About 15 years ago, I went to my first Virginia Oyster Festival in Urbanna. I have been going since. The Oyster Festival is one of the best two-day parties in Virginia and the 56th festival is now in the books. Always held on the first full weekend in November the festival was created as a fundraiser for the local fire department, and it still is. Plus, it has put the sleepy little village of … [Read more...]

Walleye in Central Virginia? That’s right, and your best chance for catching one of these delicious fish is at Lake Orange. Lake Orange is owned and managed by the Department of Game & Inland Fisheries. For years, the Department has worked hard to establish a walleye population throughout Virginia. In many lakes they have failed, but apparently Lake Orange is clicking on all four walleye … [Read more...]

Cowboys used to ride off into the sunset. I don’t know where they were heading, west I suppose. That’s where the sun sets on most afternoons. I know of a place where the sunset is to the east. East, as on the Eastern Shore. It’s Sunset Beach Inn near Cape Charles on the Virginia’s Pristine Eastern Shore. It has become a favored mini-vacation destination for Nancy and me. If we’ve got a couple, … [Read more...]

  The corn is as high as an elephant’s eye, And it looks like it’s climbing clear up to the sky…   And that would be at Liberty Mills Farm in Somerset, the site of Virginia’s premiere corn maize. Liberty Farms is always a fun, fall road trip, especially if you have a child or two to take along. They offer not only a challenging maize to navigate, they have hay rides and pumpkin … [Read more...]

Virginians have basically two choices when it comes to a beach vacation – Virginia Beach or the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Virginia Beach is a hotel-kind-of-place, more commercial and more expensive as a rule. The Outer Banks is a beach cottage-kind-of-place; more laid back, a little warmer weather, prettier beaches and better fishing. For me, it’s a no-brainer. It’s the Outer Banks, more … [Read more...]

Say you have a bunch of bored kids in the house and you’d like to offer some healthy and inspiring entertainment. Then, load ‘em in the car and head for Madison, Virginia. There, you will find a slew of birds and animals and you can feed them by hand. Yoder’s has billy goats, peacocks, chickens, pigs, ponies, rabbits, ring-neck pheasants and many others. And these critters love nothing better than … [Read more...]

  People like to fish for trout where there actually are trout. Makes sense to me. That’s why fee-fishing areas are gaining in popularity. One of the crown jewels among Virginia’s Fee Fishing streams is the Clinch Mountain Fee Fishing Area on Big Tumbling Creek. The Game Department historically stocks big fish here, often trophy sized fish. The Clinch Mountain fee fishing area … [Read more...]

  I needed a couple frogs for our small lily pond. Last year’s resident, Uh-Huh The Frog, skedaddled in the fall and chose to live elsewhere. I had offered the neighborhood kids a $5 bounty if they could catch me a small frog, but no one claimed the money. Only one thing to do: Last Sunday, Nancy and I drove across the mountain to Greenville. We went to Springdale Water Gardens, one … [Read more...]