May 24, 2009
(Blog)
(Blog)
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May 24, 2009 (Blog) |
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| Saturday, May 24, 2008 Today was the start of Memorial weekend. We decided to keep it cheap and use gas and toll fees as our primary expenses. We left Virginia Beach on US 13 and took the 17.6 mile drive across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel (CBBT) to Virginia's Eastern Shore. When we first moved to Hampton Roads, we were shocked that there were actually tunnels that went under the various waterways. The CBBT is an extended version of bridges over and tunnels under the Chesapeake Bay. It is absolutely beautiful and incredibly interesting. A few miles onto the bridge and at the first tunnel, we pulled off to the Sea Gull Fishing Pier, which is host to a restaurant and gift shop. It was pretty cool, and we "cashed in" our free Pepsi coupon that we got at the toll entrance. Oh yea, it costs $12 to go across the CBBT to the Eastern Shore and $5 to come back, as long as you return within 24 hours. Since we had the dogs with us, we just ran out on the pier where people were fishing, ran into the snack bar to grab our free drink, and stopped at the gift shop to pick up a handful of souvenir postcards to add to our scrapbook. We headed on our way and once across, we went to Kiptopeke State Park ($4 day pass). We sat in the back of the truck and ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and chips before we headed out to explore the Park. Dogs aren't allowed on the swim beach and swimmers aren't allowed on the shell beach (as I overheard someone call it), which I was disappointed about, because I wanted to swim as well as walk the dogs. But since we did have the dogs with us, we walked the shell beach. I was really glad we did, because we picked up about five million awesome shells, and huge ones at that! We walked really far, all the way down to a long set of pilons where pelicans were perched and were taking turns diving in the water for fish. It was magnificant to watch and we sat on the beach for a long time. I waded in the water, which felt incredible and I longed to jump in and go swimming. On our way back, we saw a dead skate, which made me super sad. I'm sure one of the fisherman on the fishing pier in the Park accidentally caught one of those and just threw it back, already injured. It was very upsetting to see the skate floating listless in the water, so far away from the ocean floor where it belongs. Before we left the park, we walked around the boat launch and the fishing pier. We sat in awe of the concrete ships floating just off the shore. I can't remember the whole history of these incredible giants, but they now are sort of like a coral reef to fish. It's pretty cool. Once we left the park, we drove to Cape Charles, where we found a public pier and beach. We walked the pier and then drove around the quaint little town, seeing an outdoor shopping center within a marina atmosphere. The stores and restaurant and marina were all colored in beautiful, Key West-style hues, and the streets were actually made of cobblestone.        Before we left the Eastern Shore, we drove through the town of Oyster, where we came across some beautiful historic boats that had beached long ago. We were hungry, but couldn't really find much in the way of dining options between the CBBT and Oyster, so we just decided to wait and eat at home.   |
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