Earlier this month Rob and I took a drive down to the wildlife refuge near Virginia Beach. We got in late at night as it was raining pretty heavily and traffic was thick coming down from DC. Luckily a great beach side grill was open and serving cold beer and warm seafood right across the street from our hotel so we headed over there and filled our bellies with goodness.
First thing the next morning we drove to the top of VB to see the swamp at First Landing State Park.
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| The "knees" of the cypress trees that function to deliver oxygen to the tree |
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| Hello Turtle |
Next we drove onto a military base to see a couple of lighthouses.
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| Here I am descending the stairs of the old Cape Henry lighthouse |
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| This is the new Cape Henry lighthouse |
After leaving the base, we drove back into town, grabbed lunch at Taste Unlimited, and rented bikes that we rode around for the rest of the afternoon.
Our first stop was this gorgeous old hotel called
The Cavalier which is supposedly haunted. Follow the link for some historic photos of the hotel. After riding through the old VB neighborhoods, we headed back to the boardwalk where we found a little amusement park.
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| Photos from our bike ride around Virginia Beach |
After we turned our bikes in for the evening, we had dinner at Tautogs and then went to Skinny Dip for frozen yogurt for dessert. Skinny Dip is a giant frozen yogurt bar with several flavors of frozen yogurt (including red velvet) and all manner of toppings.
The next day we drove down to the wildlife refuge. Here are some of the photos we took:
After walking for a number of miles on the refuge, we headed for a quiet beach called little island beach and made a giant sandcastle that we modeled off a caste we toured in Rome called Castle
Sant'Angelo. It was a really ambitious undertaking and my body was so sore the next day, but it was really really fun!
Here is a picture of it from my iphone:
