Archive for April, 2013

A New Cape Charles Vacation Rental Home, Introducing “Beach Villa”

Thursday, April 25th, 2013
Sand beach at "Beach Villa", a Cape Charles VA vacation rental home

Relax on the soft sand beach at “Beach Villa” on Eastern Shore Virginia

We get a lot of calls  here at Blue Heron Realty Co. for a vacation rental home with lots of seclusion but with lots of amenities too and that’s usually  a hard order to fill.  However, we  have just acquired  “Beach Villa”  as a Cape Charles VA area vacation rental.  This exquisite villa style home,  sleeping 10, offers  water views galore plus old world charm and the use of its  37 acres with beautiful Virginia Eastern Shore  Chesapeake Bay waterfront.  Best of all,   Beach Villa offers a gorgeous  sand beach, private to the owners and their rental guests, offering wide soft, soft  sands, glittering in the golden sun, perfect for relaxing under a beach umbrella, book in hand, some sweet Southern-style  ice cold tea in the cooler.  And as you wade from the beach into the Bay, the salty Chesapeake  waters start out quite shallow but  gradually reach swimming depth so bring your mask and snorkel to check everything out.   Surrounded on two sides by a pristine little freshwater lake,  imagine waking up  in the serene environment of this home  to the calls of  seabirds overhead  and  waterfowl out on the lake.  Love jogging ? Imagine the pleasure of making lazy circuits around 37 acres surrounded by such natural beauty.  Surely this is a  vacation opportunity extraordinaire.

Aerial view of "Beach Villa", a beachfront home near Cape Charles VA

“Beach Villa” offers old world charm on 37 acres near Cape Charles VA

With 3 bedrooms and 3 and a half baths plus a day bed in the sunroom, there is plenty of room to catch up on some sleep  in this nearly 4000 sq. ft. home. Large great room with living and dining room groupings plus a   gourmet kitchen make conversation with your group a breeze. The gas log fireplace in the living area is perfect for cool fall evenings.  Sliding glass doors lead from the great room to the spacious fieldstone patio overlooking  beautiful flower beds, the lake and the Bay, the perfect spot for a steaming cup of morning coffee.   Paneled den and enclosed sunroom provide additional space for just relaxing, letting the mind and body unwind in this gorgeous setting.  First floor master suite, so convenient, with a master bath which includes jacuzzi tub with marble surround.   Everything about this home is top of the line, you will not be disappointed by selecting this home for your vacation.

Witcher living room CG              Witcher master CG               Witcher kitchen

Aqua Restaurant at Cape Charles offers fine and casual dining on the Chesapeake Bay

Be Sure To Try The Delicious Seafood At Aqua Restaurant During Your Stay

Nearby amenities include Kiptopeake State Park, Eastern Shore Wildlife Refuge and the Rails to Trails jogging/biking trail. The historic little Victorian town of Cape Charles is less than 10 minutes away and offers restaurants, shops, art galleries, marinas,boat ramps, train rides,  special events, holiday parades, etc.,  as well as Palmer and Nicklaus Signature 18 hole golf courses.   The Eastern Shore of Virginia is a terrific spot for a relaxing, low-key vacation, for what we like to call ” Simply Relaxing The Shore Way“.  From A for Artist Galleries to Z for Zesty clam dip,  there is nearly an endless list of things to do and see here on the Eastern Shore.   Savour sunset strolls on the beach,  kayak to our unique off-shore Barrier Islands, charter a deep sea fishing trip, treasure hunt in our antique shops,  attend a live performance at the Palace Theatre, ride horseback along waterfront trails, explore our little coastal towns, visit a local winery,  get wet clamming, enjoy a superb seafood meal at Aqua Restaurant,  see the artifacts of yesteryear at the Barrier Island Museum.  ( By the way, the Tall Ships Cape Charles Festival will be held this year the weekend of June 14-16,  an exciting event for adults and kids alike. Three tall sailing ships will be in port offering open deck tours and day sails, the Navy’s USS  Tornado will also offer tours, individual owners will be there with their sailboats, skipjacks and antique “buy boats”, the harbor will be bursting with great stuff.  Plus loads of other activities  are part of this Festival, it’s a really fun-filled event. )  But whatever you do, memories of your Simply Relaxing  Eastern Shore Vacation  will stay with you forever.  To reserve your week at Beach Villa, email us at easternshorevacations@blueheronva.com or call 757-678-5277.           (Posted  by Marlene Cree, licensed Virginia agent with Blue Heron Realty Co., 7134  Wilsonia Neck Dr., Machipongo, VA)

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Third Time Is A Charm For The Wallop’s Island VA Launch Of The Antares Test Rocket

Monday, April 22nd, 2013

A quick up date to my recent  post on the scrubbing of  the test  launch of  Orbital Science’s  Antares rocket from the NASA Wallop’s Island Flight Facility on Virginia’s Eastern Shore.  The purpose of  this test launch was to demonstrate the commercial viability of this rocket as part of  a NASA program to move  a good deal of the space program into private enterprise.  In fact,  the success of this launch will secure for Orbital  contracts for 8 resupply missions to the International Space Station, missions I believe are now being flown by Russia, which is being well compensated for same I’m sure,  so it will be nice to see that money stay right here in the good ole  US of A.   But the part that still amazes me, astounds me actually,  is that this entire effort is taking place on the northern border of  the Eastern Shore, surrounded by the bucolic bays and salt meadows of the Assateague Wildlife Refuge, being as closely observed by the herd of  Chincoteague  wild ponies as by the throng of national media reporters staged here for this launch.  Because as unlikely as it seems,  something about the  exact physical location of Wallops Island makes it one of the few places in the US  which is perfectly positioned to most easily  thrust a payload into orbit. Who would have thunk it ?

Dinner at Wrights Seafood Dinner At Wright's Seafood Restaurant Near Wallop's Island VA

Seafood Dinner With Hubby & Grandson At Wright’s Waterfront Restaurant Near Chincoteague VA

On Wednesday, after having rushed up to Wallops to see the first lift-off  attempt which was unfortunately scrubbed at T minus 12  ( space jargon for cancelling the whole darn thing 12 minutes before the  witching hour)  because of an umbilical problem (more space lingo meaning the thingamajigg connecting to the back end might fall off too early ),  we spent the rest of the evening having fun with our grandson,  visiting the Refuge and having a seafood dinner at Wright’s.  The flight was rescheduled for Saturday so once again, zip-zip, a one hour drive up to Wallops only to discover  once we got there that it was cancelled again, this time because of  excessive upper level winds  (  space-speak for it’s too darn windy out there).  Why on earth they couldn’t decide that an hour earlier rather than a half hour earlier  is a mystery to me, but there we were again, launchless in Chincoteague.

Antares rocket contrail as seen from our Eastern Shore VA backyard

The Antares Rocket Contrail Photographed From Our Eastern Shore VA Back Yard

NASA’s mission update website showed Sunday as the new  reschedule date, with 5 pm  designated as zero hour.   So about 2 pm on Sunday we started trying to decide whether to make that whole two hour  round trip for yet a third time.  But since it just seemed so windy, leaves were rustling in the trees, the wind chime on the back deck was singing its little heart out,  even our Soleri wind bell was clanging away, Hubby and I both agreed that no way are they doing to launch this thing today.  Ha, talk about famous last words !  We flipped on NASA TV, channel 184 courtesy of Dish,  about 4:30 just to double check.  Voila’ ,  the countdown was pressing on !  I just couldn’t believe it, the mission had not been scrubbed because of  the wind.  And so after two false alarm trips to see the real thing,  we were now going to have to watch it on TV instead of  getting to see, hear and feel the entire experience parked just  across Watt’s Bay from the actual launch pad. Anyway, I got my camera ready because we were pretty sure that if we rushed outside right after liftoff we would be able to see it  by looking northeast across the lawn.  And sure enough, there it was ,  streaking across the sky at a fair clip,  7900 mph according to the NASA commentator.  Got a pretty good picture of the puffy white contrail, would much rather have had one of  the lift-off,  but it was exciting nevertheless. Congrats to all involved, a new day has dawned for  Wallop’s Island, or I should say,  for the the Eastern Shore’s new Mid-Atlantic Spaceport !          (Posted by Marlene Cree, licensed  Virginia agent with Blue Heron Realty Co., 7134 Wilsonia Neck Dr.,  Machipongo VA )

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Antares Rocket Launch On Wallops Island VA Scrubbed But We Had A Great Time Anyway

Thursday, April 18th, 2013
NASA photo of aerial view wallops island va launch pad

NASA Photo of Rocket Launch Pad At Wallops Island VA

It’s still hard for me to believe that the Eastern Shore of Virginia has entered the Space Age in an important way at Wallops Island, located at the extreme northern portion of the  Virginia Eastern Shore just a few miles from the Maryland state line, nearly an hour and a half from  our stomping grounds in Cape Charles VA.  Wallops Island has long been home to what I have generally thought of as a rather remote NASA outpost for launching weather satellites, etc.,  but no longer, its entered the big time.   Now named the Mid Atlantic Regional Spaceport and an important part of a NASA program to commercialize space efforts, Wallops is about to begin a whole new life as the re-supply location  for the USA team’s efforts on the International Space Station. For reasons which I don’t entirely understand – it is rocket science after all –  the physical aspects of Wallops, latitude, longitude, something, make it one of the few places in the US perfect for launching  satelites and launching rockets with payloads into orbit  destined for the Space Station.  So now a  company by the name of Orbital Sciences Corporation  has  a contract with NASA to  fly 8 resupply missions to the Space  Station  from little ole Wallops Island and is in the process of test flights of  its Antares rocket and its companion  Cygnus cargo spacecraft there.  ( The Orbital Sciences story is pretty interesting in and of itself because it was the brainchild of  the folks behind Pay Pal.  Who could have guessed that all those little Pay Pal fees would be enough to launch a brand new space enterprise ? )

People leaving after Antares rocket launch scrubbed at Wallops Island June 17, 2013

Leaving after Antares rocket launch at Wallops Island scrubbed 4/17/13

Which brings us to  yesterday.  My husband,  who loves the concept of flying in outer space,  thought it would be interesting  for us to go watch the launch of  the Antares rocket and educational for the young  grandkids to see it too. Unfortunately, one was out of town, one was home  with a fever,  which left just one able to go with us.  So off we went,  Hubby, 11 year old grandson who is in the Rocket Club at school, and moi, a little bit on the late side,  surprise, surprise,  but we made good time, remembered to slow down at Temperanceville so as not to get caught in their 45 mph speed trap,  ( still looking for temperance in Temperanceville, which by the way is only a short distance from Modest town) .  We took a back road to a little neighborhood which we knew overlooked one of the small bays between the mainland and Wallops which we thought would offer a great view and not be too crowded, arriving a mere 10 minutes before launch time. No sooner had we pulled into the only parking spot left on the whole road and begun walking  across the grass to where about  50 other folks had lined up folding chairs to watch the event, when somebody shouted out, Mission Scrubbed  and everyone began to leave.  We waited around a bit,  from our vantage point we could see everything perfectly,  the rocket standing tall on the launch pad and then puff, a huge cloud  of smoke, apparently from oxygen being released because of mission  cancellation,  still exciting to witness even without the liftoff.

Assateague wild pony standing in marsh

Chincoteague Ponies Have Distinctive Markings

With  a couple of hours of daylight left,  we decided to drive to the nearby Assateague Wildlife Refuge,  home of the well-known Chincoteague wild ponies.  The ponies, made famous by the book Misty of Chincoteague,  are part of the annual Chincoteague Pony Swim conducted in July each year by the volunteers of the Chincoteague Fire Dept. who care for this little herd of  distinctively marked wild horses, compact in size,  who live in the marshes, eating primarily salt  marsh grass and sweet hay that the firemen put out for them  in the  winter.  After swimming across the channel from Assateague to Chincoteague during the Roundup each year,  the young ponies are auctioned off,  the proceeds supporting the costs of maintaining the herd .  Pony Roundup Day is a huge tourist day, with literally hundreds of thousands of folks visiting Chincoteague for the Swim, which is the reason why  I’ve never  attended.  I just can’t imagine swiveling my neck 180 degrees around for a glimpse of a horse  with  200, 000 other folks crowded round trying to see the same thing.  But during the rest of the year it is not unusual to spot  a pony or two when driving through the Wildlife Refuge.  Didn’t see any ponies yesterday but we did decide to  stop along the oceanfront beach and watch the waves rolling in for a bit.  But even more fun was watching a fellow who was  getting into surf casting big time, three  extra fishing poles stuck in the sand  and  making some hefty casts into the rolling surf with the fourth.   Didn’t  catch anything while we were there but he seemed to be having a mighty fine time anyway.

DSC_0072By consensus,  Wright’s Seafood Restaurant just a few miles away was selected  as our dinner destination. Wright’s is located right on Watt’s  Bay and I do mean right on— the front pilings of its foundation are actually right in the water. So if you  want to enjoy  waterviews during dinner,  Wrights is a great option if  you’re near Assateague.  In business since 1971, Wright’s is famous for it’s Flounder Imperial, a  fillet of  juicy flounder layered with crab imperial and gently browned under the broiler.  The sun was low in the sky as we  pulled into Wright’s , the views were  lovely,  the three of us  had a great time discussing the rockets our grandson is helping build in his school’s Rocket Club and looking at some images from the the NASA app on the iPad while waiting for dinner to arrive.  A fine time was had by all even though the mission was scrubbed — and we still  have hopes of trying again when the launch is rescheduled.     ( Posted by Marlene Cree, licensed Virginia agent with Blue Heron Realty Co., 7134 Wilsonia Neck Dr., Machipongo, VA )

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5 Tips For Investing In A Second Home On Eastern Shore VA & Considering Doing Vacation Rentals To Help Defray Carry Costs

Monday, April 15th, 2013
Aerial view of southern tip of Eastern Shore VA showing Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean

Eastern Shore Virginia Beautiful Southern Tip

For those considering investing in a  leisure home,  the beautiful southern tip of the  Eastern Shore of Virginia offers buyers an amazing variety of lifestyle choices as well as some opportunities to offset mortgage payments with income from weekly vacation  rentals. And especially  with the great deals and the low interest rates currently available, now is a great time to consider the purchase of a leisure home with a lifestyle that can make you feel like it’s vacation time all year long !      For those seeking to discover their inner mermaid , consider a beach home offering soft sands and pristine swimming waters.  For boaters,  how about a beautiful waterfront home with a backyard boat dock ?  Virginia’s Eastern Shore offers mile upon mile of saltwater shoreline to cruise by power boat, sailboat or kayak.  For golfers, what better home course than the Arnold Palmer Signature course  and the  companion Jack Nicklaus Signature Course  at Bay Creek  ?  For those who love  small towns and  historic homes,  consider the fact that settlement of  the area which is now Northampton County VA  begin before the Mayflower ever hit Cape Cod Bay !   I’m guessing that nearly a thousand historic homes  still exist on the Shore, some of which are for sale.  Dreaming about a place in the country , on a spacious land parcel  ?  Got it in spades !  And since the main economic engine for Northampton County is still agriculture,  if  owning a farm with all the possibilities – from growing crops to raising alpacas or horses- that owning a farm offers, well, we have a few  farms for sale too.  Soooo……. how to get started ?

DSC_0128

Jarvis dock at sunsetGolf cart with flowers 2011

 

 

 

Tip # 1.  It’ s  really important to decide on  the lifestyle you want to pursue.   I know that this seems like it should be easy and possibly self-evident but it’s not.  In fact, in my experience working with our real estate customers, there is usually a  lot of soul searching that goes into that decision  since so many  folks have multiple interests and settling on the main one is not necessarily  simply.   Especially if the likes and dislikes  of multiple people need to be factored into the equation.  Nowhere is  that more evident than in the choice between a beach home or a boating home.  You might wonder why that is– usually it’s because one party prefers beach but the other loves boating  and wants a backyard dock, leaving the conumdrum of which person will have to  drive to get to  the  marina and/ or the beach.

Tip # 2. Decide on your  purchase price budget.   This is a bit easier than it seems because as realtors we can help you with this.   Once you decide on the monthly payment amount you don’t want to exceed,  we can work  forward to give you a general home  price range this monthly payment will handle.  Given today’s historic low  interest rates, I think you will be exceedingly pleased at the price range home that your  stipulated payment will control in the current market.

Tip #3. Start previewing homes on- line to get a feel for the homes available in your price range with the lifestyle amenity you selected in step # 1.  Blue Heron’s main website, www.blueheronva.com , is organized by lifestyle, we’ve tried to make it easy to locate the type of property you want without searching a hundred other things first. ( In fact, we have gotten a lot of complements on how user- friendly our website actually is.)  Each property  has an individual data sheet  that can be printed or bookmarked, making it easy to  keep track of  any particular property.  And don’t forget to order our free prime property catalogue, on-line from our home page or call 800-258-3437.

Tip#4. Make an appointment to come visit the Eastern Shore and see our beautiful properties for yourself.  The Shore is a relaxed, low-key area with wide open green spaces  and a comfortable rural feel, interspersed by small coastal towns and historic villages. And for icing on the cake,  Northampton County is  less than an hour’s drive from the Hampton Roads area ( Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake), the 32nd largest metro area in the US.   We’re  not for everyone of course, plenty of day-to- day shopping but no huge malls, not much for bright lights and loud music .  But if Capt. John Smith’s  1609  comment about the Shore appeals to you: ” Heaven and Earth never agreed better to frame a place for man’s habitation”  then you might be a great candidate  for the  Shore.  Life on the Eastern Shore  is like having your cake and eating it too, a relaxed lifestyle here but access  major shopping, cultural and culinary amenities ( plus an international airport)  within 30 minutes to an hour,  depending on the neighborhood you select.  Many of the folks purchasing a leisure home on the  Shore are intending to live here full-time in the future, possibly for retirement or relocation,  so then having metro type amenities within easy driving distance becomes more inportant in the  overall equation.

Tip#5. Decide  if you want to defray some of your carry costs by doing weekly vacation rentals.  Blue Heron offers a vacation rental department  which can handle rental and most of the management  of your vacation home.  When you visit the Shore to look at properties we can introduce you to our  Vacation Rental Manager who can discuss  the program with you.  We work with owners to set up a schedule of  the weeks  during summer that they want personal use of their home and the weeks they  want to rent it.  May  to September is the main vacation season here which leaves plenty of time during the rest of the year for  lots of  additional personal use.  Since  Virginia’s Eastern Shore has  a terrific climate, with long pleasant Springs and Falls, you can get a  lots of use and pleasure out of your vacation home while still  defraying some carry costs by doing vacation rentals.

Hopefully these 5 tips were helpful.  We would love to hear from you and show you some of the great deals out there  right now.  With the deals available and the current amazingly low interest rates, we think it’s a great time to consider investing  in one of our beautiful Eastern  Shore homes  regardless of whether or not  you are thinking of becoming a part of a vacation rental program. So give us a  call at 800-258-3437  to make an appointment or to order  your copy of our free  prime property catalogue.     ( Posted by Marlene  Cree, licensed Virginia agent with Blue Heron Realty Co., 7134 Wilsonia Neck Dr., Machipongo VA )

 

 

 

 

 

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Aqua Restaurant- Still Delightful, Delicious, De-lovely

Thursday, April 4th, 2013
Aqua Restaurant in Cape Charles VA

Aqua Restaurant Easter Brunch

Having scheduled the family Easter dinner for Saturday, which came off quite well, including trying a new ( new to  me anyway) version of ham from costco which everyone loved,  an excellent Applewood smoked full length de-boned ham which had been cut in half vertically rather than horizontally,   we had decided that brunch at the “new” Aqua  would  be just the ticket for Sunday.   After a winter’s hiatus, which included a change in ownership, a bit of re-decorating and some staff changes, I was curious to see if  the beautiful Aqua Restaurant, which overlooks the Chesapeake Bay in Cape Charles on the Eastern Shore of Virginia   just re-opened on Friday, had retained its old charm. And more importantly, its fine flair for preparing regional cuisine.  I hoped for the best but feared for the worst as we walked through the door on Sunday but, happily, my fears were for naught as the answer to my first question was a resounding  “Yes, Shelly Cusmina is still the head chef.”   So,  off to a good start in its new iteration, still, as Cole Porter would say, ” Delightful, Delicious, De-lovely.”

DSC_0702Aqua is well known for its  tradition of  delectable Southern-style cuisine for holiday brunches and Sunday’s food definitely did that tradition proud.  If Paula Deen had been there she would have said that they had outdone themselves with  this luscious meal, nary a foot put wrong.  Although Aqua’s regular lunch and dinner menus  are  geared towards fine dining, emphasizing the fresh seafood from our Chesapeake Bay region, its brunches often feature some classic Southern dishes that don’t appear on the set menu, including  some of the best mac and cheese I have ever tasted,  smooth, really creamy.  And an ode should have been  written to the fried chicken, that’s how good it was, crisp  flakes of  crunchy coating, mouthwatering  tender chicken , accompanied by plenty of  spicy Crystal hot sauce. ( You might be a Southerner if you can’t really enjoy fried chicken without an ample sprinkling of  pungent hot sauce,  preferably Crystal or Texas Pete brand. ) And rounding out the “must-have” trifecta of  mac and cheese and  fried chicken is, of course, a mess of  collard greens.  Now the important thing about collards  (besides needing to be cooked until very tender )  is that they must be  “well seasoned” which is a catch-all description for the rich peppery ham flavor that proper collards are supposed to have.   Adding  little chunks of smoked country ham or smoked side meat  is the  best cooking method to give collards the  sort of sweet-salty  tangy flavor that no  holiday table in Virginia is truly complete without.  And speaking of not complete,  light as air  biscuits are also a must serve,  in Aqua’s case,  feather-light sweet potato biscuits.

DSC_0701There was, of course,  a separate omelet station stocked with choices of just about every ingredient one could wish to be added to a fluffy omelet.  I’m not really a breakfast person so brunch for me might as well just be called lunch but Hubby is just about the opposite and prefers the breakfast side of a brunch.  DSC_0676In addition to the omelet station, a huge poached salmon cleverly decorated with cucumber slice “scales” accompanied by a mellow  dill sauce,  pan-fried Yukon potatoes, mini- sausage links,  fluffy blueberry pancakes, bagels and rich  flaky pastries  were available for the breakfast foodies.  Plus  gorgeous fruit trays filled one end of a table, offering a wide selection of fruit including some very tempting strawberries, gorgeous,  vivid red with an amazing bouquet and ambrosial Hawaiian pineapple slices, literally dripping with juice, a whole array of  delights.  It was a lovely event, enjoyed in good company, proving once again that  a meal at Aqua’s is still “Delightful, Delicious, De-lovely ” !     (Posted by Marlene Cree, licensed Virginia agent with Blue Heron Realty Co., 7135 Wilsonia Neck Dr., Machipongo, VA. )

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