We spent a picture-perfect November weekend last week at the Oyster Festival in Urbanna. The cottage we have rented on Urbanna Creek for the last 15 or so years was no longer available, but we booked a cottage on Jackson Creek in Deltaville and made the 20-mile drive to and from. The views of the sunrise on the creek with the sailboats bobbing in the water, by the way, were beyond picturesque
The Urbanna affair is one of the great festivals in Virginia. There are tons of vendors with interesting wares, while foodies enjoy oysters prepared in every possible way – plus crab bisque, smoked beef briskets, Kosher hot dogs, homemade lemonade, homemade breads and cakes, country ham, and oyster biscuits, smoked turkey legs and much more.
We parked in the field outside of town for the first time, then rode wagons across the bridge and into Urbanna– then the shopping began.
My wife, Nancy, is one of the world’s great “shoppersâ€.
We stopped by one booth, and she saw something she liked for one of our children and she bought it. “I thought you were through buying Christmas presents,†I remarked.
“Oh, not this Christmas, next Christmas,†she said. Now that’s a serious shopper for you.
I suppose there were 30,000 people crammed into the small waterfront hamlet on Saturday, but no one got drunk, no one made a scene, and everyone was friendly. It was impossible not to strike up conversations with total strangers. Folks were there to have a good time, enjoy the beautiful weather, watch a small-town parade, and do some serious eating. The Urbanna Oyster Festival, if you ever get a chance to go, do it.