Catherine Via, 77, and Beatrice Taylor, 65, have been catching peeler crabs and selling them out of a little gray shack here by the pier for more than 30 years.

Taylor and her 16-year-old nephew, Garrett Walton, pull the pots each morning, and Via, a chipper woman with an easy smile and fast hands, cleans the little suckers just like her daddy taught her. She packages them in cardboard boxes with newspaper.

Sorry, no ice.

Just crabs.

"They're the only things I don't mind killing," Via said while cutting them with scissors. "Crabs just don't bother me. They are just so good when you eat them. I guess that's why."

Urbanna might have a love affair with oysters, but the locals will tell you nothing tastes better than a fried softie from Payne's Crab House.

Then again, just about anything tastes good in Urbanna.

If given the choice, though, 7-year-old Heather Edwards might pick crazy vanilla ice cream over crabs any day. She licked her cone and swung her legs back and forth during a recent sun-filled afternoon as she and her father sat on a bench outside Moo's River Edge Eatery.

"It's daddy-daughter time," said Paul Edwards.

Urbanna is all about lazy afternoons, waterfront homes, breezy sunsets, blooming flowers of pink and purple, Hershey's ice cream, fried oysters, a local drugstore with killer shakes (Marshall's), and a retail shop that sells "good goods" and dates to 1876.

And, of course, "the rivah," the Rappahannock, which gives the town its wayfaring ambience.

Think you'd like to move here?

You're not the only one.

There are three real estate businesses centrally located in town, selling homes with price tags well over $300,000.

"You can set your price on the water," Via said.

While the locals don't want Urbanna to grow too big too fast, they are excited about some of the new additions, including a 15-room hotel, Liberty at Compass Quay, and the newly installed sidewalks, street lights and town clock.

The clock is reminiscent of older days.

According to the town's Web site, Urbanna was laid out in 1681. It received the name Urbanna, City of Anne in 1704 to honor Queen Anne, who was on the British throne at the time.

These days tobacco has given way to fine cheeses.

BayBerries, a shop attached to the hotel, sells international gourmet items, including brie, chocolate-covered cherries and imported lemonade in fancy glass bottles.

The Brass Pelican, often referred to as "the blue building on the corner where the boats are," is one of the town's water-inspired craft shops.

There is plenty of other retail shopping.

Those looking to soothe body and mind can stop into Katybugs, a local aromatherapy store, or Cyndy's Bynn, home of elegant flowers and fashions.

. . .

Recently, the town has been a little noisier than usual, with the streetlight/sidewalk installation.

The ongoing work, which caused part of Virginia Street to close, is scheduled to be completed before the Nov. 3-4 oyster festival, Urbanna's big tourist attraction.

It's a street party like none other. Tourists are bused in by the thousands. They come, they slurp down oysters and fritters and stew, and they listen to live music. At the end of the day, they leave.

And then Urbanna returns to its blissful paradise, a place where folks operate on laid-back time and some shops don't open until Thursday.

"It's heaven," said Lynda Price, describing the place she has visited for years. "It's just a beautiful little town."

It's the kind of place, said Taylor Harris, 17, where "you can't do anything bad, because everyone knows you."

It takes about 90 minutes to get here from Richmond.

"As soon as I came across that bridge, I thought I had died and gone to heaven," said Alana Courtney. That was 26 years ago.

Courtney, a native of Hawaii, opened a shop in town called the Papeterie, which she recently described as "functional whimsy." She sells paper, including custom wedding invitations, and other goods.

She is also one of the "Witches of Urbanna," a group of women from town who get together and do "fun stuff."

"We are a drinking village with an oyster problem," she joked.

That's one side of Urbanna. There's another, which can be found in R.S. Bristow Store, a shop that dates to the late 1800s.

It is across the street from the Virginia Street Cafe, a local staple that prides itself on homemade barbecue, "chowdah" and, of course, fried-oyster sandwiches.

The restaurant is in an old five-and-dime shop.

"We started with $200 and a bank loan," said Judy Erskine, owner and top chef.

"I make everything myself," she said.

The restaurant's front window offers a view of nearly everyone and everything in town.

"Where else can you sit and see what's going on in the world?" joked Price, waiting to order her food.

. . .

Across the street, Bristow's is one of the oldest operating stores in Middlesex County. During the early years, cord wood and railroad ties were bought and sold there. An old buggy whip and baby shoes are on display there, among other items from years past.

These days the new owners stock everything from bathing suits to pottery to hand cream.

"We sell a little bit of everything," said Hazel Stover, who has worked there for about 17 years.

On a recent afternoon, when they weren't ringing up sales, Stover and fellow employee Ada Powell spent their time vacuuming.

"We don't like dirt," Stover said.

Bristow's has become as much of a tourist attraction as the town. Visitors especially love the shop's old ladders used to reach items set up high and the section behind the shop counter where men used to gather and crack walnuts and pecans.

"People just love to come see it for some reason," Powell said. "There aren't many old places like it."