Author: Lmnei

Fairly late breaking in the planning of our vacation, I found out about the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia. It is the companion facility to the National Air and Space Museum that is already on our list of things to do in Washington, D.C. At the Udvar-Hazy Centre there are hundreds of planes and space crafts, along with thousands of smaller items like engines, on display in a hangar-like building. My plan was to visit this museum when we flew into Washington DC at the beginning of September, however as our flight was 2 hours late and as the facility was soon to close, we had to postpone the visit to when we returned to Washington DC. Oh, how I misjudged just how wonderful this museum was going to be! We had plans to do BOTH this museum AND the National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC today and we only made it to this one near Dulles Airport as it was so good! We also returned the rental car and then took the metro back into DC to our hotel.

First, the entrance and overview of the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Centre at Dulles Airport.

Okay, I promised my father not to post the precisely 312 pictures that I took – I think I can narrow them down to make a good compilation! From the entrance on the 2nd floor, to my right were mostly military based panes. To the left are commercial planes, following with space being in the back of the building. Finally, we went up to the 3rd floor to take some sky shots. Here are overview shots from the 2nd floor entrance balcony before we went down a nice LONG switchback ramp 🙂

Time to go down to the 1st floor and check out the military side first!

Now we will walk over to the other side of the hanger where things really get fun and BIG! In between the BIG planes are some other countries planes and some early flight apparatuses…

The Concorde was also in this hall with the other commercial planes, however due to its size, was hard to get a good picture of it. Here are a couple of angles! While this is an Air France plane, it has been about 40 years since I have stood under a Concorde – that was a British Airways one, with the Queen and Prince Phillips on board, while it took off from YVR at 6am one Richmond morning. My dad and I almost dropped our cameras as the pilot turned on the afterburners and the ground shook at that point in time!

Now we move to the centre of the hanger and this black stealth plane – beautiful sight!

Now for the awesomeness that is at this museum – I present the Challenger – the most used space craft in the history of the US Space program! While this display was a bit less awesome than the one at Cape Canaveral with the Atlantis – it still was awesome to see this close! First though a tour around the shuttle…

Now, let’s look at all the displays from the 3rd floor! A panorama image that I took… Entrance straight ahead and shuttle is behind me.

Now we have left the building and are on our way back to the hotel in Washington, DC. Hmm, $100 US Uber or taxi fare or take the Metro for a total of $9? Well, the Metro won!

Food – gluten free and awesome! Ordered from a local pizza chain which had high ratings for Celiac safe meals. Andrew of course had pizza and beer. Oh and that is apple juice NOT beer!

Tomorrow – we are off to discover Washington, DC. Thanks for making it to the end of this day – for someone who loves airplanes and flying, it was a surprising experience finding this museum and all that it had to offer and on top of it all – it was FREE! Also going from over 300 pictures to 100 was a bit of a challenge!

Today we are leaving beautiful Norfolk and driving north to Washington, DC. The day is partially overcast so we are not going to be driving in the hot such which is excellent! Before we leave though some pictures of our lovely hotel room at the Sheraton Norfolk Waterfront.

Funny story – other than it being VERY high – the 4 poster bed was the highlight of the suite in more ways that one! The king mattress was very soft and almost too comfortable, however it did not really fit the bed which was a strange size. Underneath it were 2 twin box springs. The bed was okay, once I figured how to pole jump into it however when getting out of it in the morning the twin box spring underneath fell to the ground and caused my side of the bed to collapse! That both woke me up fast and was a bit scary! So while we were out, they brought engineering to fix the bed. The next day the same thing happened but to Andrew! So this time I went to the front desk and had a chat with them about it. About an hour later I received a phone call from the Assistant GM, Chris apologizing for the issue and telling me that they were puzzled how the bed was collasping so he went and looked at it and he found out that it is the ONLY bed of its type in the whole hotel! Engineering came and fixed it again by putting a brace between the two box springs so they would not move and also a sheet of plywood on top just as an added layer of safety. This suite, which is a Junior Suite, used to be named the Presidential Suite and thus the “Presidential” type of bed. The only issue is it is now a wheelchair accessible suite and that bed is too high for someone in a wheelchair to transfer into… Other than that it was a very beautiful room!

The other good news is I have figured out that the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, while a toll road, one can pay the toll at a toll booth so we are good to go and take my originally planned route to Washington, DC! This will take us over the Bay Bridge Tunnel and up the Virginia/Maryland peninsula on a state highway before crossing over into Washington, DC. On the other route, we would be driving Interstate freeways, which are MUCH less exciting at times – the concrete jungle! Here are some pictures of us crossing the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel which while I remember it being a VERY LONG transit, when sitting in the back of a station wagon as a child, with very hot and muggy, it was much shorter and more pleasant this time!

Wow – $16.00 later and we are now across the 28 km bridge and tunnel and onto land again! We followed State Route 13 up the peninsula until I had the brilliant idea of wanting to see the Atlantic one more time – so we deviated over to Chincoteague Island to check it out! What a cute community it is! More of a vacation/summer destination it looked like however there is definitely a risk to living there – it is on a delta – which we drove across and flooding would be a HUGE problem as you will see in the pictures below. I did not take that many pictures on the drive as I was enjoying it myself and doing some knitting at the same time. Then the sun started to set and that was the end of my ability to snap pictures for the day easily from the car!

So we are now back on the State Route 13 and drove non-stop, avoiding toll roads (which was not that hard from this direction) into Washington DC. Our hotel, the Residence Inn Downtown is smack in the middle of downtown, fairly close to the White House in terms of tourist sights.
I found out that Andrew and I have two VERY different driving styles at this point. Andrew is a VERY good driver and does excellent on highways and I know that he loves to drive. However I have driven in Washington DC previously and he has not. We had a BIT of tension while navigating the downtown area as like Vancouver they have one way streets, you cannot turn on right and they have fairly large traffic circles. Due to my past driving experience when working for Class Software and we did not have phones or GPS’s to guide us, I used to memorize where I needed to go using acronyms for the streets. I still practice that today to a lesser extent as we do have Google Maps. However, I also drive (which means I navigate too) by feel and Andrew needs advance warning and that does not mesh with driving in some city dy. Very confusing! Oh well, we made it, got checked in and into our hotel room and the valet (only option) parked the car for the night at a whopping $54.00! Good thing we are returning the car tomorrow!

Up again to visit Omar on the 10th floor for breakfast! He is such a welcoming presence at this hotel. After completing some blog posts to catch up, we were off first to the National Historic Site of Yorktown Battlefield. It looked interesting to me (in fact this whole area is fascinating) and when we entered the visitors centre we were met with a wonderful volunteer that told us about the drives we could take around the battlefields. She also asked to have our admission fees waived, as we are Canadians and the government does not provide the Access Pass to Canadians which she thinks is bad as Canada gives their Access Pass to Americans! I did not know that! It was actually the ranger at the admissions desk who did it – he has a lifetime membership to the National sites as he is a veteran, so he just said we could be admitted under his pass. Very nice thing to do! We looked around, the visitors centre was small and then left to do the drive. There were 2 drives – one went from A-E and the other one places F – K if I remember correctly. Sometimes it was hard to see the marker however we persevered. They also had an app that provided recorded information about each site that one visited which was really awesome as we could play it on the car radio. We then visited the following sites:

• First Tour – Red line
• A – British Inner Defense Line
• B – Grand French Battery (there were no guns displayed there)
• C – Second Allied Siege Line (again no guns)
• D – Redoubts 9 and 10
• E – Moore House
• F – Surrender Field
• Second Tour – Yellow line
• G – American Artillery Park
• H – General Washington’s Headquarters
• I – French Cemetery
• J – French Artillery Park (there were cannons here)
• K – French Encampment Area
• L – Untouched Redoubt

Here are the pictures of the tours along with a couple extra signs from in between –

After touring that large area and learning about the war between the British/French and Americans with assorted other people we just had enough time to visit one more place – was it going to be Jamestown Settlement or the Jamestown Historic Village? Based on the fact that I like ships and recreation type places over archaeological digs (which is more what the Village is) we settled on the Settlement (get that pun dad?) We only had 90 minutes to visit however I was sure it could be done! I asked at the entrance counter if the ships were wheelchair accessible and I was told yes – so we paid to go in. Not sure what the gentleman at the front desk was thinking about – he charged Andrew a Senior rate and me an Adult rate. Go figure.

The grounds are not large, however they contain a Virginia Indian (yes this is correct to say) settlement for the Paspahegh, who speak the Algonquin language – which this language runs all the way up to Canada. It was very interesting and when you went into their abodes, they even smelled like fire had been in them! There were volunteers appropriately dressed talking to other visitors however we did not stick around as I wanted to see the ships that were advertised as part of the display. We walked down to the waterfront, past the fort which is also part of the display to see the ships. Hmm. Something is wrong. These are NOT accessible! Yes there is a ramp but there also are stairs and a mobility device will not work on them! A bit frustrated, I asked a man who looked like he was wearing ID for the Settlement and sure enough he worked there and was in charge of the ship display. He had only worked there for 2 weeks and confirmed that the 3 ships, of which 2 were on the dock and the other one out for re-furbishment, were definately not accessible and a ticket should not have been sold to me. He offered to walk us back to the reception building in order to get it solved. I mentioned that we wanted to visit the fort and the museum quickly prior to 5pm when the museum closed. He was really nice and walked us to the fort, gave us an overview and then said he would be back to take us to the museum and to get me a refund! Wow – what customer service!

The fort area was really interesting – especially the person dressed up as a doctor from the 1700’s and had a surgeon’s kit! It was a small example of a village but an excellent one at that. Our friend then met us and showed us where the museum was, took us to the reception so I could receive my refund and then walked us back to the correct museum door to start the visit. He had just retired from the Navy and had been stationed on the ship Wisconsin, which is now part of the Nauticus museum in Norfolk. I think he was a little disappointed when I told him that we had not had the time to get to the museum, however we had seen the ship as we had driven by it. He then told me that he has his “Wisconsin” reunion for the ship coming up on Saturday, September 21st at the Sheraton Hotel which is nearby. They have reunions every 2 years. I laughed and he looked at me strangely and I said we have been staying at that hotel and there is a JAG conference going on right now, which I think ended today, however the Chef told me that he has 2 big events this weekend! What a small world I said. He was really looking forward to going to the event. He then left us at the museum entrance and we went and zoomed through checking it out! The display actually reminded me a bit of being in the Royal Victoria museum in Victoria, BC with the way they had the display cases etc – different subject however similar feel. Again, a VERY good exhibit that I wish we could have spent longer at however thems the brakes! Then it was off to the store to find more stickers for my sticker project where I was successful and we left at 4:59pm just on time!

Saying we were SO CLOSE to Williamsburg, we could not leave the area without driving through it on the way home from Jamestown. It was only supposed to be 10 minutes out of our way. However Google Maps had other ideas and instead of sending us to downtown Williamsburg, it decided to send us to a housing development called “Colonial Williamsburg”! I wonder how many people have made that mistake! We corrected Google, which 97.5% of the time is good in North America, and ended up downtown checking out the main street, the prestigious university, William & Mary and cruising the residential streets back to the highway into Norfolk.

On the way back into Norfolk, I had read and checked out on the internet, a restaurant that has a good gluten free menu called Bakers Crust so we decided to check it out! Well, this time the internet did not lie – the beautiful caprese salad and a shrimp, real crab and asparagus pasta were awesome! Andrew had a pulled pork sandwich with some very awesome tasting fries for his dinner. As tomorrow is a travel day, we also invested in a GF pizza (forgot to take a pic!) to go. Oh and also we had vanilla bean ice cream with chocolate sauce for desert! That has not been happening much on this vacation so it was time to imbibe!

Okay, now we are full, it is back to the hotel to get some sleep as tomorrow is one of our longer driving days to Washington, DC!

We have two more days in this area and two “groups” of day trips that I want to make! Today we are heading to Newport News where there is the Virginia Air and Space Science Centre created by NASA. I thought this would be interesting as the other aeronautical museums we have seen and are yet to see 🙂 are either Smithsonian related or the Wright Brothers which I was already aware of its quality as a National entity.

Still avoiding toll roads, which one runs right through Norfolk to the tunnel over to Newport News and places north, we again drove a main street until we could join the highway – this time it was a different main drag though so it was interesting compared to yesterday’s trip back into Norfolk! I wrote about the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel yesterday, I was not aware there are MORE bridges and tunnels for the Chesapeake Bay and we are about to go through another one! This one is toll free too! There is heavy construction going on with this crossing – it looks like they are twinning the roads however not sure about the tunnels of which there is one in each direction. There was another bridge with traffic in the other direction which the blue apparatus (which looks like the one used for the Skytrain in Vancouver funny enough) was building segments for. I took some photos below.

Once on the other side it did not take long to get to Newport News and find the Space Museum. These places tend to be large and tall due to their static displays. I was really looking forward to this museum and had chosen to visit it first, over two other places as I wanted to get a different perspective on flight etc. So far, I have found the American museums that we have visited – from the Transportation, to Flight, to Illusions to the various National Places to be excellent. I did not expect anything less from a NASA sponsored museum. It had some really great displays and an IMAX film (which really I could have passed on as a film about Medical Science is a bit strange considering the type of museum) however what this museum really stressed was the interactive displays (which are meant more for kids – of all ages of course!). I have seen a LOT of static displays however I was really looking forward to the interactive part and it was frustrating that 50% of the things I tried either did not work but were on display or I, the daughter of an engineer who is pretty smart when it comes to these things, could not figure out how to get them to work! So despite the great displays etc I at least left disappointed. I also do not like paying full price for a museum that I cannot experience all the exhibits and there were some that required you to go up stairs or into places that were just not possible for me to go (that other adults would be able to get into). I did take pictures though – here they are!

Well, that was a 10,000 step experience! I know I have some cool pictures however if my mind is not engaged in a museum (I know my mother is probably laughing right now) I get frustrated with the cost of admission.

After looking at the next place (Nature Park) is a 30 minute drive and it will close in 90 minutes we cut our losses and decided to go back into Norfolk and perhaps go for dinner at a GF restaurant that I had found on the way. After a LOT of traffic, we ended up at the hotel and upstairs for appies and shared my prepared appie platter between us along with some food we had still in our fridge downstairs. Tomorrow – we are doing a history lesson for Andrew! Battlefields and Williamsburg!

Today we are going to a place where I have previously worked, however was not able to enjoy. When previously at Virginia Beach I flew into Norfolk, drove to VB, held a meeting and then the next day worked for the day and then moved onto the next city which I believe was Richmond, Virginia, if my memory serves me correctly (all within driving distance). Other than the beautiful beach view, I remember being too tired to go out on the Boardwalk and having issues finding a place to eat the night that I was needing dinner. That is the extent of my memory – however I have always wanted to go back and here we go!

Virginia Beach is less than an hours drive from Norfolk. We drove there and parked at 11th street. Virginia Beach Boardwalk seems to run from 1st street in the south, to about 40th street in the north. The actual beach carries on however it becomes residential neighbourhoods we saw later in our drive. We found lots of available meter street parking and also accessible street parking without meters where you do not have to pay if you are there less than 4 hours – similar to Vancouver! Very cool and hospitable! We got out and walked the block to the beach. Hotels line the beach – every brand and type you can think of. While I did not take very good pictures to the south, there was a VERY large white tent that had been put up and front end loaders were taking a huge white sand pile from near by and depositing it into the tent. We later found out that this weekend is a professional sand castle competition and that they cannot use beach sand but they have to bring in special white sand which is then watered down for the competitors to use.

We started walking down the LOVELY boardwalk which really is a paved wide sidewalk which is very nice as it has a pedestrian area and then off to the side a bike area and the two did not meet as long as we were on it! It makes it so much safer to walk! I can imagine (and I have seen) just how packed this would be in the summer months – especially when you get up past the pier which is where we are heading to! For every set of stairs down to the beach there was also a ramp, however the ramp was generally filled with sand and then there was MORE sand to walk on on the beach – not good. Then I spotted a sand berm and a lady in a beach wheelchair sitting in it and low and behold – a wooden walkway out there! I am SO going out there! Andrew and I just do not observe the same things as he had NO IDEA why I was so excited! So we got to the ramp down to the beach and instead of it being filled with sand at the bottom it had a little bridge across the bottom to avoid the depression where the water and sand gathered. Then in front, before I turned to the beach, was a wheelchair accessible port-a-potty (very nice) and off I went to the beach on the REAL boardwalk! I had a nice chat with the elderly lady who was down from upper New York with her daughter (who was gathering sea shells at the shore) and she was quite pleased with the big bubble wheel wheelchair she was sort of reclining in and enjoying the atmosphere. We chatted for about 15 minutes as it was quite warm/muggy out (humidity was 95% and temp was 26 C) and her daughter came by to see who her mother’s “friend” was and then not to bore Andrew we decided to move on!

I then wanted to go check out the pier however it costs MONEY to walk out onto the pier – so we did the next best thing as we were hungry and instead ate at a seafood restaurant on the pier! The restaurant is the blue building on the right as you walk onto the pier. Just past the pier entrance gate and the restaurant (and candy store on the left which you cannot see) is the paid entry to the pier were there were a LOT of people fishing for the day. It costs more to visit the pier to fish than just to walk on it. I do not remember having to pay to walk on a pier before so it was no biggie that we did not get to walk out. Besides, piers are awfully hard on my hands and arms due to the bumpiness of the uneven boards/surface. Despite being at a seafood restaurant, I had a deconstructed chicken burger (basically burger without the bun on a plate with knife and fork) and Andrew had their fish and chips which were very good! They DID offer a GF bun but I find unless I know the bun company and how they are toasting it, I would rather pass on the $4 expense that they add onto the bill.

We then walked north some more on the boardwalk, saw people swimming in the Atlantic and having fund and I had another detour to an accessible beach board walk where I found some nice shells! I wanted to get to 24th street where the Lifesaving Museum was (it was closed when it was supposed to be open) and then to about 30th street where the status of Poseidon is located. We made it to 24th street and again I started having problems walking (not sure what is going on there) so as I had seen a trolley bus on Atlantic Avenue, the main drag for Virginia Beach, we decided to take it back to our car. We then drove north, checking out Poseidon, and along Atlantic and the residential area of Virginia Beach to Fort Story where there is a lighthouse on the point. Here are our pictures from the pier to leaving town.

Fort Story lighthouse was a bust – no pun intended! The “winter” hours end at 4pm and it seems to be on a military base so they will only allow people in until that time. We arrived at 4:05pm. Oh well, one less lighthouse to see! So instead we decided to take the leisurely route back to Norfolk, where I was hoping to see the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel (CBBT). The CBBT is a really cool bridge and tunnel I remember being very long when we crossed it in the 1970’s! According to Wikipedia, “it is a 17.6-mile (28.3 km) bridge–tunnel that crosses the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia. It opened in 1964, replacing ferries that had operated since the 1930s. A major project to dualize its bridges was completed in 1999, and in 2017 a similar project was started to dualize one of its tunnels. With 12 miles (19 km) of bridges and two one-mile-long (1.6 km) tunnels, the CBBT is one of only 14 bridge–tunnel systems in the world”. We then drove along the shores of the Chesapeake Bay, past NIA (Norfolk International Airport), multiple US Military bases and then through Norfolk back to our hotel.

Back to the hotel and tired after this day of fresh air and beach time! The fact that I got to get down and visit the beach twice was awesome (no pictures of 2nd visit)! I actually found Virginia Beach, as it had rained pretty hard the day before, quite firm and on the 2nd beach walkout on boards, I did some 4 wheel driving and picked up some beach treasures which I always like to find. As normal, Andrew thinks I was crazy going out there! All that fresh sea air though did us/me in early! Tomorrow will be another road trip – where exactly? We will plan that tomorrow morning – either Williamsburg or to the Newport News area.

We woke up to a fairly grey day today! Perfect day to stay inside and relax! However we had one errand to accomplish and that was to get to the Renaissance Portsmouth Waterfront where a parcel had been delivered for me. The company had gotten mixed up with the Sheraton Norfolk Waterside where we are staying and the one across the Elizabeth River. As to drive would be about 24 miles return by avoiding tolls, considering we could see the hotel from our hotel room at the Sheraton and there was a regular ferry within walking distance, it was the ferry we opted for! Now, to wait out the sleeting rain and we were off on our parcel quest!

However, I also wanted to mention that we are VERY SAFE in this hotel. There is a Navy “JAG” conference going on for the week and the place is FULL of ladies and gentlemen in uniform (some with LOTS of stripes)! If I hear another “ma’am” I am going to scream! They are just SO POLITE – more polite than Canadians which is scary! Such as if one takes the ramp that is not an issue for me, however they make it seem like they have done something extremely wrong and apologize to me! I am going to have to deal with this – just like in Dubai… Okay, now back to regularly scheduled programming…off we go to the ferry!

It was a quick and fun ride over to Portsmouth (took 10 minutes) and we docked at the Southern terminus and then walked to the hotel along the boardwalk. Along the way we ran into a bulbus looking ship that actually was a lighthouse ship that the American navy would use to point out areas of danger before a ship entered a harbour/river etc. This was prior to the permanent buoys that were used that had lights on them to guide ships into where they were going. This ship is now in a cement grave and unfortunately, despite the side door being open, it was closed to visitors.

We then went to the Renaissance Hotel to pick up my package. Now I know why we did not stay here! It is under heavy renovation! It looks very beautiful what they have done however there are definitely shrouds everywhere and noise can be heard. The desk clerk said that the two hotels get confused all the time when it comes to parcels so it was not a problem at all to receive my package! That was very nice! Now we walked to the Northern terminus of the ferry (the two docks are about a 10 minute walk apart which was strange) and took the ferry back to the dock in Norfolk. Along the way we had great views of the Navy shipyard and what was going on there – from a aircraft landing ship to supply ships – both in dry dock and in the water being repaired. Some were under shrouds which makes sense if they are painting or protecting expensive equipment. Such a fun journey for $4 each round trip!

Once we got back to the hotel, the Executive Chef phoned me as I asked about GF options for the buffet in the lounge for both breakfast and in the evening. Darrius, the Executive Chef was a bundle of energy who takes “care of his Celiac friends” and was extremely apologetic as to what happened in the morning (where the GF toast was put in a regular toaster). We had a great chat and he then told me that my food was “his responsibility” for the rest of my stay. Wow what service compared to previous stays on this trip! I think this also has to do with being higher in the Marriott program which allows lounge access and thus access to these small buffets of food. So as Darrius brought the first set of appies to our room, Andrew and I had dinner pretty well arranged for us – snacks and some things from our bag of goodies that we have brought with us from previous hotels on our journey. Tomorrow – Virginia Beach!

Good morning! Well, we were up early to pack and then get going on the road back to Virginia and to visit the city of Norfolk, which is pretty central for doing lots of side trips to places like Virginia Beach, Great Dismal Swamp, Williamsburg and some historic displays around the Chesapeake Bay. This area is also home to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge which is a phenomenon itself, however as it is a toll bridge and we really do not need to cross it, we will just take a look at it from somewhere! I will explain about this later.

I had 2 goals for today before getting to Norfolk – one I mentioned, which was to visit the Great Dismal swamp as I also found it eerily fascinating when we visited it when I was a child and also I needed to find some shells from the beach. I always pick up shells from the beach wherever I go and there will be no exceptions this time with this vast expanse of beaches!

First though, our hotel – I thought I would take a couple of pictures to show you how nice it is on the outside/common areas (except the laundry where there was a leak). I do not have pics of the hotel room though as I forgot to take them!

Next it was Mission Seashell for Lynda. As we drove north, which was awesome as we were next to the dunes, I could watch for entrances that had mats or might be easy to get through instead of the standard stairs up and over the dune. Alas, I saw two of these types of entrances and Andrew very kindly pulled over for me and we got out and went to the beach – again the mat was short so I was on a leash with the very soft sand that is impossible to use a walker once the mat ended. Also, you will note that there are now TWO red flags flying instead of the 1 from previous days. The one red flag is a warning of a rip tide being present. The 2nd red flag is a further warning that no swimming is to take place. These beaches are now not guarded as it is after Labour Day. Oh and it is spitting a bit – such fun!

Now we departed the Outer Banks on our way to the Great Dismal Swamp which is half way between where we are and Norfolk. We arrived at the Great Dismal Swamp Visitors centre in great time and I enquired about how to take boat rides on the swamp like I remember – they are not offered anymore! Oh no! Apparently COVID did them in. So we walked next door where the Park Office is located with a museum and a boardwalk loop of the swamplands and did that instead! Then we came back to the car and ate lunch prior to finding our way to where we are staying tonight – the Sheraton in Norfolk.

On the road again! Now it is supposed to be a short drive (45 minutes) into Norfolk. As I have previously mentioned we are trying to avoid tolls as Avis charges $7.00 on top of EACH toll it has to pay. Google Maps has the ability to “Avoid toll roads”. It has worked really well until today. We were going along a busy street, being kept off the highway I thought due to it being a toll road and then all of a sudden I saw the sign saying “Last Exit before Bridge Toll” so I had Andrew exit quickly! I looked at Google Maps and across the water was our hotel – we could see it from the road. There was a different bridge we could cross however that was a 20 minute re-route – so off we went – re-routed away! It was actually fairly easy to do however I was really surprised that Google Maps did not give us a better warning than that!

We got checked into the hotel and put in an accessible room that was SMALLER than the original one on the Outer Banks. Holy smokes! I knew this hotel was older however this was ridiculous! I left tired Andrew in the room and went back down to the front desk and then they acknowledged that the desk clerk checking me in had made a mistake and that they have a “better” room for me, however it is on the ground floor – is that okay? Fine by me – I just wanted to lie down! Sure enough, at the VERY END of a long hall on the ground floor is our room – a very nice suite with a roll in shower and a separate bedroom space! Very cool – I am happy now! We went upstairs for some appitizers in the lounge and came back downstairs to our room and Andrew asked me when the Harvest Moon was going to be – which I thought it was going to be tomorrow night. Nevertheless, I took pictures of the moon tonight just in case clouds covered it tomorrow night! This Samsung 23 phone does a pretty good job of taking pictures I think!

Inspire Others Videos – Part 1 of 2

Inspire Others Videos – Part 2 of 2

The First Flight Video – Part 1 of 5

The First Flight Video – Part 2 of 5

The First Flight Video – Part 3 of 5

The First Flight Video – Part 4 of 5

The First Flight Video – Part 5 of 5

I am now home and this museum is speaking my language! I love aviation (along with my father) and when we were here in the 70’s I remember being enthralled with the First Flight that the Wright Brothers took! The other really cool thing is it happened the day before my grandfather (my mother’s dad) was born and I remember returning to Vancouver and telling him all about it! My grandfather was a railway man, however I think he understood my excitement as it had to do with engines too! I have always remembered standing on the sand and seeing the markers of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and finally the longer 4th flight and really wanted to return some day. Unfortunately in my working career, I was able to get back to Edenton once, however not all the way to the Outer Banks. Guess where we are going today!

It is now a National Memorial and there is an entrance fee of $10 per person which is reasonable compared to some other places we have visited. When we arrived at 1pm a ranger talk was just starting, so we decided to visit the museum first and attend the next talk at 3pm. The museum is down right amazing. The quality of museums that we have seen have been top notch and heading to the Smithsonian ones in Washington DC where they are fabulous, we really have had an amazing history lesson during our time in North Carolina, Virginia and to come Washington, DC. Anywho, oneward we go – here are some pictures of the display – it started with the brothers Orville and Wilbur and their idea that they had in Dayton, Ohio; their trips to Kitty Hawk on the Outerbanks to test their flight ideas (the wind was good at this location), their restarts and then their successes. Then in another room is a replica of the original plane that flew at Kitty Hawk. Where is the original you ask? I know! It is “flying high” in the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum in Washington DC as I have already seen it there!

Please enjoy these pictures that I took of the museum and the path to the First Flight on Dec 17, 1903. The videos for the “Inspire Others” can be found HERE

Now we visit the big round room that holds the replica of the plane used for the 1st flight and some interesting facts that are around it!

Videos

Click HERE to check out the above movie in 5 segments on the Wright Brothers and others and aviation. All videos are silent.

Still with time until the ranger talk we decided to visit the flight line – we had seen the previous group with the ranger visit the flight line so we knew that the information might be repeated. I, yet again, did not think and thought we could ALSO climb Kill Devil Hill, where the Memorial to the Wright Brothers is located. Once we walked in the wind to the flight line, and along for a little ways to the hill, I turned back as I would rather hear the ranger and deal with the hill later! It was a good decision! That is one TALL hill!

Next we listened to an AWESOME ranger tell the story of the Wright Brothers – it was NOT boring and this ranger obviously has a theatrical background! He did the whole story even down to the coin toss that Orville and Wilbur did to determine who was going to take the 1st flight.

Last, we decided to DRIVE around the Wright Brothers memorial like the guard said we could do when we entered the park. There is parking all around the bottom of the memorial actually and some winding concrete paths winding around the hill up to the top. I was fine not climbing the hill until I saw this other display by an artist of the Wright Brothers plane – in metal, with all the people supporting them in their endeavor behind it – Wilbur (Orville took the first flight), the photographer and others. It was a REALLY cool exhibit and it was totally accessible – although I stayed on the path – I do not like walking that much on crushed gravel. After that, as we were already out of the car and sweating, what was climbing up a hill? It actually was not that bad as we took the longer but less sloped path. Well, what a fabulous view from the top! The actual memorial was not accessible – it had stairs – however I could walk all the way around the top and see up and down the Outer Banks a fair distance! Andrew wanted me to sit on my walker and roll down using my brakes, however I think that would have caused smoking brakes and I still have another 6 weeks to go with my walker, so we walked slowly down instead…

What an amazing day we had at Kitty Hawk! Well, I had an AMAZING day – I hope Andrew learned some things too! We then went back to the hotel and someone I know fell asleep early! Again, all that fresh, sea air is playing tricks on me! Tomorrow we are leaving and traveling to Norfolk Virginia, via the Great Dismal Swamp!

Today is SUPPOSED to be a nice, but not sunny day. There have been pockets of blue sky, however when we started south to Cape Hatteras on Hatteras Island, it seemed to always be overcast and there was a bit of a wind! At the intersection where the highway splits to either go to the mainland (Manteo) or go farther south, where we were going there was a fairly high dune with lots of people flying kites! Such an awesome sight to see! As we drove down the Outer Banks islands we went from which we were already on, to the next of the 3 remaining lighthouses called Bodie Island Lighthouse , then via a nice bridge onto Pea Island and then onto Hatteras Island where the town of Rodanthe is located. Rodanthe has been in the news lately due to several beach houses that have been engulfed by the sea and are falling down and the town/county does not know what to do about them. See pictures. From there we continued to drive down Highway 12 to the Cape Hatteras State Park where the light house is located. Crossing the bridge to Hatteras Island, I thought I saw the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse way off in the distance, however something was wrong! I said to Andrew that I think it is shrouded in scaffolding – it just does not look right! Those black and white stripes are very telling on this lighthouse and they were just not visible.

Sure enough, when we drove closer, I could see that it was under restoration, however there was an even bigger surprise for me in store once we got to the museum and watched the video. I have placed the video HERE. It seems that the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse was NOT in the same place as when we visited it in 1976! Due to the beach eroding over time, where the beach got within 100 feet of the lighthouse, they decided to move it inland in the 1980’s by 1500 feet, which funny enough is the distance the lighthouse originally was from the sea when first built! I will let the video explain the details to you…. We/I also visited/left some money at the store and then walked to the museum which is one of the original houses that was moved also, to check out the display. The other house is used for staff accommodation.

Right now the lighthouse is planned to be back in service in late 2025. They have taken the “light” cupola off the top of it along with all the railings that surround the top where you can stand after climbing the stairs. They have also taken all the paint off, replaced some bricks and are next to repoint them (refill the crevices with mortar around the brick) and then paint the famous striped circular black and white colours of the lighthouse and red base, prior to putting the railings etc back and putting the new light and cupola lifted up via a crane. Then people will be able to climb the 200+ circular steps again to get to the top, which Andrew was able to avoid doing!

Before leaving the park visitors area, we heard that there was going to be a ranger talk, and I LOVE these, they bring me back to our days at Kokanee Park near Nelson where we would camp and go hear the park rangers talk and do fun crafts with us! There were quite a few people at the talk that looked like they were visiting from India, and then some other visitors like us too. Wow we were sure treated to a North Carolina weather show of rain during the talk! It was SO HUMID at that point and felt like rain and sure enough it came down at an angle into the shelter and was bouncing from the ground for about 10 minutes. The ranger thought nothing of it and kept talking while the rest of us moved away from the sides of the covered area that were becoming wet from the liquid sunshine!

Next we drove to the southern end of the park, where there was some wave action however more people seemed to be fishing. As there were no mats for me to walk on we just observed from the car which was at the edge of the dune. On the way back to Highway 12, we saw an interesting sight – not quite sure what to make of it and decided not to try… a wheelchair parking sign and wheelchair logo painted in front of a fence with no other parking available and a long road to walk / roll I presume to the beach!

We/I decided that as we were this far south, we mind as check out Hatteras town, which was 10 minutes away, prior to heading north. It was supposed to have a great Marine Museum there run by a local charity, however on the way there, I found it is only open on weekdays. Hatteras was a cute town – saw a “Red & White” grocery store with a lovely painting on its side. Reminded me of the Red & White grocery store we had near our house in Vancouver before Choices moved into it. Then, we turned around and started driving north and low and behold, as we were driving slowly behind another vehicle, I spotted a ramp to the beach! I just HAD to get out and explore! Luckily Andrew obliged and turned into the parking lot and I was able to check it out!

Here is the drive that we took –

Here are the videos about what happened to the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse over time – very interesting!

Part 1 – Cape Hatteras Lighthouse Move story – 1:44

Part 2 – Cape Hatteras Lighthouse Move story – 0:49

Part 3 – Cape Hatteras Lighthouse Move story – 2:02

Part 4 – Cape Hatteras Lighthouse Move story – 0:58

Part 5 (end) – Cape Hatteras Lighthouse Move story – 1:44

Up in good time (way too early for me at 5am) and due to the weather forecast of a pending rain storm down where the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse is located, we flipped what we had planned to do today (visit Cape Hatteras) with Saturday (visit Corolla, NC on the north Outer Banks) and instead headed out to Corolla today and hopefully visit Cape Hatteras Lighthouse and area tomorrow when the weather is predicted to be better.

Off we drove on the only highway on the Outer Banks, Highway 12 for about an hour north. After driving for about 30 minutes we drove through the the city of Duck on our way to Corolla – what a sight to see some of the plays on words that were used on highway signs for this area! Continuing onward, we went to the Corolla Visitors centre and then proceeded as far north as we could go – to where the highway ends and a sheriff sits in his cruiser to ensure only 4wd vehicles continue onto the beach and they have a permit to do so! We pulled a U turn and soon found we had passed what we were looking for – which was recommended to us by the Visitors Centre – a lovely accessible .6 mile boardwalk trail through the dune forest to the west side of the island to look over the delta area on the sound. There was a small parking lot and sure enough, the one accessible parking spot was empty! What an enjoyable walk in the humidity! Yes, due to the impending weather that humidity is climbing! It was about 75% at that point in time and 25 degrees C in the shade.

Next we drove back down the island a short distance and stopped at the Historic town of Old Corolla, where there also was a Wooden Boat museum, a lighthouse and several stores. First we visited the Wooden Boat museum and what a beautiful display that was! It was in a tall but narrow building with boats in two rows and a ramp up the middle. At the end, at the top of the ramp, was a display area. On each side of the museum were more displays. I was totally enthralled as I like water and boats and remember building with my dad our own wooden dinghy in the workshop. And this display was free! Quite surprising!

Next to the Marine Museum of Corolla is the Corolla lighthouse, pictured in yellow above. It can be climbed like the Cape Hatteras one, yet Andrew decided to pass on it, as we are going to Cape Hatteras area tomorrow. We saw both the lighthouse and next to it, the gift shop (although not accessible) and then went into the Old Town to check out some of the displays there such as the original Lifeguard station and the Corolla Wild Horse Museum/Wild Horse Fund store and display. We also stopped for some coffee/sustinance and I did some shopping as the coffee shop had some really cool photo cards! We then visited the Corolla bookstore which was a bit of a unique experience as it was not accessible at all (it had a ramp but bookcases inside were VERY close together), I managed though and I was able to get some nice postcards!

Now when we started to drive back to the hotel, we took the Virginia Dare Road instead of Highway 12, once they split near the upper exit of the Outer Banks back to the mainland. The VDR basically parallels the highway all the way down through Nags Head, Kitty Hawk and into Kill Devil Hills, past our hotel to where the road comes in from Manteo. Along the way we saw tons of beautiful houses and LOTS of sand dunes – which we will hopefully play on these another day!

Near our hotel, Kill Devil Hills had in the last few years built some “accessible beach access” for people who use mobility devices. I thought this was awesome as I would not have to climb the stairs over the dunes that were everywhere or drag my walker through the sand. This was a really nice set-up – there was a paved parking lot, a great ramp up next to the Lifeguard station, a private accessible shower stall, and a ramp to the beach. The only issue was that the mat which is used on the sand did not go very far compared to other beach locations I have been to like Kitsilano Beach in Vancouver and various beaches in Spain. Spain, hands down was overly accessible at their beaches – the mats go right down to the waterline!

It was though, despite the short leash of the mat, great to visit the beach! Just the smell of the fresh salt air is so comforting! While I do not remember exactly where we stayed at the Outer Banks so many decades ago, the sand dunes are definitely smaller and the beaches do not go as far out into the ocean now – according to my memory! I am aware that the Outer Banks has been hit by some pretty bad storms and hurricanes and that has affected the beach and as a result the sand dunes – the good thing to see is that they are being restored/taken care of from an ecology standpoint. Hopefully we will see those sky high dunes and long beaches out to the ocean again!

After this experience, I was quite tired! I guess it was all that fresh air that did me in, so we went back to the hotel after about 30 minutes. We had requested a move to one of the accessible rooms that had become available, so we moved rooms and that did me in! We had dinner and I *think* Andrew was watching some sports and I was trying to knit, which it was at this point, I realized that it was Friday the 13th! So much for things going wrong! It was an awesome day! I soon was sound asleep!

Off to a fairly good start this morning – not much to pack as we were only overnight in the hotel! The interesting thing about our room was we were “upgraded” from a studio to a 1 bedroom suite which was nice. The studio was wheelchair accessible but the desk clerk last night, I do not think knew that the “upgraded” room was only a “hearing” accessible room, NOT wheelchair accessible. Oh well, worked just fine for one night as long as the fire alarms did not go off again and light up the room! And they did not – yeah!

So today we are driving from Rocky Mount to Edenton, for lunch and to visit the town, then onwards to Kill Devil Hills on the Outer Banks of North Carolina to stay for the next 5 nights. Aside from Rocky Mount, I have spent some time in North Carolina previously – first at the end of Grade 4, in 1976, when we came as a family to Edenton to stay with the Diroms, friends of my parents and Mr. Dirom, a workmate of my dad. I have also worked in various cities both installing recreation software and holding meetings in the 1990’s.

In 1976, when we visited Edenton for the summer, we learned just how much Americans like to party on July 4th compared to Canadians on July 1st, and that year, July 4th was a BIG party, with various kids races on the city lawn – the type you only find in North Carolina like peanut sack racing or pushing the peanut with your nose along the grass to see who can get to the finish line the fastest. The Edenton area was a hotbed for peanut and cotton growing when we were done at that time! The experiences I had in Edenton that summer, really impacted the rest of my life. It was the first year of school integration with black/white kids, which I just did not understand what the big issue was; we made a friend named Honeybun, a lovely girl who we played with until her mother, who cleaned houses nearby found out she was playing with “white” kids and forbade her to play with us again; not being able to walk through certain parts of the town after dark as they were the “black” areas; to the bed bug incident which caused the rental house where we lived, to be covered in plastic and fumigated, while our two families went to visit the Outer Banks for a week!

Prior to leaving Vancouver for Andrew and my trip, Norma Dirom had provided the address of where we stayed with them in Edenton when we were visiting (amazingly I was only one house off when looking on Google Maps), so we first paid it a visit when we got into town! I was quite shocked to find the house still standing (that does not happen to older houses in Vancouver) and the fact that I remembered where it was and was only one house off! I remember it being painted white and not the buttermilk yellow colour it is now, along with I do not recall the dormer on the top floor being there. Joanne, my sister and Derreck Dirom (both the youngest kids) slept in the upstairs front “bedbug” room and it was a long room without dormers I thought. Other than that, the screened in “sit and sweat” porch was still there, looks to have new screens though! We spent many a summer evening sitting on that porch when the temperature and humidity was VERY high as there was no air conditioning in the house at that time!

I had found a restaurant in Edenton, on Albemarle Sound, that served gluten free food so we decided to try it out after this! I was SO HAPPY to see gluten free shrimp and cheese grits on the menu! I still cannot believe that I have not had the opportunity to eat grits so far on this trip. Bring them on Herringbone Restaurant!

We then went for a walk around the waterfront and by some historic houses, including where the Edenton Tea Party was held and then down and back up main street prior to going for a drive through Edenton prior to departing to the east, past the cotton mill on our way to Manteo and onto the Outer Banks.

Here is our driving route for the day!

Lastly, I want to recognize that it is September 11th, a day forever burned into history and that changed the aviation industry for the better, especially in the USA, making it safer to fly, on already the safest transportation method available to man.

Today was a planned driving day for us and we had decided to get up fairly early so that we could get on the road as we had about a 4 hour drive from Charlotte to just north of Raleigh, North Carolina. Unfortunately, best laid plans are ALWAYS interrupted it seems!

Many hotels combine their accessible rooms to be more than one type – so in our case we were in a tiny wheelchair accessible room that was also for people who had hearing impairments. This is fairly normal, the only difference is that on the wall is an additional appliance that usually strobes white lights when a fire alarm goes off or in a different pattern, if the doorbell is activated and used. I always turn off the doorbell activation however for obvious reasons I cannot turn off the strobing for the fire alarm. I do not do well with strobe lights or fire alarms due to my accident. As Murphy’s law would come to play, I was actually ASLEEP at 4:30am (I am normally awake about this time) and as per normal, Andrew was sound asleep and all of a sudden both a fire alarm AND the strobing lights were in effect in our room. I have not experienced a fire alarm when staying in a hotel previously – also, the alarm was not like the sound that we have in Vancouver, which was probably good for me, instead it was a really annoying LOUD beeping noise. The same noise was in the hallway along with the same strobe lights. What a nightmare! Andrew helped get my earplugs which I always have stored in my wallet and we left our hotel room and I did what I am SUPPOSED to do which is sit in the refuge area (this case it was in the elevator lobby) on our floor (5th), next to the window so the firemen can see me. Everyone else was going down the stairs. Then along came a man on crutches with a significant knee brace and he got into the elevator which was still operating and suggested we go together. So against my better judgement, Andrew and I went down to the lobby with him and out of the front of the hotel into the warm morning air. Andrew took the first two pictures for me while I sat on the ground behind a wall so I did not have to see the flashing red lights on the multiple fire trucks. All clear was then given and back we all went into the hotel! Only one issue – those flights of stairs that people came down? You cannot go up them! So everyone up the elevators! At least people in the south are courteous and let my crutch using friend and I go to the front of the line.

This was a very interesting experience for me, as I participated in WAY too many fire alarms at the Hotel Vancouver when working graveyard shifts there and I know their elevators stopped working and people HAD to come down the stairs. The Hotel Van also maintained a list of people who had mobility or other issues, so that someone, during a fire alarm, would ensure that they were safe, as they normally would not be able to evacuate as the elevators stopped on the floor they were on (with their doors open) when the general fire alarm went off. I was also surprised with the lack of hotel staff at the Marriott ensuring the hotel guests were safe – in fact from my vantage point did not see one hotel employee which I realized afterwards.

When we got back to the room, Andrew was right back to sleep but that was WAY too much excitement and triggers for me so I settled down to a good audio book and eventually fell asleep at about 7:30 am – right before Andrew got up! So I got up too, we got some breakfast and then it was power nap time for me!

Eventually, we got packed and on the road. I had lost some quality writing time in the morning, so I worked in the car on my laptop as I was completing a document for the Ireland Celiac tour that we are going on next. I had given myself a deadline to get it completed and the 4 hours of focused time while Andrew drove did the trick! Unfortunately, there are no pictures of the drive though other than one as it was all highway driving… We got to Rocky Mount at about 6pm and as we drove off the highway to the hotel, we passed an Outback restaurant. It is one of my “past” go to restaurants in the USA due to how well they do gluten free. I have been boycotting them as they got rid of the gluten free dessert called “Thunder from Down Under” which was a gluten free brownie with ice cream and chocolate sauce. Not diabetic friendly, I know, but if someone shares it with you then it is okay… After a couple of years, the Thunder is on the menu again, so we did a take-out order of of chicken and shrimp and shared my favourite dessert as a reward (for what I do not know – it just felt good)!

Tomorrow we are driving to Kill Devil Hills, Outer Banks via Edenton, North Carolina!