thanksgiving weekend

We left bright and early on Friday morning for the VA Beach area, just stopping for a wonderful breakfast at Aunt Sarah's Pancake House (we need to go back and try the honey dipped chicken). They were squeezing fresh orange juice and grinding fresh coffee right by the front door. Good place to eat. Arrived in VA Beach and did the first thing which was walk down to the water. The storm that had blown through here on Tues/Wed had knocked down some of the Christmas light displays and deposited sand where it usually isn't. I now I will confess that we had been having a pinball craving and where better to satisfy that than an arcade at the beach? At a place called Flipper McCoy's. Had some lunch, wandered into some of the tacky touristy beach stores. Decided to go check out our home for the night on Ft Story. The Cape Henry Inn is a relatively new place - has a hotel, separate cabins, even two log cabins. We had a 2 bedroom, living room and kitchen with an ocean view. The boys wanted to smoke cigars on the beach. And rather than ignore the notices to not walk on the dunes, we got in the car to ride back to the lighthouses, but we never made it. Because we spotted friends driving the other way. White Volvo with Vermont plates - which we were used to seeing back at West Point. We turned around and followed them and we all had a great laugh. We had just been at their house in Maryland for a party at the beginning of November, but neither family knew the other family's plans. Went out for dinner at Bubba's Seafood with them. And Tom came and slept at our cabin.

The teenage boys were planning to get up and go for a run on the beach at 6:00 a.m. But they had talked long into the night. I tried waking them up at 6:20 before I left for a walk, but apparently they didn't get up and run till 7:30. I walked all alone on the beach for about 1 1/2 hours. Enjoyed that immensely. After showers and good-byes to our friends, we left to get breakfast at the Jewish Mother in VA Beach. The boys had pastrami and swiss cheese omelets. And we shared some of Mama Rachel's Potatoe Latkes which were excellent.

We crossed the Bay Bridge over to Virginia's eastern shore and headed north to Chincoteague and Assateague. We did see some ponies in the distance, but none close enough for me to get a picture. What was amazing was the snow geese which you can see here:

http://www.chincoteaguechamber.com/map-ft-sg1.html