Surprise weekend at Virginia Beach

Because Lisa had to be in Norfolk, Virginia for work today, we decided to make a weekend of it and road trip down to the Hampton Roads area. As we planned this trip about 24 hours in advance, we "Pricelined" a room in the area and got a sweet deal on a 9th floor oceanfront hotel room at Virginia Beach. We packed the golf clubs, grabbed a few tour books at the library and headed south. The route took us through the historic areas of Fredericksburg and Williamsburg, and on an unusual park road called the Colonial Parkway that connects Jamestown and Yorktown. In Fredericksburg we grabbed a cherry cola at the oldest continuously operating soda fountain -- 'Goolricks'.


What surprised us about this trip is that you can actually have a beach weekend in the mid-Atlantic in October! The beach was virtually empty and there were no crowds to fight. The temperature was just about average with highs in the mid-70s and the skies were incredibly clear. The view from the hotel shows it all:



(For your own reference, if you're at a hotel and there are a couple of stair steps in front of the registration desk, there may be a Little People Conference in progress. Don't step up on the stair as Mike did, assuming that the stairs might just be there for kids!)

Though the water was a bit frigid, walking around on the beach was extremely pleasant. We cruised the 2.5 mile boardwalk on some rental bikes and tried a few local restaurants. The Italian place we went to the first night was pretty bad (don't go to Giovanni's), but we found a great place called Waterman's the second night. The last remaining free-standing restaurant on the boardwalk, (the rest having been bulldozed to make room for the typical beach hotels and condos) it features a large oceanfront patio with live music. We were quite entertained by the twangy tunes of the near drunk and self-proclaimed redneck Jack Becker.

The conditions at the beach were so unexpectedly great that we decided there was no reason to leave to play golf. But, with so many more parks, trails and other things to explore down there, and the fact that it is less than a 4 hour drive from DC, we'll definitely be back.

The funniest part of all, is that the appointment that Lisa was there to see was canceled at the last minute...

Here is a slideshow with some more pics from the weekend: