Small
describes Colonial
Beach. The peninsula town covers about 4 square miles and has
a population of
about 5,000 residents; perhaps less. Some residents are full-time
while others are there part of the time.
Patrick has shared stories about the casinos for off-track betting and
the legal gaming history of the beach. In the nineteenth century
tourists boats made regular runs to the beach for fun in the sun, for
fishing, and for the gambling. It was and is still known as the
"Playground of the Potomac." Two things slowed weekend and
vacation tourism there. The automobile's popularity allowed tourists
to visit other places easily rather than having to rely
on boat departures
and arrivals. And, the legal casinos were destroyed by fire in the
1960s and were not rebuilt. Today there is only Riverboat
Off-Track Betting with a restaurant, lounge, and pier which is the
go-to place today at Colonial Beach for gambling.
The
beach is near some interesting historical attractions
including George
Washington's birthplace and Stratford Hall, my personal
favorite. Stratford
Hall is
the ancestral home of Robert E. Lee. In town there is the summer
Victorian home of Alexander Graham Bell (see Right) and his family which is now a
lovely B&B located
on the Potomac River. Actually most of the town faces water from the
Potomac or from Monroe Bay as it is a narrow peninsula. We have lovely memories of seeing all of these places with Tom and Dorothy.
By Suzyramble (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Two
authors that I know of have lived here. Sloan Wilson who is
famous for
The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit chose
Colonial Beach as his retirement town. And, my personal favorite is
Sherryl Woods who, like my husband, enjoyed summers as a kid in
Colonial Beach. Sherryl authored many
books including Return
to Rose Cottage and
the series of family friendly novels centered around the Chesapeake Bay which is now a Hallmark Channel Series entitled Chesapeake Shores.
Tom had cabinets in his basement from Sherryl's Colonial Beach
home that were perfect for his fishing supplies and which she no
longer needed due to some renovation work. I could not walk in Uncle
Tom's basement without thinking of Sherryl Woods!
Our
dog Skipper would get so excited every time we went to Colonial
Beach. First he would get a long trip in our car, which he loves.
Then he would get to have the car's back windows down and his head
poked out to catch the gentle breeze, ears flapping. We would drive 25 mph
in Colonial Beach and he would bark at squirrels and other animals.
Cute, but at times noisy. The highlight of his day was his ride
around town.
He did not enjoy it as much when we would be on Uncle
Tom's golf cart although his ears did flap in the breeze. Colonial
Beach is a golf cart town so carts are everywhere! Supposed to be a
licensed driver to be at the wheel, but I suspect a lot of the ones
we passed or followed were underage, but driving just fine. They
drove 25 mph also.
We were always looking for interesting things to do in our C-Dory boat
and the Potomac was a great place. We would launch from the Colonial
Beach Yacht Club marina at
the peninsula point, cruise the shoreline, head across the river when
Dahlgren Weapons Lab was not testing equipment over the Potomac, and
boat to the District
of Columbia. Nice. Beware though that there is a lot of floating
debris in the Potomac near DC, so be cautious.
Colonial
Beach offers events for residents and tourists although
we rarely went to any of them. They have an arts Friday program,
craft events, rockfish tournaments, fireworks, etc. There are several
antique shops. The beach does have restrictions that never existed in
the heyday of the resort town. In the past dogs and drinking and
sleeping on the beach were allowed, but today the "NO"
signs include no dogs on the public beach, no alcohol beverages, and
no fires. Oh well. Oh, the beach entrance at Colonial Beach Municipal
Pier has a brick pattern walkway composed of bricks purchased by local residents and
tourists alike. Our Cator family "owns" one of these bricks.
A
couple of local must-see, extremely casual, places are Lenny's
Restaurant which is open for breakfast and lunch only (a personal
favorite); Ola's Restaurant; and Fat Freda's (closed now I think). Lots of locals gathered to eat at these, especially Lenny's. When we wanted something a bit fancier we would stop at the waterfront Wilkinson's
Seafood Restaurant, with great entrees and coleslaw made with French
dressing which is yummy, as well as several other welcoming eateries
to choose from.
The
worst time there for our dog Skipper was when we went to
Fredericksburg which is about 45 minutes away to move our Aunt
Dorothy from assisted living to the nursing home at the beach. Our
dog thought we were at the marina. Someone visited our uncle's home,
did not close the gate, and Skipper took off for the marina. Skipper
is a disabled dog who has birth defects in his back legs. Despite
this, he was determined to find us and ran to the municipal pier and
swam from there to almost the Point of the peninsula where the marina is located.
This run and swim covered about
3 or 4 linear miles. About three miles was running the road from Tom's McKinney home to the Pier; the balance swimming from the Pier to the Point. Some people called animal rescue who fairly easily were
able to capture him when he was returning from the Potomac waters to
the road, exhausted. These wonderful people called us and my husband left the
nursing home immediately to get him. Skipper slept for days
afterwards. He was so very exhausted, but okay and very relieved to be back
with us. We cannot thank the kind people of Colonial Beach enough for
saving and finding our dog for us. Bless you all.
Eventually Dorothy passed. Tom came to live with us in FL where he ultimately passed away also. We miss them both very dearly.
