This week the kids are off at a sleep away camp in Eastern Shore, VA. That meant a 2.5 hour drive to drop them off on Sunday afternoon. Last year that was a 5 hour round trip that pretty much ate the whole day. So this year my wife and I decided to live and work in Cape Charles for the week as a get away.
Day 1
Our day started with a drive across the CBBT to Cape Charles for lunch at the Oyster Farm Seafood Eatery. A restaurant with a beautiful view of the bay that sits just outside the town proper. The kids got to run around the shore before and after lunch, while the parents enjoyed mimosas. Drop off at camp after was an efficent affair. Our kids were either too cool (the old one) or too nervous (the young one) to make much of a deal of it. Pictures were taken, goodbyes were said, and we were off.
Cape Charles Brewing Company was next for one more drink with the parents before they headed home and we went to our rental. Our house for the week is seated only a block from shops and restaurants and a 1/2 mile walk from the beach. The area we are in is full of historic homes that have been renovated with very modern interiors. We decided on AJ's Bar & Grill for dinner and were seated at the balcony bar, kind of a cool spot. Dinner was a thumbs up, but after a tequila old fashioned I decided to get adventurous and ordered the Mr. Mayor, a pickle juice dirty martini. Not a great choice, but a walk to the beach and scope from Brown Dog Ice Cream made up for it.
Day 2
Monday and our first day of work + play. We woke up to rain storms, so our plan to walk for breakfast and a coffee were a wash. We made breakfast at our rental with some food we brought with us. The church bells on the hour one street over are gentle reminder of how quaint this little town is. We walked to Rayfield’s Pharmacy and had BLTs at the lunch counter. The charming little fountain and grill space was an easy and tasty bite. Later I wrapped work a few minutes early and ran a lap around the entire town, just 2 miles at the perimeter.
Dinner was at Deadrise Italian Kitchen, another short walk from our house. They serve a good variety of cocktails, pizza, and pasta. The winner of the bunch was the White Sail, a pizza with EVOO, garlic, oregano, mozzarella, feta, red onion, prosciutto & basil. Afterwards we took a pleasant and semi-tipsy walk over to Central Park. A relatively big green space considering how small the town is. When we got back I finished the last episode of Taskmaster series 15.
A brief and incomplete history of Cape Charles
Part of our trip here so far has been wondering about the origin of this town on the Chesapeake. It has a small town USA feel and flirts a bit with being an episode of the Twilight Zone, “The town stuck in time!”. So I looked it up. It was started as a planned community by the NYP&N rail company in 1884. Primarily as a way to get rail freight to the ocean at the end of peninsula. They built a harbor and the town at the same time. The rails stopped running in 2018, but the town had long converted a tourist destination before that. Cape Charles is still largely setup now as it was then, a grid of 7 avenues and 8 streets.
Day 3
Our first trip out of the house on Tuesday was a walk down to Cravings for lunch. Located in the back of Table and Tonic. They have grab and go sandwiches, sides, and desserts. We partook of all of it, brought it back to eat on our front porch, and agreed it was the best meal we’d had here yet. After work we decided to walk Mason Ave. with the express intent of going shopping. Turns out Tuesday is the slowest day in town. Half the stores were closed or just closing and there were very little people out.
The Shanty was a different story. Getting there meant using our car for the first time in two days, but it was worth the mile drive to the harbor. We had a 30 minute wait to be seated, but got drinks from the bar and played a round of cornhole on the deck. Our view of the sunset and our meal were a great pairing. The evening entertainment was Extraction 2, a action film straight out of John Wick mold. Here is a character with just enough emotional backstory to warrant him murdering what a ends up being lot of people. But it looked cool.