Happy Friday! Today I am so excited to share the details of the trip that my mom and I took to Cape Charles a few weeks ago.
We got a wild hair and decided to go on a last-minute getaway to finish out the summer before my mom had to go back to school (she is a middle school special education teacher!) We wanted somewhere within driving distance and landed on Cape Charles, which is an absolutely charming town nestled on the Chesapeake Bay on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. It's about a four hour drive from Harrisonburg as well as the DC/Northern Virginia area. It's only about an hour from and Virginia Beach/Norfolk area, and about two hours from Richmond. We traveled to Cape Charles by going through Norfolk and up the peninsula by way of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.
We had the absolute BEST trip to Cape Charles, I am so glad that we took the chance to make the last-minute trip! We stayed Thursday through Sunday which was the perfect length of time, although we could've definitely filled another day or two with activities and not gotten bored!
THURSDAY
We landed on the Eastern Shore around 12:30 - we had some time to kill before we could check into our hotel, so we stopped by the Eastern Shore Visitor Center (that's where we are in the photo of my mom in the pelican Adirondack chair above! 😂) and then drove around Kiptopeke State Park for a little while, which is right on the way up the peninsula. We drove down to the water and saw a jetty made up of submerged decommissioned Naval ships, the "ghost ships." Seeing them hit me with a jolt of submechanophobia - they were huge in person and so eerie!
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| Sweater | Striped shirt | Shorts | Sandals (also here) | Similar bag |
It was a bit drizzly by the time we made our way to Cape Charles and we still had an hour or two before we could check into our hotel, so we stopped into AJ's Bar & Grill for a pick-me-up. We ordered the shrimp and scallop nachos and they were SOO good oh my gosh, the perfect afternoon snack. I also got a Hendrick's 75 (I was excited to see their gin of choice was Hendrick's!) I can't find their menu online, but they serve elevated bar food and we definitely would've come back a second time if we had stayed longer! The staff was super friendly too, that's always a plus.
Once the rain let up, we headed to the beach to walk around a little until it was time to check into our hotel. There's a fishing pier you can walk out on and we saw people fishing and collecting shells in the water.
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| Somehow I didn't manage to get a photo of the front of the hotel, this one is via TripAdvisor! |
We stated at the Hotel Cape Charles and I cannot say enough good things about it, I HIGHLY recommend it if you're planing a trip to Cape Charles, and I know my mom would agree! It's a two-level 22-room boutique hotel in the perfect location right in the middle of downtown. It's the perfect proximity to all of the restaurants and shops downtown, and just a short walk to the beach. It's seamlessly tucked in among the storefronts of Mason Avenue, and while it doesn't have any designated parking, there is plenty of free street parking right out front.
The hotel has a variety of different types of rooms - balcony, gallery, loft, and courtyard. All of the rooms are accessed from inside the hotel, with the exception of the courtyard rooms, which is where my mom and I stayed. After exploring the inside of the hotel and venturing upstairs several times to get ice and visit the rooftop terrace, we both agreed that we would choose to stay in a courtyard room again next we visit, despite exterior room entrances typically being less desirable in my opinion. The interior rooms seemed like they could get noisy and had more of a "communal living" feel.
Another benefit of the courtyard rooms is that they are the only ones on
the ground level, so it's much easier to get your bags to your room.
There is no elevator to the second floor, so that's definitely something
to keep in mind if you don't want to schlep everything up and down,
haha.
The courtyard rooms each have their own little patio, where my mom and I enjoyed breakfast every morning - the hotel serves a "fresh start" breakfast in their coffee shop off of the lobby that includes fresh coffee, tea, and juice, yogurt, granola, and fresh berries, cereal, and oatmeal, which we thoroughly enjoyed! There is a large common area in the back with plenty of seating - the times that my mom and I sat out there we had the whole place to ourselves! You can access the hotel lobby from the first level of the courtyard, or go straight to the second level (where the ice machine and stairs to the terrace are) via the outdoor stairs. There is also an outdoor shower in the courtyard that's convenient for rinsing the sand off of your feet after the beach, and you could even take a full-blown shower there if you wanted to because it's completely private and has toiletries.
Our room itself was just right - it had two double beds and we loved the bathroom. We also loved that they provide wine glasses and a corkscrew, which we used! They had an Illy espresso machine too, which we didn't use but was very nice. They also provide a book with information about the hotel and the town, along with a bunch of recommendations for restaurant and activities (it reminded me of the Blue Book from The Hotel Nantucket!)
Some other great amenities the hotel provides are beach towels that you can pick up in the courtyard, along with free bicycles and golf cart rentals (which are $50 per day).
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| Sweater | Striped shirt | Shorts |
We hung out at our hotel for a while to regroup and decide how we wanted to spend the rest of the evening. I had brought some wine and my mom brought the makings of a whole charcuterie spread, so we attempted to have wine and cheese out in the courtyard but got rained out fairly quickly. 😂
We finished our snacks in the room and decided to head up to Wachapreague to go to The Island House for dinner. My parents and my brother had been there a few years ago and just raved about it, so it was on my list for our trip! Wachapreague is a charming little fishing town about 40 minutes north of Cape Charles that's home to only about 250 residents.
They serve sweet potato biscuits as an appetizer, they were so yummy!
I ordered a crab cake with roasted potatoes and green beans and it was all wonderful - I've never ordered crab cakes at a restaurant before but knew I had to try local crab while on the Eastern Shore! My mom got the baked flounder which was also local and I liked that even more than the crab cake - I'll know for next time. 😉
In a crazy small-world moment, we learned that our server was from the Wachapreague area but was in school at JMU, which is the university that my parents and Kenny and I all went to! It was so cool to make that connection with her.
After dinner we walked around the dock outside the restaurant to take in the scenery - the view was absolutely unreal, we never wanted to leave!
FRIDAY
On Friday morning we grabbed breakfast at our hotel - yogurt with granola and berries. I never make that at home but I need to start, it always hits the spot!
We borrowed bikes from the hotel to explore the town! My mom was proud of how she rigged this cooler bag up to her bike to hold our phones and water bottles, it worked like a charm. 😂
We visited the Neptune statue which is a replica of the one in Virginia Beach if you're familiar with that one! I was cracking up at us in our helmets. 😂 Safety first, nerds!!
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| Table and Tonic |
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| Bev Hats from North Street Market |
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| Lemon Tree Gallery |
After our legs got tired of biking, we returned the bikes and shopped down Mason Ave. which is the Main Street of Cape Charles and where the majority of their shops and restaurants are. Our favorite shops we visited are listed below!
- K-Coast: Really cool surf shop with fun tee shirts and clothes - my mom and I got "friendship bracelets" there and I got a cool shirt.
- Table and Tonic: This is right next to Hotel Cape Charles, it's the CUTEST shop with a lot of great decor and kitchen-y pieces, as well as tons of great gifts. They also have a deli in the back with tons of grab-and-go bites made in-house. I sampled some crab and lobster Bloody Mary mix and I regret not getting some!
- Chuckletown Productions: This is a really cool gift shop that is also next to Hotel Cape Charles. They had a lot of cool shirts, pretty jewelry, and nice decor pieces.
- Chessie's Toys & Games: This is a super cool toy store - even their window decor was amazing! My mom and I had a great time in there and we didn't even have any kids to shop for. 😂
- Love Letters: This is a really beautiful boutique with unique pieces, my mom and I both saw things we loved there.
- Buoy 56: This was another lovely boutique with classic men's and women's pieces.
- Coastal Charm: Another cute southern women's boutique!
- Moonrise Jewelry: They had a gorgeous baroque pearl cocktail ring I'm still thinking about! Many of their pieces are crafted from fish leather which is made from byproducts of the seafood industry. It's not my taste, but it's very unique and seems to be popular!
- The Boardwalk: This is a gift shop that also has tons of pretty coastal home decor and hosting pieces.
- Destination 23310: Another great gift shop - they had really nice beach sifters that my mom and I wish we got for shelling!
- Bailey's Bait & Tackle: My brother is a big hobbyist fisherman loved this place when he and my parents were in town a couple of years ago. They have plenty of tackle and apparel!
- Voiajer: This is a beautiful fair trade store with lots of great gifts - my mom got a cool crab Christmas ornament!
- At Altitude Gallery: This gallery is full of stunning aerial photography by Gordon Campbell. His work features Virginia primarily, but he has pieces from up and down the East Coast. his photos are gorgeous and they are printed onto sturdy aluminum, which is something I had never seen.
- North Street Market: This cute gourmet market is attached to At Altitude Gallery. They had good prices on some of my favorite wines, and I also discovered Bev Hats there, which are a need for outdoor entertaining in the summertime!
- Lemon Tree Gallery: This gallery had such a beautiful variety of pieces. They had some gorgeous glass oyster pieces that I'm still thinking about!
- Gull Hummock Market: This is the one spot on my list that we didn't get the chance to visit but we meant to! It's a gourmet market that sells lots of wine and other provisions, and they do wine tastings on Thursday and Friday afternoons!
After shopping around all morning, we headed back to the courtyard for wine and snacks. We had a much more successful time outside this time since the rain had moved out!
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| Similar dress |
At the beginning of the day we weren't sure what the weather was going to do, but by the afternoon it had become absolutely beautiful! We decided head down to the beach to hang out for a few hours before dinner.
I didn't expect to find good shells in the bay, but there were a bunch of cute ones! I even found some "sea glass," although it wasn't very worn yet.
One of the most exciting things at the bay is that there of tons of little hermit crabs, especially during low tide! 😍 I saw this tiny guy and then ended up seeing about a million more. They make their homes in old shells and size up as they grow! More on that tomorrow...
After the beach, we went back to the hotel and got cleaned up for dinner. We decided to try Deadrise which is an Italian spot known for their pizza, but I had my eye on their homemade pasta! There was a bit of a wait, so my mom and I walked back to the hotel to have a glass of wine on the rooftop terrace while we waited. We loved how walkable everything was!
This local shell stand was next to the restaurant, so cute!
We sat outside which I definitely recommend - the inside of the restaurant is very hectic and loud and we were in the mood for a relaxing dinner. My mom got some cava and I got the Deadrise gimlet with Hendrick's, rosemary simple syrup, grapefruit juice, and lime juice.
We split the insalata mista it had arugula, romaine, tomato, red onion, black olives, roasted red peppers, feta, avocado, and a yummy red wine vinaigrette.
Readers of Shenandoah Sugar... I have never been more serious about something as I am about this... this squid ink tagliatelle with crab in herb broth was HANDS DOWN the best thing I have ever eaten in my entire life. I will be dreaming about it forever. Everything else I ate on this trip could never compare, no matter how good it was! My mom tried a piece of the crab before I had taken first bite and she just looked at me like 😳 "...Oh my gosh..." It was seriously unbelievably good. Wow wow wow. It's worth a trip to Cape Charles just to taste this pasta!
I didn't even get a chance to try my mom's pizza - she got the "Push Boat" with mushrooms, roasted red peppers, black olives, arugula, and aged balsamic (but who could care when I'm eating the best pasta of my entire life?!)
SATURDAY
On Saturday we started the day with breakfast at our hotel, then headed straight to the beach!
We had the best time relaxing and people watching - a kind lady walking by offered to take this photo of us!
One of the cool parts about the bay beach is that it's SUPER shallow - you can walk out very far out before the water even reaches your hips! It makes it a great spot to bring kids because there aren't any dangerous waves.
Back to the hermit crabs... my mom and I found both of these shells near each other in the water, and you can't tell in the photo but they both had hermit crabs in them! A few minutes later, my mom found another great big shell and we inspected it super carefully to make sure there wasn't a crab inside. We proceeded to go on a walk and eventually after about 30 minutes a crab DID end up emerging and tapping her on the finger, so we set him free. 😂
Speaking of sea life, we also saw a stingray swimming by when we were getting out of the water for the last time! We originally assumed it was a skate because I thought those were most common, but upon further research it was actually a cownose ray! I'm glad I thought it was a skate at the time because it was BIG and it was right there!! I'm always afraid to encounter a ray in the ocean, I thought I was safe in the bay!
After the beach, we headed back to get ready for dinner at The Shanty! The Shanty seems to be the most popular spot in Cape Charles, we heard multiple strangers talking about it in passing and you'll find it at the top of the list of any Cape Charles travel guide. We saved it for our last night as our finale dinner! It sits on a beautiful little marina, so we walked around to sight-see while we waited for a table to open up.
Mom and I got "friendship bracelets" at K-Coast the day before and enjoyed wearing them the rest of the trip - I'm wearing mine right now!
My mom put her wine selection in my hands during this trip and I was honored to have the responsibility. 😂 I'm no sommelier, but I knew she'd enjoy a glass of Sauvignon Blanc while we sat out on the deck at sunset. I got an orange crush which isn't my favorite cocktail, but when on the Delmarva!
For dinner I wanted a tuna steak but ordered the tuna "burger" because fries sounded good and they both came with the same Asian-inspired accompaniments - wakame, cucumber, ginger, and a sweet soy glaze. I ate it with a fork because it was very thick as a sandwich! It was good, but it probably would've been even better had I not had the best pasta of my entire life the night before to compare it to. 😂
My mom ordered the "angry clams" (which I'm fairly sure were local!) which come in a garlic, butter, and red pepper broth and these changed her life in the same way that my squid ink pasta from the night before changed mine. 😍 We seriously have not stopped talking about those two dishes - I am dying to take my mom out for clams again because she loved them so much! We also want to try making them ourselves, they're so simple but so delicious!
This was the view of the sunset right from our table!
Not a great photo, but as we were leaving dinner we saw an osprey fly overhead carrying a fish. It brought it straight to its nest to feed its baby, it was so cool to see!
We made our way to the beach for sunset and it was absolutely stunning. For my fellow East Coasters, the sunset over the Chesapeake Bay is such a unique experience because we're used to watching the sun set over the land, so seeing it over the water was such a treat!
While we were at the beach we could hear live music coming from the park, so we headed that way after the sun set. I could tell my mom was on the fence about going because she wanted to get back to the hotel, but we had the BEST time and she told me she was so glad we went! A cover band from Richmond called The Jangling Reinharts was playing and they were SO good! They played a variety of music and they were great on their instruments. There were tons of people there and it was such a fun summer vibe. We ended up at the front of the stage dancing by the end of the set!
When we finally headed back to the hotel, we sat up on the terrace one last time. There was not much to see after dark - the whole town is pretty much shut down by sunset in the summertime!
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| Similar sweater | Striped shirt | Shorts | Sandals (also here) | Similar bag | Headband |
SUNDAY
On Sunday it was time for us to head home, so we grabbed one last breakfast at our hotel and packed up. We walked around Mason Ave. one last time and then drove around Oyster Point which is a beautiful area with a private neighborhood.
For one last stop, we had lunch at Coastal Baking Co. - we had gotten rave recommendations for The Oyster Farm and Northampton Hotel, but just wanted something quick. They had TONS of amazing looking baked goods, including Smith Island cake which is one of our favorites! I didn't get any, but I did take a black and white cookie home for Kenny which was delicious. For lunch we both ordered the caprese baguette sandwich which was not a good choice - they were basically impossible to eat and the tomatoes were not ripe, so I would stick with baked goods next time. 😂
After our lunch we headed home, reminiscing the whole way back! We seriously had the BEST trip and I'm so glad we went, my mom and I are both major planners so the fact that we pulled off a spur-of-the moment trip with less than a week's notice is almost unbelievable. 😂 It is something we will never forget!!
xoxx, Laura
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