2024 Trips – USA/Ireland/Iceland

Today we are going to visit the Washington Monument and then we are taking a tour of the Capitol Building. Both we have tickets for, which are a new process since 911. I have been to Washington, DC four times in my life and visited several of the sights however one that has eluded me is the Washington Monument! It has either had long lines (twice) prior to free timed entry tickets or been under restoration. TODAY I am going to succeed and with Andrew get to the top! Today is a bit cloudy however I am sure we are going to see enough from the top!

The Washington Monument is 500 feet tall, however the elevator only takes you up to 500 feet where the viewing area is – yes those small windows that you see. Then you walk down (or take the elevator down) to 490 feet where there is a display about the monument and then you take the elevator the rest of the way down to the bottom. On the way down, you get to see (although they pass fairly fast) some inlaid stones that various people from the past and now states have provided to be put on the inside wall of the obelisk.

A bit of history for the mechanical engineer specifically reading this, that we learned:

1. It was built to commemorate George Washington who was the 1st President of the United States from 1789 to 1797.
2. It is made of bluestone gneiss for the foundation and of granite for the construction. 
3. It is made of bluestone gneiss for the foundation and of granite for the construction. 
4. The outside consists of three different kinds of white marble as it was built in stages.  
5. It is both the world’s tallest predominantly stone structure and the world’s tallest obelisk,, at 554 feet 7+¹¹⁄₃₂ inches tall.  
6. It was the world’s tallest structure between 1884 and 1889, after which it was overtaken by the Eiffel Tower, in Paris.
7. Construction began in 1848 and was suspended from 1854 to 1877 due to funding issues and the Civil War. It was completed in 1884, and the internal ironwork, the knoll, and installation of memorial stones was completed in 1888. It opened on October 9, 1888.
8. The difference in shading of the marble, visible about 150 feet up, shows where construction was halted and later resumed with marble from the different source.
9. It is a hollow Egyptian-style obelisk with 15 feet thick walls at the base and 1 1/2 feet thick at the top.
10. The marble pyramidion’s walls are 7 inches thick, supported by six arches: two between opposite walls, which cross at the center of the pyramidion, and four smaller arches in the corners.
11. The top of the pyramidion is a large, marble capstone with a small aluminum pyramid at its apex, with inscriptions on all four sides.
12. The interior is occupied by iron stairs that spiral up the walls, with an elevator in the center, each supported by four iron columns, which do not support the stone structure.
13. The stairs are in fifty sections, most on the north and south walls, with long landings stretching to the east and west walls. These landings allowed many inscribed memorial stones of various materials and sizes to be easily viewed while taking the stairs, which were accessible until 1976.
14. The pyramidion has eight observation windows, two per side, and eight red aircraft warning lights, two per side.
15. Two aluminum lightning rods, connected by the elevator support columns to groundwater, protect the monument.
16. Fifty American flags fly on a large circle of poles centered on the monument.  
17. In 2001, a temporary screening facility was added to the entrance to prevent a terrorist attack.

So now let’s check it out! We walked the 6 or so long blocks from our hotel to the National Monument and arrived on time for our 2pm appointment.

What an excellent experience – a long time coming for me! Next I took some pictures of the reflecting pool that is between the monument (up higher) and down where Lincoln’s memorial is along with the 2 Vietnam memorials and a couple of others I cannot think of off hand. We then started walking towards the Capitol Building where we had a tour booked in about 90 minutes – it is a fair walk to get there! All of a sudden I heard a fairly loud helicopter and looked up and saw a Parks Police helicopter. The noise reminded me of the helicopters that fly low over Oak Street in Vancouver prior to landing at Children’s Hospital. Then there was a VERY LOUD helicopter noise that funny enough I have only heard that unique noise once before – when I last stood in front of the White House! Sure enough, there came the Presidential Helicopter (Marine 1) past the Washington Monument and landed behind the trees on the lawn of the White House. How cool was that to see when in Washington DC! Then we started walking at a brisk pace…eventually catching the bus that circulates the area to help us the last few blocks to in front of the Capitol Building and it’s reflecting pool.

We made it to the Capitol Building! Thanks to the bus trip (which we did not wait for – it came to pick up some other people and we got onto it) we walked past the reflecting pool and to the right side of the building where the entrance was supposed to be for the tours. Luckily a volunteer in the booth saw us and asked if I needed a ride to the entrance! It was up a hill and around the back – we would have been late for sure if he had not done that. It was actually a wheelchair accessible golf cart! I was very impressed! Too impressed to get a picture though! Downstairs we went in the elevator, through security and got our stickers and our elevator passes (for people who have mobility issues) and into the theatre!

Once we watched the VERY American movie about history we met our tour guide. With about 200 people on the tour – both individuals and groups – they are VERY organized! All people with mobility issues go down row 1 and are then followed by able bodied people after the other rows fill up. Tours go somewhere else. Then a tour guide takes each row for a tour.

Taylor was our tour guide and she had at least one degree in Art History and she was VERY knowledgeable about the Capitol building – some of us asked some hard questions and she had the answers! In terms of accessibility they have escalators and stairs for people to use and then us with the orange passes are taken by another volunteer to the elevator, somehow they know who are guide is, they put us in the elevator, push the button and get out and then the elevator opens up and the volunteer tells us Taylor’s tour over here. We were also wearing earphones so we could all of a sudden hear her talking. We visited the crypt which is under the rotunda where some state statues are located along with an empty grave for Washington, then we went up to the rotunda and talked there for a while about the pictures, the ceiling and artwork (where Taylor was in her element) and then to a room next to the rotunda where more statues were located. At that time, all other tours were gone and Taylor realized we were the last and the building was closing so very quickly we returned to the start location of the tour and it was promptly over.

Regarding statues – each state (and perhaps protectorate like Guam and Puerto Rico) is allowed to display 2 that is only TWO statues at the State Capitol building. Our tour guide told us lots of neat information like they have to be voted on by the people of the state etc and most are there as a citizen proposed them. They also cannot be changed too regularly as they are expensive and a pain to move around! In this last room was the newest statue, which I cannot remember which one it was but I recognized the name and also was Rosa Parks, who was the only statue that the Congress has voted on and instituted in the gallery. They are having some issues with the statues though and that is why they are spread out on the crypt floor and also in this area – they are heavy and the floors were starting to crack! Actually, we were there on a Monday and on the Tuesday a new statue was being installed somewhere in one of the rooms – as we had to use the elevator to get out we saw the start of the preparations on the Monday night as no tours were being held the next day!

We then walked to the Capitol Metro station and took the train back to the Metro station (about 5 stops away) to our hotel! The Metro in Washington DC is SO CLEAN and seems safe to be on. The cars are way cleaner than the Skytrain in Vancouver! The only challenge is accessibility and the lack of accessibility directions. You might say I have ridden some very LONG escalators with Andrew as my protector so my walker would not fall, as we just could not find the elevator for that station!

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!