Continuing farther down the coast of the Outer Banks, I wanted to stop and walk out on a pier.
(Have I mentioned that I have a knack for picking the coldest, windiest, most frigid days to do this? Seriously… it’s a gift. If there’s one bitter cold day on an otherwise delightfully warm 2 week vacation? That’s the one I’ll choose to walk out on a pier.)
There’s the husband, bracing himself against the wind and giving me (and my phone) the evil eye.
And there’s the entrance to Jennette’s Pier, the biggest and best in Nags Head.
Gladly.
This type… and the other. It was too damn cold for either of them.
Approaching the entrance…. you don’t follow a yellow brick road.
But a line of memorial blue fish.
I love this idea!
A quick peek at the beach…
The map…
And me mumbling ‘Holy Crap it’s freezing! Can you read the pier history a little faster please?’
A quick peek at the beach on the other side.
Through the gate…
Past the turtle.
And finally, the door…
Where the husband had to hold on to his hat so it didn’t fly off.
It was that windy.
A brief warm respite inside to pay the $2 ticket price and out we went.
As piers go?
It rocked.
Even the birds agreed.
These guys were everywhere.
Fighting the wind just like us.
Hairdo?
Not so much.
So we walked….
Shivering in the arctic blast…. with the husband cursing me under his breath.
Good times.
Every now and then there would be a wind break where we’d huddle to catch our breath.
And then finally, we reached the end.
Where the husband realized we had to walk back, intothe wind…. and started cursing me under his breath all over again.
During the 17 years we lived in North Carolina, we never managed to make it to the Outer Banks… though not for lack of trying on my part. So on Day 6 of this vacation? A three hour road trip.
Past the Lamberts Point Coal Terminal in Hampton Roads…
The largest coal exporting port in the country.
And if you think it’s pretty? Just imagine how nice it smells….
Yes. Kind of like that.
Over and through the Hampton Bay Bridge Tunnel…
And past some tempting tourist attractions.
Is it shocking we didn’t stop?
No.
It is not.
One more very long bridge later….
And we were there.
The Outer Banks of North Carolina.
The Graveyard of the Atlantic.
200 miles of beach.
Where the wind was so fierce it was blowing said beach right across the road when we got there.
It had been a mild 48 degrees in Williamsburg, but here?
It felt like minus 12.
Beachfront condos and rentals were everywhere.
And in every color you can imagine.
Neighbor’s roof blocking your view?
No worries, just build a deck on yours.
It never ceases to amaze me how little property they can build on these days. Our town has a 3 acre minimum….
At the Outer Banks? It must be 3 inches.
And though we were getting hungry for lunch…
Awful Arthur’s was closed.
Damn… and I really wanted to see how awful it was.
But since we have a good friend named Richard, who is sometimes called Dick?
We had to.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen.
I got my crabs from Dirty Dicks.
My She Crab soup that is….
And my hushpuppies….
And my Ocean Blue Margarita in a disappointing plastic cup as they had run out of funny bar glasses…. or so we thought.
I’m not a Bloody Mary fan…. but that looks like a meal in itself.
The husband had mussels and lamented over not getting a glass for his collection.
(Oh, did I tell you? Along with all the other ridiculous pieces of crap things he collects… he has now decided to acquire a glass from every fun bar or restaurant we visit.)
Did this place qualify as fun?
I don’t know….
But with fried potato salad on the menu it definitely qualified as southern.
Finished eating, the husband asked the waitress to rinse out the plastic cups so he could bring them home to our friend as a joke…. which is when she pointed to us to their entire store of Dirty Dick merchandise.
We should have known.
But it was too good to pass up and we bought him a hat, a t shirt and a bumper sticker for Christmas.
Our 5th day had us meeting the ex wife of an old Marine Corps buddy. There’s a long sordid story that goes along with this statement, but suffice it to say you never really know anyone. Honestly, you don’t.
The man we’d been friends with for over 35 years? The one we thought was honest, trustworthy and stable? Is now on his third wife, estranged from his children, drowning in debt, filing bankruptcy for the second time (while working as an accountant for the Federal Government) and being sued by his own lawyer for fraud. Did I mention he lies like a rug and told wife #2 that wife #1 accused him of having an affair with me?
I mean come on.
I know I like to drink…. but I think I would have remembered that!!
Needless to say it was a verrrrry long lunch.
But I’d never been to Virginia Beach before so we took a little scenic drive before heading to the restaurant.
My first impression?
Busy and crowded.
With the typical big city high rise hotels lining the road near the ocean.
Complete with all that ticky tacky crap I hate, designed to suck your wallet dry.
In other words, it’s similar to Atlantic City, Myrtle Beach and numerous other places we’ve visited along the Florida coast.
No thanks. You’ve seen one you’ve seen ’em all.
Even this gang of tropical fish escaping the surf and heading for the highway didn’t make it more appealing.
We drove down a few side streets to check out the houses near the shore…
Which was nerve wracking in that behemoth of a vehicle the husband had rented.
Seriously, it took up the entire street.
We found a few pretty spots, but overall? Being jammed right up next to your neighbor is not where I want to live…. waterfront or not.
So, lunch.
Was at a place called Rockafeller’s right on the water.
We got there early.
Okay, really early.
But at least we didn’t have to wait for a table with a view.
I have to admit I got a kick out of the illustrated cocktail menu.
I’m guessing this is for when you’ve had too many and can no longer enunciate properly.
If you can smile and point?
You’re not too drunk to serve.
This is the Mojito, which shouldn’t have been yellow but was tasty all the same.
One drink in, we spotted some fishermen bringing in their catch.
It doesn’t get much fresher than that.
Two drinks in, our friend arrived and we talked, and talked, and talked.
Or rather, she talked and we did a lot of listening.
And drinking.
Did I mention there were multiple pages of cocktail lists?
Maybe Virginia Beach isn’t so bad after all.
3 hours in we figured we’d better eat.
Crab and shrimp hushpuppies sounded like a good way to start…
They were huge, not at all like hush puppies and absolutely horrible.
Flavorless wads of fried dough. If there was shrimp or crab? I never found it. The husband had an equally bad platter of steamed shrimp. Which is hard to screw up, but they did, so I went the safe route…
And ordered a chicken Caesar salad…. which turned out to be practically chickenless.
I imagine even the mosiac Santa dolphin out front would have tasted better. But it was a good time and nice to see our friend.
So we left Virginia Beach…
And headed back to Williamsburg…
Wondering who Willoughby was and why he was spitting.
First stop? A decent place for dinner.
And proof that you can’t judge a book by it’s cover.
Tucked in the back of a very ordinary looking strip mall was a wonderful little Italian place…. that I can’t remember the name of to save my life.
But the garlic knots were to die for… light as air.
And my cheese tortellini alfredo with chicken, broccoli and sun dried tomatoes?
Ooh la la! So rich I had to take half back to the resort.
(I hope this quiets you food screamers. Two meals in one post. Now hush!)
I realize this is the 5th post of our trip to the museum, but fear not…. it will also be the last.
Oh, stop being so dramatic and admit you learned something. Even if it was just how to use seashell toilet paper.
We’d spent all day roaming these halls and closing time was approaching before we were even a quarter of the way through.
So we literally trotted from exhibit to exhibit.
Vintage naval toys?
Check!
The hull of the Oracle that won the 33rd America’s Cup in 2010?
A ginormous check!
Submarine cutout?
Got it.
WWII memorabilia?
Yup. Tons…
They even had an Enigma!
How cool is that?
If you haven’t seen The Imitation Game about the life of Alan Turing, the man who broke the unbreakable code and then tragically took his own life… with an apple?
You should.
Teddy Roosevelt was there…
As was this precious little sword wielding cherub.
Because yeah…. what could go wrong with that?
There was too much to see…
And too little time.
Look… interesting, not to mention decorative, ways to kill people!
And I didn’t have a chance to read all the details.
And that.
What was that?
I don’t know!
Because the husband was bound and determined to watch the 3D movie about the coral reef before they closed. So we ran to the theater, put on our plastic glasses and found a good spot to watch and take pictures.
Until this woman moved seats and put her head in front of my lens.
Rude. Very rude.
The Great Barrier coral reef?
Beautiful.
The Great Barrier coral reef in 3D after I moved away from the back of that woman’s head?
Stunning.
It looked like all these little things were reaching out for you….
And I swear the husband jumped a foot when he thought this fellow was right beside him.
Beautiful. No two ways about it.
So that was it.
We spent 8 full hours in the museum that day….
And were too tired to go out to eat.
Oh, stop screaming.
We got Chinese take out and went back to the condo.
The absolute worst Chinese takeout I think I’ve ever had… but there.
So class, yesterday we learned about the CSS Virginia and how most people call her by the incorrect name of…..?
The Merrimack.
Sure you do… you just haven’t realized it yet.
It’s okay. I’ll wait.
Today, we’re going to the movies.
In a surround sound theater that promised an ‘edge of your seat exciting’ depiction of the Ironclad battle.
“You’ll feel like you’re right there!” exclaimed the docent.
Yeah.
About that…
It was a cartoon.
An informative cartoon, I grant you…
But a cartoon all the same. And even with the rolling smoke that issued from the walls and floor…. I didn’t feel any more there than I did watching Bugs Bunny as a child.
Oh well, there were better things ahead.
Like the USS Monitor… famous for her spinning gun turret.
Is it me, or does that thing look like a drunken owl?
She was built in 100 days, which was an amazing accomplishment for the time.
And the museum faithfully recreated what the officer’s quarters looked like upon completion.
Not too shabby.
If a wee bit small.
There were lots of interesting artifacts to examine.
As well as photos of the men who served aboard her.
Of course, being me…. you know I had to find some reference to alcoholic refreshment.
And then, in the next section of the museum….
A replica of the recovered Monitor’s turret.
The original is currently on site and being slowly and painstakingly preserved. Read about it’s discovery and journey to Newport News here.
This was basically what it looked like on the ocean floor.
All that rusty metal! You know my other half was thrilled….
But one of the most impressive aspects of this museum’s exhibit?
A life size USS Monitor right outside.
Of course it was raining and they advised you not to walk on her slippery deck….
So that’s exactly what we did.
Stand on the bow of an Ironclad?
Uh… yes. I will!
Husband even rung the turret’s bell for good measure.
Cool beans!
And if that wasn’t awesome enough? Back inside and down a flight stairs….
Took you inside the turret.
And literally inside the ship itself.
Admittedly the engines and engineering diagrams were above my pay grade.
But the display really gave you a feel for the ship.
And my inner history nerd was sighing with satisfaction.
We did climb up to the observation landing to peer into the lab where the original pieces of the ship are being restored, but it was just giant vats of seawater with electrical current running through them.
Not very photo worthy, so I’ll spare you the shots.
Fear not.
The second half of the museum starts tomorrow…. and it will be a little more fun.
If you’re not a fan of museums, or history, or naval war battles and the Civil War Ironclads?
Please feel free to skip the next dozen posts because that’s probably how long it’s going to take me to document this amazing place in Newport News, Virginia.
It was an overcast day that was threatening rain so I thought this would be a good choice. I had no idea what to expect and was ready to pay a large ticket price… so imagine my surprise when I saw this.
My first reaction was… man, this place must bite.
But oh, was I wrong.
Upon arrival this magnificent eagle greets you.
It’s a remarkable carving and was lovingly restored from it’s original perch on the bow of this ship.
Look closely, it’s there. And gives you some perspective of how large those ships really were.
Next up was a light.
But not just any light.
And if these were the items in the lobby?
I knew we were going to have a great day.
There are 2 distinct areas of the museum to visit, but being a Civil War buff? I had to choose this first.
The Ironclads.
If you know nothing about them? Hang on.
You will by the time I’m through with you.
Great.
Let’s continue….
Turning the corner, we entered this bizarrely blue movie theater that told the story of the Monitor’s sinking.
Turn another corner…. and there she was.
Right under your feet.
And by watching the films, you come to realize how truly dedicated these people are to preserving history.
I found it quite moving.
Around the next corner…
Some interesting artifacts and a glimpse into our Naval past.
I tend to read faster than the husband and am always a few exhibits ahead.
Interestingly enough most people think of the Battle of the Ironclads as the Monitor vs the Merrimack, but technically that’s incorrect.
This was the Merrimack.
She was originally a Union ship that was captured by the Confederates when Gosport fell.
She was damaged, but thanks to this man…
Would be overhauled, covered in iron plate and turned into the CSS Virginia.
The Confederate’s Ironclad.
This is the museum’s recreation of her outfitting.
And what she looked like upon completion.
The Merrimack no longer.
There, you’ve learned something.
Now that wasn’t so bad… eh?
No! Not boring.
It’s history!
And how many of your friends can say they’ve seen inside a Civil War Ironclad?
None, I tell you!
None.
But now you have…
And are sure to be the envy of all your neighbors at the next block party.
River's world..... 