A couple of weekends ago - Neptune Fest and VA Beach

We got up fairly early, made the coffee, and hit the road. We made it time for the parade, where Aaron and I relaxed in the shade of a hotel parking deck and analyzed the costumes of the flag girls. The poor girls. Those costumes are often hideous and who are they supposed to flatter? Not the fatties and not the skinny girls either. Some of the music played by the marching bands was also impressive.

After the parade, we walked along the boardwalk admiring and grimacing at the art work. I saw some cool pictures put together with bits of sea glass, but then I saw two more... so really not that cool anymore. My favorite exhibitor was this lady from Big World Photography. She takes photos of tiny people doing silly things like painting flowers, mopping the glaze onto donuts, and just enjoying the view.

This lady is milking the grapes :)

We wandered all the way to the end and on to the sand castles. Technically it is a sand sculpture contest. Last year not many were castles, but this year, more were actually castles and not just sculptures. The sand is finer grained than VA beach has to offer and is imported. They spray a glue water mixture on it to keep it in place.

We took the high road along the boardwalk down and then walked on the platforms along the sculptures on the way back to get a closer look. The sculptures are 3D and a lot of them had additional details on the back that you wouldn't know about otherwise.

We were so hot. I asked Aaron to buy a water, but he told me he wasn't sharing and bought 2. We also stopped less than half an hour later to buy another couple bottles to cool off.

Aaron had never been across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel so I picked a campground across the bridge at Kiptopeke State Park. The bridge is pretty nifty for those not familiar with it. The bridge is close to twenty miles long spanning the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay from Va Beach to the Eastern Shore. The bridge was built in two parts - one part completed in the 60s and the other in the 90s to make two two-lane spans. Besides the bridge, there are three man-made islands and two one mile tunnels so the big ships can get in and out of the bay. It is a pretty long drive looking out over the water. There is a rest area with a gift shop, restaurant, and fishing pier on one of the man-made islands. Of course we stopped there to poke around, see the sights, and learn some facts. Plus after all that water, I had to pee, and before all the old Scandinavian ladies got off the tourbus and smelled up the bathroom.

We continued across and on to Kiptopeke. We picked out a campsite that we thought would be relatively quiet and not right up on top of somebody. The campground portion was in the trees and well shaded. After set-up, we were off to find dinner. Luckily, there was a place a couple miles up the road that was restaurant/gas station/junk shop. Everything you could need. It seemed like a nice place to eat, but you chose your food at the window, ordered, paid, then sat down where they brought you things and refilled your drinks and such. The food was great! And we got there right before it got super busy too.

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