When we moved away from the DC area in 2013, one of the hardest things (I mean, after quitting a job I loved, selling a house I loved, and leaving friends I loved) was knowing that there were so many places that we hadn’t discovered yet, and things that we had left on our to-do list.  So it’s an added joy to be back with a second chance to do those things now – one of which was visit Little Washington, which we finally did over Columbus Day weekend.

Washington, VA, or “Little Washington” as it’s known around the Beltway, is a tiny town (and I mean tiny – you can walk from one end to the other in less than ten minutes) nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains, near the entrance to Shenandoah National Park.  The town is named after – who else? – George Washington, because he surveyed it as a young man.

We stayed at a B&B that was about two minutes outside of town, surrounded by farmland.  The grounds were beautiful and the kids loved spotting the animals and running around on the wide lawns.

They even had activities for Steve!

HA HA.  The hosts prepared a baggie of carrots for the kids to feed to the farm’s gaggle of miniature donkeys.  Of course, my kids wanted nothing to do with the donkeys.  Nugget clung to me while Peanut cowered on the other side of the road, sobbing “Monster, Daddy!  Monster!”  Oh, golly.

Can you even handle how suspicious he is?

Little Washington is home to the Inn at Little Washington, which boasts one of the most sought-after (Michelin starred!) dining rooms in the world.  I’ve heard it’s over $1,000/night to stay there, and about $250/head for dinner alone.  Needless to say, we and our wild children didn’t get any closer than this – across the street.

Instead, we ate several meals at a quiet, friendly place called Tula’s Off Main – the lunches were good, but brunch was a particular hit.  The staff couldn’t have been sweeter, and Nugget made several new friends.  I left with a job offer, because the manager was impressed at how I never stopped moving as I chased after Nugget.  (As I think I’ve mentioned before, he’s an absolute menace in restaurants.)

Saturday was a bit gloomy, so we spent the afternoon wine-tasting.  While Little Washington and the Blue Ridge are beautiful, there’s not much to do inside when the weather is wet.  After it became clear that searching for family-friendly indoor activities was going to be an exercise in frustration, we just decided to hit the wine trail.

We checked out Little Washington Winery, Gadino Cellars, and Rappahannock Cellars.

All three were lovely, but I think Rappahannock was my favorite.  And not just for the kids’ corner, which was stocked with toys and the Little Blue Truck books…

The wines were wonderful!  I’m still partial to Loudoun County for what I consider to be the best Virginia wines.  But the Rappahannock wine trail certainly didn’t disappoint.

We left with a bottle from each winery.  What a delight to build up our wine cellar with Virginia wines again!  Now I can’t wait to get back out to Loudoun County and compare.

We spent Sunday morning at Shenandoah National Park – a post about that is coming next Friday, because a national park visit definitely deserves its own day.  Luckily, we had much better weather on Sunday than on Saturday, so after naps we headed back into Little Washington to check out the town in actual sunlight.

Now that’s what I’m talking about!

We found a place called “Wine Loves Chocolate,” so more tasting happened, of course.

Wine Loves Chocolate was a shop affiliated with Little Washington Winery, and we tried a basic flight of four wines paired with four chocolates.  I can’t remember the pairings now, but I remember the tasting being a blast, and we left with a box of truffles, so basically, a win.

We ended Saturday watching Peanut eat three scoops of strawberry gelato and then run in circles around our room at the B&B until she collapsed in a heap.  Good times.

Until next time, Little Washington!  We’ve heard there’s a big Christmas celebration and parade in early December, so I think we’re going to try to hit that in a day trip.  One thing’s for sure – I can see us returning again and again, because we absolutely loved it.

What’s your favorite weekend getaway?

All good things must come to an end, and tragically, our Virginia Beach vacation was no exception.  We were so grateful to have had a week to decompress in a beautiful place, with some of the dearest people in our world.  I spent the last night of our vacation really living the excellent advice: “Don’t be sad because it’s over.  Smile because it happened.”

We were determined that our last night in Virginia Beach (for now – we will be back!) would be our best night.  First item on the agenda: another spin on Uncle Eric’s Water Truck.

Peanut was prepared with this beachin’ coozie.  Nugget was rocking a new life vest that Rebecca and I bought for him on one of our naptime Target runs.  (The puddle jumper works great, but we thought he’d be a bit more comfortable in something with a slimmer profile – and he was.)

The kids loved being out on the water!  I have to get them out on the Potomac soon.

There’s my handsome husband!  Vacations with him are always fun.

Nugget got the extreme joy of another turn behind the wheel.  We have a little sea captain on our hands!

Meanwhile, Peanut kept a sharp lookout for mermaids.  She said she saw a few.

Our destination was… well, I have no idea where this beach was, but it was beautiful.  Beautiful, and home to several jellyfish (the stinging kind!).  Which is why I look so excessively nervous, which you hopefully can’t tell from this picture because Steve kindly kept the camera zoomed out.

Away from the jellyfish, and speeding off toward our next destination (looks like someone didn’t want to stop swimming!).  We checked out the houses along the route home and had fun opening it up and really getting a good wake going for awhile – had to, because we didn’t want to miss out on Part II of the evening…

Expecting a particularly perfect sunset, we all trooped over to First Landing State Park to watch the show.  We made it just in time…

The sun was already going down when we got to the beach, and soon we saw…

THIS.  It was. an absolute. stunner.

The whole family trooped into the calm, peaceful water to enjoy a sunset swim.

Part of youuuuuuuuuur woooooooooorrrrrrrrrrrrrllllllllllllld…

It was a gorgeous night, and felt like a very fitting goodbye to a vacation that was exactly what we needed, exactly when we needed it.

We stayed on the beach past the kids’ bedtimes, and all headed home in the dark for a campfire with vegan s’mores.  As we sat roasting our marshmallows, watching the neighbors drift by on the canal – on their way home, no doubt, from their own sunset viewing parties – we felt very blessed.

Goodbye for now, but not forever, Virginia Beach.  Thanks for the sand between our toes, the salty splashes on our faces, and the gift of a perfect sunset.

I’ll tell you, there’s nothing like a beach vacation when you have little ones.  It’s the easiest thing in the world to just let them run around messy, and there’s nothing my kids love more than sand and salt water.

Each day (with the exception of the one gloomy day) found our family down at Rebecca’s quiet cove, enjoying the soft sand and the perfectly kid-sized waves.  Rebecca said that the water was actually a bit rough compared to the usual, but we thought that it was great.  (When measured against the waves in the Outer Banks, Rebecca’s cove was very peaceful indeed.)

Most days, Rebecca joined us as well.  It was a treat for the whole family – friend time for me (and Steve – he’s known Rebecca for fifteen years, almost as long as I have, and they’re good friends as well) and auntie playtime for Peanut.  Peanut is recently obsessed with mermaids, so Aunt Rebecca gave her a tail of her very own.

Is that a lucky little mermaid, or what?  Rebecca’s dog, Brandy, had to be involved too – of course!

Oh, no!  This mermaid has LEGS!  NOBODY TELL KING TRITON!

Eventually our little mermaid found her way into the water, and so did her baby brother.  I joked all week that Nugget is a born fish – after all, he’s a Pisces!

Okay, I don’t really believe in that Zodiac stuff (much).  But there’s no denying that this baby LOVES the water.

(Hi, Brandy Dog!)

Seriously, I could not keep the boy on the sand.  Here he is on another of our beach mornings, sea turtling his way down to the surf.

I tried to set him up on the towel for some sand play with Peanut’s new sand toys (a perfect birthday gift from Aunt Rebecca, and sure to be enjoyed in our local sandboxes now that we’re home from the beach).  Side note: how grown up does he look in this picture?  I can’t get over it – he looks like he’s fifteen years old!  Well, maybe not quite that old.

Okay, definitely not fifteen years old.

As expected, the sand toys were only fun for about thirty seconds, before someone needed to be in the water again!

As exhausting as it was, it was also really fun for Mom and Aunt Rebecca.  The kids kept us on our toes all week, but they also made the whole experience feel fresh and new and so much fun.

Ahhhhhhhhh.

Next week: one last evening, and a spectacular sunset.

For many months leading into our move and our trip to Virginia Beach, Nugget was the world’s worst napper.  I got into the habit of loading him into the car seat and driving him around, both to get him out of our very small condo so that Peanut could nap, and also on the off chance I’d get a car snooze out of him as well.  It wasn’t the best routine, but it was working for us, so I continued it on vacation.  Most days, we went to Target (Nugget can continue snoozing in his car seat in the basket of the shopping cart, and he has slept through many a Tar-jay run) but a couple of times, we just tooled around and checked out the sights.  On one such drive, I discovered Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge about 45 minutes from Rebecca’s house.  Nugget was sound asleep, so I couldn’t justify waking him up, but I made a mental note to try to get back there for a hike if at all possible.  And on the final day of our vacation, we made it happen.

I drove down to the Sandbridge area, paid my way into the wildlife refuge, parked and waited for Nugget to wake up.  I gave myself a window of time to wait, and promised that I would give up the idea if he didn’t wake by 3:15, because at that point we’d really need to be heading back to the house.  As luck would have it, he woke up about twenty minutes after I parked the car, so I strapped him into Steve’s backpack and set off for an adventure with just my little guy.

Who’s ready to do some hiking?

I chose the “beach trail,” because that name sounded promising, and sure enough, I soon found myself kicking off my sandals, stepping off the boardwalk and into the soft white sand, with the waves rolling in just a few yards away.

We walked right up to the water and waded on in up to my ankles.  Nugget, Pisces that he is, desperately wanted to swim – but not only was he not in swimming clothes, but wildlife refuge rules prohibit swimming.  (I thought sloshing along with just my feet in the surf was probably okay, though.)  A couple of other ladies were wading nearby, and they seemed very interested in Nugget, but we weren’t in the mood to stop and talk, so I gave them a friendly wave and continued on down the beach.

We saw tons of ocean birds – gulls, sandpipers, and lots more varieties that I didn’t recognize – and once again I wished that I knew something about birds and birding.  It’s on the to-do list!

Having this view ahead of me for about three quarters of a mile was pure bliss.  I love beach walking, and this was the best beach walk I’ve ever taken – completely deserted, just me, the birds, and my backpack full of baby.  It was peaceful and serene and everything I had been craving.

I think Nugget liked the hike, too.

I had planned to turn around whenever I felt ready, but as luck would have it, right at the moment I was thinking of heading back I saw a sign for the Dune Trail, which I knew also spit out in the parking lot where I’d left my car.  So Nugget and I checked out the views of the sand dunes on our way back.

They were amazing!  I love sand dunes and could walk through them (on a boardwalk, of course) all day long.

Eventually we made it out of the sand and found ourselves hiking a short distance along this pretty meadow, until we made it back to the car.

By the time we got back to the parking lot, there were some pretty threatening looking clouds gathering in the distance.  But I considered carefully and judged that we had enough time to check out the wetlands habitat that was also protected at Back Bay, so we walked quickly across the parking lot to the other gorgeous body of water.

What a fabulous view!  I was so glad that I had noticed Back Bay on the map and had made time to get down there.  An almost-solo (just me and the mini man) adventure was exactly what I needed to recharge after a stressful move and a week of socializing (which, fun as it is, does take it out of me).

Goodbye, Back Bay!  You were stunning and perfect, and I’m sure we will be back.  The next time I visit VAB (soon!) I’ll be bringing the whole family with me.

Have you ever been to a national wildlife refuge?  Back Bay is my second!  Next week, we’re back at our own little beachfront paradise!

There are lots of fun destinations and I hope we get to visit them all someday, but there’s nothing like a beautiful place that just happens to contain some of your favorite people in the world, and that’s what Virginia Beach is.  It’s a gorgeous spot, but it’s ten times more beautiful, for our family, because Rebecca is there.

Rebecca and her boyfriend Eric generously opened their home to us for a week, and it was absolute bliss to spend so much time with them.  Rebecca insisted on throwing Peanut a pizza party for her fourth birthday.  Normally we would cook together – one of our favorite things to do – but I had my hands full with a certain young gentleman this time.  But we were in great culinary hands – Rebecca is actually the person who taught me to cook!

Rebecca wasn’t the only one in the house who was bent on showing us a good time!  While the girls hung out in the kitchen, the boys were fishing!  Eric showed Steve and Nugget how he uses a trap to fish for bait to use on deep water fishing expeditions.

The boys were pretty impressed.  Nugget really liked the boat – which is now called “Uncle Eric’s Water Truck.”

While at the beach, we had other friends to see as well!  We managed two play dates with Elissa, sister of my favorite person in Buffalo, and her sweet little guy.  I’d met Elissa once, many months ago when she and her husband and son visited Zan and Paul in Buffalo (we all got together for a farmers’ market expedition) and was excited to see her again and see how much her little man had grown.

We met up at the beach, where Nugget raided Hudson’s stash of snacks.  Oops.

He did feed some of Hudson’s snacks… to Hudson… so yeah, that happened.

And then we attempted to take a picture, and Nugget had a massive meltdown.  Don’t you love the look on Huddy’s face?  He’s saying “What’s this kid’s problem?”  Heh.

So much fun!  Zan – you have the cutest nephew!  Elissa and I had a lovely time beaching it with our little boys (Peanut was a bit under the weather that morning and was having a quiet, sand-free day at the house) and clearly Elissa wasn’t too put off by Nugget’s tantrum at the end, because she invited us over to her gorgeous home for a play date a few days later.  No pics from that morning, but we had a fabulous time.  The only sad part was missing Zan.  The fun didn’t feel complete without her, and Elissa and I kept exclaiming that we wished she was there.

Vacations are great no matter where you go, but when you can combine them with the chance to spend a week with some of your very favorite people on the planet… well, that’s the highlight of the year right there, my friends.

Next week, a hike in a beautiful wildlife refuge – check back!

Do you vacation with friends?

Most of our time on vacation this year was spent relaxing on Rebecca’s local beach, which was just fine with us.  But we did get out and do a little bit of exploring around the area, too – because why not?

First stop was the boardwalk on the main beach.  It was a lot more crowded and touristy than Rebecca’s peaceful cove.  We were glad we saw it, and equally glad to be doing our splashing elsewhere.

Tuesday was a bit more gloomy, weather-wise, which meant it was a perfect day to visit the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center!  Peanut, as long-time readers know, is a pinniped enthusiast, and going to the aquarium is one of her favorite things to do.  We were happy to add the Virginia Aquarium to her list of aquariums visited (growing now – she’s also been to the Aquarium of Niagara and to the Denver Aquarium!).

They had one of those cool tunnels that you can walk through and see the fish swimming all around you – my favorite!  The Denver Aquarium had one of these, too.

Someone was feeling a bit clingy…

But she perked up eventually and enjoyed the cool exhibits, like a tidal pool…

And an actual, legit wetlands habitat!  We strolled over the boardwalk and checked out the “Sebastians” in the water below.

We also found a treehouse blind and, naturally, climbed up to have a better look.

Nugget and Daddy were waiting for us when we got back down, and we continued on through the adventure park (they had ziplining and I soooooooo wanted to try it! one of these days…) on to the second building in the aquarium center, where we met some furry friends…

Otters!  They’re so adorable.  Steve compared them to rats and ruined them forever for me.  Thanks a lot.

A few days later, on a clearer day, we headed over to the Cape Henry Light to do a little sightseeing.  It was actually our third attempt at seeing the lighthouses at Cape Henry.  The lighthouses are on a military base, so security is tight.  The first day, we were turned around because we’d left our proof of car insurance at home.  The second time, we were turned around because we came fifteen minutes before closing, which is evidently too late.  The third time was the charm and we made it to the lighthouses.

So gorgeous!  I love lighthouses and was delighted to have two more to add to my personal collection of visits.

Peanut was also happy to see the lighthouses…

Maybe a little too happy?  Never too happy, you guys.

She performed a song and dance routine dedicated to the lighthouses.

And there was general prettiness.

Some windy seashore cuddles.

And lots of time spent doing this.  We could have looked out at that gorgeous blue water forever.

Next week, we’re spending more days on the beach and soaking up time with friends we don’t see often enough.  Check back!