Last Friday Night
With limited time, we opted for a quick trip to Westmoreland State Park. It was awesome and exemplified why we love our van. We were able to get away quickly, nimbly, and adjust on no notice, super comfortably.
With some help from I-95's hot lanes, we set off after work on Friday and made it to Fredericksburg just in time to catch the end of sunset over dinner at Billiken's Smokehouse.
From Billiken's, Westmoreland was just under 40 miles away. We stayed in Campground B. The sites were large, 3 campervans could have easily fit in our pull-through site, and the plug-ins and facilities were brand-new. It made for an easy arrival and set up, even at 9:40 pm.
There's something pretty magical about arriving after dark under starlight, quietly settling in knowing you'll wake up to a brand new scene.
The scene in the morning was, sparse and very... campgroundy? We were the only camper van and were amongst families set up to enjoy the entire weekend in the park. In daylight, privacy was not a thing, which made for a curious pup.
Overall, we'd definitely go back, and maybe give Campground A or C a try, but the trip did make us eager to enjoy some off-grid dispersed camping soon.
We took our time waking up, enjoying coffee and a light breakfast and then set off for Fossil Beach. The trailhead was an easy walk from the campground and the trail itself was a very pleasant surprise with unexpected twists and turns all ending right on a little beach at the meeting of waters, surrounded by historic cliffs.
We, for the most part, enjoyed the beach all to ourselves, which was pretty extraordinary given the holiday weekend and the non-urgent pace we kept throughout the morning. Driftwood, ladybugs, shark teeth, cormorants, and fishing osprey decorated the estuary. I could have spent hours here. Luckily, for Jake and Sparrow, a family showed up cueing us to let them enjoy the space for themselves.
We peaked into the visitor center, enjoyed watching some, or maybe just one wily, Bald Eagle, and had a snack back at camp before throwing our camp chairs into the van and preparing to head home.
From Westmoreland we took the long way back, heading to lunch in nearby Colonial Beach. Dockside Restaurant & Tiki Bar was the perfect place for a unofficial end to summer celebration. The millennial DJ set was my ideal soundtrack for crab cake sandwiches, calamari, hush puppies, and orange crushes. We dug our toes (and paws) in the sand and enjoyed a long sunny lunch. On our way out of town we took Sparrow to Colonial Beach's public dog park for a round of fetch before we set off on the just under 2 hour drive home.
