03 November 2007

Vacation pictures, rounds 3 and 4

I was feeling bad because I haven't had any knitting to show for a while, and then I realized that I had never finished posting pictures from our vacation in September. So I thought, "Well, why not finish up the vacation shots, and at least anyone who is still reading will know that topic is finally finished ...

Previously in The Tim and Bridget's Excellent Adventure to Places in Virginia, I showed you shots from Jamestown and Colonial Williamsburg, where we started out. When we left Williamsburg, we decided to stop in Yorktown, since it was more or less on the way to our final destination, Virginia Beach, and neither of us had ever been there.

Yorktown

The outdoor exhibit area in Yorktown is small, and can be seen easily in a couple of hours. It's situated right on the James River, and is quite scenic. There's also an indoor museum, which had a lot of really great exhibits about the Battle of Yorktown, but they didn't permit photography, so you'll just have to buy a book for that, or make the trip yourself ...



This is the "punishment horse," which is where enlisted men who had committed minor infractions against the rules had to spend the better part of a day. Besides the public humiliation, it was (and looks!) very uncomfortable.

This is the camp surgeon, in front of the surgical tent, with various drugs, potions, and instruments on display. This presentation was really fascinating, in spite of the incredibly annoying people who were our fellow tourists, and kept asking questions that made it clear that they had not been paying attention. (The Tim: "What a shame that you can't determine how others should act at something like this.")

Sometimes I'll be reading something, and think that it would have been so interesting to have lived in the past. Then I see and hear a presentation like this, and realize how glad I am to be alive now!

The two pictures below are examples of living quarters. On the left, the colonel's tent; on the right, a tent for enlisted men, where there were 3 to 4 people assigned to a single tent.









And on to Virginia Beach ...

We had visited Virginia Beach a few years back, but it was to visit with The Tim's sister and her family. His brother-in-law is in the Navy, and they have been stationed there for the last 8 years or so. This time, we were going strictly to go to the beach, the boardwalk, and to look at the ocean!

When you turn off the main road leading to the beach, onto Atlantic Avenue, this statue of Neptune greets you. It's hard to see in this photo, but he is surrounded by sea creatures, and it's a very impressive sight. (If you look to the lower right, the teeny figure in the light shorts and dark shirt is The Tim, added for scale.)





Once we settled into our room, we walked along the boardwalk, in search of lunch. We came across this sculpture, which I had to photograph since I *heart* dolphins.




The Virginia Beach boardwalk - at least where we were - was just a nice place to walk along the beach, past hotels, high rises, restaurants, some shops, and a band shell. The beach-type stores and places you expect to see were primarily one street over, on Atlantic Avenue.

We stayed at a nice hotel, where all the rooms had a balcony that faced the beach. Here was the view from our room:

And, looking north:
One morning, someone was flying this kite, which seemed so appropriate!


The last morning of our trip, we got up to watch the sunrise:

Just before sunrise



Just about sunrise ...







The grand finale!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh! I want that Neptune. I want to embed him in the lawn near my pool and party with him until we run out of beer and the neighbors call the fuzz. Then we'll get more beer and throw the empties into the neighbor's pool to get back at them. Then, when the cops show up, they'll be so wanting to party down with Neptune no charges will be filed and the whole neighborhood will be there with their little camera phones sending pics to their disbelieving friends. Yeah, that's what I want to do with Neptune.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps The Tim should have introduced said tourists (re-introduced, if they weren't paying attention there, either) to the Punishment Horse.

And, I am now suffering from crippling Beach Envy.

Mr Puffy's Knitting Blog: said...

I have a tendancy to idealize the past too. What a great vacation - thanks for the fun overview.

Brigitte said...

Beautiful pictures! I love dolphins too.

I couldn't agree with you more - sometimes I wish I could be the only one on a tour...

Anonymous said...

that kite was beautiful, and so were the rest of your vacation pictures..great job...I'm new here hope you come visit me at http://pointbreezedesignsblog.blogspot.com and my reading blog

Anonymous said...

Wow, gorgeous beach shots! Too bad about the others on the tour at Yorktown though. Too bad good manners can't be enforced.

Neptune is HUGE! Wow.