A Brief Respite Before the Chaos

Upon returning to Pittsburgh after my brother's wedding, Amber and I spent a day unpacking, washing clothes, and repacking in preparation for a short vacation to Virginia Beach (about a 7.5 hr drive from Pittsburgh). We stayed at the La Quinta Inn just two blocks from the oceanfront and had a great time taking it easy for a few days. We spent a lot of time just hanging out in the hotel and taking advantage of cable TV, mostly watching the Olympics. We found a couple local restaurants that were outstanding. The first day we were there, we visited historic Cape Henry, which is now a military base (they had to search our car before we were let in) but is known in the history books as the site the Jamestown settlers first landed in the Americas as well as the site of an importan naval battle between the French and British during our Revolutionary War. Nearby, is First Landing State Park, where we entered and hiked through a nature filled with swampland and spanish moss. It wasn't the greatest hike we've taken (particularl all the mosquito bites we received), but I did see a few interesting things along the way. That night, we rented one of those family, side-by-side bicycles, which was a lot of fun (they're very hard to turn, I might add) just strolling along the boardwalk, people watching, and looking out at the ocean.

The next day, we spent a few hours out at the beach. The water was quite warm, and while Amber lounged in a chair on the sand, I spent some time diving over some waves. At one point, I found a boogie board in the trash can with a picture of Spiderman on it with the title "Spiderman 2" on it (We saw some 5 year-olds with "Spiderman 3" mini-boogie boards. Ha!) and had some fun with that for a while, until the lifeguard kept blowing her whistle at me for being too far out... which she usually did to ten year olds. Apparently, Amber was right when she said, "As soon as you got that Spiderman boogie board in your hand, you decreased your age by about ten years." Then, by the time we got back to the hotel, I had discovered that the sun tan lotion I had used - which had expired - did absolutely no good. So, needless to say, I'm in a bit of pain in those areas of my body that rarely see the light of day.

That night, we took a ride on a boat to go dolphin watching. It wasn't long before we saw dozens of dolphins swimming around, quite active at sunset and surprisingly close to shore. They were extremely difficult to take pictures of, but I think I managed at least a couple that proved we actually saw some.

On our last day, we made plans to make a few stops on the way home, but only managed to stop at one of them. We had planned to stop at Jamestown, but Amber was feeling a particular high degree of morning sickness, so we decided to skip it (it appeared to have been made into a kind of tourist trap anyways). We did manage to stop at the site of the Battle of Fredericksburg, one of the Union armies worst losses during the Civil War. Unfortunately, the battlefield is one of the worst preserved historic sites, as most of the field where the battle occurred is now covered with new streets and housing. However, what was offered in the museum and on the free tour was enjoyable for me (while sick Amber sat in the car), and there was one house on the Confederate lines still standing that still bears evidence of the battle with its bullet holes.