It’s the return of Tourist Tuesday! I mean sort of, as it’s Thursday. It’s been months since my last Tourist Tuesday so you can tell I’m a bit rusty. However, I decided it was time to bring this series temporarily out of retirement because Colonial Beach, Virginia is incredibly cute and charming. Last weekend my friends Ashley, Anna, Charlotte and I went to Colonial Beach for a girls weekend and I just had to write about it. This little town, with only one stop light, is less than two hours from DC and has fun things like a beach, a trolley, a vineyard, and excellent wildlife.
We rented a house called The Pointe, which is owned by Ingleside vineyards. The house is next to the river and has an amazing view. Our first morning we saw eagles flying and fish jumping. Pretty idyllic! As you can see from the photo above, there’s no driveway to the house, which we found hilarious. You can find the house after a state maintained road, after a dirt road, and after a nursery. There’s also a dock next to the house if you wanted to rent a boat. We walked out there to enjoy the sunset and beautiful view. 
Part of what drew us to Colonial Beach was actually going to the beach. It’s not the fanciest beach you’ll ever visit, but it’s clean, the water is calm, and it’s quiet and relaxing. The beach is a little pebbly but not terrible. The water, because you’re on the Potomac River and not the ocean, was so warm! It was really delightful and comfortable. We spent a quite a bit of time lounging in the water and in the shade just hanging out. I’ll also be honest (and nerdy) and say there was some pretty great Pokemon catching too.
If you visit Colonial Beach, be sure to wander around town. We rode the trolley, which costs just 50¢, and the driver provided commentary as he drove. It was informative and wonderful to listen to someone so proud of his town. He showed us restaurants, beaches, and even the road where he lived. There are also a number of cute looking restaurants, ice cream stands, and thrift shops.
While we were there they were having a car show which was fun to walk through. There were so many beautiful, shiny, impressive, old cars. The one above, from 1904 caught our eye and the owner let us get in!! Best of all, he let us honk the horn. It was a bigger rubber ball and when you squeezed it, it made a wonderful deep goose-like honk.
Our real reason for visiting Colonial Beach was to check out the vineyard. Ingleside Vineyard offers tastings for $8. It’s an incredible deal because get to keep the glass and you get 8 tastes. Although, we definitely got treated to a few more. The vineyard also has free tours of the wine making facility, a museum, and a gift shop.
After we did the tasting, we decided to take it easy. We bought a few bottles of wine, some cheese, sausage, and crackers and had lunch in the beautiful courtyard. There are a number of tables, lots of trees, cute decorations, and a gorgeous fountain. We ate, drank, and talked until the cheese was gone. It was the most pleasant afternoon.
Before leaving the vineyard we had to check out their museum. The museum is one tiny room with colonial-era wine bottles and seals, Native American artifacts, waterfowl decoys, and taxidermied animals. The museum is a bit random. I think the point is to show a collection of things having to do with the history of the area, but the objects aren’t specific to the vineyard. We each found as least one thing we liked in that quirky space. And we decided to add to the quirkiness by taking a picture of ourselves sitting on the floor in from of the decoys. So who am I to judge what’s quirky? 
The wildlife was an expected treat. On the first morning we opened the door to sit on the deck and the roar of the cicadas was amazing. We also saw eagles, osprey, herons, and even a little salamander. I really liked the huge spider in a web near the front door of our house. Charlotte actually saw it catch a fly and wrap it up in its web! It was pretty cool.
There’s also lots more to do that we didn’t get to. There’s George Washington’s birthplace. It’s free to go. We didn’t. I think because I want on a small rant that the house there was built in the style of the time but there’s not evidence his home would have looked like that. This was all based on a book I read in grad school six years ago, and actually I bet visiting there would be pretty nice. There’s also Stratford Hall, the home to the Lee family – like William Henry Lee and Robert E. Lee. Entry is $12 for adults. And there’s the Voorhees Nature Preserve, where we intended to go but then it started raining.
I highly recommend a visit to Colonial Beach! It’s less than two hours outside of DC and offers a charming, slower pace for the weekend and there’s lot of fun things to do. People were nice, the restaurants were good (try Lenny’s for breakfast), and there’s lots to do!
