Picture Perfect Cooking

Today’s post is the second installment of our virtual vacation.  I am taking you on the journey that C & I enjoyed on our road-trip vacation a couple of weeks ago.  Last week, we drove from our home to Lexington, Virginia, via Foamhenge.  Today, we finally see water!!!

We left Lexington, Virginia on Monday morning heading toward Virginia Beach.  Richmond was the next bigger city that we would drive through and we busted rush hour wide open!  Even the interstate was curvy!  I kept watching the road signs all the way just counting the miles down until we got to our destination.  When we arrived in Hampton, we were met with a surprise…the 2nd tunnel of our trip, and this one went under the water of Hampton Bay.  I could tell that we were really landlubbers, because when we saw the bay, we just oohed and aahed over the size.  We thought it was amazing, and we hadn’t even seen the ocean yet.

C loved seeing all of the Navy ships that were in the bay.  He can name just about all of the different types.

Next was the tunnel.  Here we go…

I hope you can tell from these photos that you go down and down in to the tunnel and then climb back up to the light at the end.  Boy, was I glad to see that light, too!  This tunnel brought us into Norfolk, which is a beautiful city.  We really enjoyed the time we spent there, but that is a story for another Thursday.

I was getting so excited and it seemed like it took forever to get to our final destination…Virginia Beach.  Why was Virginia Beach so special that we picked it for our first ocean view ever?  There are a few reasons.  One was that C wanted to see Foamhenge and it was along the way there.  Another is that my Mom played on the shores of Virginia Beach when she was just a toddler.  My grandfather was in the Army and stationed near Williamsburg, so he, my Nanny, and Mom (my Aunt M wasn’t around yet) would go to the beach and play.  Nanny has always talked about being there and I thought it would be a special thing to walk where they walked when they were at the ocean, and it was.  I felt Mom’s presence with me on numerous occasions and I so wished that I could talk to her in person to tell her I got to go, but deep down I know she knows everything that we got to experience.  Here is a photo of my mom at Virginia Beach…

We had finally arrived and made our way down to Atlantic Avenue where our hotel was located right on the beach front.

We stayed at the Hampton Inn-Oceanfront North and it was an awesome hotel.  All of the rooms have oceanfront balconies, mini-fridges, and microwaves.  I highly recommend it.

Here is our first view of the Atlantic Ocean…

…and our first self-portrait there.

One thing I definitely noticed was the wind.  All of the pictures that I am in look like this or worse…windblown.  The ocean and beach were so amazing and gorgeous that it was overwhelming.  I could have sat there and watched it the whole time we were there, but I didn’t.  We saw and did some really cool things that I plan to share with you in the coming weeks.

That evening we walked the boardwalk, got our toes wet in the surf, and watched the sunset which was a beautiful end to an amazing day!

Read Full Post »