Navy, Norfolk, New Shirts, and Neptune

One perk about being on vacation is the ability to sleep in. All of us took advantage of that perk this morning and woke up around 9:00. The first thing William asked was "Can we go play shuffle-board now?" With no real schedule, we said why not and grabbed some equipment from the resort. William had played in Yellowstone and was a "pro", and taught the rest of us the "rules". Romney and William could not get enough of this game and played for around an hour.


After a rousing game of senior citizen shuffle-board, we took off towards the south east, headed for the Naval Ship Yards in Norfolk. The only things I remembered about Norfolk were: you have to cross two bridges and go through one underwater tunnel to get there, I went to many great concerts at a Venue called "The Boathouse" (which reminds me, I should look it up to see if it is still standing), and it was scary crime wise and that is why I never went without the lure of a great band in town. We did see some seedier parts of town on our drive to the harbor, but Bill was determined to take the boys on a tour of the USS Wisconsin warship. Of course, they loved it! It was a perfect boy destination. We all decided after touring it, that we did not want to live on a boat for any long period of time!




The boat was actually docked in the harbor as part of the Naval Museum, and admission was free. It had an amazing view of the harbor, being on the water and a great set of binoculars on board. The boys loved scouring each corner looking for treasures not yet discovered and pointing out cool things to Bill and I after they were done.




After finishing at the boat, we started the second half of our day, by heading to Virginia Beach to play in the sand. On our way to the beach, Bill and I simultaneously remembered the fashion importance of having a 17th street surf shop shirt when we were kids. I mean, you had to have one. The shop was famous for it's great t-shirt designs which changed at least quarterly. It was very hip to have a retired, cool design. We decided it would be fun to buy the boys one to take home, even though it was merely a souvenir to them. Every time Bill and I see them wearing their shirts it will now bring back all kinds of fun memories, and we will get a grin out of it.

After the successful t-shirt hunt we finally found a prime parking spot and headed to the actual beach. We had stopped at a Wal-mart to try and find some beach toys. They were sold out of the convention equipment, but we did find a wonderful turtle shaped kite on clearance. We also got creative and found a big red salad bowl in the kitchen items and a spade from the garden center and left feeling like that would do the trick. We were right. William was our kite master, playing with the kite for at least an hour, before going in the water. Romney had a blast digging tunnels and making holes in the sand looking for water. With the boys too busy playing with the new gear, Bill and I had to take our own sorry-looking self-portrait to get a photo of us on the beach. We were enjoying relaxing together on the sand and watching our offspring frolicking.


Having found water, Romney could not wait to get himself fully immersed in the whole water experience. He would cover himself in the wettest sand (almost mud) and then lay face first in the surf to wash it all off with the waves. He loves to get out in the water and has no fear (although, I am sure I have enough for both of us).





William had no trouble getting our turtle into the air. It practically flew itself up into the sky with the nice breeze we enjoyed. Once it was up, William worked on trying to get it to do tricks for him. He was great at making the turtle look like it was swimming in the sky.










At the point that the sun was just about to go down, we called the kids out of the water. They were both disappointed to leave, but we were nervous that they would be freezing and once the sun went down, they would have no way to warm up. Plus, we were all hungry from our long day. We found a charming greek place right on the beach with amazing service. All of the servers had very thick accents and the owner was delightful and took great care of us. We sat out on the patio and watched the waves rolling in and felt the cool evening beach breeze as we waited for our food. At the end of the meal, two belly dancers came out to entertain the diners. Bill and I loved it and found it hilarious. William and Romney were repulsed.

One final note to the day: Water seemed to be the theme of the day, not only from our boat tour and beach time, but Romney was so well hydrated he had to use the restroom every 8 minutes. It was difficult finding that many places to go away from the hotel room. The good news is if you ever need a restroom in Norfolk or Virginia Beach, I can help you locate one.