Day 3 - Va Beach, Ocean City, Rehoboth Beach, Annapolis

Sunday July 2, 2017

We awoke early this morning after a chilly night of air conditioned sleep.  Otis and Emily like to sleep with it cold (65 degrees in their house) and when this happens if I'm a little unprepared, I'm up and at 'em, which isn't a problem. Now if we can just get rid of our colds and allergies we seem to have acquired on our trip, especially in Va Beach. #nasalrinsesareimportant

We planned on leaving around 9am knowing it was going to be a long day in the car with visits to different places. It was definitely going to be a day of stops and starts. But first, Otis wanted to show us the Neptune statue and the main beach we missed yesterday.  I remember him telling us to park on 31st, but I couldn't find a spot. Actually had to drive about 15 blocks until I found one, and the beach was hot, and etc, etc, so our stay wasn't a very long one yesterday with the family. Avery's shopping woes continued and we couldn't seem to find a store for the things she was looking for.  

I along with Jen and Otis hopped in the car for a drive to the main part of the beach early this morning and stopped at the statue. There was also an amphitheater with a large grassy area and artwork.  I got this drive the day before so I let Jen sit in front to talk with Otis and get the information I had received the day before.  Perhaps he'll have another job later as a tour guide?  He definitely knows his town. After a quick jaunt to the beach for some pics, we headed back, got the kiddos up, and started our second long leg of the tour. 

It's funny how some things happen really--Avery had a friend her freshman year whose parents were going thru a divorce and her friend, Emily had to leave to live with her mother in Fredrick.  Through social media, Avery posted that we were going to stop at the Ocean City, MD Boardwalk and lo-and-behold, her buddy was staying at the beach that day! 

We took the rural route through eastern banks of Virginia and up the coast through the farmlands of Maryland/Delaware to get to Ocean city.  The roads reminded of our trip up the Lower Peninsula of Michigan--small shops, farms galore, and places unexplored by Interstate travelers. We started on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge/Tunnel, a 20 mile-ish long drive connecting the eastern shore of Virginia to the mainland at Virginia Beach.  The fifteen dollar toll for the bridge got us some time on the fishing pier, time in the restaurant/gift shop, and some views of above the tunnel, where all the boats seem to hang out (reminders of party island in Destin).  It was a quick stop, bathroom break and a chance to get our legs stretched after only a half-hour in the car but was a good stop.  

The rest of the trip to Ocean City was less than stellar, however, once we arrived the place was packed! I definitely appreciate our beaches after stopping here. We dropped Avery off to meet her friend, and parked at the only space I could find.  A shopping area with tow signs galore.  We walked the beach, knowing we'd meet her in about an hour, but the whole time on the beach my thoughts were that our Ivanka was going to be towed, so we cut our walk on the boardwalk short, so we could get back. After a quick hour, a little bit of an ulcer, we made it back and Ivanka was ready to take us to our next destination.  We spotted a goofy golf area on the way back to the van and decided to let Avery spend another half hour or so with her friend.  GT beat me by about 3 strokes, but almost lost it all on the 17th hole! It was a lot of fun, and everyone was actually happy for a little while!  

We picked up Avery after she and her buddy said their goodbyes and headed toward Rehoboth Beach, which is only 25 miles up the beach road.  I had planned to ride bikes here with GT and fish, but it's such a crowded area. As we were taking the shortcut up the coast, traffic came to a standstill, and I noticed traffic cutting across the median, similar to a beachy Hwy 98.  Checked waze--yep a wreck had snarled traffic, so we did the same--high and centering Ivanka in the median with a scraping of the trailer hitch and the bikes...oh well, we found a way around and only lost about 15 minutes trip time. 
By the time we got to Rehoboth, we were all pretty tired, cranky, crotchety, and were ready for some refreshment.  I knew Dogfish Head brewery was here, but their tours at the actual brewery cost $30 and from what I researched, did not allow kids in there, so we opted for the eatery on the strip.  The traffic in Delaware already sucked with the accident, and finding parking was much worse. I think we actually had to park almost a mile away in a city neighborhood. I actually had to use google bitty to navagate back to the car!  

Finally, we went to the eatery for a much needed break, some AC, and a cold snack/lunch/dinner combo. The food was nachos which we shared between the 4 of us.  The drinks were some type pineapple aloha beer for Jen, and I had the breakfast stout, because it's only available there.  They were pretty good, but nothing to get excited about.  A quick stop at the store for some stickers for friends and our cooler, a new hat, and we left Rehoboth and it's crowded strip quickly.  

Since we were very close, I wanted to check out Cape Henlopen, which shows a lighthouse in it's pictures, along with less-crowded Atlantic Ocean beaches.  Although I tried to get the Delaware discount by sweet talking the attendant it didn't work. The old geezer told me about how Delaware didn't have state taxes (I told him FL didn't either) and how cheap insurance is.  I replied nicely that his state was very expensive to make up for it and we headed to the beach area.  A short stay for about 30 minutes and a quick exploration by car after another 30 minutes to try and find the lighthouse past the cars parked on the beach, only to find the light house too far away for my 200mm lens, and we decided to head to Sheba and Jon's house, as we were all pretty tired and I still had two hours of driving left!

We hit the other Chesapeake Bay bridge entering Annapolis right as a beautiful sun was setting on the Chesapeake Bay.  The bridge wasn't as scary as originally anticipated, but GT was very glad we were in the middle lane.  The bridge did seem to just keep going up, and at 200ft high, I got a tiny bit nervous, but it was still an amazing sight to behold, even though the $4 charge is only going out of Annapolis.  

I text Sheba a LOT. In said multiple text messages was her address from about 3 weeks ago. My phone does not save messages from three weeks ago when there are about 100 texts in between, so I lost her address. Sheba and Jon were in Canada and had no access to text messages. Luckily I was able to get up with her daughter who gave me her address after 30 miles of no response!  Crisis averted.  Thought we were going to sleep in the minivan tonight.  Arrived at our destination safe and sound around 9PM.  We were all bushed, did not have any WIFI yet and decided to call it a night early and turn in because we had a DC trip and a date with the Holocaust Museum tomorrow at 2:30 PM.