Day 3: Naval Museum and Virginia Beach

Wednesday, June 17th, 2009
We set off for the hour drive to the Naval Museum in the morning. On the way there, we got to drive through a huge under water tunnel. That was pretty neat and kind of scary. I kept teasing Cole and telling him that I could hear and feel a big whale hitting the sides of the tunnel. His eyes were huge! The museum was free and you got to explore the deck of a huge ship. That was pretty neat. It looked huge, but once on deck, it wasn’t as wide as one might have thought. Very long though. When you looked over the edge into the water, you could see jellyfish. The guys and the kids thought that was pretty neat. We ate lunch at the little café they had in the museum. Mason got a ¼ lb. hot dog and ate the whole thing!! (Well, he only ate the meat, not the bun, but that was a lot for a little guy!) We couldn’t believe it! I took the bowl shaped paper container that it came in for afterwards when he threw it all up. Luckily, that never happened. After the museum, we headed to Virginia Beach! It was windy by the water which made it a little cold, but the kids wanted to swim so bad! So, we put their swimming clothes on they loved the water! Well, everyone except Mason. All he wanted to do was play in the sand. I tried dipping him in the water, but he didn’t like it. I think I ended up getting more wet than he did! A big wave came up, unexpectedly and got my capris all wet and griddy with sand. After a long drive back to the condo, because of traffic, we got ready and headed to Bible Study. We were so rushed that we ended up being late for Bible study. So, what’s worse than being the visitors at a congregation and there being 22 of you and all 22 of you walking in together?....BEING LATE! Then on top of that, what else could be worse and top that off?....someone in your family having their cell phone go off during Bible study!! Oh yeah! Guess who it was? Linda, again! I’m beginning to think she has bad timing when she phones people. (haha, just kidding, Linda) Since we didn’t have time for dinner, we decided to go out after Bible Study. It was Brian and Kelly’s turn to pick. We followed Brian, not knowing where he was taking us. First, he pulled into Carrabba’s parking lot, but we soon found out that he was just turning around. He was headed to Olive Garden which was next door but he missed the driveway. So after a few donuts in the parking lot (the first one was to turn around, then he realized there was a driveway connecting the two, so he did a second donut to head to that driveway) we pulled into Olive Garden. Everyone got out of the car and headed up to the restaurant. We were greeted with a note on the door that said, “We are out of breadsticks.” How could they be out of breadsticks! Their salad and breadsticks are just as famous as the meals themselves! Frustrated, tired, and hungry, Brian just decides to go to Arby’s across the street. So, we all pile into Arby’s parking lot and pull into our parking spaces. Chris and Danny (who rode with us most of the week) tell me to just stay in the car and wait and see if we really eat here or not. Sure enough! Just as Brian, Kelly, and all their kids get out of their car, a lady pops her head out of the drive thru window and says that only the drive thru is open. So, we wait for them to get back into their cars and we drive across the street to Ruby Tuesdays. They were open! Yeah!!!! We all sat down and had a nice dinner, Finally!!!!








these koi fish (japanese or chinese) filled the pond outside the museum as you walked in.







the lighting is terrible here and there was a huge light shining right on me, but i
really wanted our picture with this huge anchor.



this was the huge navy ship we got to walk around on.



these huge chains were all over the place. i couldn't believe how big they were. i believe
someone said that one link in the chain weighed over 100 lbs.!



there was a naval base nearby so we got to see helicopters and navy boats going by all
the time.



chris finally found some guns bigger than his. :)







say "cheeeese!!!!"



that is one of the bullets that they shoot out of those huge guns.





the above picture is what happens when you leave your camera with your
brother in law. i was very shocked when i was looking through my pictures and
found this one.











chris, showing off his big guns for the camera





"arrgh!!!"







this was the container that mason's hot dog came in that i kept incase he threw it up!



virginia beach, here we come!!! (most of the following pictures have a haze on them.
it was very windy and so the salt spray from the ocean got all over my lens and
it was pointless to keep wiping it off)





mason LOVED playing in the sand!



he would get great big hand fulls of the sand and throw it up in the air.
well, because it was windy, it would blow right back into his face.
think he learned his lesson after the first couple of times?
no! he kept doing it!















daddy is trying to pull up his swim shorts. they kept falling down.











cole got caught in a big wave.





they were making a big pile of sand for mason to jump in.







daddy's turn!





mason did not like the water! hence the reason his legs are tucked up under
his body. he was trying so hard to keep his body out of the water.









because i got him all wet in the ocean, this is what his legs looked like
when he went back to the sand. he was a mess!



poor grant got knocked over by a huge wave and sand got all in his hair.





mason's shorts falling down again.



we had fun watching this guy surfing. he's doing pretty good here.....



oops! down he goes!



and he's a goner!!





cole was trying to "surf" the waves too :)





problem with his shorts again.







that's supposed to say "virginia"



oops! they're down again!



he fixed it on his own this time.





cole was sitting there so peacefully, enjoying the scenery and the gentle water.....



uh-oh! a bigger wave then he expected came up on him!



bwahahaha!!! i love his facial expressions!





this was the sky on our way back to the condo. i love how the sun rays are coming
through the clouds.



on our way back through the under water tunnel, this semi in front of us was so close to the roof that i had to get a picture! we couldn't believe how tight of a squeeze that was!