Three hours south of Washington, DC we found ourselves at our next destination, Virginia Beach. Our family loves beach vacations and Andrew and I had stayed here several years ago so we thought it would be a great place to celebrate the beginning of summer!
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| The view from our hotel room in the mornings. |
I could get used to waking up to that view each morning! We also watched the dolphins from our balcony. And soaked up as much sunshine as we could!
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| my kind of vacation |
We did wake up to a bit of rain on Tuesday but we found a fabulous diversion, the Virginia Aquarium! It was fantastic! They had some wonderful exhibits and animals that we hadn't seen before but I was especially impressed with the additional information that was presented in the exhibits. There was lots of information about the watersheds, environmental impacts, the animals' environments and natural surroundings. It was very well done.
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| discovering how marshes clean the water |
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| komodo dragon |
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| rays |
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| Wild One #1 |
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| Wild One #2 |
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| a girl and her dolphin |
By lunchtime the sun was shining bright and we made our way back towards the beach and pool.
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| beach hair don't care! |
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| we pedaled for ice cream |
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| Andrew taught Julia the art of digging fiddler crabs, just like he had been taught by his Grandfather |
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| Benj, hitching a ride! |
We didn't stray too far from the water but we did work in a few quintessential shore activities - mini golf and go-karting. Benjamin has become a miniature golf lover and begged to play every day. After experiencing 3 different courses in Virginia Beach, we spent a good chunk of our ride home discussing his plans to build a course in our backyard! He has grand plans!
And Julia got to experience the speed and excitement of racing for herself! She was hung-ho and tried 4 different go-kart tracks! Her favorite was the mini-stock car; I think because it was a little more enclosed than the rest and maybe a little easier to drive. She wasn't entirely sure about the experience when we were leaving but after having some time to digest it she has declared that is ready to hit the tracks again!
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| NASCAR here she comes! |
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| B is sticking to the roads |
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| watch out! |
Facing our 9 hour drive home (which ended up being 12 - thank you Connecticut!) Andrew and I were wondering why we chose VA Beach instead of the Maryland or Jersey Shore but we all really had a fantastic vacation. It was a great mix of city exploration, catching up with friends, sight seeing, museums, and down time!
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