Virginia Beach

For Valentines Day this year Mike gave me a great present- he had planned a trip for spring break to Virginia Beach and had arranged with his mom and sisters to keep the kids for most of that time. We called it our second honeymoon. It became even more meaningful when we found out were expecting another baby so would not have the chance to get away kid-free for at least two or three more years. So here is our adventure:

Friday we left after work and school and all sorts of other adventures, like forgetting to leave a key to Lauren so she could feed the cat, and leaving my wallet with the credit cards at home, and having to make a potty stop literally only miles out. Two hours behind schedule we set off, and made it to our hotel room without incident. The next day we finished the trek to Nana's house, dropped the kids off, and stopped by to see Mike's grandma for her birthday. We always try to stop whenever we are there because Mike is afraid each time will be the last since she is over 80 and in poor health.

Mike and I set off, with an empty back seat only to meet DC traffic jams, road construction, and finally, 15 miles from our destination, a blowout in the rain! And just to make things fun, the spare was flat, too. I did not take a picture because one hand held the umbrella for Mike as he changed the tire and the other held my cell phone, ready to dial 9-1-1 if the mini mart we were parked outside was robbed by the gang of gangsters in hoodies who kept arriving to wander around the store with their hands in the their pockets and buy beer. Or if the strange homeless guy who stood watching us the whole time tried to rob us. You never know. I was so happy to get back in the car and drive away, even if it was on a slightly deflated spare that we had to inflate at the next gas station.

It was cold and gray the first few days we were there, and we had to sacrifice an afternoon to the tire store, but I think we made the best of things.

Gray and stormy, but pretty anyway. The view from our balcony.

We climbed this lighthouse- The Old Cape Henry Lighthouse

We went to the very windy beach by the lighthouse. They had a problem with sand drifts.

On one of the particularly wet days we went to the movies and to a bowling alley. I only took a picture of the score for the game I won. I know, I am biased.

We drove in to Colonial Williamsburg. We didn't do the little town tour, as half the stuff was closed for rain and the other half was packed with under-supervised high school kids. And who needs to pay $40 to hang out with high school kids? We went to a museum instead.

We took a picture of the very large plantation cow for Andrew.

We also drove by Presidential park, a little museum that has a replica of the oval office and other presidential stuff, and a garden with a giant statue of each president's head. They wanted $20 to go see the heads, so we just took a picture over the fence and went to dinner instead. A good trade, I think.

By Wednesday we were determined to go to the beach, even though it was freezing and wet. We went to Old navy and bought some hats and gloves off the clearance rack and some rain ponchos from the tourist shop and went beach walking.

I was fascinated by this sea foam stuff. I had never seen it before, and kept thinking of the Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Anderson. Poor girl.

Thursday the kids came with Mike's sister Tammy, and thankfully they brought some sunshine with them. We were finally able to remove a few layers and get our feet wet.

I couldn't resist- who goes to the beach and doesn't write their initials in the sand?

I am still waiting for emailed photos to put a post about the week from the kids perspective. I will put that in a new post. I think this one is long enough! So that is our trip in photographs. Thank you to all of the relatives who helped make it happen, especially to my husband who is absolutely wonderful!