Belated Travel Log

Okay, here is my revised travel log. Below,we are on our way to the airport, all with big smiles, and then, finally, the happy family at LAX Airport, ready to go! Can you believe we traveled with only two suitcases, an overnight bag for bathroom stuff, and one more for shoes?!

 

 

Shortly after we arrived in Virginia Beach we went downtown to the Nauticus museum – not to see the exhibits there, but to see the USS Wisconsin.  The Wisconsin is one of the Iowa-class anti-aircraft ships, first deployed in WWII, and later during the Korean War and Desert Storm. The ship (you don’t call Navy ships “boats”!) is going to be retired from service, but until that is official, only the deck is currently open to the public. Do you like the paint color scheme? That gray combination is the least visible to the enemy in all kinds of weather.

 

 

Unfortunately I am not one of those organized people who keeps a record of photo subjects.  Because of this I have a bunch of pictures of Navy ships and have no idea what class they are or why I took their photos.  (I am sparing you most of them!)  The same day we saw the Wisconsin we took a two-hour tour of the Elizabeth River and Virginia Beach harbor area. Among other things, we saw the largest military hospital in the USA, ships in dry-dock, shipping containers awaiting loading or unloading (now you know where all those looooonnnnggg trains go!), and several multi-million dollar condos. A couple days later we also went to the Navy base with my BIL, and those photos are included here as well, since they are sort of in the same category.  I got yelled at for taking pictures of two submarines, but I figure if it was that serious, they would have confiscated my camera. They are so low in the water that you can't see them here anyway!

 

 Next day we went to the botanical garden. Unfortunately we were in Virginia the week AFTER the azaleas were in bloom, but it was very pretty anyway. They have a webcam on this bald eagle’s nest, which I found interesting because I thought bald eagles nested way far away from civilization. We actually got to see the nest in the park, way up in a big tree.  The nest weighs 400 lbs and is as big as a Volkswagen Beetle!  I am such a great photographer, you can sort of see one of the parent eagles if you use your imagination.  It is on a limb, looking downward. In the other photo two of the young eagles are silhouetted. They were almost as big as their parents, and they were getting ready to fly, but we did not see them leave the nest. This is also where we saw the snake!

One beautiful afternoon we all (my family, MIL, FIL, and BIL) went down to the Virginia Beach boardwalk.  We had a great time racing bikes, splashing in the water, investigating ladybugs, and being together.  All along the boardwalk are these signs telling about various points of area history.  I took pictures of all of them, because my party was in too big a hurry to read everything :o)  This one below tells how Witchduck Road got its name. Hope you can read it -- it's an interesting story.

 Saturday morning cousins Ben and Annie made Swedish pancakes for us, yum, yum!  I posted a photo of the finished product earlier.  They were SO yummy! The girls had such a good time playing with their cousins.  This was the first time in five years that they had seen each other, so it was like making new friends all over again. We were shown fabulous hospitality. Sunday after church and a delicious rib dinner in honor of my sweet mother-in-law, we took off for Cape Henry and Fort Story.  This is the site of the First Landing of our nation's forefathers, in the year 1607, the cause for the big 400th Anniversary celebration at Jamestown.  We didn't get to Jamestown this trip, but we did get to colonial Williamsburg.  No pictures of that on this post, but maybe later.  Below is a marker commemorating the First Landing, and one of the Virginia Beach boardwalk signs telling about it.  Also at Fort Story are two lighthouses located only a few hundred yards from each other.  The old one was built in the late 1700's, and that is the one we climbed.  It is 191 steps from the ground to the top.  It not a tough climb, but this oldish, out of shape body felt the descent in my knees and thighs for several days afterwards! Cape Henry is a great site for collecting seashells and wandering on the beach.  It was a very blustery day and we desert people were freezing, but it was wonderful. This is just what I imagined the Atlantic coast to look like.

Monday my in-laws treated us to a day at Williamsburg.  We could have spent a lot more time there!  The kids really enjoyed seeing people in period costume, and they found some of the shops interesting, especially the wig-maker's.  She had one wig made of birds' feathers, which would keep one's head dry in the rain. Personally, I would settle for an umbrella...  We also got to go strawberry picking.  We picked 30 lbs of strawberries and enjoyed the "fruit" of our labors, hee hee!  Strawberries on cereal, strawberries on ice cream, strawberries on lemon bars, strawberry rhubarb pie, and of course, just plain old fresh strawberries, which were the best of all. What did you say?  Did you ask how much weight we gained while we were gone?  Nevermind.  I am still trying to lose it...

Well, that's it for tonight!  It has been a busy week and promises to be another.  My apologies to those of you to whom I owe comments and messages!!!