Chesapeake | VA Beach | Norfolk (1)

My passion in life is to travel, explore new places, and try new things! It does not matter to me whether I travel/explore near or far; I try to enjoy every moment of life, because, why not?

This Labor Day (2017) weekend, I spent my holiday spending time with family that lives in Chesapeake, VA. We stayed at their beautiful house on a lake and spent time relaxing and eating great food! My mom and I left early Saturday morning and arrived around lunch time. We started our Saturday exploring local shops. This sign (below) pretty much sums up my life. 🙂

We had lunch at a small sandwich shop called “Taste”. They make fresh sandwiches and serve several craft beers and wines. My mom and I split a flight, in which we sampled 1 peach and  1 pumpkin beer (which were both AMAZING). This place also had a small gift shop where they sold wine, beer, snacks, and small gifts.

Sunday morning we woke up, enjoyed coffee, and set off for VA Beach. We parked and walked along the boardwalk. It was a beautiful day (especially after a forecast of rain). The Virginia Beach boardwalk has grown beautifully in the last few years. It is huge and also has a large separate bike lane. There are different neat statues along the boardwalk, including this HUGE neptune statue. Ignore my one blue eye, one dark eye LOL 🙂

There are many ocean front hotel restaurants that are open to the public. We ate at Katie’s (ironic, right? 🙂 on 33rd Street, I think. It had gorgeous views of the beach and the food was AWESOME. We had a late brunch/lunch with delicious omelets and fried potatoes.

Side note, these sunglasses that I am wearing are my favorite EVER. They are made by Blenders Eyewear, check them out here. Use code katiechur20 to save 20% on your entire order! You will love them!!!!

BUT back to the trip

Holiday + Family + Beach + 3 day weekend + Traveling = Happy Katie 🙂

and this was just the beginning of the day!

After enjoying a few hours at the beach, we headed to Norfolk where we had a tasting flight at Mermaid Winery. This is an Urban Winery in Norfolk, VA. The atmosphere was absolutely stunning. The tasting flight came in a towering glass holder and it was overwhelming gorgeous.

Another side note, Visiting wineries is the #1 thing that I look for when exploring in a new city. I have probably visited at least 30 wineries in VA and NC in the past 2 years. So keep that in mind as you read my review of this winery.

Mermaid Winery makes their own wines, but they also serve 100’s of different wines for all walks of life. And by that I mean from affordable to $500 a bottle. Jeez, I know. The set-up in Mermaid was more like a wine bar than a tasting room (although we found out later that they do have a a tasting room, but no one told us, even after we asked “Do you guys do tastings here?” but anyway! The tasting was $11, which is not bad, but a little more than I typically pay for a tasting. The wine was very good, I did a flight of French Wine, so I did not try their wine. The service here was slightly lacking, but did not alter my enjoyment.

After our wine stop, we headed back home (after my mom decided to stop and get a hair cut LOL). We had a delicious dinner and passed out early from our long day!

After lots of laughs and great fun, Mom and I said goodbye Monday morning and headed back home (about a 4 hour drive). We stopped at a few local shops along the route and then made the best decision to stop at Rosemont Winery, just outside of South Hill, VA. Rosemont is a beautiful winery, located on 25 acres of estate grown vines. This was one of my favorite wineries I have ever stopped at (and I think that says something if you read my history in local wine travel). ALL of their wines were excellent and reasonably priced. The visuals of the winery made their already great wine even greater.

We enjoyed a pimento cheese sampler platter (OMG YUM) and a glass of wine on the patio. We sat around a while and enjoyed the gorgeous day before heading back to the road and finishing up another great adventure!

Over all, Labor Day weekend 2017 was a huge success and puts another great adventure in the books! Upcoming adventures include Carolina Beach in Sept… Nashville in Oct… and Gatlinburg in Nov.

Stay tuned for more travel adventures!

Much love,

Katie