp, and oysters (for either lunch or dinner) as well as great options for non-seafood lovers and children as well (chicken fingers, quesadillas, burgers, etc).

It’s on the water so you can catch great sunsets, and in the summertime they often have live music on weekends. It’s popular with locals and visitors, so if you want to avoid a long wait it helps to come early (before 5:30 is the best time to aim for), or get a reservation (typically you have to call the day before to score one). Or just put your name on the list and they’ll text your phone when your table is ready – so you can walk around outside or even play corn hole out back and watch the boats in the marina while you wait.

Another favorite of ours is Deadrise Pies, which is a pizza/Italian place operated by the Shanty folks.

It’s also super kid-friendly, has great outdoor seating, and is also really nice when you need some easy carryout. We often get pizza and take it to eat on the beach at sunset! Some argue that Gerry’s Ristorante outside of town has better pizza (we like ’em both) but Deadrise wins for location and ambiance.

A newer favorite of ours is Cape Charles Brewing Company, which serves food and has great outdoor seating. We ate at shaded picnic tables while the kids played corn hole and ladder golf nearby and it was perfect!

Kelly’s Gingernut Pub is also a good option for kids, and people recommend Hook-U Up and The Oyster Farm for nicer adult date-night dining excursions, but since we’ve always got kids with us we haven’t tried them yet.

Our go-to spots for breakfast are the Cape Charles Coffee House and the cafe at The Northampton Hotel (above), or you can eat more casually at Rayfield’s soda fountain. We like to grab lunches at Gourmet Alley or Tim’s Place too. There are also other staples outside of town (like fast food and carryout Chinese) and in other exciting news: it looks like we’re getting a couple of new bakeries soon!

Where To Treat Yourself

A satisfying meal is all well and good, but one of our favorite parts about Cape Charles (and, well, life in general) is DESSERT. And if you’re more into the “grown-up desserts” (aka, drinks) we’ll cover that here too.

Reigning dessert champ in Cape Charles is Brown Dog Ice Cream. This charming ice cream parlor with an ever-rotating menu of flavors was named among the “Top 10 Best Ice Creams in America” by TripAdvisor. They’ve got plenty of classic flavors, but I always love their experimental ones with names like Lemon Curd Coconut Hot Milk Cake and Peach Raspberry Goat Cheese Crumble (the one below with sprinkles is Caramelized Fig with Mascarpone & Coco-Ginger Dust). And you can get any flavor as a milkshake, malt, float, or an ice cream sandwich too.

The new kid in town is Peach Beach Shave Ice Shack, which was started out of someone’s shed. They shipped in an authentic Hawaiian shave ice machine to make finely shaved treats that are distinctly better than your typical snow cone. Plus, the interior is super charming! They’re only open in the summer season for the most part, but they’re awesome on a hot day.

A less known, but also less expensive dessert option is CC Kool Eatz, which is hidden in a residential area on the north side of the historic downtown district (at the corner of Jefferson & Strawberry). They have some great soft serve with little tables to enjoy it outside. We also got a new candy shop this year, the Cape Charles Candy Co, which was opened by the family who was featured in the episode of HGTV’s Beachfront Bargain hunt that our house photobombed!

As for places to grab an adult beverage, in 2018 Cape Charles got a brewery, a distillery, and a cidery. Sherry likes to call it the trifecta of hipster spots to grab a drink – and they each have some pretty great atmosphere and that craft-brew feeling. As I mentioned above in the food section, the Cape Charles Brewing Company serves meals for the whole family and has lots of outdoor space as well as craft beer (flights, samplers, etc). We haven’t been to Buskey Cider on the Bay yet (an offshoot of a Richmond cidery!) but it has lots of board games and outdoor games (think oversized Jenga) on their outdoor patio. The Cape Charles Distillery is a decidedly more grown up space that sells upscale whiskeys, bourbons, moonshine, and vodka.

And if wine is your thing, Chatham Vineyards is just up the road. They even offer a “Paddle Your Glass Off” tour where you kayak to the winery on a guided tour and then get to sample some wines when you get there.

What ELSE To Do

You’ve hit the beach, stuffed your belly, and enjoyed the sunset. Now what? Cape Charles is certainly a quieter beach town than those you may think of with a boardwalk, mini golf, arcades, and outlet malls (although there is one of those beaches right across the bridge). So our “to do” list here usually involves a lot of relaxing, walking, and exploring.

The town’s main street, Mason Avenue, has lots of charming shops – including beach souvenirs, decor, clothing, jewelry, vintage furniture, art, wine, and more. Some of our favorites for browsing are Chuckletown Productions, The Boardwalk, Destination 23310, and the gift shop at The Northampton Hotel (seen below).

There’s also a large park that’s centrally located in the historic district (yup, it’s actually called Central Park – just like our old favorite in NYC). It has a large public field for tossing or kicking a ball around, a walking path, a playground, and tennis courts. We use it most for the playground and every Saturday in the summer they host live music in the gazebo and people bring lawn chairs and food/drinks to enjoy on the field while they watch the musicians play.

We usually end up doing a lot of walking around the downtown area to check out all of the houses (especially if we remember to bring the kids’ scooters). But if you want a more natural hiking spot, the Cape Charles Natural Area Preserve is a shaded boardwalk through the woods that’s just a short drive from town (I run there in the mornings from our beach house). Further out of town is the Southern Tip Hike & Bike Trail which is a wide 5-mile paved trail that terminates into a Nature Center that we haven’t visited yet, but we hear it’s good for kids (it and Kiptopeke State Park have more trails too).

We also really enjoyed a visit to the Barrier Island Center about 15 minutes up the road…

…and we took a day trip about an hour north to Chincoteague Island this summer to see the wild ponies. That was INCREDIBLE. We took this tour, but we hear there are a bunch that are good.

Cape Charles is also great for fishing, crabbing, boating, and golfing – but none of those are pastimes of ours so we’re not really qualified to advise on them. But there’s a free fishing pier in town and just outside the historic district are two signature golf courses (one Nicklaus, one Palmer – that means something right???).

When To Come

Someone asked recently if there’s anything to do in Cape Charles in the off-season. The answer is “Yes!” but also with a little bit of “no.” While the town is truly at its best in the summer months, it is still fun to visit in the Spring, Fall, and Holiday season too. Heck, we’ve had beach days – including going in the water! – as early as April and as late as November!

There are lots of activities and events in the off-season, so it’s probably best to plan around one of those. We’ve come for the garden tours in April, a trunk-or-treat event in October, and their holiday main street celebrations in December (complete with Santa and free movies at the historic theater – last year they played Home Alone and it was awesome). We also came for New Year’s Eve this year, where they dropped a decorated crab pot to ring in 2018! Doesn’t get much more small-town-quirky than that.

The only thing to note is that business hours get a bit funky in the off-season with shops and restaurants being closed more often (or even completely), so it’s always a good idea to call before heading out anywhere. Don’t trust any website to be updated! We have found the January through March months to be especially slow, but if you’re just looking for some quiet time it could be perfect!

I’m sure we missed some stuff – especially since new things are popping up every few months. We’ve got a cute little bookstore in the works down the street, and I just noticed a sign for another upcoming bakery. We hope you guys have a great time if you ever decide to slip through Cape Charles! And if you ever see us out and about while you’re visiting, please come say hello and tell us what we’re missing on this list! Ha!

The post A Guide To Our Beach Town: Cape Charles, Virginia appeared first on Young House Love.

A Guide To Our Beach Town: Cape Charles, Virginia published first on https://bakerskitchenslimited.tumblr.com/

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A Guide To Our Beach Town: Cape Charles, Virginia

I know it’s odd to be posting a beach-centric travel guide after summer’s over, but Sherry has been fielding so many questions lately about what to do in Cape Charles that we wanted all the answers in one place. Now people can just drop in on this post for all the details. And boy, are there details (have you met me? If not, hi, I’m John “Thorough” Petersik).

So if you’re thinking of making a visit to our favorite little beach town (which was also recently voted #3 Happiest Seaside Town by Coastal Living!), or are just curious about why we chose this place to renovate two vacation homes, this post is for you! We’re covering some fun activities for the family, our go-to meal places, and other reasons we think Cape Charles is the perfect place to unwind and soak up some pretty memorable sunsets.

Where Is Cape Charles?

Cape Charles is located near the southern tip of Virginia’s Eastern Shore right on the Chesapeake Bay. The Eastern Shore is a small, rural portion of the state that’s separated from mainland Virginia by the Chesapeake Bay. Cape Charles is a small town (the historic area is roughly a six block by six block square) that sits on the peninsula’s western coast… meaning you can sit on the beach in Cape Charles and watch the sunset right over the water. Highly recommend that.

It’s about a 2.5-hour drive from our home in Richmond, which culminates in crossing the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, a 23-mile long stretch of several bridges and two tunnels that offers quite the impressive welcome to the area (gorgeous water views). It’s also accessible from the north via a quiet drive through Maryland (it’s about 4 hours from Washington DC). Or, if you need to fly, the Norfolk International Airport is just across the bridge-tunnel – about 45 minutes away.

The town is relatively unknown and only in the last 5-10 years has it been experiencing an upswing as people have discovered it as a low-key alternative to your typical beach town, which means lots of homes are getting fixed up, new restaurants and shops are opening up, etc.

It has been really amazing to watch this town spring back to life and be revitalized, beautified, and enjoyed. Especially because the historic area is home to hundreds of beautiful 100+ year old houses, many of which needed a lot of love, and many of which have been lovingly restored. And our two are tucked right into the middle of it all.

The Beach

First lets talk about the beach, because it’s what sold us on Cape Charles (and it’s usually our go-to place every time we visit). It’s uncrowded, low-key, and easy to get to. Since it’s on the Chesapeake Bay, not the Atlantic Ocean, the water is calm and shallow.

At high tide you can walk out several dozen yards and still be barely waist deep in most parts (I’m sitting in the photo below, so the water is only about 18″ deep there) and at low-tide you can park your beach chair right in the water to keep your feet cool. It attracts lots of families like ours because kids can play for hours in the water without us parents having to fear the break of a big wave or the pull of a sudden riptide.

Our kids have spent HOURS splashing around, riding on floats, or even hunting for hermit crabs (yup, you can find them walking around on the sand in low tide).

Yup, these are all little hermit crabs we collected one evening at low tide. They’re such a novel thing to discover with kids, and they can put them in a bucket to watch them swim (and even witness them switching shells if you’re lucky!) and then toss them back in the water before heading out.

I you crave a bit more activity when you go to the beach, Cape Charles Beach is great for kayaking, stand up paddle boarding, fishing, jet skiing, or boating. On a windy day you’ll even see kite boarders. If you don’t have your own, there are a couple of rental places, like SouthEast Expeditions and the Oyster Farm at Kings Creek.

The other great thing is that PARKING IS FREE AND PLENTIFUL! You can park right along the beachfront street, Bay Avenue, with no problem – even on most summer weekends. No circling the block to find a spot or having to pay for metered parking. We LOVE that fact. There are also public restrooms with showers behind them near the big “LOVE” sign at the corner of Mason Ave & Bay Ave, and on summer weekends there’s often a delicious taco truck and an Italian Ice stand parked nearby.

Where To Stay

For such a compact town, there’s a surprising variety of options for your stay. We should first mention that there are vacation rentals through sites like HomeAway and Airbnb, which can be great for long stays, like a full week. The one shown below was even featured on HGTV! Just be mindful that those sites often return results outside of the historic district (but being inside the historic district is where you’ll get the most proximity to the beach, shops, and restaurants). So just double check that it’s actually in Historic Cape Charles if you plan to walk to shops, the park, the beach, restaurants, etc.

There are also a lot of bed & breakfasts in Cape Charles, like the Bay Haven Inn (below), Cape Charles House, and Alyssa House to name a few. We had the chance to visit several during a holiday open house event and they’re all beautiful with great historic details.

Another great option, especially for shorter stays, are hotels. The two in town are both AWESOME, but very different. Hotel Cape Charles is a modern “zen-like” hotel with loft style rooms (think: exposed brick, reclaimed wood, and those glass balconies that you see in the photo below). They also have fun perks like golf carts and bikes that are available to guests. We stayed there one night while tiling the pink house and loved it!

By contrast, the newly opened/restored Northampton Hotel has water views (it’s closer to the beach) and a more historic/Southern feel (like a giant front porch with a haint blue ceiling where you can have coffee and breakfast, with lots of traditional and ornate details like wallpaper, detailed molding, etc). There are also some more bargain-priced hotels and motels just outside of Cape Charles if you just need a place to plop your head at night.

Lastly, Kiptopeke State Park offers campsites and a few cabins (even a yurt!) nearby – as does Cherrystone Campground. Both are also waterfront, so you can enjoy the beach there without coming into town. But we’d definitely recommend venturing into Historic Cape Charles just to check out a few of the places we’re about to talk about below.

Where To Eat

The restaurant scene in Cape Charles is, well, not quite a scene yet. But that doesn’t meant there aren’t plenty of good meals to stuff in your face hole. Most of the commercial action in Cape Charles is concentrated on Mason Avenue, the town’s de facto “main street.” But our favorite dining spot is actually a short distance away, called Shanty. It’s a casual seafood place, complete with an oyster shell parking lot and an old boat out front full of plants. It has a ton of fresh fish tuna, shrimp, and oysters (for either lunch or dinner) as well as great options for non-seafood lovers and children as well (chicken fingers, quesadillas, burgers, etc).

It’s on the water so you can catch great sunsets, and in the summertime they often have live music on weekends. It’s popular with locals and visitors, so if you want to avoid a long wait it helps to come early (before 5:30 is the best time to aim for), or get a reservation (typically you have to call the day before to score one). Or just put your name on the list and they’ll text your phone when your table is ready – so you can walk around outside or even play corn hole out back and watch the boats in the marina while you wait.

Another favorite of ours is Deadrise Pies, which is a pizza/Italian place operated by the Shanty folks.

It’s also super kid-friendly, has great outdoor seating, and is also really nice when you need some easy carryout. We often get pizza and take it to eat on the beach at sunset! Some argue that Gerry’s Ristorante outside of town has better pizza (we like ’em both) but Deadrise wins for location and ambiance.

A newer favorite of ours is Cape Charles Brewing Company, which serves food and has great outdoor seating. We ate at shaded picnic tables while the kids played corn hole and ladder golf nearby and it was perfect!

Kelly’s Gingernut Pub is also a good option for kids, and people recommend Hook-U Up and The Oyster Farm for nicer adult date-night dining excursions, but since we’ve always got kids with us we haven’t tried them yet.

Our go-to spots for breakfast are the Cape Charles Coffee House and the cafe at The Northampton Hotel (above), or you can eat more casually at Rayfield’s soda fountain. We like to grab lunches at Gourmet Alley or Tim’s Place too. There are also other staples outside of town (like fast food and carryout Chinese) and in other exciting news: it looks like we’re getting a couple of new bakeries soon!

Where To Treat Yourself

A satisfying meal is all well and good, but one of our favorite parts about Cape Charles (and, well, life in general) is DESSERT. And if you’re more into the “grown-up desserts” (aka, drinks) we’ll cover that here too.

Reigning dessert champ in Cape Charles is Brown Dog Ice Cream. This charming ice cream parlor with an ever-rotating menu of flavors was named among the “Top 10 Best Ice Creams in America” by TripAdvisor. They’ve got plenty of classic flavors, but I always love their experimental ones with names like Lemon Curd Coconut Hot Milk Cake and Peach Raspberry Goat Cheese Crumble (the one below with sprinkles is Caramelized Fig with Mascarpone & Coco-Ginger Dust). And you can get any flavor as a milkshake, malt, float, or an ice cream sandwich too.

The new kid in town is Peach Beach Shave Ice Shack, which was started out of someone’s shed. They shipped in an authentic Hawaiian shave ice machine to make finely shaved treats that are distinctly better than your typical snow cone. Plus, the interior is super charming! They’re only open in the summer season for the most part, but they’re awesome on a hot day.

A less known, but also less expensive dessert option is CC Kool Eatz, which is hidden in a residential area on the north side of the historic downtown district (at the corner of Jefferson & Strawberry). They have some great soft serve with little tables to enjoy it outside. We also got a new candy shop this year, the Cape Charles Candy Co, which was opened by the family who was featured in the episode of HGTV’s Beachfront Bargain hunt that our house photobombed!

As for places to grab an adult beverage, in 2018 Cape Charles got a brewery, a distillery, and a cidery. Sherry likes to call it the trifecta of hipster spots to grab a drink – and they each have some pretty great atmosphere and that craft-brew feeling. As I mentioned above in the food section, the Cape Charles Brewing Company serves meals for the whole family and has lots of outdoor space as well as craft beer (flights, samplers, etc). We haven’t been to Buskey Cider on the Bay yet (an offshoot of a Richmond cidery!) but it has lots of board games and outdoor games (think oversized Jenga) on their outdoor patio. The Cape Charles Distillery is a decidedly more grown up space that sells upscale whiskeys, bourbons, moonshine, and vodka.

And if wine is your thing, Chatham Vineyards is just up the road. They even offer a “Paddle Your Glass Off” tour where you kayak to the winery on a guided tour and then get to sample some wines when you get there.

What ELSE To Do

You’ve hit the beach, stuffed your belly, and enjoyed the sunset. Now what? Cape Charles is certainly a quieter beach town than those you may think of with a boardwalk, mini golf, arcades, and outlet malls (although there is one of those beaches right across the bridge). So our “to do” list here usually involves a lot of relaxing, walking, and exploring.

The town’s main street, Mason Avenue, has lots of charming shops – including beach souvenirs, decor, clothing, jewelry, vintage furniture, art, wine, and more. Some of our favorites for browsing are Chuckletown Productions, The Boardwalk, Destination 23310, and the gift shop at The Northampton Hotel (seen below).

There’s also a large park that’s centrally located in the historic district (yup, it’s actually called Central Park – just like our old favorite in NYC). It has a large public field for tossing or kicking a ball around, a walking path, a playground, and tennis courts. We use it most for the playground and every Saturday in the summer they host live music in the gazebo and people bring lawn chairs and food/drinks to enjoy on the field while they watch the musicians play.

We usually end up doing a lot of walking around the downtown area to check out all of the houses (especially if we remember to bring the kids’ scooters). But if you want a more natural hiking spot, the Cape Charles Natural Area Preserve is a shaded boardwalk through the woods that’s just a short drive from town (I run there in the mornings from our beach house). Further out of town is the Southern Tip Hike & Bike Trail which is a wide 5-mile paved trail that terminates into a Nature Center that we haven’t visited yet, but we hear it’s good for kids (it and Kiptopeke State Park have more trails too).

We also really enjoyed a visit to the Barrier Island Center about 15 minutes up the road…

…and we took a day trip about an hour north to Chincoteague Island this summer to see the wild ponies. That was INCREDIBLE. We took this tour, but we hear there are a bunch that are good.

Cape Charles is also great for fishing, crabbing, boating, and golfing – but none of those are pastimes of ours so we’re not really qualified to advise on them. But there’s a free fishing pier in town and just outside the historic district are two signature golf courses (one Nicklaus, one Palmer – that means something right???).

When To Come

Someone asked recently if there’s anything to do in Cape Charles in the off-season. The answer is “Yes!” but also with a little bit of “no.” While the town is truly at its best in the summer months, it is still fun to visit in the Spring, Fall, and Holiday season too. Heck, we’ve had beach days – including going in the water! – as early as April and as late as November!

There are lots of activities and events in the off-season, so it’s probably best to plan around one of those. We’ve come for the garden tours in April, a trunk-or-treat event in October, and their holiday main street celebrations in December (complete with Santa and free movies at the historic theater – last year they played Home Alone and it was awesome). We also came for New Year’s Eve this year, where they dropped a decorated crab pot to ring in 2018! Doesn’t get much more small-town-quirky than that.

The only thing to note is that business hours get a bit funky in the off-season with shops and restaurants being closed more often (or even completely), so it’s always a good idea to call before heading out anywhere. Don’t trust any website to be updated! We have found the January through March months to be especially slow, but if you’re just looking for some quiet time it could be perfect!

I’m sure we missed some stuff – especially since new things are popping up every few months. We’ve got a cute little bookstore in the works down the street, and I just noticed a sign for another upcoming bakery. We hope you guys have a great time if you ever decide to slip through Cape Charles! And if you ever see us out and about while you’re visiting, please come say hello and tell us what we’re missing on this list! Ha!

The post A Guide To Our Beach Town: Cape Charles, Virginia appeared first on Young House Love.

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A Guide To Our Beach Town: Cape Charles, Virginia

I know it’s odd to be posting a beach-centric travel guide after summer’s over, but Sherry has been fielding so many questions lately about what to do in Cape Charles that we wanted all the answers in one place. Now people can just drop in on this post for all the details. And boy, are there details (have you met me? If not, hi, I’m John “Thorough” Petersik).

So if you’re thinking of making a visit to our favorite little beach town (which was also recently voted #3 Happiest Seaside Town by Coastal Living!), or are just curious about why we chose this place to renovate two vacation homes, this post is for you! We’re covering some fun activities for the family, our go-to meal places, and other reasons we think Cape Charles is the perfect place to unwind and soak up some pretty memorable sunsets.

Where Is Cape Charles?

Cape Charles is located near the southern tip of Virginia’s Eastern Shore right on the Chesapeake Bay. The Eastern Shore is a small, rural portion of the state that’s separated from mainland Virginia by the Chesapeake Bay. Cape Charles is a small town (the historic area is roughly a six block by six block square) that sits on the peninsula’s western coast… meaning you can sit on the beach in Cape Charles and watch the sunset right over the water. Highly recommend that.

It’s about a 2.5-hour drive from our home in Richmond, which culminates in crossing the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, a 23-mile long stretch of several bridges and two tunnels that offers quite the impressive welcome to the area (gorgeous water views). It’s also accessible from the north via a quiet drive through Maryland (it’s about 4 hours from Washington DC). Or, if you need to fly, the Norfolk International Airport is just across the bridge-tunnel – about 45 minutes away.

The town is relatively unknown and only in the last 5-10 years has it been experiencing an upswing as people have discovered it as a low-key alternative to your typical beach town, which means lots of homes are getting fixed up, new restaurants and shops are opening up, etc.

It has been really amazing to watch this town spring back to life and be revitalized, beautified, and enjoyed. Especially because the historic area is home to hundreds of beautiful 100+ year old houses, many of which needed a lot of love, and many of which have been lovingly restored. And our two are tucked right into the middle of it all.

The Beach

First lets talk about the beach, because it’s what sold us on Cape Charles (and it’s usually our go-to place every time we visit). It’s uncrowded, low-key, and easy to get to. Since it’s on the Chesapeake Bay, not the Atlantic Ocean, the water is calm and shallow.

At high tide you can walk out several dozen yards and still be barely waist deep in most parts (I’m sitting in the photo below, so the water is only about 18″ deep there) and at low-tide you can park your beach chair right in the water to keep your feet cool. It attracts lots of families like ours because kids can play for hours in the water without us parents having to fear the break of a big wave or the pull of a sudden riptide.

Our kids have spent HOURS splashing around, riding on floats, or even hunting for hermit crabs (yup, you can find them walking around on the sand in low tide).

Yup, these are all little hermit crabs we collected one evening at low tide. They’re such a novel thing to discover with kids, and they can put them in a bucket to watch them swim (and even witness them switching shells if you’re lucky!) and then toss them back in the water before heading out.

I you crave a bit more activity when you go to the beach, Cape Charles Beach is great for kayaking, stand up paddle boarding, fishing, jet skiing, or boating. On a windy day you’ll even see kite boarders. If you don’t have your own, there are a couple of rental places, like SouthEast Expeditions and the Oyster Farm at Kings Creek.

The other great thing is that PARKING IS FREE AND PLENTIFUL! You can park right along the beachfront street, Bay Avenue, with no problem – even on most summer weekends. No circling the block to find a spot or having to pay for metered parking. We LOVE that fact. There are also public restrooms with showers behind them near the big “LOVE” sign at the corner of Mason Ave & Bay Ave, and on summer weekends there’s often a delicious taco truck and an Italian Ice stand parked nearby.

Where To Stay

For such a compact town, there’s a surprising variety of options for your stay. We should first mention that there are vacation rentals through sites like HomeAway and Airbnb, which can be great for long stays, like a full week. The one shown below was even featured on HGTV! Just be mindful that those sites often return results outside of the historic district (but being inside the historic district is where you’ll get the most proximity to the beach, shops, and restaurants). So just double check that it’s actually in Historic Cape Charles if you plan to walk to shops, the park, the beach, restaurants, etc.

There are also a lot of bed & breakfasts in Cape Charles, like the Bay Haven Inn (below), Cape Charles House, and Alyssa House to name a few. We had the chance to visit several during a holiday open house event and they’re all beautiful with great historic details.

Another great option, especially for shorter stays, are hotels. The two in town are both AWESOME, but very different. Hotel Cape Charles is a modern “zen-like” hotel with loft style rooms (think: exposed brick, reclaimed wood, and those glass balconies that you see in the photo below). They also have fun perks like golf carts and bikes that are available to guests. We stayed there one night while tiling the pink house and loved it!

By contrast, the newly opened/restored Northampton Hotel has water views (it’s closer to the beach) and a more historic/Southern feel (like a giant front porch with a haint blue ceiling where you can have coffee and breakfast, with lots of traditional and ornate details like wallpaper, detailed molding, etc). There are also some more bargain-priced hotels and motels just outside of Cape Charles if you just need a place to plop your head at night.

Lastly, Kiptopeke State Park offers campsites and a few cabins (even a yurt!) nearby – as does Cherrystone Campground. Both are also waterfront, so you can enjoy the beach there without coming into town. But we’d definitely recommend venturing into Historic Cape Charles just to check out a few of the places we’re about to talk about below.

Where To Eat

The restaurant scene in Cape Charles is, well, not quite a scene yet. But that doesn’t meant there aren’t plenty of good meals to stuff in your face hole. Most of the commercial action in Cape Charles is concentrated on Mason Avenue, the town’s de facto “main street.” But our favorite dining spot is actually a short distance away, called Shanty. It’s a casual seafood place, complete with an oyster shell parking lot and an old boat out front full of plants. It has a ton of fresh fish tuna, shrimp, and oysters (for either lunch or dinner) as well as great options for non-seafood lovers and children as well (chicken fingers, quesadillas, burgers, etc).

It’s on the water so you can catch great sunsets, and in the summertime they often have live music on weekends. It’s popular with locals and visitors, so if you want to avoid a long wait it helps to come early (before 5:30 is the best time to aim for), or get a reservation (typically you have to call the day before to score one). Or just put your name on the list and they’ll text your phone when your table is ready – so you can walk around outside or even play corn hole out back and watch the boats in the marina while you wait.

Another favorite of ours is Deadrise Pies, which is a pizza/Italian place operated by the Shanty folks.

It’s also super kid-friendly, has great outdoor seating, and is also really nice when you need some easy carryout. We often get pizza and take it to eat on the beach at sunset! Some argue that Gerry’s Ristorante outside of town has better pizza (we like ’em both) but Deadrise wins for location and ambiance.

A newer favorite of ours is Cape Charles Brewing Company, which serves food and has great outdoor seating. We ate at shaded picnic tables while the kids played corn hole and ladder golf nearby and it was perfect!

Kelly’s Gingernut Pub is also a good option for kids, and people recommend Hook-U Up and The Oyster Farm for nicer adult date-night dining excursions, but since we’ve always got kids with us we haven’t tried them yet.

Our go-to spots for breakfast are the Cape Charles Coffee House and the cafe at The Northampton Hotel (above), or you can eat more casually at Rayfield’s soda fountain. We like to grab lunches at Gourmet Alley or Tim’s Place too. There are also other staples outside of town (like fast food and carryout Chinese) and in other exciting news: it looks like we’re getting a couple of new bakeries soon!

Where To Treat Yourself

A satisfying meal is all well and good, but one of our favorite parts about Cape Charles (and, well, life in general) is DESSERT. And if you’re more into the “grown-up desserts” (aka, drinks) we’ll cover that here too.

Reigning dessert champ in Cape Charles is Brown Dog Ice Cream. This charming ice cream parlor with an ever-rotating menu of flavors was named among the “Top 10 Best Ice Creams in America” by TripAdvisor. They’ve got plenty of classic flavors, but I always love their experimental ones with names like Lemon Curd Coconut Hot Milk Cake and Peach Raspberry Goat Cheese Crumble (the one below with sprinkles is Caramelized Fig with Mascarpone & Coco-Ginger Dust). And you can get any flavor as a milkshake, malt, float, or an ice cream sandwich too.

The new kid in town is Peach Beach Shave Ice Shack, which was started out of someone’s shed. They shipped in an authentic Hawaiian shave ice machine to make finely shaved treats that are distinctly better than your typical snow cone. Plus, the interior is super charming! They’re only open in the summer season for the most part, but they’re awesome on a hot day.

A less known, but also less expensive dessert option is CC Kool Eatz, which is hidden in a residential area on the north side of the historic downtown district (at the corner of Jefferson & Strawberry). They have some great soft serve with little tables to enjoy it outside. We also got a new candy shop this year, the Cape Charles Candy Co, which was opened by the family who was featured in the episode of HGTV’s Beachfront Bargain hunt that our house photobombed!

As for places to grab an adult beverage, in 2018 Cape Charles got a brewery, a distillery, and a cidery. Sherry likes to call it the trifecta of hipster spots to grab a drink – and they each have some pretty great atmosphere and that craft-brew feeling. As I mentioned above in the food section, the Cape Charles Brewing Company serves meals for the whole family and has lots of outdoor space as well as craft beer (flights, samplers, etc). We haven’t been to Buskey Cider on the Bay yet (an offshoot of a Richmond cidery!) but it has lots of board games and outdoor games (think oversized Jenga) on their outdoor patio. The Cape Charles Distillery is a decidedly more grown up space that sells upscale whiskeys, bourbons, moonshine, and vodka.

And if wine is your thing, Chatham Vineyards is just up the road. They even offer a “Paddle Your Glass Off” tour where you kayak to the winery on a guided tour and then get to sample some wines when you get there.

What ELSE To Do

You’ve hit the beach, stuffed your belly, and enjoyed the sunset. Now what? Cape Charles is certainly a quieter beach town than those you may think of with a boardwalk, mini golf, arcades, and outlet malls (although there is one of those beaches right across the bridge). So our “to do” list here usually involves a lot of relaxing, walking, and exploring.

The town’s main street, Mason Avenue, has lots of charming shops – including beach souvenirs, decor, clothing, jewelry, vintage furniture, art, wine, and more. Some of our favorites for browsing are Chuckletown Productions, The Boardwalk, Destination 23310, and the gift shop at The Northampton Hotel (seen below).

There’s also a large park that’s centrally located in the historic district (yup, it’s actually called Central Park – just like our old favorite in NYC). It has a large public field for tossing or kicking a ball around, a walking path, a playground, and tennis courts. We use it most for the playground and every Saturday in the summer they host live music in the gazebo and people bring lawn chairs and food/drinks to enjoy on the field while they watch the musicians play.

We usually end up doing a lot of walking around the downtown area to check out all of the houses (especially if we remember to bring the kids’ scooters). But if you want a more natural hiking spot, the Cape Charles Natural Area Preserve is a shaded boardwalk through the woods that’s just a short drive from town (I run there in the mornings from our beach house). Further out of town is the Southern Tip Hike & Bike Trail which is a wide 5-mile paved trail that terminates into a Nature Center that we haven’t visited yet, but we hear it’s good for kids (it and Kiptopeke State Park have more trails too).

We also really enjoyed a visit to the Barrier Island Center about 15 minutes up the road…

…and we took a day trip about an hour north to Chincoteague Island this summer to see the wild ponies. That was INCREDIBLE. We took this tour, but we hear there are a bunch that are good.

Cape Charles is also great for fishing, crabbing, boating, and golfing – but none of those are pastimes of ours so we’re not really qualified to advise on them. But there’s a free fishing pier in town and just outside the historic district are two signature golf courses (one Nicklaus, one Palmer – that means something right???).

When To Come

Someone asked recently if there’s anything to do in Cape Charles in the off-season. The answer is “Yes!” but also with a little bit of “no.” While the town is truly at its best in the summer months, it is still fun to visit in the Spring, Fall, and Holiday season too. Heck, we’ve had beach days – including going in the water! – as early as April and as late as November!

There are lots of activities and events in the off-season, so it’s probably best to plan around one of those. We’ve come for the garden tours in April, a trunk-or-treat event in October, and their holiday main street celebrations in December (complete with Santa and free movies at the historic theater – last year they played Home Alone and it was awesome). We also came for New Year’s Eve this year, where they dropped a decorated crab pot to ring in 2018! Doesn’t get much more small-town-quirky than that.

The only thing to note is that business hours get a bit funky in the off-season with shops and restaurants being closed more often (or even completely), so it’s always a good idea to call before heading out anywhere. Don’t trust any website to be updated! We have found the January through March months to be especially slow, but if you’re just looking for some quiet time it could be perfect!

I’m sure we missed some stuff – especially since new things are popping up every few months. We’ve got a cute little bookstore in the works down the street, and I just noticed a sign for another upcoming bakery. We hope you guys have a great time if you ever decide to slip through Cape Charles! And if you ever see us out and about while you’re visiting, please come say hello and tell us what we’re missing on this list! Ha!

The post A Guide To Our Beach Town: Cape Charles, Virginia appeared first on Young House Love.

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A Guide To Our Beach Town: Cape Charles, Virginia https://ift.tt/2y7D4Hd

I know it’s odd to be posting a beach-centric travel guide after summer’s over, but Sherry has been fielding so many questions lately about what to do in Cape Charles that we wanted all the answers in one place. Now people can just drop in on this post for all the details. And boy, are there details (have you met me? If not, hi, I’m John “Thorough” Petersik).

So if you’re thinking of making a visit to our favorite little beach town (which was also recently voted #3 Happiest Seaside Town by Coastal Living!), or are just curious about why we chose this place to renovate two vacation homes, this post is for you! We’re covering some fun activities for the family, our go-to meal places, and other reasons we think Cape Charles is the perfect place to unwind and soak up some pretty memorable sunsets.

Where Is Cape Charles?

Cape Charles is located near the southern tip of Virginia’s Eastern Shore right on the Chesapeake Bay. The Eastern Shore is a small, rural portion of the state that’s separated from mainland Virginia by the Chesapeake Bay. Cape Charles is a small town (the historic area is roughly a six block by six block square) that sits on the peninsula’s western coast… meaning you can sit on the beach in Cape Charles and watch the sunset right over the water. Highly recommend that.

It’s about a 2.5-hour drive from our home in Richmond, which culminates in crossing the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, a 23-mile long stretch of several bridges and two tunnels that offers quite the impressive welcome to the area (gorgeous water views). It’s also accessible from the north via a quiet drive through Maryland (it’s about 4 hours from Washington DC). Or, if you need to fly, the Norfolk International Airport is just across the bridge-tunnel – about 45 minutes away.

The town is relatively unknown and only in the last 5-10 years has it been experiencing an upswing as people have discovered it as a low-key alternative to your typical beach town, which means lots of homes are getting fixed up, new restaurants and shops are opening up, etc.

It has been really amazing to watch this town spring back to life and be revitalized, beautified, and enjoyed. Especially because the historic area is home to hundreds of beautiful 100+ year old houses, many of which needed a lot of love, and many of which have been lovingly restored. And our two are tucked right into the middle of it all.

The Beach

First lets talk about the beach, because it’s what sold us on Cape Charles (and it’s usually our go-to place every time we visit). It’s uncrowded, low-key, and easy to get to. Since it’s on the Chesapeake Bay, not the Atlantic Ocean, the water is calm and shallow.

At high tide you can walk out several dozen yards and still be barely waist deep in most parts (I’m sitting in the photo below, so the water is only about 18″ deep there) and at low-tide you can park your beach chair right in the water to keep your feet cool. It attracts lots of families like ours because kids can play for hours in the water without us parents having to fear the break of a big wave or the pull of a sudden riptide.

Our kids have spent HOURS splashing around, riding on floats, or even hunting for hermit crabs (yup, you can find them walking around on the sand in low tide).

Yup, these are all little hermit crabs we collected one evening at low tide. They’re such a novel thing to discover with kids, and they can put them in a bucket to watch them swim (and even witness them switching shells if you’re lucky!) and then toss them back in the water before heading out.

I you crave a bit more activity when you go to the beach, Cape Charles Beach is great for kayaking, stand up paddle boarding, fishing, jet skiing, or boating. On a windy day you’ll even see kite boarders. If you don’t have your own, there are a couple of rental places, like SouthEast Expeditions and the Oyster Farm at Kings Creek.

The other great thing is that PARKING IS FREE AND PLENTIFUL! You can park right along the beachfront street, Bay Avenue, with no problem – even on most summer weekends. No circling the block to find a spot or having to pay for metered parking. We LOVE that fact. There are also public restrooms with showers behind them near the big “LOVE” sign at the corner of Mason Ave & Bay Ave, and on summer weekends there’s often a delicious taco truck and an Italian Ice stand parked nearby.

Where To Stay

For such a compact town, there’s a surprising variety of options for your stay. We should first mention that there are vacation rentals through sites like HomeAway and Airbnb, which can be great for long stays, like a full week. The one shown below was even featured on HGTV! Just be mindful that those sites often return results outside of the historic district (but being inside the historic district is where you’ll get the most proximity to the beach, shops, and restaurants). So just double check that it’s actually in Historic Cape Charles if you plan to walk to shops, the park, the beach, restaurants, etc.

There are also a lot of bed & breakfasts in Cape Charles, like the Bay Haven Inn (below), Cape Charles House, and Alyssa House to name a few. We had the chance to visit several during a holiday open house event and they’re all beautiful with great historic details.

Another great option, especially for shorter stays, are hotels. The two in town are both AWESOME, but very different. Hotel Cape Charles is a modern “zen-like” hotel with loft style rooms (think: exposed brick, reclaimed wood, and those glass balconies that you see in the photo below). They also have fun perks like golf carts and bikes that are available to guests. We stayed there one night while tiling the pink house and loved it!

By contrast, the newly opened/restored Northampton Hotel has water views (it’s closer to the beach) and a more historic/Southern feel (like a giant front porch with a haint blue ceiling where you can have coffee and breakfast, with lots of traditional and ornate details like wallpaper, detailed molding, etc). There are also some more bargain-priced hotels and motels just outside of Cape Charles if you just need a place to plop your head at night.

Lastly, Kiptopeke State Park offers campsites and a few cabins (even a yurt!) nearby – as does Cherrystone Campground. Both are also waterfront, so you can enjoy the beach there without coming into town. But we’d definitely recommend venturing into Historic Cape Charles just to check out a few of the places we’re about to talk about below.

Where To Eat

The restaurant scene in Cape Charles is, well, not quite a scene yet. But that doesn’t meant there aren’t plenty of good meals to stuff in your face hole. Most of the commercial action in Cape Charles is concentrated on Mason Avenue, the town’s de facto “main street.” But our favorite dining spot is actually a short distance away, called Shanty. It’s a casual seafood place, complete with an oyster shell parking lot and an old boat out front full of plants. It has a ton of fresh fish tuna, shrimp, and oysters (for either lunch or dinner) as well as great options for non-seafood lovers and children as well (chicken fingers, quesadillas, burgers, etc).

It’s on the water so you can catch great sunsets, and in the summertime they often have live music on weekends. It’s popular with locals and visitors, so if you want to avoid a long wait it helps to come early (before 5:30 is the best time to aim for), or get a reservation (typically you have to call the day before to score one). Or just put your name on the list and they’ll text your phone when your table is ready – so you can walk around outside or even play corn hole out back and watch the boats in the marina while you wait.

Another favorite of ours is Deadrise Pies, which is a pizza/Italian place operated by the Shanty folks.

It’s also super kid-friendly, has great outdoor seating, and is also really nice when you need some easy carryout. We often get pizza and take it to eat on the beach at sunset! Some argue that Gerry’s Ristorante outside of town has better pizza (we like ’em both) but Deadrise wins for location and ambiance.

A newer favorite of ours is Cape Charles Brewing Company, which serves food and has great outdoor seating. We ate at shaded picnic tables while the kids played corn hole and ladder golf nearby and it was perfect!

Kelly’s Gingernut Pub is also a good option for kids, and people recommend Hook-U Up and The Oyster Farm for nicer adult date-night dining excursions, but since we’ve always got kids with us we haven’t tried them yet.

Our go-to spots for breakfast are the Cape Charles Coffee House and the cafe at The Northampton Hotel (above), or you can eat more casually at Rayfield’s soda fountain. We like to grab lunches at Gourmet Alley or Tim’s Place too. There are also other staples outside of town (like fast food and carryout Chinese) and in other exciting news: it looks like we’re getting a couple of new bakeries soon!

Where To Treat Yourself

A satisfying meal is all well and good, but one of our favorite parts about Cape Charles (and, well, life in general) is DESSERT. And if you’re more into the “grown-up desserts” (aka, drinks) we’ll cover that here too.

Reigning dessert champ in Cape Charles is Brown Dog Ice Cream. This charming ice cream parlor with an ever-rotating menu of flavors was named among the “Top 10 Best Ice Creams in America” by TripAdvisor. They’ve got plenty of classic flavors, but I always love their experimental ones with names like Lemon Curd Coconut Hot Milk Cake and Peach Raspberry Goat Cheese Crumble (the one below with sprinkles is Caramelized Fig with Mascarpone & Coco-Ginger Dust). And you can get any flavor as a milkshake, malt, float, or an ice cream sandwich too.

The new kid in town is Peach Beach Shave Ice Shack, which was started out of someone’s shed. They shipped in an authentic Hawaiian shave ice machine to make finely shaved treats that are distinctly better than your typical snow cone. Plus, the interior is super charming! They’re only open in the summer season for the most part, but they’re awesome on a hot day.

A less known, but also less expensive dessert option is CC Kool Eatz, which is hidden in a residential area on the north side of the historic downtown district (at the corner of Jefferson & Strawberry). They have some great soft serve with little tables to enjoy it outside. We also got a new candy shop this year, the Cape Charles Candy Co, which was opened by the family who was featured in the episode of HGTV’s Beachfront Bargain hunt that our house photobombed!

As for places to grab an adult beverage, in 2018 Cape Charles got a brewery, a distillery, and a cidery. Sherry likes to call it the trifecta of hipster spots to grab a drink – and they each have some pretty great atmosphere and that craft-brew feeling. As I mentioned above in the food section, the Cape Charles Brewing Company serves meals for the whole family and has lots of outdoor space as well as craft beer (flights, samplers, etc). We haven’t been to Buskey Cider on the Bay yet (an offshoot of a Richmond cidery!) but it has lots of board games and outdoor games (think oversized Jenga) on their outdoor patio. The Cape Charles Distillery is a decidedly more grown up space that sells upscale whiskeys, bourbons, moonshine, and vodka.

And if wine is your thing, Chatham Vineyards is just up the road. They even offer a “Paddle Your Glass Off” tour where you kayak to the winery on a guided tour and then get to sample some wines when you get there.

What ELSE To Do

You’ve hit the beach, stuffed your belly, and enjoyed the sunset. Now what? Cape Charles is certainly a quieter beach town than those you may think of with a boardwalk, mini golf, arcades, and outlet malls (although there is one of those beaches right across the bridge). So our “to do” list here usually involves a lot of relaxing, walking, and exploring.

The town’s main street, Mason Avenue, has lots of charming shops – including beach souvenirs, decor, clothing, jewelry, vintage furniture, art, wine, and more. Some of our favorites for browsing are Chuckletown Productions, The Boardwalk, Destination 23310, and the gift shop at The Northampton Hotel (seen below).

There’s also a large park that’s centrally located in the historic district (yup, it’s actually called Central Park – just like our old favorite in NYC). It has a large public field for tossing or kicking a ball around, a walking path, a playground, and tennis courts. We use it most for the playground and every Saturday in the summer they host live music in the gazebo and people bring lawn chairs and food/drinks to enjoy on the field while they watch the musicians play.

We usually end up doing a lot of walking around the downtown area to check out all of the houses (especially if we remember to bring the kids’ scooters). But if you want a more natural hiking spot, the Cape Charles Natural Area Preserve is a shaded boardwalk through the woods that’s just a short drive from town (I run there in the mornings from our beach house). Further out of town is the Southern Tip Hike & Bike Trail which is a wide 5-mile paved trail that terminates into a Nature Center that we haven’t visited yet, but we hear it’s good for kids (it and Kiptopeke State Park have more trails too).

We also really enjoyed a visit to the Barrier Island Center about 15 minutes up the road…

…and we took a day trip about an hour north to Chincoteague Island this summer to see the wild ponies. That was INCREDIBLE. We took this tour, but we hear there are a bunch that are good.

Cape Charles is also great for fishing, crabbing, boating, and golfing – but none of those are pastimes of ours so we’re not really qualified to advise on them. But there’s a free fishing pier in town and just outside the historic district are two signature golf courses (one Nicklaus, one Palmer – that means something right???).

When To Come

Someone asked recently if there’s anything to do in Cape Charles in the off-season. The answer is “Yes!” but also with a little bit of “no.” While the town is truly at its best in the summer months, it is still fun to visit in the Spring, Fall, and Holiday season too. Heck, we’ve had beach days – including going in the water! – as early as April and as late as November!

There are lots of activities and events in the off-season, so it’s probably best to plan around one of those. We’ve come for the garden tours in April, a trunk-or-treat event in October, and their holiday main street celebrations in December (complete with Santa and free movies at the historic theater – last year they played Home Alone and it was awesome). We also came for New Year’s Eve this year, where they dropped a decorated crab pot to ring in 2018! Doesn’t get much more small-town-quirky than that.

The only thing to note is that business hours get a bit funky in the off-season with shops and restaurants being closed more often (or even completely), so it’s always a good idea to call before heading out anywhere. Don’t trust any website to be updated! We have found the January through March months to be especially slow, but if you’re just looking for some quiet time it could be perfect!

I’m sure we missed some stuff – especially since new things are popping up every few months. We’ve got a cute little bookstore in the works down the street, and I just noticed a sign for another upcoming bakery. We hope you guys have a great time if you ever decide to slip through Cape Charles! And if you ever see us out and about while you’re visiting, please come say hello and tell us what we’re missing on this list! Ha!

The post A Guide To Our Beach Town: Cape Charles, Virginia appeared first on Young House Love.

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A Guide To Our Beach Town: Cape Charles, Virginia

I know it’s odd to be posting a beach-centric travel guide after summer’s over, but Sherry has been fielding so many questions lately about what to do in Cape Charles that we wanted all the answers in one place. Now people can just drop in on this post for all the details. And boy, are there details (have you met me? If not, hi, I’m John “Thorough” Petersik).

So if you’re thinking of making a visit to our favorite little beach town (which was also recently voted #3 Happiest Seaside Town by Coastal Living!), or are just curious about why we chose this place to renovate two vacation homes, this post is for you! We’re covering some fun activities for the family, our go-to meal places, and other reasons we think Cape Charles is the perfect place to unwind and soak up some pretty memorable sunsets.

Where Is Cape Charles?

Cape Charles is located near the southern tip of Virginia’s Eastern Shore right on the Chesapeake Bay. The Eastern Shore is a small, rural portion of the state that’s separated from mainland Virginia by the Chesapeake Bay. Cape Charles is a small town (the historic area is roughly a six block by six block square) that sits on the peninsula’s western coast… meaning you can sit on the beach in Cape Charles and watch the sunset right over the water. Highly recommend that.

It’s about a 2.5-hour drive from our home in Richmond, which culminates in crossing the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, a 23-mile long stretch of several bridges and two tunnels that offers quite the impressive welcome to the area (gorgeous water views). It’s also accessible from the north via a quiet drive through Maryland (it’s about 4 hours from Washington DC). Or, if you need to fly, the Norfolk International Airport is just across the bridge-tunnel – about 45 minutes away.

The town is relatively unknown and only in the last 5-10 years has it been experiencing an upswing as people have discovered it as a low-key alternative to your typical beach town, which means lots of homes are getting fixed up, new restaurants and shops are opening up, etc.

It has been really amazing to watch this town spring back to life and be revitalized, beautified, and enjoyed. Especially because the historic area is home to hundreds of beautiful 100+ year old houses, many of which needed a lot of love, and many of which have been lovingly restored. And our two are tucked right into the middle of it all.

The Beach

First lets talk about the beach, because it’s what sold us on Cape Charles (and it’s usually our go-to place every time we visit). It’s uncrowded, low-key, and easy to get to. Since it’s on the Chesapeake Bay, not the Atlantic Ocean, the water is calm and shallow.

At high tide you can walk out several dozen yards and still be barely waist deep in most parts (I’m sitting in the photo below, so the water is only about 18″ deep there) and at low-tide you can park your beach chair right in the water to keep your feet cool. It attracts lots of families like ours because kids can play for hours in the water without us parents having to fear the break of a big wave or the pull of a sudden riptide.

Our kids have spent HOURS splashing around, riding on floats, or even hunting for hermit crabs (yup, you can find them walking around on the sand in low tide).

Yup, these are all little hermit crabs we collected one evening at low tide. They’re such a novel thing to discover with kids, and they can put them in a bucket to watch them swim (and even witness them switching shells if you’re lucky!) and then toss them back in the water before heading out.

I you crave a bit more activity when you go to the beach, Cape Charles Beach is great for kayaking, stand up paddle boarding, fishing, jet skiing, or boating. On a windy day you’ll even see kite boarders. If you don’t have your own, there are a couple of rental places, like SouthEast Expeditions and the Oyster Farm at Kings Creek.

The other great thing is that PARKING IS FREE AND PLENTIFUL! You can park right along the beachfront street, Bay Avenue, with no problem – even on most summer weekends. No circling the block to find a spot or having to pay for metered parking. We LOVE that fact. There are also public restrooms with showers behind them near the big “LOVE” sign at the corner of Mason Ave & Bay Ave, and on summer weekends there’s often a delicious taco truck and an Italian Ice stand parked nearby.

Where To Stay

For such a compact town, there’s a surprising variety of options for your stay. We should first mention that there are vacation rentals through sites like HomeAway and Airbnb, which can be great for long stays, like a full week. The one shown below was even featured on HGTV! Just be mindful that those sites often return results outside of the historic district (but being inside the historic district is where you’ll get the most proximity to the beach, shops, and restaurants). So just double check that it’s actually in Historic Cape Charles if you plan to walk to shops, the park, the beach, restaurants, etc.

There are also a lot of bed & breakfasts in Cape Charles, like the Bay Haven Inn (below), Cape Charles House, and Alyssa House to name a few. We had the chance to visit several during a holiday open house event and they’re all beautiful with great historic details.

Another great option, especially for shorter stays, are hotels. The two in town are both AWESOME, but very different. Hotel Cape Charles is a modern “zen-like” hotel with loft style rooms (think: exposed brick, reclaimed wood, and those glass balconies that you see in the photo below). They also have fun perks like golf carts and bikes that are available to guests. We stayed there one night while tiling the pink house and loved it!

By contrast, the newly opened/restored Northampton Hotel has water views (it’s closer to the beach) and a more historic/Southern feel (like a giant front porch with a haint blue ceiling where you can have coffee and breakfast, with lots of traditional and ornate details like wallpaper, detailed molding, etc). There are also some more bargain-priced hotels and motels just outside of Cape Charles if you just need a place to plop your head at night.

Lastly, Kiptopeke State Park offers campsites and a few cabins (even a yurt!) nearby – as does Cherrystone Campground. Both are also waterfront, so you can enjoy the beach there without coming into town. But we’d definitely recommend venturing into Historic Cape Charles just to check out a few of the places we’re about to talk about below.

Where To Eat

The restaurant scene in Cape Charles is, well, not quite a scene yet. But that doesn’t meant there aren’t plenty of good meals to stuff in your face hole. Most of the commercial action in Cape Charles is concentrated on Mason Avenue, the town’s de facto “main street.” But our favorite dining spot is actually a short distance away, called Shanty. It’s a casual seafood place, complete with an oyster shell parking lot and an old boat out front full of plants. It has a ton of fresh fish tuna, shrimp, and oysters (for either lunch or dinner) as well as great options for non-seafood lovers and children as well (chicken fingers, quesadillas, burgers, etc).

It’s on the water so you can catch great sunsets, and in the summertime they often have live music on weekends. It’s popular with locals and visitors, so if you want to avoid a long wait it helps to come early (before 5:30 is the best time to aim for), or get a reservation (typically you have to call the day before to score one). Or just put your name on the list and they’ll text your phone when your table is ready – so you can walk around outside or even play corn hole out back and watch the boats in the marina while you wait.

Another favorite of ours is Deadrise Pies, which is a pizza/Italian place operated by the Shanty folks.

It’s also super kid-friendly, has great outdoor seating, and is also really nice when you need some easy carryout. We often get pizza and take it to eat on the beach at sunset! Some argue that Gerry’s Ristorante outside of town has better pizza (we like ’em both) but Deadrise wins for location and ambiance.

A newer favorite of ours is Cape Charles Brewing Company, which serves food and has great outdoor seating. We ate at shaded picnic tables while the kids played corn hole and ladder golf nearby and it was perfect!

Kelly’s Gingernut Pub is also a good option for kids, and people recommend Hook-U Up and The Oyster Farm for nicer adult date-night dining excursions, but since we’ve always got kids with us we haven’t tried them yet.

Our go-to spots for breakfast are the Cape Charles Coffee House and the cafe at The Northampton Hotel (above), or you can eat more casually at Rayfield’s soda fountain. We like to grab lunches at Gourmet Alley or Tim’s Place too. There are also other staples outside of town (like fast food and carryout Chinese) and in other exciting news: it looks like we’re getting a couple of new bakeries soon!

Where To Treat Yourself

A satisfying meal is all well and good, but one of our favorite parts about Cape Charles (and, well, life in general) is DESSERT. And if you’re more into the “grown-up desserts” (aka, drinks) we’ll cover that here too.

Reigning dessert champ in Cape Charles is Brown Dog Ice Cream. This charming ice cream parlor with an ever-rotating menu of flavors was named among the “Top 10 Best Ice Creams in America” by TripAdvisor. They’ve got plenty of classic flavors, but I always love their experimental ones with names like Lemon Curd Coconut Hot Milk Cake and Peach Raspberry Goat Cheese Crumble (the one below with sprinkles is Caramelized Fig with Mascarpone & Coco-Ginger Dust). And you can get any flavor as a milkshake, malt, float, or an ice cream sandwich too.

The new kid in town is Peach Beach Shave Ice Shack, which was started out of someone’s shed. They shipped in an authentic Hawaiian shave ice machine to make finely shaved treats that are distinctly better than your typical snow cone. Plus, the interior is super charming! They’re only open in the summer season for the most part, but they’re awesome on a hot day.

A less known, but also less expensive dessert option is CC Kool Eatz, which is hidden in a residential area on the north side of the historic downtown district (at the corner of Jefferson & Strawberry). They have some great soft serve with little tables to enjoy it outside. We also got a new candy shop this year, the Cape Charles Candy Co, which was opened by the family who was featured in the episode of HGTV’s Beachfront Bargain hunt that our house photobombed!

As for places to grab an adult beverage, in 2018 Cape Charles got a brewery, a distillery, and a cidery. Sherry likes to call it the trifecta of hipster spots to grab a drink – and they each have some pretty great atmosphere and that craft-brew feeling. As I mentioned above in the food section, the Cape Charles Brewing Company serves meals for the whole family and has lots of outdoor space as well as craft beer (flights, samplers, etc). We haven’t been to Buskey Cider on the Bay yet (an offshoot of a Richmond cidery!) but it has lots of board games and outdoor games (think oversized Jenga) on their outdoor patio. The Cape Charles Distillery is a decidedly more grown up space that sells upscale whiskeys, bourbons, moonshine, and vodka.

And if wine is your thing, Chatham Vineyards is just up the road. They even offer a “Paddle Your Glass Off” tour where you kayak to the winery on a guided tour and then get to sample some wines when you get there.

What ELSE To Do

You’ve hit the beach, stuffed your belly, and enjoyed the sunset. Now what? Cape Charles is certainly a quieter beach town than those you may think of with a boardwalk, mini golf, arcades, and outlet malls (although there is one of those beaches right across the bridge). So our “to do” list here usually involves a lot of relaxing, walking, and exploring.

The town’s main street, Mason Avenue, has lots of charming shops – including beach souvenirs, decor, clothing, jewelry, vintage furniture, art, wine, and more. Some of our favorites for browsing are Chuckletown Productions, The Boardwalk, Destination 23310, and the gift shop at The Northampton Hotel (seen below).

There’s also a large park that’s centrally located in the historic district (yup, it’s actually called Central Park – just like our old favorite in NYC). It has a large public field for tossing or kicking a ball around, a walking path, a playground, and tennis courts. We use it most for the playground and every Saturday in the summer they host live music in the gazebo and people bring lawn chairs and food/drinks to enjoy on the field while they watch the musicians play.

We usually end up doing a lot of walking around the downtown area to check out all of the houses (especially if we remember to bring the kids’ scooters). But if you want a more natural hiking spot, the Cape Charles Natural Area Preserve is a shaded boardwalk through the woods that’s just a short drive from town (I run there in the mornings from our beach house). Further out of town is the Southern Tip Hike & Bike Trail which is a wide 5-mile paved trail that terminates into a Nature Center that we haven’t visited yet, but we hear it’s good for kids (it and Kiptopeke State Park have more trails too).

We also really enjoyed a visit to the Barrier Island Center about 15 minutes up the road…

…and we took a day trip about an hour north to Chincoteague Island this summer to see the wild ponies. That was INCREDIBLE. We took this tour, but we hear there are a bunch that are good.

Cape Charles is also great for fishing, crabbing, boating, and golfing – but none of those are pastimes of ours so we’re not really qualified to advise on them. But there’s a free fishing pier in town and just outside the historic district are two signature golf courses (one Nicklaus, one Palmer – that means something right???).

When To Come

Someone asked recently if there’s anything to do in Cape Charles in the off-season. The answer is “Yes!” but also with a little bit of “no.” While the town is truly at its best in the summer months, it is still fun to visit in the Spring, Fall, and Holiday season too. Heck, we’ve had beach days – including going in the water! – as early as April and as late as November!

There are lots of activities and events in the off-season, so it’s probably best to plan around one of those. We’ve come for the garden tours in April, a trunk-or-treat event in October, and their holiday main street celebrations in December (complete with Santa and free movies at the historic theater – last year they played Home Alone and it was awesome). We also came for New Year’s Eve this year, where they dropped a decorated crab pot to ring in 2018! Doesn’t get much more small-town-quirky than that.

The only thing to note is that business hours get a bit funky in the off-season with shops and restaurants being closed more often (or even completely), so it’s always a good idea to call before heading out anywhere. Don’t trust any website to be updated! We have found the January through March months to be especially slow, but if you’re just looking for some quiet time it could be perfect!

I’m sure we missed some stuff – especially since new things are popping up every few months. We’ve got a cute little bookstore in the works down the street, and I just noticed a sign for another upcoming bakery. We hope you guys have a great time if you ever decide to slip through Cape Charles! And if you ever see us out and about while you’re visiting, please come say hello and tell us what we’re missing on this list! Ha!

The post A Guide To Our Beach Town: Cape Charles, Virginia appeared first on Young House Love.

A Guide To Our Beach Town: Cape Charles, Virginia published first on https://novaformmattressreview.tumblr.com/

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A Guide To Our Beach Town: Cape Charles, Virginia

I know it’s odd to be posting a beach-centric travel guide after summer’s over, but Sherry has been fielding so many questions lately about what to do in Cape Charles that we wanted all the answers in one place. Now people can just drop in on this post for all the details. And boy, are there details (have you met me? If not, hi, I’m John “Thorough” Petersik).

So if you’re thinking of making a visit to our favorite little beach town (which was also recently voted #3 Happiest Seaside Town by Coastal Living!), or are just curious about why we chose this place to renovate two vacation homes, this post is for you! We’re covering some fun activities for the family, our go-to meal places, and other reasons we think Cape Charles is the perfect place to unwind and soak up some pretty memorable sunsets.

Where Is Cape Charles?

Cape Charles is located near the southern tip of Virginia’s Eastern Shore right on the Chesapeake Bay. The Eastern Shore is a small, rural portion of the state that’s separated from mainland Virginia by the Chesapeake Bay. Cape Charles is a small town (the historic area is roughly a six block by six block square) that sits on the peninsula’s western coast… meaning you can sit on the beach in Cape Charles and watch the sunset right over the water. Highly recommend that.

It’s about a 2.5-hour drive from our home in Richmond, which culminates in crossing the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, a 23-mile long stretch of several bridges and two tunnels that offers quite the impressive welcome to the area (gorgeous water views). It’s also accessible from the north via a quiet drive through Maryland (it’s about 4 hours from Washington DC). Or, if you need to fly, the Norfolk International Airport is just across the bridge-tunnel – about 45 minutes away.

The town is relatively unknown and only in the last 5-10 years has it been experiencing an upswing as people have discovered it as a low-key alternative to your typical beach town, which means lots of homes are getting fixed up, new restaurants and shops are opening up, etc.

It has been really amazing to watch this town spring back to life and be revitalized, beautified, and enjoyed. Especially because the historic area is home to hundreds of beautiful 100+ year old houses, many of which needed a lot of love, and many of which have been lovingly restored. And our two are tucked right into the middle of it all.

The Beach

First lets talk about the beach, because it’s what sold us on Cape Charles (and it’s usually our go-to place every time we visit). It’s uncrowded, low-key, and easy to get to. Since it’s on the Chesapeake Bay, not the Atlantic Ocean, the water is calm and shallow.

At high tide you can walk out several dozen yards and still be barely waist deep in most parts (I’m sitting in the photo below, so the water is only about 18″ deep there) and at low-tide you can park your beach chair right in the water to keep your feet cool. It attracts lots of families like ours because kids can play for hours in the water without us parents having to fear the break of a big wave or the pull of a sudden riptide.

Our kids have spent HOURS splashing around, riding on floats, or even hunting for hermit crabs (yup, you can find them walking around on the sand in low tide).

Yup, these are all little hermit crabs we collected one evening at low tide. They’re such a novel thing to discover with kids, and they can put them in a bucket to watch them swim (and even witness them switching shells if you’re lucky!) and then toss them back in the water before heading out.

I you crave a bit more activity when you go to the beach, Cape Charles Beach is great for kayaking, stand up paddle boarding, fishing, jet skiing, or boating. On a windy day you’ll even see kite boarders. If you don’t have your own, there are a couple of rental places, like SouthEast Expeditions and the Oyster Farm at Kings Creek.

The other great thing is that PARKING IS FREE AND PLENTIFUL! You can park right along the beachfront street, Bay Avenue, with no problem – even on most summer weekends. No circling the block to find a spot or having to pay for metered parking. We LOVE that fact. There are also public restrooms with showers behind them near the big “LOVE” sign at the corner of Mason Ave & Bay Ave, and on summer weekends there’s often a delicious taco truck and an Italian Ice stand parked nearby.

Where To Stay

For such a compact town, there’s a surprising variety of options for your stay. We should first mention that there are vacation rentals through sites like HomeAway and Airbnb, which can be great for long stays, like a full week. The one shown below was even featured on HGTV! Just be mindful that those sites often return results outside of the historic district (but being inside the historic district is where you’ll get the most proximity to the beach, shops, and restaurants). So just double check that it’s actually in Historic Cape Charles if you plan to walk to shops, the park, the beach, restaurants, etc.

There are also a lot of bed & breakfasts in Cape Charles, like the Bay Haven Inn (below), Cape Charles House, and Alyssa House to name a few. We had the chance to visit several during a holiday open house event and they’re all beautiful with great historic details.

Another great option, especially for shorter stays, are hotels. The two in town are both AWESOME, but very different. Hotel Cape Charles is a modern “zen-like” hotel with loft style rooms (think: exposed brick, reclaimed wood, and those glass balconies that you see in the photo below). They also have fun perks like golf carts and bikes that are available to guests. We stayed there one night while tiling the pink house and loved it!

By contrast, the newly opened/restored Northampton Hotel has water views (it’s closer to the beach) and a more historic/Southern feel (like a giant front porch with a haint blue ceiling where you can have coffee and breakfast, with lots of traditional and ornate details like wallpaper, detailed molding, etc). There are also some more bargain-priced hotels and motels just outside of Cape Charles if you just need a place to plop your head at night.

Lastly, Kiptopeke State Park offers campsites and a few cabins (even a yurt!) nearby – as does Cherrystone Campground. Both are also waterfront, so you can enjoy the beach there without coming into town. But we’d definitely recommend venturing into Historic Cape Charles just to check out a few of the places we’re about to talk about below.

Where To Eat

The restaurant scene in Cape Charles is, well, not quite a scene yet. But that doesn’t meant there aren’t plenty of good meals to stuff in your face hole. Most of the commercial action in Cape Charles is concentrated on Mason Avenue, the town’s de facto “main street.” But our favorite dining spot is actually a short distance away, called Shanty. It’s a casual seafood place, complete with an oyster shell parking lot and an old boat out front full of plants. It has a ton of fresh fish tuna, shrimp, and oysters (for either lunch or dinner) as well as great options for non-seafood lovers and children as well (chicken fingers, quesadillas, burgers, etc).

It’s on the water so you can catch great sunsets, and in the summertime they often have live music on weekends. It’s popular with locals and visitors, so if you want to avoid a long wait it helps to come early (before 5:30 is the best time to aim for), or get a reservation (typically you have to call the day before to score one). Or just put your name on the list and they’ll text your phone when your table is ready – so you can walk around outside or even play corn hole out back and watch the boats in the marina while you wait.

Another favorite of ours is Deadrise Pies, which is a pizza/Italian place operated by the Shanty folks.

It’s also super kid-friendly, has great outdoor seating, and is also really nice when you need some easy carryout. We often get pizza and take it to eat on the beach at sunset! Some argue that Gerry’s Ristorante outside of town has better pizza (we like ’em both) but Deadrise wins for location and ambiance.

A newer favorite of ours is Cape Charles Brewing Company, which serves food and has great outdoor seating. We ate at shaded picnic tables while the kids played corn hole and ladder golf nearby and it was perfect!

Kelly’s Gingernut Pub is also a good option for kids, and people recommend Hook-U Up and The Oyster Farm for nicer adult date-night dining excursions, but since we’ve always got kids with us we haven’t tried them yet.

Our go-to spots for breakfast are the Cape Charles Coffee House and the cafe at The Northampton Hotel (above), or you can eat more casually at Rayfield’s soda fountain. We like to grab lunches at Gourmet Alley or Tim’s Place too. There are also other staples outside of town (like fast food and carryout Chinese) and in other exciting news: it looks like we’re getting a couple of new bakeries soon!

Where To Treat Yourself

A satisfying meal is all well and good, but one of our favorite parts about Cape Charles (and, well, life in general) is DESSERT. And if you’re more into the “grown-up desserts” (aka, drinks) we’ll cover that here too.

Reigning dessert champ in Cape Charles is Brown Dog Ice Cream. This charming ice cream parlor with an ever-rotating menu of flavors was named among the “Top 10 Best Ice Creams in America” by TripAdvisor. They’ve got plenty of classic flavors, but I always love their experimental ones with names like Lemon Curd Coconut Hot Milk Cake and Peach Raspberry Goat Cheese Crumble (the one below with sprinkles is Caramelized Fig with Mascarpone & Coco-Ginger Dust). And you can get any flavor as a milkshake, malt, float, or an ice cream sandwich too.

The new kid in town is Peach Beach Shave Ice Shack, which was started out of someone’s shed. They shipped in an authentic Hawaiian shave ice machine to make finely shaved treats that are distinctly better than your typical snow cone. Plus, the interior is super charming! They’re only open in the summer season for the most part, but they’re awesome on a hot day.

A less known, but also less expensive dessert option is CC Kool Eatz, which is hidden in a residential area on the north side of the historic downtown district (at the corner of Jefferson & Strawberry). They have some great soft serve with little tables to enjoy it outside. We also got a new candy shop this year, the Cape Charles Candy Co, which was opened by the family who was featured in the episode of HGTV’s Beachfront Bargain hunt that our house photobombed!

As for places to grab an adult beverage, in 2018 Cape Charles got a brewery, a distillery, and a cidery. Sherry likes to call it the trifecta of hipster spots to grab a drink – and they each have some pretty great atmosphere and that craft-brew feeling. As I mentioned above in the food section, the Cape Charles Brewing Company serves meals for the whole family and has lots of outdoor space as well as craft beer (flights, samplers, etc). We haven’t been to Buskey Cider on the Bay yet (an offshoot of a Richmond cidery!) but it has lots of board games and outdoor games (think oversized Jenga) on their outdoor patio. The Cape Charles Distillery is a decidedly more grown up space that sells upscale whiskeys, bourbons, moonshine, and vodka.

And if wine is your thing, Chatham Vineyards is just up the road. They even offer a “Paddle Your Glass Off” tour where you kayak to the winery on a guided tour and then get to sample some wines when you get there.

What ELSE To Do

You’ve hit the beach, stuffed your belly, and enjoyed the sunset. Now what? Cape Charles is certainly a quieter beach town than those you may think of with a boardwalk, mini golf, arcades, and outlet malls (although there is one of those beaches right across the bridge). So our “to do” list here usually involves a lot of relaxing, walking, and exploring.

The town’s main street, Mason Avenue, has lots of charming shops – including beach souvenirs, decor, clothing, jewelry, vintage furniture, art, wine, and more. Some of our favorites for browsing are Chuckletown Productions, The Boardwalk, Destination 23310, and the gift shop at The Northampton Hotel (seen below).

There’s also a large park that’s centrally located in the historic district (yup, it’s actually called Central Park – just like our old favorite in NYC). It has a large public field for tossing or kicking a ball around, a walking path, a playground, and tennis courts. We use it most for the playground and every Saturday in the summer they host live music in the gazebo and people bring lawn chairs and food/drinks to enjoy on the field while they watch the musicians play.

We usually end up doing a lot of walking around the downtown area to check out all of the houses (especially if we remember to bring the kids’ scooters). But if you want a more natural hiking spot, the Cape Charles Natural Area Preserve is a shaded boardwalk through the woods that’s just a short drive from town (I run there in the mornings from our beach house). Further out of town is the Southern Tip Hike & Bike Trail which is a wide 5-mile paved trail that terminates into a Nature Center that we haven’t visited yet, but we hear it’s good for kids (it and Kiptopeke State Park have more trails too).

We also really enjoyed a visit to the Barrier Island Center about 15 minutes up the road…

…and we took a day trip about an hour north to Chincoteague Island this summer to see the wild ponies. That was INCREDIBLE. We took this tour, but we hear there are a bunch that are good.

Cape Charles is also great for fishing, crabbing, boating, and golfing – but none of those are pastimes of ours so we’re not really qualified to advise on them. But there’s a free fishing pier in town and just outside the historic district are two signature golf courses (one Nicklaus, one Palmer – that means something right???).

When To Come

Someone asked recently if there’s anything to do in Cape Charles in the off-season. The answer is “Yes!” but also with a little bit of “no.” While the town is truly at its best in the summer months, it is still fun to visit in the Spring, Fall, and Holiday season too. Heck, we’ve had beach days – including going in the water! – as early as April and as late as November!

There are lots of activities and events in the off-season, so it’s probably best to plan around one of those. We’ve come for the garden tours in April, a trunk-or-treat event in October, and their holiday main street celebrations in December (complete with Santa and free movies at the historic theater – last year they played Home Alone and it was awesome). We also came for New Year’s Eve this year, where they dropped a decorated crab pot to ring in 2018! Doesn’t get much more small-town-quirky than that.

The only thing to note is that business hours get a bit funky in the off-season with shops and restaurants being closed more often (or even completely), so it’s always a good idea to call before heading out anywhere. Don’t trust any website to be updated! We have found the January through March months to be especially slow, but if you’re just looking for some quiet time it could be perfect!

I’m sure we missed some stuff – especially since new things are popping up every few months. We’ve got a cute little bookstore in the works down the street, and I just noticed a sign for another upcoming bakery. We hope you guys have a great time if you ever decide to slip through Cape Charles! And if you ever see us out and about while you’re visiting, please come say hello and tell us what we’re missing on this list! Ha!

The post A Guide To Our Beach Town: Cape Charles, Virginia appeared first on Young House Love.

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A Guide To Our Beach Town: Cape Charles, Virginia

I know it’s odd to be posting a beach-centric travel guide after summer’s over, but Sherry has been fielding so many questions lately about what to do in Cape Charles that we wanted all the answers in one place. Now people can just drop in on this post for all the details. And boy, are there details (have you met me? If not, hi, I’m John “Thorough” Petersik).

So if you’re thinking of making a visit to our favorite little beach town (which was also recently voted #3 Happiest Seaside Town by Coastal Living!), or are just curious about why we chose this place to renovate two vacation homes, this post is for you! We’re covering some fun activities for the family, our go-to meal places, and other reasons we think Cape Charles is the perfect place to unwind and soak up some pretty memorable sunsets.

Where Is Cape Charles?

Cape Charles is located near the southern tip of Virginia’s Eastern Shore right on the Chesapeake Bay. The Eastern Shore is a small, rural portion of the state that’s separated from mainland Virginia by the Chesapeake Bay. Cape Charles is a small town (the historic area is roughly a six block by six block square) that sits on the peninsula’s western coast… meaning you can sit on the beach in Cape Charles and watch the sunset right over the water. Highly recommend that.

It’s about a 2.5-hour drive from our home in Richmond, which culminates in crossing the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, a 23-mile long stretch of several bridges and two tunnels that offers quite the impressive welcome to the area (gorgeous water views). It’s also accessible from the north via a quiet drive through Maryland (it’s about 4 hours from Washington DC). Or, if you need to fly, the Norfolk International Airport is just across the bridge-tunnel – about 45 minutes away.

The town is relatively unknown and only in the last 5-10 years has it been experiencing an upswing as people have discovered it as a low-key alternative to your typical beach town, which means lots of homes are getting fixed up, new restaurants and shops are opening up, etc.

It has been really amazing to watch this town spring back to life and be revitalized, beautified, and enjoyed. Especially because the historic area is home to hundreds of beautiful 100+ year old houses, many of which needed a lot of love, and many of which have been lovingly restored. And our two are tucked right into the middle of it all.

The Beach

First lets talk about the beach, because it’s what sold us on Cape Charles (and it’s usually our go-to place every time we visit). It’s uncrowded, low-key, and easy to get to. Since it’s on the Chesapeake Bay, not the Atlantic Ocean, the water is calm and shallow.

At high tide you can walk out several dozen yards and still be barely waist deep in most parts (I’m sitting in the photo below, so the water is only about 18″ deep there) and at low-tide you can park your beach chair right in the water to keep your feet cool. It attracts lots of families like ours because kids can play for hours in the water without us parents having to fear the break of a big wave or the pull of a sudden riptide.

Our kids have spent HOURS splashing around, riding on floats, or even hunting for hermit crabs (yup, you can find them walking around on the sand in low tide).

Yup, these are all little hermit crabs we collected one evening at low tide. They’re such a novel thing to discover with kids, and they can put them in a bucket to watch them swim (and even witness them switching shells if you’re lucky!) and then toss them back in the water before heading out.

I you crave a bit more activity when you go to the beach, Cape Charles Beach is great for kayaking, stand up paddle boarding, fishing, jet skiing, or boating. On a windy day you’ll even see kite boarders. If you don’t have your own, there are a couple of rental places, like SouthEast Expeditions and the Oyster Farm at Kings Creek.

The other great thing is that PARKING IS FREE AND PLENTIFUL! You can park right along the beachfront street, Bay Avenue, with no problem – even on most summer weekends. No circling the block to find a spot or having to pay for metered parking. We LOVE that fact. There are also public restrooms with showers behind them near the big “LOVE” sign at the corner of Mason Ave & Bay Ave, and on summer weekends there’s often a delicious taco truck and an Italian Ice stand parked nearby.

Where To Stay

For such a compact town, there’s a surprising variety of options for your stay. We should first mention that there are vacation rentals through sites like HomeAway and Airbnb, which can be great for long stays, like a full week. The one shown below was even featured on HGTV! Just be mindful that those sites often return results outside of the historic district (but being inside the historic district is where you’ll get the most proximity to the beach, shops, and restaurants). So just double check that it’s actually in Historic Cape Charles if you plan to walk to shops, the park, the beach, restaurants, etc.

There are also a lot of bed & breakfasts in Cape Charles, like the Bay Haven Inn (below), Cape Charles House, and Alyssa House to name a few. We had the chance to visit several during a holiday open house event and they’re all beautiful with great historic details.

Another great option, especially for shorter stays, are hotels. The two in town are both AWESOME, but very different. Hotel Cape Charles is a modern “zen-like” hotel with loft style rooms (think: exposed brick, reclaimed wood, and those glass balconies that you see in the photo below). They also have fun perks like golf carts and bikes that are available to guests. We stayed there one night while tiling the pink house and loved it!

By contrast, the newly opened/restored Northampton Hotel has water views (it’s closer to the beach) and a more historic/Southern feel (like a giant front porch with a haint blue ceiling where you can have coffee and breakfast, with lots of traditional and ornate details like wallpaper, detailed molding, etc). There are also some more bargain-priced hotels and motels just outside of Cape Charles if you just need a place to plop your head at night.

Lastly, Kiptopeke State Park offers campsites and a few cabins (even a yurt!) nearby – as does Cherrystone Campground. Both are also waterfront, so you can enjoy the beach there without coming into town. But we’d definitely recommend venturing into Historic Cape Charles just to check out a few of the places we’re about to talk about below.

Where To Eat

The restaurant scene in Cape Charles is, well, not quite a scene yet. But that doesn’t meant there aren’t plenty of good meals to stuff in your face hole. Most of the commercial action in Cape Charles is concentrated on Mason Avenue, the town’s de facto “main street.” But our favorite dining spot is actually a short distance away, called Shanty. It’s a casual seafood place, complete with an oyster shell parking lot and an old boat out front full of plants. It has a ton of fresh fish tuna, shrimp, and oysters (for either lunch or dinner) as well as great options for non-seafood lovers and children as well (chicken fingers, quesadillas, burgers, etc).

It’s on the water so you can catch great sunsets, and in the summertime they often have live music on weekends. It’s popular with locals and visitors, so if you want to avoid a long wait it helps to come early (before 5:30 is the best time to aim for), or get a reservation (typically you have to call the day before to score one). Or just put your name on the list and they’ll text your phone when your table is ready – so you can walk around outside or even play corn hole out back and watch the boats in the marina while you wait.

Another favorite of ours is Deadrise Pies, which is a pizza/Italian place operated by the Shanty folks.

It’s also super kid-friendly, has great outdoor seating, and is also really nice when you need some easy carryout. We often get pizza and take it to eat on the beach at sunset! Some argue that Gerry’s Ristorante outside of town has better pizza (we like ’em both) but Deadrise wins for location and ambiance.

A newer favorite of ours is Cape Charles Brewing Company, which serves food and has great outdoor seating. We ate at shaded picnic tables while the kids played corn hole and ladder golf nearby and it was perfect!

Kelly’s Gingernut Pub is also a good option for kids, and people recommend Hook-U Up and The Oyster Farm for nicer adult date-night dining excursions, but since we’ve always got kids with us we haven’t tried them yet.

Our go-to spots for breakfast are the Cape Charles Coffee House and the cafe at The Northampton Hotel (above), or you can eat more casually at Rayfield’s soda fountain. We like to grab lunches at Gourmet Alley or Tim’s Place too. There are also other staples outside of town (like fast food and carryout Chinese) and in other exciting news: it looks like we’re getting a couple of new bakeries soon!

Where To Treat Yourself

A satisfying meal is all well and good, but one of our favorite parts about Cape Charles (and, well, life in general) is DESSERT. And if you’re more into the “grown-up desserts” (aka, drinks) we’ll cover that here too.

Reigning dessert champ in Cape Charles is Brown Dog Ice Cream. This charming ice cream parlor with an ever-rotating menu of flavors was named among the “Top 10 Best Ice Creams in America” by TripAdvisor. They’ve got plenty of classic flavors, but I always love their experimental ones with names like Lemon Curd Coconut Hot Milk Cake and Peach Raspberry Goat Cheese Crumble (the one below with sprinkles is Caramelized Fig with Mascarpone & Coco-Ginger Dust). And you can get any flavor as a milkshake, malt, float, or an ice cream sandwich too.

The new kid in town is Peach Beach Shave Ice Shack, which was started out of someone’s shed. They shipped in an authentic Hawaiian shave ice machine to make finely shaved treats that are distinctly better than your typical snow cone. Plus, the interior is super charming! They’re only open in the summer season for the most part, but they’re awesome on a hot day.

A less known, but also less expensive dessert option is CC Kool Eatz, which is hidden in a residential area on the north side of the historic downtown district (at the corner of Jefferson & Strawberry). They have some great soft serve with little tables to enjoy it outside. We also got a new candy shop this year, the Cape Charles Candy Co, which was opened by the family who was featured in the episode of HGTV’s Beachfront Bargain hunt that our house photobombed!

As for places to grab an adult beverage, in 2018 Cape Charles got a brewery, a distillery, and a cidery. Sherry likes to call it the trifecta of hipster spots to grab a drink – and they each have some pretty great atmosphere and that craft-brew feeling. As I mentioned above in the food section, the Cape Charles Brewing Company serves meals for the whole family and has lots of outdoor space as well as craft beer (flights, samplers, etc). We haven’t been to Buskey Cider on the Bay yet (an offshoot of a Richmond cidery!) but it has lots of board games and outdoor games (think oversized Jenga) on their outdoor patio. The Cape Charles Distillery is a decidedly more grown up space that sells upscale whiskeys, bourbons, moonshine, and vodka.

And if wine is your thing, Chatham Vineyards is just up the road. They even offer a “Paddle Your Glass Off” tour where you kayak to the winery on a guided tour and then get to sample some wines when you get there.

What ELSE To Do

You’ve hit the beach, stuffed your belly, and enjoyed the sunset. Now what? Cape Charles is certainly a quieter beach town than those you may think of with a boardwalk, mini golf, arcades, and outlet malls (although there is one of those beaches right across the bridge). So our “to do” list here usually involves a lot of relaxing, walking, and exploring.

The town’s main street, Mason Avenue, has lots of charming shops – including beach souvenirs, decor, clothing, jewelry, vintage furniture, art, wine, and more. Some of our favorites for browsing are Chuckletown Productions, The Boardwalk, Destination 23310, and the gift shop at The Northampton Hotel (seen below).

There’s also a large park that’s centrally located in the historic district (yup, it’s actually called Central Park – just like our old favorite in NYC). It has a large public field for tossing or kicking a ball around, a walking path, a playground, and tennis courts. We use it most for the playground and every Saturday in the summer they host live music in the gazebo and people bring lawn chairs and food/drinks to enjoy on the field while they watch the musicians play.

We usually end up doing a lot of walking around the downtown area to check out all of the houses (especially if we remember to bring the kids’ scooters). But if you want a more natural hiking spot, the Cape Charles Natural Area Preserve is a shaded boardwalk through the woods that’s just a short drive from town (I run there in the mornings from our beach house). Further out of town is the Southern Tip Hike & Bike Trail which is a wide 5-mile paved trail that terminates into a Nature Center that we haven’t visited yet, but we hear it’s good for kids (it and Kiptopeke State Park have more trails too).

We also really enjoyed a visit to the Barrier Island Center about 15 minutes up the road…

…and we took a day trip about an hour north to Chincoteague Island this summer to see the wild ponies. That was INCREDIBLE. We took this tour, but we hear there are a bunch that are good.

Cape Charles is also great for fishing, crabbing, boating, and golfing – but none of those are pastimes of ours so we’re not really qualified to advise on them. But there’s a free fishing pier in town and just outside the historic district are two signature golf courses (one Nicklaus, one Palmer – that means something right???).

When To Come

Someone asked recently if there’s anything to do in Cape Charles in the off-season. The answer is “Yes!” but also with a little bit of “no.” While the town is truly at its best in the summer months, it is still fun to visit in the Spring, Fall, and Holiday season too. Heck, we’ve had beach days – including going in the water! – as early as April and as late as November!

There are lots of activities and events in the off-season, so it’s probably best to plan around one of those. We’ve come for the garden tours in April, a trunk-or-treat event in October, and their holiday main street celebrations in December (complete with Santa and free movies at the historic theater – last year they played Home Alone and it was awesome). We also came for New Year’s Eve this year, where they dropped a decorated crab pot to ring in 2018! Doesn’t get much more small-town-quirky than that.

The only thing to note is that business hours get a bit funky in the off-season with shops and restaurants being closed more often (or even completely), so it’s always a good idea to call before heading out anywhere. Don’t trust any website to be updated! We have found the January through March months to be especially slow, but if you’re just looking for some quiet time it could be perfect!

I’m sure we missed some stuff – especially since new things are popping up every few months. We’ve got a cute little bookstore in the works down the street, and I just noticed a sign for another upcoming bakery. We hope you guys have a great time if you ever decide to slip through Cape Charles! And if you ever see us out and about while you’re visiting, please come say hello and tell us what we’re missing on this list! Ha!

The post A Guide To Our Beach Town: Cape Charles, Virginia appeared first on Young House Love.

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A Guide To Our Beach Town: Cape Charles, Virginia

I know it’s odd to be posting a beach-centric travel guide after summer’s over, but Sherry has been fielding so many questions lately about what to do in Cape Charles that we wanted all the answers in one place. Now people can just drop in on this post for all the details. And boy, are there details (have you met me? If not, hi, I’m John “Thorough” Petersik).

So if you’re thinking of making a visit to our favorite little beach town (which was also recently voted #3 Happiest Seaside Town by Coastal Living!), or are just curious about why we chose this place to renovate two vacation homes, this post is for you! We’re covering some fun activities for the family, our go-to meal places, and other reasons we think Cape Charles is the perfect place to unwind and soak up some pretty memorable sunsets.

Where Is Cape Charles?

Cape Charles is located near the southern tip of Virginia’s Eastern Shore right on the Chesapeake Bay. The Eastern Shore is a small, rural portion of the state that’s separated from mainland Virginia by the Chesapeake Bay. Cape Charles is a small town (the historic area is roughly a six block by six block square) that sits on the peninsula’s western coast… meaning you can sit on the beach in Cape Charles and watch the sunset right over the water. Highly recommend that.

It’s about a 2.5-hour drive from our home in Richmond, which culminates in crossing the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, a 23-mile long stretch of several bridges and two tunnels that offers quite the impressive welcome to the area (gorgeous water views). It’s also accessible from the north via a quiet drive through Maryland (it’s about 4 hours from Washington DC). Or, if you need to fly, the Norfolk International Airport is just across the bridge-tunnel – about 45 minutes away.

The town is relatively unknown and only in the last 5-10 years has it been experiencing an upswing as people have discovered it as a low-key alternative to your typical beach town, which means lots of homes are getting fixed up, new restaurants and shops are opening up, etc.

It has been really amazing to watch this town spring back to life and be revitalized, beautified, and enjoyed. Especially because the historic area is home to hundreds of beautiful 100+ year old houses, many of which needed a lot of love, and many of which have been lovingly restored. And our two are tucked right into the middle of it all.

The Beach

First lets talk about the beach, because it’s what sold us on Cape Charles (and it’s usually our go-to place every time we visit). It’s uncrowded, low-key, and easy to get to. Since it’s on the Chesapeake Bay, not the Atlantic Ocean, the water is calm and shallow.

At high tide you can walk out several dozen yards and still be barely waist deep in most parts (I’m sitting in the photo below, so the water is only about 18″ deep there) and at low-tide you can park your beach chair right in the water to keep your feet cool. It attracts lots of families like ours because kids can play for hours in the water without us parents having to fear the break of a big wave or the pull of a sudden riptide.

Our kids have spent HOURS splashing around, riding on floats, or even hunting for hermit crabs (yup, you can find them walking around on the sand in low tide).

Yup, these are all little hermit crabs we collected one evening at low tide. They’re such a novel thing to discover with kids, and they can put them in a bucket to watch them swim (and even witness them switching shells if you’re lucky!) and then toss them back in the water before heading out.

I you crave a bit more activity when you go to the beach, Cape Charles Beach is great for kayaking, stand up paddle boarding, fishing, jet skiing, or boating. On a windy day you’ll even see kite boarders. If you don’t have your own, there are a couple of rental places, like SouthEast Expeditions and the Oyster Farm at Kings Creek.

The other great thing is that PARKING IS FREE AND PLENTIFUL! You can park right along the beachfront street, Bay Avenue, with no problem – even on most summer weekends. No circling the block to find a spot or having to pay for metered parking. We LOVE that fact. There are also public restrooms with showers behind them near the big “LOVE” sign at the corner of Mason Ave & Bay Ave, and on summer weekends there’s often a delicious taco truck and an Italian Ice stand parked nearby.

Where To Stay

For such a compact town, there’s a surprising variety of options for your stay. We should first mention that there are vacation rentals through sites like HomeAway and Airbnb, which can be great for long stays, like a full week. The one shown below was even featured on HGTV! Just be mindful that those sites often return results outside of the historic district (but being inside the historic district is where you’ll get the most proximity to the beach, shops, and restaurants). So just double check that it’s actually in Historic Cape Charles if you plan to walk to shops, the park, the beach, restaurants, etc.

There are also a lot of bed & breakfasts in Cape Charles, like the Bay Haven Inn (below), Cape Charles House, and Alyssa House to name a few. We had the chance to visit several during a holiday open house event and they’re all beautiful with great historic details.

Another great option, especially for shorter stays, are hotels. The two in town are both AWESOME, but very different. Hotel Cape Charles is a modern “zen-like” hotel with loft style rooms (think: exposed brick, reclaimed wood, and those glass balconies that you see in the photo below). They also have fun perks like golf carts and bikes that are available to guests. We stayed there one night while tiling the pink house and loved it!

By contrast, the newly opened/restored Northampton Hotel has water views (it’s closer to the beach) and a more historic/Southern feel (like a giant front porch with a haint blue ceiling where you can have coffee and breakfast, with lots of traditional and ornate details like wallpaper, detailed molding, etc). There are also some more bargain-priced hotels and motels just outside of Cape Charles if you just need a place to plop your head at night.

Lastly, Kiptopeke State Park offers campsites and a few cabins (even a yurt!) nearby – as does Cherrystone Campground. Both are also waterfront, so you can enjoy the beach there without coming into town. But we’d definitely recommend venturing into Historic Cape Charles just to check out a few of the places we’re about to talk about below.

Where To Eat

The restaurant scene in Cape Charles is, well, not quite a scene yet. But that doesn’t meant there aren’t plenty of good meals to stuff in your face hole. Most of the commercial action in Cape Charles is concentrated on Mason Avenue, the town’s de facto “main street.” But our favorite dining spot is actually a short distance away, called Shanty. It’s a casual seafood place, complete with an oyster shell parking lot and an old boat out front full of plants. It has a ton of fresh fish tuna, shrimp, and oysters (for either lunch or dinner) as well as great options for non-seafood lovers and children as well (chicken fingers, quesadillas, burgers, etc).

It’s on the water so you can catch great sunsets, and in the summertime they often have live music on weekends. It’s popular with locals and visitors, so if you want to avoid a long wait it helps to come early (before 5:30 is the best time to aim for), or get a reservation (typically you have to call the day before to score one). Or just put your name on the list and they’ll text your phone when your table is ready – so you can walk around outside or even play corn hole out back and watch the boats in the marina while you wait.

Another favorite of ours is Deadrise Pies, which is a pizza/Italian place operated by the Shanty folks.

It’s also super kid-friendly, has great outdoor seating, and is also really nice when you need some easy carryout. We often get pizza and take it to eat on the beach at sunset! Some argue that Gerry’s Ristorante outside of town has better pizza (we like ’em both) but Deadrise wins for location and ambiance.

A newer favorite of ours is Cape Charles Brewing Company, which serves food and has great outdoor seating. We ate at shaded picnic tables while the kids played corn hole and ladder golf nearby and it was perfect!

Kelly’s Gingernut Pub is also a good option for kids, and people recommend Hook-U Up and The Oyster Farm for nicer adult date-night dining excursions, but since we’ve always got kids with us we haven’t tried them yet.

Our go-to spots for breakfast are the Cape Charles Coffee House and the cafe at The Northampton Hotel (above), or you can eat more casually at Rayfield’s soda fountain. We like to grab lunches at Gourmet Alley or Tim’s Place too. There are also other staples outside of town (like fast food and carryout Chinese) and in other exciting news: it looks like we’re getting a couple of new bakeries soon!

Where To Treat Yourself

A satisfying meal is all well and good, but one of our favorite parts about Cape Charles (and, well, life in general) is DESSERT. And if you’re more into the “grown-up desserts” (aka, drinks) we’ll cover that here too.

Reigning dessert champ in Cape Charles is Brown Dog Ice Cream. This charming ice cream parlor with an ever-rotating menu of flavors was named among the “Top 10 Best Ice Creams in America” by TripAdvisor. They’ve got plenty of classic flavors, but I always love their experimental ones with names like Lemon Curd Coconut Hot Milk Cake and Peach Raspberry Goat Cheese Crumble (the one below with sprinkles is Caramelized Fig with Mascarpone & Coco-Ginger Dust). And you can get any flavor as a milkshake, malt, float, or an ice cream sandwich too.

The new kid in town is Peach Beach Shave Ice Shack, which was started out of someone’s shed. They shipped in an authentic Hawaiian shave ice machine to make finely shaved treats that are distinctly better than your typical snow cone. Plus, the interior is super charming! They’re only open in the summer season for the most part, but they’re awesome on a hot day.

A less known, but also less expensive dessert option is CC Kool Eatz, which is hidden in a residential area on the north side of the historic downtown district (at the corner of Jefferson & Strawberry). They have some great soft serve with little tables to enjoy it outside. We also got a new candy shop this year, the Cape Charles Candy Co, which was opened by the family who was featured in the episode of HGTV’s Beachfront Bargain hunt that our house photobombed!

As for places to grab an adult beverage, in 2018 Cape Charles got a brewery, a distillery, and a cidery. Sherry likes to call it the trifecta of hipster spots to grab a drink – and they each have some pretty great atmosphere and that craft-brew feeling. As I mentioned above in the food section, the Cape Charles Brewing Company serves meals for the whole family and has lots of outdoor space as well as craft beer (flights, samplers, etc). We haven’t been to Buskey Cider on the Bay yet (an offshoot of a Richmond cidery!) but it has lots of board games and outdoor games (think oversized Jenga) on their outdoor patio. The Cape Charles Distillery is a decidedly more grown up space that sells upscale whiskeys, bourbons, moonshine, and vodka.

And if wine is your thing, Chatham Vineyards is just up the road. They even offer a “Paddle Your Glass Off” tour where you kayak to the winery on a guided tour and then get to sample some wines when you get there.

What ELSE To Do

You’ve hit the beach, stuffed your belly, and enjoyed the sunset. Now what? Cape Charles is certainly a quieter beach town than those you may think of with a boardwalk, mini golf, arcades, and outlet malls (although there is one of those beaches right across the bridge). So our “to do” list here usually involves a lot of relaxing, walking, and exploring.

The town’s main street, Mason Avenue, has lots of charming shops – including beach souvenirs, decor, clothing, jewelry, vintage furniture, art, wine, and more. Some of our favorites for browsing are Chuckletown Productions, The Boardwalk, Destination 23310, and the gift shop at The Northampton Hotel (seen below).

There’s also a large park that’s centrally located in the historic district (yup, it’s actually called Central Park – just like our old favorite in NYC). It has a large public field for tossing or kicking a ball around, a walking path, a playground, and tennis courts. We use it most for the playground and every Saturday in the summer they host live music in the gazebo and people bring lawn chairs and food/drinks to enjoy on the field while they watch the musicians play.

We usually end up doing a lot of walking around the downtown area to check out all of the houses (especially if we remember to bring the kids’ scooters). But if you want a more natural hiking spot, the Cape Charles Natural Area Preserve is a shaded boardwalk through the woods that’s just a short drive from town (I run there in the mornings from our beach house). Further out of town is the Southern Tip Hike & Bike Trail which is a wide 5-mile paved trail that terminates into a Nature Center that we haven’t visited yet, but we hear it’s good for kids (it and Kiptopeke State Park have more trails too).

We also really enjoyed a visit to the Barrier Island Center about 15 minutes up the road…

…and we took a day trip about an hour north to Chincoteague Island this summer to see the wild ponies. That was INCREDIBLE. We took this tour, but we hear there are a bunch that are good.

Cape Charles is also great for fishing, crabbing, boating, and golfing – but none of those are pastimes of ours so we’re not really qualified to advise on them. But there’s a free fishing pier in town and just outside the historic district are two signature golf courses (one Nicklaus, one Palmer – that means something right???).

When To Come

Someone asked recently if there’s anything to do in Cape Charles in the off-season. The answer is “Yes!” but also with a little bit of “no.” While the town is truly at its best in the summer months, it is still fun to visit in the Spring, Fall, and Holiday season too. Heck, we’ve had beach days – including going in the water! – as early as April and as late as November!

There are lots of activities and events in the off-season, so it’s probably best to plan around one of those. We’ve come for the garden tours in April, a trunk-or-treat event in October, and their holiday main street celebrations in December (complete with Santa and free movies at the historic theater – last year they played Home Alone and it was awesome). We also came for New Year’s Eve this year, where they dropped a decorated crab pot to ring in 2018! Doesn’t get much more small-town-quirky than that.

The only thing to note is that business hours get a bit funky in the off-season with shops and restaurants being closed more often (or even completely), so it’s always a good idea to call before heading out anywhere. Don’t trust any website to be updated! We have found the January through March months to be especially slow, but if you’re just looking for some quiet time it could be perfect!

I’m sure we missed some stuff – especially since new things are popping up every few months. We’ve got a cute little bookstore in the works down the street, and I just noticed a sign for another upcoming bakery. We hope you guys have a great time if you ever decide to slip through Cape Charles! And if you ever see us out and about while you’re visiting, please come say hello and tell us what we’re missing on this list! Ha!

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