DC to Virginia Beach (Days 5-7)

August 29, Day 5 - We decided that we should pay homage to President Lincoln this morning. We climbed the stairs to his monument and read some of his words. I was particularly struck by a sentence from the Gettysburg Address: "The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here." We remember what was both done and said there! We said fair well to DC and headed down to Virginia Beach. First order of business - find good seafood. And we did. Caroline loved her fried shrimp again. We ate at the Lynnhaven Fish House. We walked a bit on the boardwalk and then called it an early night.

August 30, Day 6 - Time for the beach! After a dosing up with sunscreen and packing a lunch, we headed for the beach. Caroline was hesitant in the sand at first, but once we showed her how to dig and sift and rake, she was grabbing handfuls of sand and saying, "Whee!!!" She loved the waves, too. After every one hit us, she would say, "More! More!" Her giggles in our ears was such a sweet sound. We must have played in the surf for an hour - Caroline running back and forth between the two of us. We also saw some dolphins playing out beyond the swimming area. How neat! We played and played and Caroline was cranky and worn out by the time we headed back to the hotel. We let Caroline take a little nap while we enjoyed watching some more dolphins from our balcony. We headed for a local restaurant, Tautog's, for some excellent seafood. We took a walk on one of the fishing piers. On the way back, we splashed in the surf, getting sufficiently sandy again. Kevin and I admired our sunburned spots and contemplated Caroline's nice tan. (We did reapply her sunscreen but not our own.) Where did she get that complexion? If she's a sungoddess, it's not from one of us! Pooped out from a hard day of fun, Caroline asked to go to bed and we heard no fussing after we laid her down. Wow.

August 31, Day 7 - Another quick trip to the beach was in order this morning before we headed to Richmond. The tide was coming in and the current and waves were strong! We didn't have to get very far out to be pummeled with waves. We had no shade: the wind kept picking up our umbrella. I have no idea where our sand anchor is... We were amazed that after about 2 hours, Caroline kept saying, "Go. Go." We asked if she wanted to dig. "No." Did she want to swim? "No." Did she want to go back to the hotel? "'Kay." Since that's all the time we had to spend, we were okay with taking a cue from our girl. Caroline napped on our way to Williamsburg, where we stopped at an outlet mall. I got some things for Caroline to wear this fall and a couple of things for myself, too. Even Kevin found a pair of shoes that suited him! Getting back in the car was not on Caroline's agenda and she cried most of the way to Richmond. It was definitely the "low" in our vacation! But she was all smiles and giggles when we arrived at Julie and Andy's house in Richmond. It was so good to see our dear friends again. There was much to catch up on: Julie is newly pregnant and Andy just finished his second Iron Man. We were their first "non family" overnight visitors! We had some of Andy's fantastic venison burgers for dinner and enjoyed each other's company before going to bed.