Northern Neck II (12/27/2015)

I want to end 2015 with a post that is somewhat of a throwback to the original intent of this blog.  My initial idea behind this blog was to share some of the pictures, sites, and experiences that I have during my travels as instructor in the state of Virginia.  I get to a few far flung places and if I can help it, I do try to get off the darn interstate highways where everyone tries to drive in the left lane whether they belong there or not.

I realize that I have gotten off on tangents so now and then, on soap boxes and talked about global warming, training, course development, environmental issues, ecology, stormwater, and even sailing.  I should pare down my labels (or subject list), but I guess that's must be my way of showing off.  I have made an effort of hiding all the key words (labels) that I've only used once.

Oh well, back the the subject of today's blog: The Northern Neck!  (Yes, I wrote about it before in this blog post).  The Northern Neck is the northern most peninsula that jots out of the mainland of Virginia.  Going from south to north we have: "the Peninsula, where we live; the Middle Peninsula; and the Northern Neck.  The Northern Neck has the Potomac River to the north, the Rappahannock River to the south and the Chesapeake Bay to the east.

View of the Rappahannock River from Belle Isle State Park.

The Northern Neck is a nice place to visit.  It is an hour drive from us on the Peninsula, it is an hour from Richmond, even closer to Fredericksburg and probably an hour to an hour and a half from the greater DC area.  It has one of the oldest wineries in Virginia (Ingleside Vineyards) and what I consider one of the best (The Hague Winery, at least three years ago I thought it was one of the best).  I reviewed some of the Northern Neck Wineries in this blog post and in a later post (here).  It is somewhat out of date.  New wineries pop up and I have to visit some of them and revisit some of the old ones; but there are so many in Virginia.  

During our visit this past Sunday we saw a sign for the "Good Luck Vineyards", we have not visited it yet, so no review, but we need to go.  The name takes me back to the time we spent in Nepal (I worked there in 1981, 82 and 83), and we often stayed in the Good Luck Hotel, so if only for some weird sentimental reason, we should visit this vineyard.  If the wineries read this post, they desperately need to invite me to come back to review their wines (hint, hint)!  But there is so much more to see.  I have not yet visited Reedville, the place made famous by the menhaden, fish oil and the ferry to Tangier Island.

This time it was State Park time.  The Northern Neck is host to two State Parks: Westmoreland State Park and Belle Isle State Park.  Westmoreland is located on the Potomac and we have stayed in cabins at that park a few years ago.  It's a great place.  So this time we decided to go hiking at Belle Isle State Park.

Hiking along the shoreline of the park looking over the Rappahannock

Belle Isle is on the Rappahannock River.  It is relatively new and it is very nice.  All the photos in this post were taken at the park.  It is worth a day visit.  The park also has two cabins that can be rented for overnight stays and a camp ground.  I am wondering about sailing there and anchoring out while the rest of the family goes out there and camps or stays in one of the cabins.  That would be a riot.  However, as you can see from the photos above there is no nice secluded inlet to anchor (my boat draws 4 ft) and you are very exposed there in the middle of the Rappahannock.  Yes there is a boat launch, but from what I can see on the charts, the water is only 2 to 3 feet deep and that's not enough for me and my boat.  Oh well, so be it, we'll just have to bring the kayaks.  There are a lot of kayak opportunities at the park and even canoes for rent.

This Sunday we spent an afternoon hiking some of the trails with the dogs, and just exploring.  Belle Isle is relatively new in the state park system and yet has to mature.  Never the less it is a nice place to hang out.  A great place to walk (it is flat), to kayak/canoe, it has a boat launch, it has a pick-nick area and even a sandy beach.  Note that the water is salty.  Hopefully the captions on the photos explain things a bit more.  Go visit and enjoy.

A creek that you cross going from the mainland on to the island

Another creek crossing going on to the island

A view of the Rappahannock from the Island

There is a pick-nick area in the park with access to a sandy beach.  Our dogs just loved playing in the surf.  It was a rough warm-ish day (77 but the wind over the cold water made it feel colder right on the shore).  Note that the water is salty.  In our area, the Rappahannock is famous for its oysters.

Virginia Wines (5/23/2014)

As some of the readers of this blog know by now, I am a lover of wine, and have written about it in this blog at times.  Being a lover of wine and having visited numerous wineries in Virginia, I can only say that they have come a long way.

I think the first Virginia wine I tasted was some Governor’s White from the Williamsburg Winery in 2000, and found it mediocre.  I toured the winery in 2012 and noted a great improvement in quality of some of their wines.  I remember taking my daughter on a college tour in 2006 (or was it 2007?), and since I had a designated driver, we stopped at as many as we could cramp in.  My impression at that time was that Virginia was getting better with their white wines, but that reds were poor.  There was one noted exception, which were the reds from Fincastle that I really liked.

Fast forward to the more recent years, and Virginia now makes some dynamite reds.  It is really fun to be able to see this progression.  In the following few blogs I will try to give you a list of the wineries that I have visited over the past years.  I will be dividing it into a three arbitrary regions (lowlands, Piedmont and mountains) and publish it in three postings.  This is different than the Virginia Wine website, but so be it.  I’ll rate them from 1 to 5 (with 5 being the highest/best ... and sorry, but I could not get these numbers to line up); however, note the year of my visit, that should give you a good idea if my rating is still current or not.  For example, I will rate Fincastle very high for my 2006 visit.  I tried to revisit them in 2012, and waited for 10 minutes in their tasting room and there was no one to serve me, even after I called out.  I left the place without tasting and/or buying more wine; it was very disappointing, to say the least.

Well here is my list of the low country wineries that I visited:
 

Winery

Bloxom Winery                    Eastern shore       2010     3 stars       Great location, great lunch (artesian pizzas), wines are fun, enjoyed the Red Kiss (none-dated blend).

Chatham Vineyards              Eastern shore       2010     4 stars       Great romantic location, nice wines, bring lunch or a snack and sit outside with a bottle of wine.

Williamsburg Winery           Tidewater            2012     2 stars       Expensive, commercial, nice whites, average reds.

New Kent Winery                 Richmond            2013    2 stars       Young winery which shows in its wines.

Dog and Oyster Vineyards   Northern Neck     2007    2 stars        May have had a different name (White Fences) when I visited. Enjoyed their Rose. Was in its infancy.

The Hague Winery               Northern Neck     2006    5 stars

                                                                           2010    5 stars       This is a winery I really enjoy visiting because of its quality wine and unpretentious.

Ingleside Vineyards         Northern Neck          2010    5 stars       Very mature winery with great wines. It is a little commercial.

The photo below is one from the archives.  I took it when we visited the The Hague Winery in 2010.  The line up of female behinds was just too much to ignore.