Today I had a day off - see it was so rigorous having 8 whole hours of training yesterday. I had to fill out forms and read papers ... let me tell you I was long overdue for a day of rest.So today I decided to brave the tourists and the souvenir shops and I headed to the Virginia Beach resort area. It's just a left turn outside of my complex then a mere 12 miles down the road. On the way, the road takes you past First Landing State Park which is on Cape Henry. This is where the original Jamestown settlers landed back in 1607. Apparently they hung out here for a while and didn't like it (can't imagine why, likely the men thought the women would spend too much time sunbathing) so they headed up the James river a ways and built Jamestown. I think there's something or other there like a lighthouse and a monument but I'll explore that another day.
Anyway, I quickly turned onto Atlantic Avenue which goes along the ocean front. Large hotels line both sides of the road with the fanciest directly on the ocean front. Along the avenue there are dozens of shops, mainly your garden variety tourist traps where you can get a VA Beach magnet with your name on it (unless of course you're born in our NICU and are named MaKayiTeita), exciting tshirts of all varieties including the world famous "My (insert family member)
After buying my souvenirs and having an ice cream cone, actually point of fact it was a frozen custard cone - who knew they had frozen custard outside of mid-Missouri?? but I digress - so after eating my custard cone I found a spot on the beach. It was relatively crowded as the picture on the left shows, but it wasn't ridiculous and there was plenty of sand for anyone to claim. I laid out my brand new Virginia Beach souvenir towel and headed into the Atlantic for the first time!
I should mention that my ocean experience is pretty limited, or more precisely non-existent. When I was about 12 my family went to Panama City, FL so I have swam in the Gulf of Mexico. Of course I got so sunburned on the first day there that I could barely move and my eyes were almost swollen shut ... that was a fabulous vacation - excrutiating pain and people staring at me as if I was a circus freak... again I digress. So other than that experience, I haven't been in the ocean.
It was so fun to hang out in the waves and I completely forgot about the salt water until I got the first taste of it in my mouth. I bobbed in the waves and body surfed like a little kid until my fear of overwhelming sunburn kicked in and I went back to my souvenir beach towel for more sunscreen.
After the swim, I walked along the "boardwalk" which any person from farther North will mock given that it's cement and there's not a board in sight. As you can see in the pic on the left, it's basically an oversized sidewalk, but it does run 3 miles along the beach and seemed popular with runners. I headed up to the fishing pier (seen in the distance on the pic on the right) but
refused to pay the $2 charge to walk out on it - it was $8 if you were planning to fish or catch crabs, though I would think that the marine life would spread the word to stay away from there. Thus concluded my first day at the ocean. I should mention that I didn't see many single men, except for ones that appeared homeless ... and I'm not THAT desperate :)also, FYI my friend's baby is much improved. Still in the NICU, but it looks like he'll be out in a few days which is great news!! I think they should come surfing here next month - after all he
This is Bode's going home picture, ain't he a cutie??
2 comments:
looks great there! Yep I was causing a bit of a stir at Otter Lake. I was in a cove and just did out and backs for about 50 minutes. The group of people kept asking Micaela when I was going to stop. Looks like I'll see you at Lewis & Clark. I just signed up for the marathon. Keep training hard.
That's so cool - the area near the fishing pier is exactly where I was with my kids - I have some pics with it in the background!
Looks like things are going well. Enjoy the beach!
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