The Fort Lee Area

I’ve noticed a lot of misconceptions among my fellow spouses here at Fort Lee about the surrounding areas. Some of them are missing out on some really great opportunities because they are too scared to venture into what they mistakenly think of as “bad” areas, so I thought I would post some reviews of the towns around Fort Lee in the hope that if you get sent here you won’t do what a lot of people seem to do and only go to the places in the immediate vicinity of the base.

1. Petersburg– Everyone I meet tells me not to go to Petersburg, but Petersburg is actually really great! The area near Fort Lee is indeed poor and broken down and could be considered a “bad neighborhood” but past that is downtown Petersburg and it is, among other things, this areas restaurant center. It’s where you can find all of the non-chain, oh-so-good, higher end restaurants like Wabi Sabi, The Brickhouse Run and The Bistro at Market and Grove as well as smaller but still tasty places like Longstreet’s Deli, Saucy’s Walk-Up Bar-B-Que, 23:1 Bistro and Hiram Haines’ Coffee and Ale House. Downtown Petersburg is also full of history, (the Petersburg National Battlefield, for example) architecture (The Blandford Church and Cemetery) and art (Petersburg Regional Art Center and a “Friday for the Arts” program).

So, don’t let its reputation stop you, Petersburg is worth a visit!

2.Hopewell- Hopewell has a better reputation than Petersburg, the area closest to Fort Lee has shopping centers and restaurants. There is a Food Lion and a Farmer’s Foods for grocery shopping  that is usually cheaper than the commissary, I recommend Farmer’s Foods as they usually have the best prices, though a lot of people won’t go because they don’t like the smell of the fish market in the back.

This is also where you can find the restaurant Elephant Thai (which I’ve mentioned in a previous post) as well as Carter’s Courthouse Cafe, Rosa’s Italian Ristorante and J&E Puerto Rico Cuisine. Most of the local chain restaurants like Denny’s, Dairy Queen and Ruby Tuesday’s are also in Hopewell.

Hopewell is great for its library (which I’ve written about here) and it’s abundance of small riverfront parks.

3.Colonial Heights- Colonial Heights gets the best reviews from the spouses around here, most people who live off base choose to live here. The mall as well as a lot of chain restaurants and one or two good local restaurants like Koreana and El Caporal are located here. Wal-Mart, Kmart and Target can be found here as well as a lot of other shops like Toys-R-Us, Lowe’s and Books-A-Million. There are some local shops here as well, my favorite is a children’s consignment shop called Once-Upon-A-Child.

Most of the doctor’s offices in the area are in Colonial Heights. I plan an offering a review of some of the doctor’s I’ve used in the area on a separate post.

So, that is the immediate area around base. Please remember to get out and explore once you get here, don’t let fear make you miss out on anything!

Library Time

The library here on base at Fort Lee is very disappointing, it is a small section of the Logistics University library and the children’s section is even smaller, about the size of a large area rug.

Before we PCS’d here we had a wonderful local library, with a whole children’s room and lots of kids programs. The children could play and didn’t have to be quiet the whole time, there was a large variety of books and some kind of children’s program going on almost every day.

The Fort Lee library has just started a once weekly preschool story time and a sort of “get your books and get out” attitude is encouraged. You can tell that the librarians doing story time have very little experience with small children.

Fortunately, after a little research, I have found a great local library! The Hopewell branch of the Appomattox Regional Library is the main branch and it is amazing!

The Hopewell Library

They have a very good selection of adult books and a large children’s section that includes books and a play area. They have a computer area for adults and a separate computer area loaded with age appropriate, educational children’s games. They also have movies, cds, and audio books.

It’s too big for me to fully capture, but the children’s computer area is INSIDE A GIANT SHIP, complete with sails and everything! How cool is that?!

The library has a weekly story time for preschoolers and younger children with a professional librarian whose whole job is to travel to the different branches of the Appomattox Regional Library doing kids programs, she is very friendly and very good at her job.

They also have a program called “Book Buddies” for older children in grades 2-4. The children in this program read to therapy dogs to help build their reading skills and confidence.

They have a lot of other children’s programs too, like Game Day, Summer Reading, Pirate Day, Holiday Parties, etc..

A small section of the library

They have programs for teens, preteens and adults as well, you should check out the library here. This library has definitely turned into one of our favorite places to go while stationed as Fort Lee, and I’ll be sad to leave it.

Another small section