Washington
Diversions

The Blue Ridge Mountains, Skyline Drive and Shenandoah National Park bestow on this area a spectacular backdrop, plus scenic drives and hiking trails. Old Rag Mountain is a hiking favorite. Drive the Skyline Drive for awesome scenery – and perhaps lunch on top of the world at Skyland Lodge.

Walking Tour of Washington. The Rappahannock Historical Society sells a pamphlet-size treatise billed as a walking tour along the quiet, tree-shaded streets of "the first Washington of them all." There’s no map, and the text is for the truly interested. The Washington Business Council provides a more readily available free map, geared to commercial interests. Others will be satisfied with a leisurely stroll along Main and Gay and their connecting side streets, stopping to see whatever charms them. This really is a small rural village; that’s the beauty of it. There are a few county and municipal buildings, a couple of churches and three log houses. Note the neat old printing press outside the door of the Rappahannock News building. First Washington’s Museum, run privately and commercially by its creator, Ruby Jenkins, is an 18th-century tavern and schoolhouse all aclutter with historic and local memorabilia. The Theatre at Washington stages movies, recitals and other events, usually one night a weekend. It is known for its professional musical performances, including the noted Smithsonian at Little Washington chamber music series.

Driving Tours. The most rewarding way to sense the area’s tranquility and beauty is to drive along any of the back roads (obtain a county map to avoid getting lost). You can bicycle if you bring your own, but this is winding, hilly territory, not for the faint of heart. Some of our favorite rural byways are Route 628 between Washington and Flint Hill, Route 729 between Flint Hill and Ben Venue and beyond to Laurel Mills or Viewtown (really!), and Routes 635, 688 and 726 in the winery country around Hume, Linden and Markham. You’ll stumble onto surprises like the 1842 Leeds Church and its big parish house, manse and graveyard out in the countryside south of Markham. In foliage season, these are the best ways to beat the bumper-to-bumper traffic of leaf-peepers along main Route 211.

Horseback Riding. This is the western edge of Virginia hunt country, so why not do as the Virginians do? Rent horses at Marriott Ranches, Route 726, in Hume. Guided 90-minute trail rides are offered by reservation daily except Monday.

Wineries. Three nearby wineries are blessed with gorgeous locations like those of the Napa Valley. They are destinations for those who enjoy scenery as well as good wines.

Oasis Vineyard, 14141 Hume Road (Route 635), Hume.

This is one of Virginia’s oldest and largest wineries. "We learned as we went and made every mistake," said Corinne Salahi, a Belgian married to an American, of the vineyard she and husband Dirgham established in 1975. They’re best known for sparkling wines, produced by the traditional méthode champenoise, and representing about one-third of their extensive annual production. They tout the Oasis brut sparkling wine as one of the ten best in the world. Their chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon ($15.50) are also prize-winners. Visitors tour a large downstairs facility boasting oak barrels for chardonnay and concrete holding tanks from Italy. They sample wines upstairs on wine-barrel seats around tables facing the Blue Ridge. Lunch is available from the Oasis Café and Trellis Patio. Oasis also offers a cigar and wine menu on its new Cigar Patio.

Linden Vineyards, 3708 Harrels Corner Rd. (Route 638), Linden.

On a hilltop facing east, this versatile winery yields quite a view and makes the most of it with an outdoor deck. All the better to enjoy a snack of Virginia cheeses with a good bottle of chardonnay or a dry seyval – although the winery has dropped its earlier gourmet lunches, because visitors "started seeing us a restaurant rather than a winery," according to owner Jim Law. Along with chardonnauy, sauvignon blanc, riesling and cabernet sauvignon ($12 to $24), Linden produced a late-harvest vidal dessert wine that won a Virginia Governor’s Cup as the best in Virginia. Jim also stages vintner dinners, winemaking seminars and barrel tastings.

Naked Mountain Vineyard & Winery, 2747 Leeds Manor Road (Route 688), Markham.

Up a mountain and down a hairpin driveway lies this prize, nestled between hills and producing Virginia’s most-honored chardonnay. Sold here for a bargain $16, it’s so esteemed that it’s one of only two East Coast wines served at Domaine Chandon’s restaurant in California wine country. Not bad for what had been a hobby for amateur winemakers Bob and Phoebe Harper. Most of their 3,000 cases a year are chardonnay. A few rieslings, sauvignons and clarets also are produced. The cathedral-ceilinged tasting room overlooks a close-in vista that has been described as the most picturesque of any East Coast winery.

Shopping. Washington has a few excellent galleries, gift and antiques shops, many open only weekends or by appointment. Our favorite is Elaine Kramer’s Talk of the Town, a wonderful shop with suave cards, jewelry, T-shirts, accessories, garden implements and such. She recently opened a downstairs gallery. She also connected her store to the showroom of her husband, master cabinetmaker Peter Kramer, "so now we’re a mall!" His stunning furniture is much prized locally, and customers like to watch the cabinetmakers at work. A 200-year-old building is home to Gay Street Mercantile Art and Antiques, which offers antique furniture and accessories as well as the country paintings of local artist Geneva Welch. Rare Finds is an antiques, gift and accessory shop, every bit as eclectic as the guest room and suite offered upstairs by the expanding Inn at Little Washington. The inn, incidentally, has an ultra-suave gift shop of inn-related items across Main Street from the main building.

Sperryville harbors good shops, among them the Old Sperryville Bookstore in a converted country church. The wondrous Faith Mountain Company kept expanding its farmhouse, a ramble of rooms full of dolls, prints, country clothing, kitchenware, specialty foods and garden accessories, until there was no room left to expand. In 1998 it moved to larger quarters in a renovated building that was the old Sperryville School House. Out Route 211 west is the Mountainside Market Shopping Center, which includes the Odyssey Collection, with an exceptional array of jewelry, pottery, paintings and clothing, with a focus on native American and Indonesian art. Mountainside Market is a terrific gourmet, whole-foods emporium with a small deli section of prepared sandwiches and pastries. With tables out front, it’s something of a community hangout – "the No. 1 pit stop for local yokels, bikers and hikers," according to its web site. A sign on the door as you leave warns, "Beware of hitchhiking cats." Also here is the Blue Moon Café, a casual family place serving dinner Wednesday-Sunday and offering up live music late into the evening.

Laurel Mills Store, 461 Laurel Mills Road (Route 618), Castleton.

The one-horse hamlet of Laurel Mills, population 15 (as tabulated on her fingers by Mary Frances Fannon, one of the fifteen), is the unlikely home of a general store, gallery and antiques shop. And Mrs. Fannon, whose husband is a prosperous oil dealer in big Washington, is the unlikely proprietress. When the store, dating to 1877, was about to be converted into apartments, she bought the place and "thought I’d have all this time to sit behind the counter and read books, as the former employees did." Not at all. She stocked the shelves, made sandwiches, lent books, manned the cash register and pumped gasoline, all the while chatting amiably with farmers, truckers and politicians who make the front porch their own and fill their coolers with water from the spring at the side. Mrs. Fannon has since branched out, restoring the stone cellar into an antiques shop and gallery called Down Under Laurel Mills Store. Here she showcases country antiques and one-of-a-kind pieces from area artisans and furniture-makers – an upscale adjunct to a down-home country store.

Material excerpted from Inn Spots & Special Places / Mid-Atlantic, by Nancy and Richard Woodworth. Copyright 2003.

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