Allison was enjoying some time off before starting back to school. Scott however spent a week taking an SAT prep course at our local Community College. He will be a Junior in High School this year and it is time to start taking the standardized college assessment tests. The kids did schedule a visit with a few of their friends that they have not seen in a while. They all spent a fun filled evening playing video games and eating dinner at Dave and Busters.
I was busy packing my mom a suitcase for our trip. On Friday, I packed up the van, dropped off Cookie at our neighbors and picked up Mom B. We headed to the Eastern shore and Allison's condo at Salisbury University. We had a few items to drop off at her place before she heads back to school, including a new bird feeder that she got for her birthday. The girls have a nice yard and patio deck and Allison enjoys the visits from the Eastern shore birds. Anything to get through the school year! We decided to have lunch at a new BBQ restaurant that opened near the school. They actually have several small restaurants and a bar that open to an enclosed patio with a Caribbean feel. After a great lunch, we were back on the road and headed south to Virginia Beach. We arrived around dinner time and unpacked our bags. We met up with my brother Dave and his family that drove up from Texas to spend the weekend with us. His wife, Sandra and son Christopher all drove up however, the other two kids, Nick and Sarah, planned on flying up on Saturday as they both had to work. We spent the evening strolling the beach boardwalk with mom on her electric scooter. We stopped into a beach front cafe next to our hotel for dinner, but they were filled with customers. Instead we ordered platters of tacos to go and headed up to our sundeck in the hotel. Tom made reservations in a Hilton Garden Inn that had a sundeck on the 3rd floor overlooking the beach. I figured mom would not be able to walk out on the extensive beach down to the ocean, but would probably enjoy relaxing on a beach chair and watching all the activity.
And it did not disappoint. On Friday night we finished up dinner and enjoyed the band playing outside in the cafe before heading to bed. In the morning, my family was up early and walking the boardwalk. Of course Scott and Allison also stayed busy playing Pokemon Go. After breakfast, we all headed out on the sundeck. Boy was it hot. We brought lots of snacks and drinks and sat back to visit and watch all the activity on the beach. It was amazing to see how quickly the beach fills up with lots of people and sun umbrellas. It was also fun to watch all the boats, parasailers and planes going by, as well as large schools of fish and dolphins. We were even entertained by the fighter jets zooming over the beach from the nearby naval base. Later in the afternoon, we were sadly kicked off our sundeck for a wedding. Instead, half of us took to the beach for a long walk, a quick swim in the hotel pool and the other half found another sundeck to hang out on a different floor. Meanwhile, Dave and Sandra picked up Sarah from the local airport. She managed to get her flight even though she lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and most of the area is flooded. Her brother Nick should have joined her, however he was still stuck in Texas at the airport! He had to spend the night in the airport and missed his connecting flight due to tstorms. He was not able to get out until late Saturday evening. At least he made it just in time to join all of us at a local Seafood and Steak restaurant for dinner. I thought it would be nice for all of us to get together for dinner and to celebrate Mom's 81st birthday a bit early. It was a fun evening, except for the minor car accident that occurred in the parking lot. Tom got stuck in the valet parking area and backed into a large SUV. Minor scratch for them, broken taillight on my van(off getting fixed).
On Sunday we packed up and our family took Mom B to the Virginia Aquarium. We loved seeing the Kimodo Dragon and Sea Turtles. The aquarium is actually two separate buildings, one with aquariums and ocean sea life and fish. The other building housed native Virginia fresh water creatures. Both buildings are connected by walkways through a brackish marsh with lots of fiddler crabs. They also built an elevated ropes course through the trees that Allison was interested in climbing around, however since Scott still had a broken arm and couldn't climb, she thought they could return at another date to take on the challenge. Instead, Tom and the kids caught the IMAX movie-a Tour of the Galapogos Island. After our visit to the aquarium, we headed to our hotel in Williamsburg. That evening our family took Mom B to a Movie Tavern for dinner and to see Kabu and the Two Strings. It was an amazing stop motion film-basically a Japanese Fairy Tale about a young boy on a Ninja quest. We all enjoyed the film and Tom was especially impressed with how much he liked it. While we were at the movie, the rest of our group was getting familiar with the shops and historic section of Williamsburg.
I switched my work week so we could take Monday off. Tom took Scott and Allison and headed to Busch Gardens. We were not sure if Scott could go on any rides with his cast, but he was able to catch a few of the small rides and one coaster. They even talked Allison into trying it! Meanwhile, I took the rest of the crew back to Colonial Williamsburg so we could tour some of the buildings, including the Governor's Mansion. Mom drove around on her scooter. We managed to get through the Mansion and a few shops before stopping into a tavern for a traditional drink and light lunch. Then Dave and Nick took Sarah to the airport. Meanwhile, Mom, Sandra and I went off for some more sightseeing, but it was getting very hot and Mom had reached her limit. So Dave headed back from the airport and picked us up and Tom and the kids joined us back at the hotel. Dave and family spent the night and then headed back to Texas on Tuesday morning.
We drove back up to Baltimore with a quick stop into CiCi's pizza and pasta and a tour through a Halloween shop before dropping mom off at her apt. Hard to believe the year is flying by so quickly and school will be starting next week for both kids!
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