Sunday Sept 6: Anniversary Day hanging around in Virginia

 In which we celebrate more than 2,000 miles and 28 years married!

 Twenty-eight years married and I still think he's funny.  Although the boat does seem awfully small sometimes when it's a 'dad joke' I MAY have heard before.

 This morning we rented a car in order to see some of the area. We got a long lovely walk in at the First Landing State Park.  

Panoramic view of the park

First Landing State Park marks the spot where English colonists first landed, in 1607.  It has 20 miles of various trails that wind through several different habitats: bald cypress swamps, lagoons, maritime forest and sandy beach. It was one of the most completely and beautifully maintained parks we have been to.  Although I had somewhat lost my appreciation for that at the end of the 7 miles.  We were tired, sweaty (temps weren't bad tho) and HUNGRY (bordering on hangry).

So we zipped over to Virginia Beach to get some fish tacos, and to check out the hopping local scene. The boardwalk (or concrete walk) is famous - 28' wide, with a separate bike path, stretching for 3 miles.  The Guinness Book of Records says that Virginia Beach is the longest pleasure beach in the world!  It is true that people were enjoying it as far as our eyes could see.

We decided to drive back to the boat the 'scenic way', rather than freeway - hoping we would see new things.  And by new we did not mean the endless sprawl of Walmart, Taco Bell, Starbucks, Kohls, etc that unfolded before us.  In fact I can't think of a store name that we didn't see in that 40 min drive back.  It was almost impressive... Fortunately we are listening to a great audio book (Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor) that kept us going.

Amazing dinner of arugula, grilled fresh tuna and beans and we were off to bed.