For the Fourth of July weekend, I stayed at my boyfriend’s house, along with a friend of ours from William and Mary. My boyfriend, Andrew, and his family live in Bealeton, a small town in Northwest Virginia near Warrenton. All three of us were coming from Virginia Beach because Andrew and I had been in Sandbridge on vacation with my family, and our friend, Madison, lives down in Virginia Beach. We got to Andrew’s house in the afternoon, and from there drove about twenty minutes to Seven Oaks Lavender Farm in Catlett, Virginia. It’s a pretty, family-owned farm with a farmhouse built in 1860. They have lavender, and other wild flowers, that you can cut and pick yourself, and they sell lavender infused products, including desserts like cupcakes and cookies, along with lotions and even bug spray. It’s a beautiful place to take pictures, pick flowers, and have a picnic.
On the morning of the Fourth of July, we drove about thirty to forty minutes to get to Little Devils Stairs, which is a hike near Sperryville, Virginia. It was the first time hiking for Madison, so this trail was a good moderately difficult one to start with, featuring some climbing, stone stairs, and a fire road to finish for a total of six miles.
After getting back to the house after hiking, I baked some chocolate chip cookies to make ice cream sandwiches with them and vanilla ice cream with red, white, and blue sprinkles to decorate. We had stopped at a grocery store after the hike to look for some patriotic sprinkles, but we couldn’t find any in the baking aisle. So, Madison asked the workers at the bakery if the store carried any. They said there might be some in the baking aisle, but then they actually ended up giving us their leftover sprinkles!
Our Fourth of July dinner was a shrimp boil that Andrew’s dad made, containing small potatoes, sausage, shrimp, and corn on the cob. It was the first time I had a boil of any sort, and it was amazing, though spicy enough to the point where I needed some milk. Once the sun went down, we watched fireworks that were being put off in nearby neighborhoods, and then we lit some sparklers and fountain fireworks of our own in the backyard.
Two places that I always want to visit when I'm in Bealeton, which I highly recommend checking out, are the Moo-Thru, which is a super popular ice cream place, and the Messick’s Farm Market, which is a barn style building selling food, as well as locally-made items (including items from Seven Oaks Lavender Farm). The Messick’s Farm also has a playground, and it’s where I went strawberry picking earlier this summer with Andrew’s family. This small town has its own special places to check out, and it's quite close to the mountains and larger cities, making it a pretty great location!
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