Our trip to First Landing State Park near Virginia Beach has been a hit. There’s almost been too many things to do: mini golf, lots of restaurants, the ocean, the Bay, the Lynnhaven inlet, the Boardwalk, the Norfolk Botanical Garden, False Cape State Park, Park Ranger programs, hiking…. And that’s just the list of things we have gotten to. The list is equally long of what we haven’t done!
Austin got buried in the sand for the first time, as did both kids. That elicited a bunch of smiles from passersby on the beach for some strange reason. I got my first jellyfish sting, though it was very mild. Apparently jellyfish peak at the Park in about a month or so, so I am special to have done this now. Tucker and I caught a crab on the beach, and then accidentally lost it again. We had less luck at the crabbing Ranger program, because the Bay was a bit too choppy that night. Tucker still liked slinging the raw chicken meat on a string into the Bay.
Molly started the week hating the waves and has ended the week liking them a lot in the little innertube floaty thing she fell in love with. At our longest hike of the week (about 2.5 miles) Molly fell into a make-believe game towards the end, and decided the whole swamp was her house. She made us all go back several tenths of a mile so that she could be in her “house” for longer. Every park sign we passed was a TV, computer or a CD player, except for the sign with “M” on it, which was for mittens, and where she stores her winter clothes. Next hike she goes on is going to involve Alice and Angelina ballerina and their house. Unfortunately, they have a wicked stepmother so their house might be more complicated….
Norfolk Botanical Garden was fine—but it was really hot out so hard to fully enjoy. Walking in 96 degrees and humid in the full sun kind of drains the charm out of anything. There were some awesome children’s play areas that the kids could have really gotten into—but I know I was personally relieved to leave the day we visited. We ended up finding a place that served gluten free chocolate chip pancakes on the way home, and that was probably a bigger hit.
